Chapter Twenty-Eight
Fifteen minutes and a string of continued arguments later, Darya was in the passenger seat of Knox’s car. The top was up and the music down, both completely outside the norm compared to other times she’d ridden beside him. He’d also been frustratingly tight-lipped. Where long stretches of silence between the two of them were normally filled with comfort—two busy minds working silently yet seamlessly in parallel—this time the quiet made her fidget.
As if he sensed her discomfort, he shifted to the next gear then coiled his hand around one of hers fisted in her lap. “Whatever you’re worrying about, let it go. I’ve got this.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but closed it just as fast at the warning look he shot her.
With one last encouraging squeeze, he released her hand and plucked his phone from the center console. In the last four weeks, she’d rarely seen him use the device while he drove, but when he did, he used every hands-free feature available. This time, he turned off the Bluetooth and anchored the phone between his ear and shoulder.
“Hey,” he said to whoever answered, checking his rearview mirror. “Need you to reroute family night from Haven to our place and call rally. Darya’s in trouble and I’m not leaving her.”
So it was Beckett. Not surprising, really. For men who weren’t actually born from the same womb it was shocking how close they were. Shocking, but beautiful.
“Yeah, it’s that rally, but I need all hands on deck. If what Darya says is true, we need the women and Levi, too. Too risky to have them exposed until we have a plan.” He paused long enough to let Beckett get a word in edgewise then glanced at her. “No details yet, but by the time we get there I’ll have them. We need a sweep of the loft, though. The office, too. Darya found footage of a guy she says works for the goon who’s after her outside our building. If they got that close we have to assume the worst and check for bugs.”
Her lungs hitched and the choking bile she’d swallowed down since finding the damning footage pitched violently in her stomach. She hadn’t thought about bugs. What if Ruslan had managed to plant them in her apartment? If he’d heard what she’s shared with Knox, he’d kill Knox for sure.
Knox’s gaze slid to each side mirror, the focus he put into the action more attentive than what was necessary for seven-thirty traffic on a Wednesday night. “Nope, no tail visible yet, but I’m taking the scenic route home just in case. Make sure the guys know to arm up. I might not know all the finer points, but the men we’re dealing with aren’t amateurs.” He listened for a second, nodded at whatever Beckett had said and answered back. “Right. Got it.”
He thumbed off the connection and tossed the device back to its place below the dash. “Beckett’s changing up the protocols in the building. Security guards will be in place within the hour and camera ranges extended.”
“Knox—”
“Sweetheart, if you start in with how I don’t have to do this again, I’ll tie you down the second we get home and fuck you until you forget how to speak altogether.”
She sucked in a sharp gasp. Her body might be weighted and fatigued from the prolonged adrenaline rush, but her sex clenched and fluttered at the promise.
He chuckled and glanced over his shoulder, checking the lane to his left. “If I’d have known that was the way to distract you, I’d have leveraged sex thirty minutes ago.” Settled in the HOV lane, he poured on the gas and wrapped his hand back around hers. “Now, spill. Who’s Ruslan? What’s he want?”
Countless times in the last month she’d thought about how to share what had brought her here. Had dress-rehearsed all kinds of scenarios and dialogue in preparation for this moment. Now that she needed to put voice behind them, they dried up.
He scowled at the road and squeezed the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white. Despite his open frustration, he kept the hand around her own gentle. “I’ve got a full tank of gas and can keep us moving for a good four hours before I have to stop, so you might as well get it out.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I just don’t know where to start.”
His thumb smoothed back and forth against her knuckles. “You went to school. What happened after that?”
Right. The beginning was easy enough. She opened her hand and laced her fingers with his. “I studied business in school and did well in my studies. Well enough one of my instructors shared my name with a man named Yefim Mishin. He hired me as a personal assistant.”
He nodded like the news wasn’t exactly a surprise to him. “If you studied business, why take a PA job? Why not something with more meat to it?”
“Oh, there was plenty of meat when it came to working with Yefim. As his assistant, I was with him constantly. Was included in every meeting and traveled with him extensively. And while I was rarely a voice in those meetings, I learned much by watching him work. It was a very coveted position. One I was not only blessed to be offered, but eagerly accepted.”
“He treated you good?”
She smiled down at her lap, memories of the days before all hell had broken loose drifting in like a soft morning breeze. “He was like a second father to me. Indulgent in the extreme. Not only was I compensated more than others might be in a similar role, he mentored me. Took the time to review the nuances of each meeting and strategic move he made.”
“And?”
Outside the car’s windshield, the sun crept toward the horizon, not a single cloud to mar the orange and indigo ahead of them. A far different view than the dark ominous fog rolling through her memories. “And one day he took me someplace he shouldn’t have.”
Knox kept his silence for a moment, the same narrowed focus he always aimed at his screen when attacking troublesome code marking his face. “What kind of business was he in?”
“Not one business. Many businesses. Have you ever heard the term oligarch?”
He frowned at that, but kept his eyes on the road. “Top businessmen in Russia, right?”
She nodded. “A small number of entrepreneurs accumulated much wealth under Gorbachev. Yefim served as the closest advisor to one of these men. But he also was an associate of Anton Fedorov.” She paused long enough to suck in a tight breath. “Anton is mafiya.”
Surprisingly, the word didn’t ruffle him as much as she’d expected. Beyond a slight lift of his eyebrows, he seemed utterly unperturbed. More like she’d told him an unexpected cold front was predicted to blow. “And this Ruslan guy who’s after you works for Anton?”
Darya shook her head. “Anton is very traditional bratva. A pakhan, or boss, who lives the old life of vory v zakone. But as an advisor to Anton, Yefim was called to negotiate with another family. Their pakhan, Ruslan Sokolov, is reckless. Power-hungry. So much so, he killed his own mentor and assumed his place. His business deals often drew attention Anton and the other pakhans detested. Yefim was sent to negotiate boundaries.”
“So, Ruslan and Anton are rivals.”
“Yes.”
Knox glanced over his right shoulder, shifted quickly at the HOV interchange all the way to the far right lane and took an upcoming exit at top speed. His gaze locked on to his rearview mirror, watching for anyone to repeat the unexpected exit. “So, you went with Yefim to negotiate. Did you do something to piss this Ruslan guy off?”
“No.” She focused on his hand curled around the gearshift. The lazy yet powerful confidence as he shifted from one gear to the next. Right now, she’d give a lot for that hand to be back in hers, holding her steady. “I didn’t anger him. I caught his attention.”
Knox whipped his head toward her, his attention lingering uncomfortably long considering how fast he steered them down the access road. “You’re telling me you had to run from a guy because he wants you?”
“I don’t think you understand how things work with men like Ruslan. Traditional Russian men are possessive. More primitive in the way they approach women than Americans are.”
He cocked one eyebrow high. “Are you the same woman who’s been in bed with me for the last month? Because I’m thinking most of what we’ve done belongs in the primitive category.”
Leave it to Knox to draw a smile from her at the most frightening of times. “Yes. What we have is quite primal. Carnal.” Her smile slipped. “But you’ve always given me a choice. There would be no choice with Ruslan.”
He might have been calm before, even blasé at the mention of organized crime, but with her explanation Knox’s face hardened with unforgiving fury. “You’re telling me he’d just...what? Own you?”
She slowly dipped her head and her voice dropped, her mind instinctively treating the rest as though it were the gravest secret. “Men like Ruslan do not ask for what they want. They take by whatever means they need to get it.”
Knox held his silence. Despite his eyes on the road and the uninterrupted navigation through the light traffic, there was no question she held all of his attention.
“Ruslan made his desire for me well known,” she said. “I knew what that meant and the life it would result in for me. So did Yefim. That’s why he helped me escape. He used his ties to Anton to procure me false identification to get me in the United States and staged an assault. The plan was that Yefim would be found unconscious, and I would be missing. Anton’s people were to provide an unidentifiable body that would be presumed to be me.”
“Did it work?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t contact Yefim without potentially revealing my existence and putting him at risk, but after I assumed JJ’s identity, I believed I was safe.”
Knox zipped into an alley, drove to the far end of the warehouses on either side and whipped a hard right. Directly in front of them was the underground entrance to their loft’s garage. Stationed next to the gate normally only controlled by card readers was a big man in a plain black T-shirt and black cargo pants holding an electronic tablet. With one look at Knox’s car, the man activated the gate and nodded.
In another thirty seconds, they slid into Knox’s reserved spot. As soon as he killed the engine, silence engulfed them. He shifted in his chair. “I get that you’re scared, but I want you to listen and really hear me. You’re safe. No more running.”
“Knox, Ruslan is dangerous. He has no conscience. No honor.”
“So?”
Needing the contact, she placed her hand on his forearm and squeezed. “You do.”
Either he was certifiably insane or truly comfortable with the nastiness she’d brought into his life, because he smiled. Genuinely smiled. “Yeah, I’ve got honor. So do my brothers. But only when it’s deserved. We can and will play dirty if it means keeping our own safe. And I don’t give a shit how much muscle this Ruslan dick throws around—I’m a wily fucker when I want to be and right now I’ve got a shit load of incentive.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why the incentive? I told you the best thing for everyone is for me to leave and draw them away from you and your family.”
In a blink, his hand was curled around her nape and his face close enough to hers his breath whispered warm against her skin. “You love me?”
She nodded, barely capable of even that much behind the intensity in his gaze.
His fingers tightened against her skin. “No woman outside my family has ever said that to me. If you think I’m gonna let anyone even think about hurting the first woman who does, you are very much mistaken.” Closing what remained of the distance between them, he pressed a firm kiss to her lips then eased away only enough to murmur, “Now, unbuckle and get ready to hop out. In case you missed it, four of my brothers and their broods are already here and waiting on us.”
The comment jolted her from the pleasant cocoon his powerful words had created. Sure enough, the spaces that were usually empty around his and Beckett’s slots were full—one massive silver truck, a classic ’69 Camaro, an eggplant-colored Chevelle and a candy apple red convertible Corvette. Translation: Trevor, Danny, Zeke and Beckett. “They’re here already?”
Phone stashed in his back pocket, Knox popped opened the glove box. If there’d been a snake coiled up and ready to strike inside, she couldn’t have been more surprised than she was seeing the holstered gun inside. He grabbed it, slipped the gun free and checked the safety. “Family doesn’t lollygag when you need them. My guess is Axel and Jace aren’t far behind.” He popped his car door. “You wait there.”
Like she could have done anything but sit in stunned silence.
Knox has a firearm?
On one hand, the idea wouldn’t jibe, but another more instinctive part of her settled into the concept easily. After all, Knox was Knox. Yes, he’d pushed her relentlessly from the very first, but he’d also demonstrated a protective streak. And not just with her, but with everyone in his life. The fact that he’d be willing to extend that level of protection to a more dangerous level shouldn’t surprise her at all.
Her door chunked open and Knox stepped in close, his hand extended to help her out. “Come on, sweetheart. I’ll come back for your bag after we get you situated.” He didn’t say as much, but there was an undercurrent of when you’re not in anyone’s line of fire woven into his words.
Tension and overdrive-awareness riddled their trip to the top floor, even the air supercharged with an invisible current. Nothing at all like the playful banter and teasing touches they’d shared on previous nights coming home from work together. Instead, he corralled her to one corner, braced himself in front of her and activated the fifth floor via the biometric scanner. Only when the doors opened to their loft, did his shoulders relax a fraction. He stepped out of her way, splayed his hand low on her back and motioned her toward the private landing.
From behind the thick steel door, Levi’s laughter rang out, followed by the abrupt zing of a power drill.
Knox dug out his keys, but before he could find the one he wanted, the door swung open.
Keeping one hand on the door knob, Danny stepped back enough to bring a good chunk of the loft’s main room into view. He motioned over his shoulder to Beckett and the gorgeous black man with dreads she’d met at the concert. Both were perched on ladders and hanging what had to be at least a fifty-inch flat screen on the wall where a beautiful landscape had been. Five other flat screens just like it were already in place. “You got here just in time. We’ve almost got the surveillance feeds hooked up. If you don’t want bank vault locks and retina scanners on the front door, you better jump in now, ’cause Beckett’s got a security threat boner.”
As if he’d just realized she was there, Danny shot her his huge and totally disarming smile, leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Welcome home, sweet cheeks.”
Four other men she didn’t recognize strode into view, all of them dressed in the same black cargo and T-shirt combo the men outside the gate had worn and hefting everything from tools to computer wire. “Who are they?”
“They’re on Beckett’s crew,” Danny said before Knox could. “Mine’s working the perimeter.”
Knox urged her into the bustling room. “How much longer ’til we’re ready to go online?”
“Already are,” Beckett said, proving that he was one hundred percent aware of everything going on around him despite having his hands full. He glanced over his shoulder and jerked his head toward the computers set up on the previously ignored dining room table. “Got all the feeds piped in first. Saw you pull in.” His gaze shifted to Darya and he winked. “Hey, sassy.”
Levi’s bright voice shot from the open kitchen. “You’re here!”
At his words, Trevor, Natalie, Zeke and Gabe all turned their attention on Darya. Unlike the rest of the people in the room, they’d made themselves at home around the giant island, Trevor and Zeke casually enjoying a beer while Nat and Gabe futzed over what looked like a snack tray.
She braced, expecting a frigid blast of frowns or glares.
One by one, her presence registered in their gazes, but it wasn’t anger that burned behind them. It was the same, friendly greeting they always offered.
Well, expect for Trevor. He actually did frown, but aimed it at Knox beside her. “Jesus, brother. What route did you take to get here? We drove all the way from Haven and still beat you.”
Not the least bit daunted by the wires strung all directions or the chaos around him, Levi hustled their direction, his boots loud on the concrete floors. “Isn’t this cool? Uncle Beckett said he’d teach me how to use all his cool gadgets after he gets everything set up.”
“Uncle Beckett’s smokin’ crack.” Knox ruffled Levi’s head and steered Darya toward the kitchen with a hand between her shoulder blades. “Anything with an electrical current is mine. He’s just in charge of muscle. You wanna know how stuff works, you come to me.”
Knox peeled her purse off her shoulder and tossed it on the kitchen counter like it was any other normal night instead of one where they were bracing for lockdown.
Natalie waved toward the snacks they’d laid out on the island and headed for the fridge. “Grab something to eat. You want anything to drink?”
“Beer for me.” Knox kissed her cheek and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m gonna check the feeds real quick. Have a seat and settle in. Grab something to eat.”
Have a seat.
Settle in.
Grab something to eat.
Completely relaxed. No different than the other occasions they’d gotten together as a family except that this time the security was escalating to Fort Knox. No matter how much she wanted her mind to do something useful and offer up an explanation, it wouldn’t budge. Nor would her feet, incredulous wonder keeping her locked in place.
“You okay?” Levi said.
She surfaced from her dumbfounded stupor to find Levi clutching her hand and Zeke beside her. Except the man on her right wasn’t the patient and kind brother she’d come to know over the last several weeks. This was the doctor, his narrowed and assessing gaze roving her face.
“You’re not mad?” She hadn’t meant to ask it. Hadn’t even really realized the fear she’d walked into the room with until her subconscious had set forth the question, but now that she had, she really wanted to know the answer.
Zeke’s mouth crooked in a goofy grin. “Are you kidding? If someone in our family hadn’t done something to perk things up soon, I’d have had to start doling out antidepressants.” He looped an arm around her neck and motioned Levi toward the food. “Load her up, Levi. Doctor’s orders.”
“Right,” Levi said with the single-minded focus she’d come to appreciate in the little boy. “Food fixes everything.”
Trevor snickered and lifted his beer off the counter. “Well, it will for another year or two, then you’ll find another delightful mood fixer.”
Natalie popped the top off Knox’s beer and scowled at Trevor. “Cut it out.”
“It’s okay, Mom. It’s just sex.”
Gabe and Zeke did their best not to let it out, but their chests both shook on a rich chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Knox said as he came up behind her.
Natalie handed Knox a beer and pursed her mouth in a rueful mew. “Trev’s been bonding with Levi over the birds and the bees, and Gabe and Zeke are earning some serious karmic debt giggling about it.”
Knox eyeballed Levi, total seriousness. “Remember what I said about coming to me for electronics?
“Yeah.”
“Same goes for sex.”
“Don’t listen to him, kid,” Zeke said. “I’m the one with a medical degree. I know how it all really works. Especially the important parts.”
Just when Natalie looked like she was about to grab Zeke and Knox by the ears and kick them out of the loft, the front door opened to a chorus of boisterous voices.
“Sorry we’re late!” Sylvie bellowed, her arms full of grocery bags.
Ninette and Vivienne were equally loaded down right behind her, while Jace and Axel brought up the rear. “Only woman I know who thinks a store run is mission-critical in a crisis situation,” Axel grumbled, though his eyes danced with mirth.
Already halfway to the kitchen, Sylvie handed off her bags to Danny while Jace locked up the front door. “I’ve seen what these boys keep in their refrigerator. If we’re holing up until we get a decent plan for whatever’s going on, I’m not doing it without something to satisfy my stomach.”
And that was that. In seconds, Sylvie had commandeered the kitchen and set all the women to different tasks. The men gathered round the makeshift control center on the dining room table, their voices low and attention zeroed in on the screens now lit up with every view of the building. The only person dazed and motionless in the room was her.
Ninette moved in beside her and motioned to the untouched plate Levi had left on the counter in front her. “Are you saving yourself for Sylvie’s cooking, or is the general idea of food not something you’re up for right now?”
One glance at the white ceramic plate and anyone would guess a child had prepared it. Only one cursory carrot, a celery stick and three red grapes sat isolated in one spot. The rest of the space was loaded with three different kinds of cheese cubes, crackers and Nacho Cheese Doritos.
Such an amazing gift. Levi’s open kindness as genuine and unshaken as the reception she’d received from everyone else. Three times she’d had amazing people go above and beyond to help her. This time she had a whole team of guardian angels.
She lifted her gaze to the other women working in the kitchen, then slid her attention to the men. “I can’t ever repay this,” she said so quietly only Ninette could hear. “Ever. Not what they’re doing. Not how everyone has treated me. None of it. It’s too much.”
Just as softly, Ninette answered back. “What makes you think we’d want repayment?”
It was a good question. One she’d never really contemplated before. Only knew how many times she’d been blessed and wanted desperately to share what she’d been given with someone else.
Ninette moved in tight beside her and slid her arm around Darya’s waist. Together they watched the men as they worked, their low voices rumbling in a comforting cadence that somehow anchored all the activity in the room. “I’m not sure where you got the idea there’s some karmic tally being kept, but to my mind, family doesn’t work that way. Especially not ours.” She paused long enough to dip her head toward Knox front and center with his fingers flying over the keyboard. “But if you’re worried about payback, then take a good look at my boy and think about this. I’ve seen him happier the last many weeks than the whole six years I’ve known him. He’s always been funny, but I’ve never seen him free. Not the way he is with you. So, if you ask me, any repayment’s been made a hundred times over.”
She met Darya’s stunned stare head-on, jerked her head toward the island and winked. “Now, get your plate and plant your ass on a bar stool. If you need a stiff drink, I’ll pour you one, but I’ll be damned if I’m the last one who gets to hear all the sordid details of why we’re on lockdown.”