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“I’m only speaking the truth,” she pressed. “You took that boy down on impulse. You didn’t think twice about it. The way you rushed into my flat and hunted him down…you know too much about how to do this. Who are you? Why are you so familiar with how to handle an intruder? A normal person wouldn’t know how to do that so easily.”
Aggression rolled off him in waves and he did his best to suppress it, but with the teen still in the room with them, he wasn’t sure he could. He faced her down, however, unwilling to answer. He would not lie to her again, and telling the truth was not an option, so silence was his best bet. If she could not accept that, it would be her problem.
“Whoare you?” Maya demanded again. She took a small step forward, but Kostya held his ground. He would not allow himself to be intimidated by her.
But...he would not leave her defenseless, either. Between the phone call in her office and the teen who’d broken into her apartment, there was something more going on with her than she was willing to let on. He had his secrets, but she apparently had hers, as well. Until he knew for sure that she was safe, he wouldn’t leave her. The tiny sliver of his conscience that still remained forbade him from letting her face whatever trouble she was going through on her own.
“It doesn’t matter who I am,” Kostya said finally, his tone leaving no room for argument. “What matters is that I’m here now, and that I owe you a debt for helping me when I couldn’t help myself. As long as you are in danger, I will be here to make sure that nothing happens to you. I will keep you safe, even if that means that I have to keep you safe from yourself.”
That said, Kostya turned back to the teen on the couch. He was starting to come to. With a grunt, Kostya lifted him from the couch and slung him over his shoulder. His ribs ached in protest, but Kostya pushed the pain aside. Right now, his priority was getting the intruder out, not respecting the needs of his body.
“Nikolai! What are you doing?” Maya demanded.
“Returning what belongs to the street to the street,” Kostya stated. He carried the teen across the living room, feeling him twitch and stir. By the time they reached the front door, he’d be conscious enough to support his own weight. “There is no need for him to stay here. He will go back to where he belongs.”
Maya trailed after him at a distance, but she didn’t argue. Kostya got the impression that she was irritated, but he couldn’t care less. Her safety came first, and that meant that he needed to put the thieving rat back out on the streets. If the kid was smart, he’d never come back.
With his free hand, Kostya opened the front door. He stepped onto the stoop and pushed the teen out with him. “Go.”
The teen stumbled, his feet barely catching the next stair. He seemed dazed. Kostya braced him with one hand, his expression unyielding. The kid could play it up as much as he wanted—Kostya wasn’t changing his mind. Michael could leave on his own or Kostya would give him a helping hand that would leave permanent marks on his skin.
“If I see you around here again, I won’t hesitate to kill you,” Kostya told the teen. “Get the hell out of here and don’t come back.”
The teen clutched the railing for additional support, then shook his head and fled down the remaining step. He patted at his hoodie pockets. Kostya produced the switchblade he’d taken and flicked up the blade. “Looking for this?”
With a gasp, the teen stumbled a few feet back on the walkway. His eyes were wide, largely consumed by his dilated pupils. Kostya sighed, closed the blade, and tossed the knife onto the ground between them.
“If you’re serious about breaking and entering, you’ll have to learn to never let your guard down, and to always assume the worst.” Kostya’s voice was flat. “Any mistake you make could be your last. I was one word away from killing you tonight. You should thank the young lady who lives here—she was the one who saved your life.”
The teen scrambled forward and picked up the switchblade. He tucked it against his chest and then retreated just as rapidly, never turning his back on Kostya. Kostya watched him go. The night was dark, but the light streaming out from Maya’s flat lit him up enough that Kostya saw the track marks on his forearms. Kostya shook his head and called out again before he’d gone more than a few more steps.
“A life of crime is a messy, brutal excuse of an existence,” Kostya told him. “Get clean. Go back to school. Work as hard as you can to get ahead in life. Don’t waste your youth chasing a high, thinking you can scrape by with petty theft. Youwillcross paths with a professional eventually—someone who willnothesitate to take you out. Unlike me.”
The teen left the halo of light from the flat. Kostya watched him as he raced through the shadows and off into the night. Maybe he’d gotten through to him. More than likely, he hadn’t. It didn’t matter. He was no white knight, and saving those who needed saving wasn’t part of his game. He would help Maya because she had helped him, and once he’d eliminated the threat she faced, he would never see her again.
It was how it was supposed to be.
And whether she liked it or not, he’d make her understand that. She’d shown mercy to the Mad Dog of the Sokolov family. He would show her enemies his teeth.
CHAPTER7
Maya
“You can’t stay here,” Maya insisted.
Nikolai didn’t budge. He’d come inside after shoving Michael out and immediately began fussing with her front door, which she would have gotten to eventually. Okay, she would have had to call her landlord and then wait until they sent someone out, but she had been prepared to do that. It apparently wouldn’t be necessary, though, since Nikolai managed to adjust the jimmied lock until the door could be shut and locked securely again. She should probably thank him.
Except, now he refused to leave.
“You need to go back to the shelter.” Maya crossed her arms and stood in defiance of him. Still, she knew that, when it came down to it, she had no chance whatsoever against a man like Nikolai. He was efficient at what he did, whether it was fixing her door or hurting others, which she suspected he did regularly. With hands as strong and efficient as his, he could snap her neck in a fraction of a second, or break her bones without a second thought. Maya had known men like him. She couldn’t claim that she understood them, but she’d been around them long enough that she knew they could smell weakness from across the room. She had to remain brave and stern, or he would walk all over her. “You need to leave my flat,” she said.
“No. You’re not safe here.”
“That’s my problem, isn’t it?” Maya asked in a huff. “I’ve got a phone. I can dial 999 if I need to. It’s in your best interest to get out.”
“It’s a shame that my best interest isn’t my priority.” Nikolai shrugged. He moved across the room as if he owned the place, then headed for the couch. “I’ll be staying out here tonight, on alert in case someone else attempts to break in. In the morning, I’ll walk you to work.”
“This is overkill,” Maya said with a sigh. A part of her had known this was coming—Nikolai had proven himself to be strong-willed by insisting he walk her home, and now that they’d come across an intruder, it didn’t surprise her that he’d want to stay.
