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“Yeah, buddy. Come on. I’ll help you grab your stuff.” I held my hand out to him.
He snatched it on his sprint back to the stairs, dragging me with him.
Bri followed after us, far less excited than Ezra. I couldn’t say I blamed her.
Once their bags were packed, I ushered them outside and slammed the front door behind me. I didn’t bother leaving Crystal a note. Who knew if she’d even be back to find it? Worthless bitch.
By the time I got outside, Anton and Axel were gone and an entirely new vehicle was parked on the street—a black Suburban instead of Misha’s Escalade.
“Where the hell did this come from?” I asked, opening the back door for the kids.
“I called someone,” Misha replied.
“Then where did they go?”
“With Anton. Now, if you don’t have any more questions, please get in the car.”
Once the kids were situated in the back, I slid into the front passenger seat. Misha glanced at the three of us and pulled away from the curb, driving with none of the urgency Anton had on the way there.
I waited for Misha to explain what was going on but he didn’t say anything. Even the radio was silent. The only sound was the road beneath the tires, whirring and clanging now and again when they rolled over a manhole cover or when we crossed one of the bridges back into the heart of the city.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked as the Suburban ventured deeper into a neighborhood I wasn’t the least bit familiar with.
“To an apartment.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Can you drop us at a hotel or something?”
“Nonsense.”
“Look, I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but I’d feel better if we weren’t invading your space.”
“You’re not.” He shot me a look out of the corner of his eye. “It’s not my main apartment. It’s a secondary one.”
“A secondary one?” I blinked at him as my thoughts immediately took a turn for the worse. “You pay for two apartments in this fucking city?”
“When you own the building, the price of rent doesn’t really matter.”
Great. He had a whole building at his disposal to squirrel away his sidepieces. I sure as shit hoped Hayden wasn’t one of them. Shaking my head, I focused on the neighborhood again, trying to memorize it as we drove northward.
A little while later, he pulled into a parking garage and turned the car off.
“We’re here. Let’s go,” I said, turning in my seat. “Oh, come on!”
Bri and Ezra were both passed out. I didn’t blame them. It had been a long night for all of us. But now I had to carry their little asses from the car to God knew what floor. I hoped Misha’s building had a working elevator.
Groaning at the prospect of hauling them up countless stairs, I slipped out of the passenger seat and opened the back door, grabbing their backpacks and slinging them over my shoulder.
Before I could figure out how I was going to manage both of them, plus their pitiful luggage, Misha pulled Bri out of her seat and cradled her against him, like a knight rescuing a princess. “This way,” he said, tossing his head to the side. He didn’t seem the least bit bothered by carrying around sleeping pre-teens whom he’d only met an hour ago. Too bad he didn’t have any armor to go with that display of chivalry.
Grabbing ahold of Ezra, I followed after him like a dutiful page boy.
Thankfully, therewasan elevator since the apartment was on the fifth floor.
The building was old but it had a warm feeling to it—completely unlike the shithole I’d been crashing in for the past few weeks, ever since Ken got me thrown out of my last apartment on some trumped-up damage claim.I hope the bribe was expensive, you fucking dick.
