If I didn’t expect Nikolai to call me in the first place, that was nothing compared to the surprise I felt when he called me again, after we’d had sex. “Why are you calling me?” I was stupid enough to blurt out.

Nikolai sounded taken aback. “I can hang up, if you’d prefer,” he said.

I thought about that for the briefest of moments, but even though I knew I should tell him to do so, I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

Finally, Nikolai continued. “I was thinking of going to the beach later, with a picnic,” he said. “And I was wondering if you would join me.”

I stared blankly at the wall for a long moment, wondering if I had heard him right. But he was clearly waiting for my answer, so I had to assume that I had. I swallowed hard, trying to find my voice. “Okay,” I said faintly.

“Okay,” Nikolai said. “I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

I got nervously into his car an hour later, dressed in jean shorts and a tee shirt over my bikini. “The weather’s beautiful,” I said inanely.

Nikolai gave me a wry smile, probably sensing how nervous I was. “It is,” he agreed. “And you’re beautiful as well.”

The line was totally cheesy, but I blushed and ducked my head regardless.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been around this week,” Nikolai said, sounding surprisingly apologetic as he glanced over at me. “Family business.”

I frowned. I’d only been to Ritmo that past Thursday, and that had only been because I was dragged along by one of my coworkers, who was trying to make Thursdays at Ritmo something of a tradition among the staff. I’d, of course, noticed that Nikolai wasn’t there, but I hadn’t commented on it. Just because his family owned the bar, it didn’t mean that he had to be there every night. It didn’t mean that he was avoiding me, it just meant that on that particular night, he wasn’t there.

It had still made me feel strange, being there without him nearby, and I’d left early that evening.

I shook my head and tried to focus on our…date, if that was what it was. “You’re never going to tell me what sort of business your family is involved in, are you?” I asked, only partially teasing.

Nikolai looked over at me out of the corner of his eye. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I tried,” he said. He drummed his fingers against the edge of the steering wheel as he stopped at a red light. I tried to remember if I’d ever seen him look nervous before.

“Come on, try me,” I said.

Nikolai shook his head. “We’re here,” he said, pulling into a timely parking space.

I rolled my eyes but got out of the car and helped him carry the picnic basket and blanket down to the sand. I breathed in a deep breath of beach air, smiling a little. I’d expected the beach to be busy that day, given that it was one of the last good days of summer, probably.

Nikolai laughed sheepishly when I mentioned it, rubbing at the back of his neck. “This is a private beach,” he told me.

I groaned. “You’ve rented out the whole thing?” I asked. “Not that I don’t appreciate it,” I hurriedly added. “Just, you don’t have to.”

Nikolai laughed again.  “I didn’t rent it out,” he told me. “You have to have a home in the area to be out here. Conveniently for us, my uncle owns that house over there.”

“Oh!” I said, feeling silly.

Nikolai spread out the picnic blanket and sat down, starting to lay out cheese, bread, and fruit. Then, he pulled out a nice bottle of chilled wine. I hesitantly sat on the other side of the blanket, smiling at him. “You know, I didn’t expect you to call me again,” I told him.

“Yeah, you snuck out pretty fast the other night,” Nikolai said, glancing over at me out of the corner of his eye as he continued to pour two glasses of wine.

“I thought you probably expected me to,” I said.

Nikolai was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t usually date women,” he said. “I pick women up in bars and…well, you’ve seen me.”

“Right,” I said, wondering what he was trying to say. I looked around, realization suddenly dawning on me. “You’ve taken me to this exclusive beach because you plan to fuck me right here.”

Nikolai stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing. “No,” he said. “Although now I’m definitely tempted.” He shook his head. “I took you here because it’s a nice beach and because it’s a lot quieter than the usual Barcelona beaches, where you can’t go two minutes without having a hundred people offer you massages, beer, mojitos, bar crawl tickets, and whatever else.”

“Oh.” I felt silly again, and I knew my blush must be evident. The thing was, I wasn’t sure that I’d…mind. Well, okay, I wasn’t an exhibitionist. I wasn’t going to have sex there with him on the beach. But if this whole thing was about getting me to go home with him afterwards, I didn’t think I’d mind.

He was attractive; there was no denying that. And the sex had been good. I knew it was just that he had a lot of experience, but he had been able to find all my pleasure spots and had brought me to the brink easily. I had come harder than I ever had in my life. And I wanted more of that, even though I knew I was getting in over my head.

I grabbed a slice of cheese and munched on it. “This isn’t really what I would expect for picnic food, but it sure is delicious,” I said, hoping to change the subject.

Nikolai smiled at me. “I’m glad you like it.” He paused. “As I was saying, I don’t normally date. But there’s just something about you that-“

Before he could finish, three dark shadows fell over us. I craned my neck, looking up at the burly dudes standing there. Probably just checking to make sure we belong on this beach, I thought. But then I saw the way that Nikolai had tensed.

He stood slowly, and I followed his lead even though I didn’t really understand what was going on.

“What do you want, Javier?” Nikolai asked, an edge to his voice.

The guy in the middle grinned dangerously. “Nikolai, aren’t you going to invite us to have a bite to eat with you?” he asked in a silken tone. It was clear that the two of them knew one another, and just as clear that they had no good feelings between them. 

“You don’t belong in this part of town,” Nikolai spat. “This isn’t Audaz territory.”

“No, it isn’t,” Javier said condescendingly, inclining his head towards the Russian. “But Madrid isn’t Volkov territory either.”

Nikolai swallowed, looking uncomfortable. He glanced towards me, and I could see something almost guilty in his gaze. I wasn’t the only one to see it, clearly, if the way the burly Spanish dudes laughed was any indication.

“Who’s this pretty thing?” the guy to Javier’s left asked, stepping towards me and reaching out to brush back a lock of my hair.

Nikolai slapped his hand away. “Don’t you dare touch her, Pablo,” he snarled.

Pablo raised an eyebrow at him, looking as though he was ready to fight, but Javier stepped between the two. “As you I’m sure know, Niko, your family can’t afford a fight with Audaz. Not only would the authorities not look kindly on it, but let’s face it: you just don’t have the manpower for it. Why give up everything that you’ve worked for?”

“What do you want?” Nikolai asked cautiously.

Javier shrugged. “A toll, of sorts,” he said. “You crossed onto our territory, and we demand that you pay for that.”

“How much do you want?” Nikolai asked disgustedly, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

Javier laughed. “I’m glad that you’re so agreeable,” he said. “But I think just letting you pay your way wouldn’t teach you the lesson that you need.” He nodded at his two goons. Pablo ducked past Nikolai and grabbed me, his fingers tight enough to bruise.

“Hey!” I cried out.

“Come on,” Nikolai barked. “Let her go. Emily has nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even know who I am.”

“Maybe you should have told her, then, so she could have run while she had a chance,” Pablo said. His fingers roamed over my skin, and he licked his lips.

I shuddered and turned my gaze back to Nikolai, pleading wordlessly for him to do something. My voice felt frozen in my mouth. Not that there was anyone to hear me scream anyway. We were on an empty beach, far away from downtown.

My mind was whirling as I tried to figure out what was going on. As near as I could tell, with all the talk about territory and tolls and violence, this was some sort of gang rivalry. My heart sank, as I realized that my “unfounded” worries that Nikolai was part of some Russian mob family were 100% correct.

And now, it seemed, I was helplessly caught up in the middle of it.

“I said, let her go,” Nikolai growled, launching himself towards Pablo and managing to strike the guy hard across the face.

I took advantage of the man’s momentary distraction and wrenched away from him, adrenaline giving me strength. But even though I knew that I should run, I couldn’t bring myself to leave Nikolai there alone. Three versus one, that wasn’t a very fair fight… I looked around for some sort of weapon. Maybe the wine bottle?

But in the time that I hesitated, the third guy, Carlos, was able to grab me.

Nikolai managed to fight the other two guys, Pablo and Javier, for a moment, even though he was outnumbered and less heavy-set than the other two. His fist connected hard with Pablo’s jaw, and the man stumbled away as Nikolai spun towards Javier, swinging at him with the same fist. Javier dodged and tried to land a punch in return, but Nikolai was too fast. He caught the man’s fist and twisted, managing to throw Javier to the ground.

Before he could do anything else, though, Pablo came up behind Nikolai and grabbed him, using his larger size and the element of surprise to overpower the man.

I watched as Javier got to his feet, his mouth twisting. He spat in Nikolai’s face. “You dirty little Russian rat,” he snarled.

Then, he began to rain punches against Nikolai, hitting his stomach and then his face. Nikolai was bleeding already, a thin line of blood trickling down from his lip. He spat at Javier’s feet, still frothing with anger. “Come on, let’s have a fair fight,” he snarled. “Just you and me, Javier. Call off your dogs; let’s go at it—just you and me!”

Javier’s lips drew back into a mean smile. “We don’t fight fair?” he asked. “Do you remember how your accursed family pushed us out of our territory here in Barcelona? That wasn’t fighting fair either, was it? Maybe now, we start to be even.”

Javier’s eyes flicked over to me, and I could see the rest of the color drain out of Nikolai’s face as he looked over at me as well. “Emily,” he whispered.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her,” Javier said, stepping over to me and stroking his forefinger down my cheek, making me shudder. He turned back to Nikolai. “I want you to bring your Evgeni to me, for discussions,” Javier demanded. “The Volkov family has gotten a little too self-important lately, and it’s time to renegotiate the terms of our peace.”

“My uncle isn’t going to make a deal with you,” Nikolai snapped.

“That’s a pity,” Javier said, his eyes turning back towards me. “I guess we’ll just have to keep the American, then. You don’t mind, do you?”

Nikolai swore and struggled against Pablo, finally managing to half-free himself. But Javier, clearly having decided that he’d had enough of the display, turned and cleanly clocked the guy, knocking him out cold and letting the Russian fall bonelessly to the sand.

Then, he turned back to me again. “Well, princess. What do you say we have a little fun?”

I swallowed hard, but I had no choice except to follow them off the beach.