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“Nearly seven years of sharing study spaces and you’ve never found a common interest,” Felinus said skeptically. “Seems like you would have found something accidentally by now.” A thought occurred to him and he leaned forward. “Does Little Volkov know your situation?”
“No one knows my situation,” Issac said firmly. “You only know because of where you found me and how you stalked me. I go to great lengths to make sure he doesn’t know anything.” He sighed, sitting back in his chair. “Dimitri… trusts my word. I tell him I live in the Districts near campus and that I’m living off loans and odd jobs and don’t like owing people money. He accepts it as the whole truth. He thinks I’m just a broke college student too damn proud to accept his offers to help and lies about people getting his orders wrong to buy me a coffee or sandwich on occasion. That’s it.”
“Sounds like a friend to me,” Felinus said. Sounds like someone who wants to be more than a friend, he thought privately, remembering how absolutely shattered Little Volkov looked when Issac told him he’d see him tomorrow.
Issac rolled his eyes. “He’s friendly,” he said flatly. “Doesn’t make us friends. It’s kind of like having a big Samoyed following me around.” He paused as Felinus raised an eyebrow. “It’s a big white fluffy herding dog that originated from Russia.”
“So golden retriever energy, but Russian breed,” Felinus smirked, eating the rest of his cone.
“Exactly,” Issac said. “So they,” he glanced without moving his head towards the Russians, “are here on Adrian’s orders.” He did the same look towards the Italians. “Does that make them yours?”
“No, they aren’t mine,” Felinus said, glancing at the men. “I believe they may be my cousin’s or uncle’s. They are hanging around because they saw the Russians hanging around, and want to make sure they aren’t trying anything in neutral territory.”
“Nuclear missiles.”
Felinus grinned. “Something like that,” he said, leaning back and doing a sweep of the area to make sure the two Irishmen had indeed left. He didn’t see any redheads so he assumed they had. “The other two you spotted were just being nosy about what the Italians and Russians were doing. The young ones on all sides tend to do that. So in seven years of knowing each other, he’s never invited you to do things outside of school?”
Issac sighed. Felinus wasn’t sure if he was annoyed with him or Little Volkov. “He invites me all the time,” he said and Felinus decided the annoyance was solidly in Little Volkov’s favor. “Movies, parties- once there was a road trip or glamping or something he talked about for weeks. I just tell him I’m too busy and he eventually drops it until the next thing comes around.”
“He is friendly,” Felinus said, smug in how obviously in love Little Volkov was with Issac and Issac’s complete disinterest in him in return. He rolled to his feet. “Ready to go?”
“I’ve been ready to go since we got here,” Issac reminded him, getting up from the table.
Felinus wrapped his arm around Issac’s waist, pulling him in suddenly to kiss him deeply.
There was a moment where Issac stiffened in surprise but only for that moment before he melted into Felinus’s arms. Issac’s arms wrapping around Felinus’s neck as his tongue slipped out to mingle the flavors of chocolate and strawberries.
Towards the fountain, Felinus was aware of two phones pointed in their direction as the brick house choked on popcorn.
Issac was pulling on him with a small moan that Felinus remembered from last night and the desire to take him in the front seat of his car or to the nearest bathroom just to keep hearing it grew.
Someone wolf-whistled, drawing the last note out longer than necessary and Felinus pulled back to look up to the second floor to see Lucio, his cousin, leaning on the barrier with a shit-eating grin as he lowered his fingers from his lips.
Felinus made a rude gesture at him in return, keeping his arm around Issac’s waist when he swayed slightly. “Come on, baby boy,” he said, smirking at how flushed and flustered Issac was with just a kiss. “It’s getting late and you barely got any sleep last night.”
“And whose fault is that,” Issac snapped back at him, perhaps louder than he had meant to but just the right volume for Felinus.
“Oh, I take full responsibility for your lack of sleep,” he said, matching the volume as he stole one more kiss. “Which is why I’m taking responsibility for getting you to bed on time.”
* * *
Adrian watched the video of the Italian Cat sitting across from the boy his little brother had been infatuated with for the last seven years. It had been a minute since he’d seen a picture of Issac. Dimitri admitted once that he had to trick him into taking pictures or sneak candid shots when Issac wasn’t looking because Issac had a thing about his picture being taken. Adrian thought Issac must have wised up to most of Dimitri’s tricks by now because he hadn’t seen anything more than a blurry shot in the last couple of years. Still, he was concerned.
His men had found the Cat pulling into the No-Man’s Mall and had been sending photos and video clips all night. At first, Adrian was sure that the Cat had ditched Issac and picked up a drugged-out kid instead but the clothes matched what Dimitri said Issac had been wearing. When one of his men had gotten a good shot of the young man’s eyes, there was no doubting it. Adrian had never seen another man with eyes like Issac Maus’s, piercing and commanding, even after losing this much weight. Why hadn’t Dimitri mentioned this weight loss? His brother could be dense but Issac looked damn near skeletal. Then again, Adrian only fully appreciated how much weight it was in the photo right before the haircut, when he had removed the new leather jacket.
He should have called his men off after that. It was obvious what was going on. The Cat was taking Issac shopping and neither one of them kept their hands to themselves for very long. True, Issac seemed to pout or scowl in a few photos or videos, but they were short-lived once the Cat turned his attention and hands back on him. Knowing how many times Issac had turned down Dimitri’s offers to do things together, Adrian was pretty sure those looks were more of a bratty personality than anything else.
The last video sealed it. An ice cream after a shopping date, chatting, presumably getting to know each other like a proper first date. Then that kiss full of the sexual tension that had been building in the progression of photos. He paused the video and sent the message calling the men off the Cat’s tail. It was a date, and unless Issac started showing criminal activities, there was nothing wrong with the Cat dating someone who lived on their side of the city.
“When did you get home,” Dimitri asked and Adrian looked up. His brother was built much like Adrian and Papa were, with naturally strong shoulders made stronger by the daily workouts he did with either of them in the at-home gym. Right now, those shoulders had a towel over them that he was using one end of to scrub at damp hair in his favorite sweatpants. “Is Issac safe?”
“Not long ago,” Adrian told him, looking down at the plate of food Babushka had set aside for him. He had heated it up but one bite in and he realized it hadn’t been long enough.
Dimitri watched him from the door as Adrian tried to decide if it was worth the effort to heat it up longer, then took a step inside. “Is Issac safe?”
Adrian sighed through his nose as he looked up at Dimitri. Unlike every other man in the family, Dimitri didn’t have any tattoos. Adrian was already covered in them to the point he had to be more picky about where to fit additions so he didn’t muddle meanings. But Dimitri was different. He wasn’t and was never going to be a gangster like him and Papa. Papa had promised Mama on her deathbed that their baby boy would stay on the straight and narrow. He would help them in other ways, by his own choice as Papa had tried to get him into other interests growing up to keep Dimitri out from underfoot and away from eavesdropping business talk. It was about six years ago, wasn’t it? When Dimitri came home saying that he changed his major from general ed to political science and that he was going to go into politics. The fact that Issac had a similar career path for himself didn’t surprise anyone but Papa was pleased. Adrian just wanted his brother to be happy with whatever he did.
“Brat?”
