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Chapter Thirty-Seven
Aleksey
“And she said nothing to you?”
Boris shook his head, stretching out his legs before him. “Nothing other than thanking me. She saw him twice, and the first time there was a hell of a lot of yelling. She stormed out of there. But the second time was a lot calmer.”
I rubbed my jaw, my mood darker than ever. Ludovico had hit her. He had put his hands on what was mine, marred her face and scared her. I saw it in her eyes when she got home. Something had gone bad there, something that she wasn’t telling me.
But what bothered me wasn’t just the fact that he hit her. It was something else.
“I’m sorry, Alyosha,” Boris finished, a weary expression on his face. “If I’d known he was going to hit her, I would’ve insisted on being there.”
“It’s not your fault,” I sighed. “You weren’t the one who forced her to go back.” I had. And I shouldered that blame all on my own.
But now that she was back, something seemed off. Not just with her, but with me as well. My conversation with my uncle had rattled me in ways that I hadn’t expected. I didn’t want to think that Elia might be scheming behind my back. It hurt to think that she was. It hurt even more to think that Uncle Misha might be right.
The car pulled up to the penthouse and my gut clenched. Elia was inside, and I had to face her eventually. Somehow, everything had gone to shit in the span of just a couple of days. I’d sent her back to New York so that she might be safe, and she had run back. But the woman who came back wasn’t the same anymore.
I was left with more questions than answers, and that made me uneasy.
“Make sure the rest of the brigadiers make their rounds,” I told Boris. “I don’t want any more trouble or unexpected problems. Otherwise, someone’s ass is going to be mine.”
“Of course, Aleksey Fyodorovich.” He shifted against the seat. “I’ll see that it is done.”
I nodded. The reason I had left Elia as soon as she returned was because some up-and-coming idiot had thought it would be a good idea to sell drugs inmyterritory without paying his dues. While entrepreneurs were expected, and, to an extent, tolerated, thieves were not. So, I had spent the better part of what should have been a happy reunion with my wife parceling out street sentencing.
Terms were set, rules were clarified, and I had extracted my pound of flesh for good measure.
Now, the dealer knew whose toes he’d stepped on. And if he ever forgot, he only had to look at his missing finger to remind him.
“Make certain they know that I will hold them personally accountable for any other infractions that make it to my ears.” I reached for the door handle. “I expect transparency from the rest of them. None of this cloak and dagger shit about the Bogatyr that my uncle mentioned.”
“Sounds fishy,” Boris agreed. “I mean, that’s an awfully convenient excuse to drop on you. I’ve never heard of the Bogatyr, and none of the guys I spoke to seemed to know about him either. Man’s a ghost.”
“Or completely made up.” I nodded.
“Exactly.”
I had told Boris about the full conversation with my uncle, both the one at my father’s grave and at the penthouse after Elia left. He had done some questioning on his own initiative and had come back with nothing but dead ends.
Looking over at him, I caught his eye. “What about Elia?”
Boris rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. At this point, I trust everyone about as far as I can throw them. And I recommend you do the same. Something changed with her after talking with her father. I could see it. You can see it, too. Be careful, Alyosha.”
“I will,” I said as I climbed out of the car.
Once I stepped inside the elevator and headed upstairs, I felt the oppressive weight on my chest at what I was about to walk into.
When the elevator doors opened to the penthouse, I found it dark and still. Frowning, I walked in. The place was deathly quiet, and a small hint of fear slid down my spine.
“Elia?” I asked, pulling my gun from the shoulder holster. “Are you here?”
Keeping my gun down at my side, I crept slowly toward the hallway and finally saw light filtering out of the seam at the bottom of the slightly opened door.
“Elia?” I called out again.
A shadow filled the doorway and she stepped out. I breathed an inward sigh of relief, holstering my gun. “Did you hear me the first time?”
