Page 76 of Brutal Secrets
“I am. It’s always just been me and Stevie, and now it’s just me. We’ve had a falling out. He wanted me to settle.”
“That little fucker. He wants you and he’s just jealous.”
“I know.”
“You do?” Surprise tinges his voice.
“I do now,” I admit softly. “He told me over the weekend that he thought we should be together.”
“Zolotaya. You are the only one without eyes to see how beautiful you are. Of course he wishes for you. Anyone would.”
I listen to his voice, wondering if this means he longs for me the way I’ve been longing for him.
Someone shouts in the background, followed by the sound of a door banging shut. “I’ve got to go, golden girl. I...just look after Nadia for me.”
And then he’s gone and I’m sitting alone in my bedroom on my king-size bed, looking at the space next to me that’s always been empty. Is Vadim protecting us or just protecting himself?
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sasha and Kai are sitting at a round table with open bottles of champagne when I walk into the private dining room at Forbidden City. The walls are a symphony of gold dragons flying across a black lacquer background. Gold-studded black leather tops the gilt chairs. Understatement isn’t a Chinese look.
I smile. Reminds me of Russia. It’s a welcome change from the twenty-seven shades of gray and beige that dominate so many of the rooms in New York. You’d think Americans were allergic to color.
With a sharp stab of longing, I think of Kesera’s house in the woods and how familiar it felt.
“Do you have any beer?” I look at the open bottles of Dom Pérignon, and my mouth curls in disgust. “I have peasant tastes.”
Sasha pushes a red button, and a waiter appears with two enormous plates of lobsters set on piles of steaming, crispy noodles. Kai nods at him and points to something on the menu.
“Tsingtao coming up. Lobster too highbrow for you?” Kai raises his eyebrows at me, and I nod absentmindedly.
Only half of me is here to discuss the consequences of one of my bad decisions. The rest of my thoughts are with Kesera, wishing I could check on her and protect her from the sharks that are circling her.
The men in her life aren’t fit to call themselves men, and part of me wants to stake a claim on her and get every slimy fucker in the music business to back the hell away. And I would if I didn’t worry that getting involved with her would draw out even worse men from the darkness that I live in.
Kai laughs and pours a glass of champagne for Sasha. “Well, not everyone likes lobster and champagne. I can barely get the Spataro chick to eat.”
Sasha slants a look at him, and his shoulders tense. “You need to give her back to us?”
“No, man. I’m just grumbling. She’s just a royal pain in my ass. Such a fucking princess. God knows how long she’d have lasted in one of the Night Governor’s brothels.” He picks up a lobster claw with his chopsticks. “You think she’d be grateful, but no. Nothing is good enough for the principessa.”
“I think we need to get the Spataro girl out of town,” Sasha says.
Kai ponders for a moment. “I can take her to Hong Kong. I have to see some associates over there.”
“So, if we get the girl out of the way, what do we do about the rest of the Italians?” Sasha looks over at me as he picks up a mouthful of noodles. They dangle from his chopsticks. “That attack was an escalation. We can’t just hand the Spataro girl back and hope it will all evaporate. And one of the dead men was definitely Russian.”
“Someone thought it was important enough to attack my woman,” I say.
“Attack your woman? I think the plan was to snatch her and trade her for the Spataro girl,” Sasha says, his eyes widening a fraction as he turns to me. He’s picked up on the way I’m talking about Kesera.
I glare at him, avoiding the question he’s asked. “Well, nothing went as planned, thank god, but it was a shitshow. We’re lucky that no one called the police and created more drama.”
The waitresses come in with more plates of seafood and beer, but Kai waves them out and goes to the door.
I take a sip of my beer and look over at Kai and Sasha. “There’s something else going on. Something we’re not seeing.”
“I think it’s pretty clear,” Sasha says. “The Night Governor thinks we’ve gotten too big for our boots, and he’s losing his grip.”