Page 97 of Fractured Ties

Maya shrugged. “Turn the tables, then.”

His hand left the steering wheel and before Maya knew what happened, his warm palm cupped her cheek with a soft touch. The gentle way he often held or touched her was such a bright contrast to the violent, angry man she knew he could be. His thumb stroked the spot just beneath her eye.

“Nice deflection,” he murmured. “But you get a pass on telling me the truth. At least, for now.”

Maya didn’t bother to ask what he was talking about. His answer came when he pulled off the side of the road and into a parking lot for a rundown apartment complex. Some of the bricks were crumbling and badly faded. The railings needed a good paint and the windows dearly needed to be replaced. There was no grass or greenery. Just cold concrete and a green metal trash bin that was overflowing.

She knew this part of the city a little too well—tried to stay away from the Heights as much as possible given it wasn’t exactly the greatest neighborhood around, and all that.

Drugs, gangs, drive-by shootings, and worse were a little too common.

Maya took note of the gathered group of people on the stairs of the apartment building. Some of them sat on the steps and others leaned over the railing. Two toddlers—barely three years old—played on the sidewalk with little trucks. One of the men on the stairs took note of Kolya’s Hummer as he pulled into a free spot and gave a nod to the young man on the bottom step.

The kid—he couldn’t be more than twelve—was quick to jump up and head over before Kolya could even cut the engine.

“Why are we here?” Maya asked.

Kolya gave her a look. “This is where I live.”

Oh.

“Do you want me to stay—”

“No,” he was quick to say, and rather sharply. “No one who knows my name around here would touch you anyway, but no. You come with me. Always. I’ll come around and help you down—leave the pup; he’s sleeping.”

Maya nodded and waited as Kolya exited the truck. He spoke to the young boy who had patiently waited by the front of the Hummer while they had talked inside. She saw Kolya pass the kid money—how much or for what, she couldn’t tell. Then, he came around to her side of the vehicle and opened the door.

His arms were already outstretched for her, and Maya let him lift her down.

“You know, I think you should get some steps for me on this thing,” she said.

Kolya pressed a hand to her lower back and directed them toward the building’s entrance. “Why would I do that? Then I couldn’t get my hands on you every time you needed to get in or out.”

“Good point.”

He patted her ass, but just as quickly put his hand back to her lower back. “I thought so.”

It didn’t matter.

He’d done what he’d done.

The hot shot of heat that went straight to her pussy proved that well enough without her needing to say it.

Maya ignored the growing lust as the people on the steps moved to allow them through. None of them looked Maya in the eyes, but the one who had alerted the boy to Kolya’s arrival gave him a nod as they passed and greeted Kolya.

“Boykov,” the man said.

“Gerald. How’s the place?”

“Good.”

Kolya pushed against Maya’s back to make her walk the last step. “Keep up those payments and that’s how it’ll stay.”

The man nodded again but said nothing more. Once inside the building, Maya was quick to take in the sixties carpet in the hallway that desperately needed replaced, and the faded paper on the walls where she couldn’t even make out what the design used to be.

“I think they were lotus flowers,” Kolya murmured, noting the way she stared at the wallpaper while they walked down the hallway. “But who knows?”

She said nothing until they had climbed two flights of stairs, Kolya unlocked the apartment that belonged to him, and she was allowed inside. He flicked all the lights on at once, and then left her side for the first time.