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Nikolai answers too quickly. “I’m not talking about her for me. For us, for the team.” He shakes his head when he realizes I said that on purpose. He hasn’t dated since his girlfriend was killed back in college. Jabbing back at me, he says, “Look at you, deciding that I’m too old for her. Another man making decisions for her. You just don’t get it. Women don’t want to be told what they can and can’t do.”
I have to remember to pull my voice down. “I’m not telling her. I’m telling you. Keep your dick in your pants, man. Keep your head straight.”
“I’ve been doing that for way too long.”
We sit in silence for a minute. This is Nikolai’s first admission that he’s ready to move on. Nine years ought to be enough. His college sweetheart was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A drive-by shooting. She died in his arms.
It wasn’t long after that the FBI approached him and he never looked back. He never dated again. Acts like he’s celibate and he’s one hundred percent devoted to serving and protecting.
I’m trying to decide if I should applaud him or let the moment pass, when the security box alerts me to my phone receiving a call or text.
Putting my finger to my lips, I slide the phone from the unit.
It’s rare to get a message directly from Fyodor, Lilia’s father, the Pakhan of the Solonik Bratva.
The text simply says:Lilia’s out of control I need to see you right away.
Me:On my way. Twenty minutes out.
Nikolai reads the messages and I slide my phone back into the box.
“What do you think he wants?”
“No idea.” And why is Fyodor reaching out to me?
“If she’s in danger…” He doesn’t finish the statement, and he doesn’t have to.
My chest tightens. “I’ll protect her.”
Two
Lilia
“Canyoulookmein the eye and tell me you don’t respect—” My words halt when my father’s office door clicks open. What now? We’ve been at this argument for twenty minutes.
Erik, one of my dad’s hired thugs, is escorted in. Presumably my father knows about this, because his secretary would never have interrupted a closed-door meeting. The text message my father sent, right after I told him I kidnapped Margot and Maverik, must have been an invite for Erik. Why?
I stare at Erik for a second. I’m always captivated by the intensity of his eyes. He’s dark, he’s broody, he’s all those things, but there’s also something to him I can’t make out. He’s deeper than the minion-style goons born into my family.
There’s more to him if I’m to trust that the eyes are the window to the soul.
There’s a big problem keeping me from getting all swoony over him, though. While I’m doing everything to earn respect so I can change my family, he’s doing everything he can to prove that he’s just like the other ass-kissing minions.
Erik stands dutifully beside the doorway, his feet shoulder-width apart, his hands clasped in front of his crotch. Yeah, I try not to think that I’d love to have my hands there…fail. If he wasn’t hired by my family, if he wasn’t part of the problem of all this toxic masculinity of these men who think women are incapable, I might actually find him attractive.
Now is not the time for girlish fascinations.
If Father wants Erik in our private meeting, I’m fine with it. I want one more person to hear that I, nineteen-year-old Lilia, who’s supposedly incapable of anything short of wiping my own ass, set up and executed the entire kidnapping.
Little does he know that letting me wipe my own ass gave me the private time to set it all up. Considering what I can do with a little privacy, imagine what I’ll be able to pull off when he respects my abilities.
My father thinks so lowly of women, he doesn’t even monitor my phone. He assumes I use it to subscribe to makeup tutorial channels, which I do, but with the help of a few outsiders, I now have Margot and Maverik housed as comfortably as possible in a secret location.
I return my glare to my father. “As I was saying, I am responsible for the kidnapping of Margot and Maverik, just me. Will you give me credit for being more than just a pretty face now?”
“No,” my father says stoically.
“I kidnapped a Lazovski. Two of them. I deserve something.” I throw my hands up incredulously.
