“Then speak, Mr. De Luca,” the pakhan says, a note of impatience in his tone. “Say what you have to say.”
The phone starts vibrating again just as I lift the coffee cup to my lips. I shift slightly on the sofa, trying to muffle the sound.
I can’t hold this awkward position too long, so I decide to just go for it.
Tilting the cup too far, I let the hot coffee spill all over me.
“Ouch!” I jump to my feet.
Suddenly, four guns are pointed at me, and Nero lunges in front of me. “Do not point those at my wife,” he snaps at the guards.
“I’m so sorry. I’m a klutz,” I mutter.
The pakhan raises a hand. “Stand down, gentlemen. It’s just an accident.”
Coffee drips from my clothes onto the cream rug. “Can I go clean up?”
Maksim’s eyes narrow as he studies me. “Go ahead, child. Artem will accompany you.”
One of the guards steps forward.
“Like hell he will.” Nero’s fists clench, the tendons in his neck taut. “I don’t want them alone.”
The pakhan sighs. “This is getting tiresome, De Luca.”
“Katya, you go,” Maksim orders. “Surely you won’t have a problem with that, Nero?”
Damn it.
Ekaterina tucks her purse under her arm and follows me out of the room. I can feel her eyes boring into my back with every step I take toward my bedroom.
In the closet, she props herself against the doorjamb and watches as I peel off my soaked shirt. Her lips curl, but her eyes stay unsmiling. “You’ve done well for yourself, haven’t you? A waitress from Missouri, now living in a gorgeous penthouse in Manhattan with your handsome husband. Your mother must be proud.”
I toss the shirt into the laundry bin. “My mother’s dead.”
“Hmm. Lucky you.”
“Lucky?”
“The fewer people you care about, the better. Trust me.”
My blood turns icy cold. “Why’s that?”
“Because one wrong move by your husband today, and they would all be dead,” she says so very confidently that I want to wring her neck.
This bitch.
“He’s brave for talking to the pakhan the way he has. For standing up for you. But he’s overdoing it, and it’ll cost him. The pakhan doesn’t like men who are too sentimental about their families. It creates too many liabilities.”
A hole opens up inside my stomach. Is she hinting that the pakhan might kill Nero once he’s no longer useful? I have no idea how Nero plans to get out of this, but his hands look like they’re tied. He might be telling the pakhan the locations of those warehouses right this second. And once he gives all of them up, there are six armed men here who could take him out.
Oh God.
Acid surges up my throat. Ekaterina might just be trying to get into my head with her words, but I can’t take that risk.
I pull on a clean shirt and brush past her, heading toward the bathroom.
“Where are you going?” she snaps.
