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THANK THE MAKER. SHE was okay. Alive, at least. I held her close to me, closing my eyes and inhaling the scent of her.
Six weeks was far too long to be away from this woman, and I had no idea how I had managed it without losing my mind. I wanted her so badly it made my chest hurt, and even now, being right in front of her, it was hard to think of anything but kissing her, telling her how much I wanted her, begging her to come back to New York with me.
She pulled back from me abruptly and looked me up and down.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded. There was an anger in her eyes, but something else, too – something that was equally intense, something that I could hardly wrap my head around. I didn’t care right now. All that mattered to me was that she was safe, that she was here in front of me, and that she hadn’t swung a punch at me the moment she laid eyes on me.
“I needed to see you—”
“So you just came bursting into my apartment?” she demanded. “How did you even get in here, anyway? How did you – what are you doing, Andreas?”
“The door was unlocked—”
“And that doesn’t explain how you knew where I was staying in the first place,” she snapped back at me, hugging her towel tight around herself. I was trying my best not to think about how naked she was under there, how good it would feel to just run my hands over her body and feel her respond to me, but I was certain that she would have physically thrown me out if I tried that.
I took a deep breath – I needed to be honest. If I was going to get anything out of this, I needed to be honest, no matter how hard it might be.
“I needed to see you, because I thought you were in danger,” I explained. “I still think you might be. I—”
“Tell me how you knew where I was first,” she ordered me, narrowing her eyes, and I knew I wasn’t going to get away with this until I had given her a response. I flipped my eyes upwards, trying to think of a decent excuse. I knew that the only chance I had here was to be honest.
“I had one of my guys come down here to keep an eye on you,” I admitted, and her face went red with fury.
“You had me followed?” she demanded. Did she really think I’d just let her walk out of my life like that? After everything that had happened, it shocked me to think she believed that, even for an instant. We were more than that, we always had been, and I wasn’t about to let her go off into the sunset and pretend like we’d never been through any of what that we’d been through.
“I was looking out for you—”
“No, you were stalking me,” she snapped back. “You don’t think I’m sick and fucking tired of men doing that, saying it’s for my own good—”
“I’m not the only one.”
She fell silent. That seemed to have gotten to her, at least. I didn’t move my eyes from hers, letting the reality of this sink in. I wanted her to know this was serious, that I wasn’t just pulling this for the sake of being an asshole or something – I was worried about her. And I wanted to make damn certain she didn’t do anything that was going to land her in any trouble.
“Who?” she asked. Her voice was suddenly tiny, as though she was attempting to bury her fear behind something else. I knew that this was the last thing that she wanted to hear, and honestly, I wished I could have come to her with better news. But I had always known, somewhere, at the back of my mind, that if we saw each other again, it wasn’t going to be for any positive reason.
“The Serbs,” I explained. “The ones who attacked the club. I met with their boss recently, and he – he dropped your name. Said that he’d had you followed down here. He knew where you were, and I’d bet that he’s willing to do anything he can to make sure I know he’s not going to let off.”
Her face drained of color. I hated doing this to her, but I needed her to take me seriously right now. I needed her to know this wasn’t about me seeing her again, though I wanted that, hell, I wanted it so fucking badly – it was about her listening to me, hearing me and believing that I had come here to look after her, to look out for her, no matter how much I could tell she wanted to believe something different.
She closed her eyes and rubbed her hand over her face. She looked, all at once, exhausted, as though she couldn’t believe what was happening right now. I had no idea what she’d been doing to keep her and her father afloat since they had come here, but I would bet that she had been working hard just to make ends meet. I wanted to wrap her up in my arms, tell her that she had nothing else to worry about and that I would take care of her now, but I knew that she wouldn’t have accepted it. I knew that she would have told me that she could handle this on her own terms, even if she couldn’t.
“How long have you known about this?” she asked softly. Her voice was sapped of all its energy. I shook my head.
“I just found out,” I assured her. “I came down here as soon as I did, I wanted to make sure you and your father were okay.”
“We are,” she replied. “But given that I’m being followed everywhere I go—”
“Nadia, I was doing it to keep you safe,” I protested. She shook her head.
“No, you were doing it because you didn’t want to think I’d gotten away.”
I stilled. I knew what she was trying to say. She was trying to compare me to that man who had come for her at her apartment, the man who seemed to think she owed him something she wasn’t willing to hand over. And I was nothing like that, never had been, never would be. I was doing this to protect her. I needed her to know it. It wasn’t about controlling her – if it was, I wouldn’t have let her go in the first place, and I’d have had her brought back to me to make sure she was somewhere I could keep an eye on her.
“It’s not about that,” I argued with her, but I could tell she had already made her mind up about it.
“You need to go.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re coming back to New York with me.”
She snorted with amusement. It was clear that she wasn’t going to give in to this so quickly. I clenched my fists at my sides. She had no idea the kind of danger she was in, the kind of shit that Kozlov and his kind would pull if they thought they could get to me through her.
“I’m not leaving this place. I’ve just started making a life for myself here.”
“And you could have it all ruined if you don’t come back to New York and let me take care of you—”
“Andreas, listen to yourself,” she snapped at me. “You’re telling me that you really think I should just be able to give up everything that I’ve worked for here, because you want me out of it?”
“I’m telling you that you have no idea what you’re dealing with here,” I told her urgently. “And you’re going to get yourself and your father in trouble unless you get out of here with me and just—”
“I’m not going with you.”
“You need to,” I pleaded with her. “It isn’t safe for you here, you have to see that. I can keep you both safe back in New York, but I can’t manage it with the two of you all the way down here.”
“Andreas, I’m not asking you to keep me safe,” she reminded me. “I’m not asking you for anything, in fact. Just for you to leave me alone.”
I rubbed my hand over my face. I had no idea what it was going to take for her to actually listen to what I was saying to her right now, but I needed her to look me in the eyes and realize that I was doing this to help her. Doing this because I wanted her to be safe. She had no idea what the Serbs were capable of doing to her or her father, and if she stayed down here in Miami, she might have no choice but to find out.
“You’re coming with me,” I told her, and I went to take her hand – but before I could get a grip on her, she ripped it away from me.
“Don’t you dare,” she snapped at me, clearly pissed. “Don’t you dare touch me like that.”
I could tell I had hit a nerve, but I had no idea how else I was supposed to get her to grab her things and just fucking leave already. Did she have to put up this much of a fight? Did she have to make this kind of a scene? It was driving me crazy. I couldn’t spend too long away from New York, but I refused to go back without knowing that she would be coming with me.
“I’m trying to help you, Nadia,” I told her, and she shook her head.
“I’m not asking for your help,” she replied. “Just go.”
I closed my eyes. I knew she wasn’t going to give in on this. And I couldn’t stay here much longer without missing out on whatever was happening back home. I was sure that Mauro was already spitting sparks, he would be so angry with me about the way I had chosen to go about this. I couldn’t believe that I was here, instead of dealing with what mattered back in New York.
But... this was for her. It had always been for her. Since day one, I had wanted to look out for her, to protect her, to do everything that I could to ensure nothing bad happened to her. And now, she was standing there in front of me, more or less telling me straight-up that she wasn’t going to let me help.
“Get your men away from me and leave me alone,” she told me. “I don’t want anything to do with them anymore. I don’t want anything to do with any of this. I left for a reason, you understand? And I’m not coming back. Not now, not ever.”
And with that, she pushed me towards the door. I wasn’t going to have a choice here. She was making the calls. And if I tried to lay a hand on her again, I knew she was going to freak out and tell me to get my hands off of her before she did something that she couldn’t take back.
Even though she was in nothing more than a towel, she still had such power about her – as though she knew how to command a room, even dressed like that. I heard footsteps behind me, and I flashed around to see who was behind us. Was it one of Kozlov’s men...?
But then, I saw her father standing there, a nervous look on his face as he eyed me.
“Sorry, Dad,” Nadia told him. “Don’t worry, I’m just getting rid of him.”
Her father nodded, but lingered outside the door as Nadia led me outside.
“Don’t come back,” she warned me, and she closed the door behind her, leaving her father and I standing there together in awkward silence.
“What did you come here for?” he asked me suddenly.
“I want to get you and Nadia away from here,” I explained. “I don’t think you’re safe.”
He looked towards the closed door, the corners of his mouth turning down as though the hugeness of this was just starting to weigh on him.
“Neither do I,” he confessed. I saw a spark of hope then. Maybe, if I couldn’t get that girl to listen to me, I could at least get her to pay attention to what her father was saying.
“What are you worried about?” I asked. I wanted to know what was going on inside his head, what he had noticed as well.
“The Serbs,” he admitted. “They’ve - they have hold of the store. And I know they’re going to hold that over the both of us until they get what they want from me.”
“Which is?”
“I don’t know yet,” he confessed, shaking his head. “But I’m not sure that I want to find out.”
“I’m doing what I can,” I promised him, and he sighed.
“Is it going to be enough?” he asked. His words caught me off-guard, and I had no clue how to respond to what he had just said. I wanted to be able to assure him that I would do what it took to look out for him and for Nadia, but I wasn’t sure if there was any way he would believe me. He had already been through so much as it was.
“It will be,” I replied, and I meant it. I had to mean it. I couldn’t let this fear get the better of me. Just because Nadia refused to leave now didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to see sense somewhere down the line, I just had to make sure that, when she did, I was there to help her and her father break free of this mess.
“Thank you,” he replied, but he didn’t sound entirely sure of it.
He rummaged in his pocket for a moment, and pulled out a pen and a scrap of paper – he scribbled something down on it and handed it to me.
“If you need to get in touch,” he told me. “Just call me. I’ll answer. I’m not sure that she will.”
“Thank you,” I replied, taking the paper and tucking it carefully inside my wallet. At least I still had some connection to them, even if she seemed intent on making certain I couldn’t get in touch with either of them again.
Dmitri nodded, and then headed through the door to his daughter. That apartment they were staying in was tiny, and I wished that Nadia would have just accepted my offer to get the hell out of there and stay somewhere else. I could have got them set up somewhere much nicer, and they would have security on at all hours, too...
But she had clearly made her mind up, and there was nothing I could do about that. I had to let it go. And hope she came to her senses sooner rather than later.
I headed for the exit, and by the time I got out, there was a text waiting for me on my phone.
From Kozlov. Telling me where to meet him – and when. Two days time, back in New York, to further discuss the deal that we’d put on the table before.
And I knew better than to blow him off again. Because he wouldn’t hold back in showing me his dissatisfaction – and the last thing I needed was him to come out swinging again and destroy another one of my father’s businesses.
