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Chapter12
The rest of the dinner went oddly normal. The overpriced food tasted amazing and even though the waitress put her breasts closer and closer to Alek's face every time she stopped by the table, he never gave her a second’s notice.
And Alek was the type who noticed everything.
Sometimes when I talked, I could tell the exact moment when the person listening zoned out. Alek never did. He hung on every single word I said as though filing it away for later.
For future use against me.
"Tell me about your classes," he said, rather, ordered, as he popped a piece of potato in his mouth.
I picked at my vegetable curry. "You don't need to be bored by all that."
"You're important to me and school is important to me. End of story."
He kept on saying that and it never made a lick more sense to me. But I'd finally given up trying to ask about it because his answers never gave any clarification. "We're in the middle of the semester now. I can't afford to take more than a part-time load, so everything is going slow but it's going. Right now, I'm in World Civilizations, which I was expecting to be boring, but it’s way more interesting than I thought."
"You thought World Civilizations would be boring?"
It might be the first time I felt disapproval coming from him. It made me want to giggle. "Calm down. I'm not ragging on history. I like sciences. I want to go into biology, either medical or something with animals. The social studies have never held my interest as much."
"Human or animal? Haven't chosen yet?"
I shrugged. "I mean, I think animal would be more fun. But human seems like a more viable option. I can get a good paying job with even a four-year degree."
"So, you'd rather work with animals but you're settling for humans."
He made it sound like a dirty word. "You say settling. I say surviving."
He nodded and fell back in his seat. "Surviving. I like that. I've done a fair amount of settling as a means of survival. Maybe that's why I was drawn do you. You’re a survivor like me."
"And here I thought you just wanted to bang me."
"Do you think I go through all of this with every woman I want to fuck, Angel?"
Well, if that wasn't a reason to take a big drink of wine, what was? I bet women were lining up to throw themselves at Alek—namely the waitress. Her nipples were pointing so firmly against her white button-up shirt; she had to have taken off her bra and run ice cubes over the peaks.
"Honestly, Alek, you could do all this as a hobby. Pick some unsuspecting girl and come into her life like a tornado and then vanish just as quickly, leaving a mess of debris and dust behind."
"But the girl would still be sucked up in the tornado," he added with a wink.
I shook my head. "Fine. Here's a question. How did you find me? When you came into Carlito's, you knew me. My name and address. You had that phone for me. So how did you know me when I had never even heard of you? No offense."
He pushed his mostly empty plate out of the way so he could lean forward on the table. "I can tell you, but it's going to freak you out."
I leaned forward too, fascinated to hear his answer. "Oh, you care about freaking me out now?"
"I'm your landlord."
For a moment he just got a blank stare out of me. "No, you're not."
"Your landlord was a piece of scum named Frankie. Frankie owed me a lot of money he didn't actually have, so I got your building instead."
The dots he connected started to take shape in my head and my mouth fell open. "No...."
"Oh, yes."
"You're my landlord."
"I was all ready to bulldoze the shithole until I saw your sexy ass. Then I thought of much more fun things to do with it."
"You were going to bulldoze my building?"
"I think you're focusing on the wrong part of what I said." He held up a hand signaling that he was requesting the check.
"Wait. Aren't we going to have dessert?"
His eyes darkened as he looked me over. "I have other plans for dessert."
"I hope you come back soon, Mr. Rishka," said the waitress as she slid the bill to him with her phone number very clearly written on it.
He dropped a few hundreds on the table and very clearly left the bill, complete with her number, on the table. "Come, Daisy."
Was I doing this? Just going with him? If I said no, would he even listen?
Sergei and one of the guards appeared to escort us out, even though I hadn't realized Alek called them.
Alek kept one possessive arm around my waist as he led me outside.
While the SUV was right where we'd left it (even thought it was clearly a no parking zone), there was a stranger leaning against the car smoking a cigarette impatiently.
As soon as we walked out, his eyes narrowed, but he didn't make any move towards us. Whoever he was, Alek wasn't happy to see him if the suddenly painful grip on my waist was any indication.
"I saw you had a man posted at the car, but I gave him the night off. Actually, he might need more than a night off. Not very impressive, if you ask me. I'm gone for six months, and everyone starts slipping? I expected better, Sergei.",
Sergei rolled his neck, letting the snap, crackle and pop do the threatening for him rather than responding.
The stranger made it sound like he'd attacked the man left to watch the car, but he didn't show any sign of injury. The guards Alek traveled with weren't small guys. Who was this?
"Borya, if you wanted to have dinner, all you had to do was ask. My door is always open to you." The words were notedly more friendly than the tone. It sounded like if this Borya ever actually came through Alek's door, he'd end up with a marked increase of lead in his body.
"I came here to warn you that a war might be coming, and your first reaction is to hang out with doe-eyed barbie? What the fuck happened to you, brother?"
"I'm not a barbie!" The moment I spoke up I regretted it, but his description caught me off guard. Unfortunately, it also caught his attention.
Those dark eyes swerved to me, and I found myself tucking myself closer to Alek.
"Barbie was wrong. You're much more like a Bratz doll."
Heat rushed to my face and for once it wasn't embarrassment but anger doing it. "Brothers? I can see the resemblance. You're both tall, dark and insane."
Insulting someone who had a few screws loose like this probably wasn't a good idea, but I had an inflated sense of safety with Alek by my side. Besides, Alek had at least two other men, and this Boyra appeared to be alone.
Appearedto be, at least.
