“Does it matter? I assure you that I do not work for Russian intelligence, either,” I responded.
His lips curled up in the tiniest of smiles, then he frowned. “Do they know? Carlos is a very good friend of mine. I don’t like the thought of him being deceived or part of some sort of larger plot.”
Did he think perhaps I was undercover? Interesting.
“They know what I do for a living and who I work for,” I confirmed.
“I remember you–and her–from the animal park. You climbed a tree to get something.”
“I was on a team with very short omegas, someone had to do it.” I shrugged, not surprised someone like him noticed.
“Are you looking for someone? I think your pack is all upstairs.” He glanced around.
“I was hoping Tegan was here. She’s really fun to talk to,” I admitted. We’d been talking about sniper rifles. Pretty sure she thought I’d been part of the Irish military.
“Yes, Tegan is fascinating. They didn’t come, sadly. Please assure whoever you work for that I just want to play hockey, raise my siblings, and be left alone.” Pain lurked in his voice.
It made me wonder what he’d gone through, because one simply didn’t leave being a Belikov or any of those Russian political and military dynasties.
Perhaps he was disgraced. But I had a feeling if he’d left in disgrace, it was one engineered to get him out of the way. I’d seen it before. In many ways that was part of why my family did what they did to me–hoping if I was suitably embarrassed that I would know my place and fade away.
“I’m guessing you’re in thefamily business, I believe they call it here?” he added.
“You probably know exactly who I am.” I gave him an amused look.
“No.” He shook his head. “I wanted to talk to you first and make sure that you weren’t a threat to Carlos.”
“As long as he continues to be good to Fiona, I’m no threat,” I replied.
“Fair.” He nodded in agreement.
“I work for the Company,” I told him as an offering of trust.
“Now that I didn’t expect. All things considered, you may wantto pay your respects to the locals, just to let them know that you’re not encroaching on their territory, or anything of that nature,” he said softly.
“That makes a lot of sense. I haven’t gotten that far. There are probably multiple people I should be aware of here?” Yes, I didn’t want to run afoul of the locals. Though I wasn’t asking permission, just announcing my presence out of respect.
“Only the main one. His sister runs a deli. I would start with her and if anyone has concerns they’ll follow up,” he replied.
“Noted, thank you.”
“I only mention it because they hunted me down when I first moved here. I wasn’t aware that people outside Russia knew or cared about my last name,” he added.
“I appreciate it.” That was nice. He seemed kind. Just… sad.
The two of us went upstairs.
“There you are.” Fiona slid her arm around my waist.
I kissed the top of her head. “Are you doing all right?”
“I’m having a great time. Dimitri’s sister and her friends are amazing. How are you? Were you down in the basement interrogating Dimitri to make sure he’s not going to cause a war?” she joked in Irish.
“Pretty much.”
“Can I stay the night with you?” Fiona leaned in closer.
“Of course. You don’t have to ask.” I gave her a squeeze.
