CHAPTER TEN

 

 

Kiera

I awoke to Demetrius shaking me. I opened my eyes and shoved him off.

“You were snoring,” he said.

“I was not.” I looked around at the room. It was early. The sun was barely struggling into the sky. The room was filled with gray light. I shoved aside the covers and went over to my computers, checking to make sure everything was functioning. “We would have heard it if he’d come in last night. I had the volume up loud enough to wake us.”

“What are you wearing?”

Shit. I’d forgotten about my alien pajamas. I looked down at them, my face getting hot.

He stepped closer, grinning. He was still shirtless.

I gasped at his proximity. All that bare male flesh…

He picked up one of my braids. “This is cute.”

I shoved him again. Ooh. Bad idea. My hand had touched him, and he was warm and firm and smooth… Man even with all that hair, he was smooth. And the hair was sort of soft. I wanted—

Fuck. I yanked my hand away from him. I’d been sort of caressing his chest. I swallowed hard.

He looked stricken, all the smiles gone from his face. He backed away from me, not saying anything else.

I went back to the computers.

Everything was in working order. Just as I verified that, Danger came out of the bathroom. He was fully clothed again, and he’d run a wet comb through his hair.

I darted past him, grabbed my bag, and went into the bathroom to change.

When I got out, he was in the kitchenette area, pouring some milk onto a bowl of Cheerios. “Hope you like cereal. That seems to be all that’s here.”

I shook some Cheerios into a bowl. “Cereal’s fine. Besides, Blaze said he’d bring by some groceries.”

“I wouldn’t trust Blaze to do anything,” said Danger.

“Blaze isn’t bad,” I said. “You’re the one who recruited him for this job anyway.”

“I didn’t say he was bad. I just mean he’s not exactly reliable. He shows up for jobs because he likes to blow shit up. Otherwise, I think he’d skip out on everything.”

I picked up the milk. “Maybe. He is kind of shit at answering email. You think he’s going to forget to bring us food?”

Demetrius shrugged.

“Maybe I should call Cass,” I said.

He took his cereal and went back into the room.

I took mine as well.

We sat in front of the computers and ate in silence.

“Man,” he said. “I wish there was coffee.”

“Oh!” I jumped to my feet. “There is coffee. I saw coffee. And there’s a coffee maker.” I scampered back to the kitchenette.

He followed me. “If you knew there was coffee, why the hell didn’t you make some?”

I opened up a cabinet and took out the can of Chock Full O’Nuts. “Well, I woke up and you were all in my space without your shirt and—” I felt my face get hot again. “I’m not awake yet,” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “For being in your space.”

I couldn’t look at him. I opened the can of coffee and spooned out some grounds. I was about to deposit them… “No filters,” I said.

“I can fix that,” he said.

“You can?”

He pointed. “Paper towels work in a pinch. I’ll make the coffee. You go back and fiddle with your computers, okay?”

“I can make coffee,” I said, feeling defensive.

His nostrils flared. “Did I say you couldn’t? You act like I just run around attacking you, saying you’re shit at everything. I don’t think that.”

I shook myself. “Sorry. I don’t know why I—” I pushed the can of coffee and him and fled from the kitchenette. Why couldn’t he leave? Everything would be better if he wasn’t around.

I settled down in front of my computer. “Oh, hey! Nikolai’s in his office.”

His voice floated back to me. “I told you that he’s an early riser.”

I turned the sound up.

Nikolai was alone. He sat down at his desk, gripping a coffee mug in one hand. He stared at the computer screen. Then he set down the mug. He typed something on the keyboard. Picked up the mug. Drank.

I rubbed my eyes. We had woken up early for this?

At least he already had coffee.

Of course, I didn’t think we had any cream or sugar, did we? I grimaced.

Sure enough, Demetrius came back in a few minutes with two cups of black coffee. Well, it was better than nothing. I took a drink of the bitter liquid and then set it down.

“Listen,” he said. “I’m not sure about the floor.”

“Oh, good,” I said, picking my coffee back up again. “Why don’t you just go back to the hotel? I’ve got it here. I don’t need you around.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” he said.

I rolled my eyes.

“I was thinking about having someone pick up an air mattress.”

“Okay,” I said. “Tell them to bring cream and sugar while they’re at it.”

He dug out his phone, but before he started to dial, he hesitated. “I’m not sure about us being in the same room.”

“Why not?” I said. “We both want to hear it if Nikolai does something, right?” Although I had to admit that I would be glad of the privacy. “Admittedly, it’s more important if I hear it—”

“No, it’s not,” he said. “This is my job here. I’m running this sting. So, it’s more important for me to hear.”

“I’m not sleeping in a different room,” I said. “I’m sleeping here. With the computers.” And then I realized that sounded vaguely dirty and deviant, and I blushed again. I was setting the world record for blushing this morning.

He sighed. “It’s only that… when you’re in here with me, I…”

“You what?” I set my coffee down again, waiting.

He looked back at his phone. “Never mind.” He dialed.

The rest of the day passed in complete and utter monotony. Nothing was happening in Nikolai’s office at all.

He had two phone conversations with people about shipments to the docks, nothing that would help us.

And then he left for a three-hour lunch.

During that time, Danger and I ate more cereal. I was already sick of cereal, and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours.

Ambrose and Cass showed up with an air mattress. It had a little foot pump, but the two guys insisted on making a big production of pumping it up. But then, after it was all inflated, it was taking up half of the room, and it was a pain to walk around it. So, they propped it up against the wall.

Cass brought us some sugar and amaretto-flavored coffee creamer. She also brought an assortment of ramen noodles. The kind in a cup that you could microwave. I looked through them. They were barely more appetizing than cereal. At least they’d be hot. I told her thank you, of course. I was stuck here, and having ramen was better than nothing.

After a while, though, Ambrose and Cass left, and it was just Demetrius and me again.

Nikolai eventually came back to the office.

I began playing solitaire on one of the computers. I don’t know what Demetrius did, but I didn’t really care. That went on for quite a long time. It was starting to get to be late afternoon, and the sun was hanging heavy in the fall sky.

I yawned and double-clicked on the Queen of Hearts.

“Somebody just came into Nikolai’s office,” said Demetrius.

I sat up straight. “Who is it?”

“It’s…” He nodded. “Yeah, it’s Popov.”

Over the speakers, Nikolai was speaking, but I couldn’t make it out.

I turned the volume way up, and his voice filled the room.

He was speaking Russian.

My heart sank. “Fuck, why didn’t we think of this?”

Danger raised his gaze to the ceiling but didn’t say anything.

Popov responded to Nikolai, also in Russian.

The two men kept talking, speaking rapidly in their native language.

“You’re recording this, right?” said Demetrius.

“I’m recording everything,” I said.

“Well, this part, we’ll find someone to translate it,” he said. “Maybe, um, maybe what’s-his-face?”

“Hawk?” I said, naming another of the hitmen who worked at our organization. He was of Russian descent. “I don’t think he speaks Russian.”

“Sure he does.”

“Do you speak Italian?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

He pressed his lips together. “Okay, point, but I do know a little bit. And my family has been in this country for generations.”

“So has his,” I said.

He sighed. “Whatever. The point is, someone will be able to—”

“Shh,” I said.

They had switched to English.

“I like that one very much,” said Nikolai. “She is fiesty, that one.”

Popov laughed. “Da, feisty.”

“I like it when they try to fight,” said Nikolai. “I like to watch them break.”

I flinched.

“You break them well,” said Popov, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “You show them who is the boss.”

“Yes,” said Nikolai. “You will bring her to me.”

“Of course.”

I wanted to switch it off, but I couldn’t. I felt sick inside, thinking of what that meant Nikolai was going to do to some innocent girl.

“Good,” said Nikolai, and then said something else in Russian.

The two men went over to the door.

Popov left, laughing at something Nikolai had said.

Nikolai chuckled too, shutting the door in his wake.

Danger got up out of his chair and started to pace. “Who could translate?”

“We need to do this faster,” I said, staring at the screen.

He stopped pacing. “Faster? I don’t even know who to call.”

“I don’t mean the translating. I mean the whole job. We have to get those girls out. Nikolai is going to torture some poor girl, probably this evening, and we’re not doing anything about it at all.”

“We’re doing what we can,” he said. “Anyway, that’s the whole reason I don’t want you alone here, you understand? These are the kinds of men we’re dealing with. If anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself.”

I didn’t say anything, probably because I’d been putting myself in the place of that girl that Nikolai was talking about and so I was still feeling vulnerable and frightened. I turned back to my computers. I guessed that if anything happened, having Demetrius around did make me safer. “Well, thank you,” I said in a quiet voice.

“What was that?” he said. “Did you just—”

“Shut up,” I said, whirling and pointing at him. “If you think I’m going to repeat it, you’re insane.”

He smiled.

I smiled back.

Then he looked back at his phone. “Translators. There’s got to be someone.”

* * *

 

Demetrius

Eighteen phone calls later, I had finally found someone trustworthy to translate the Russian. Kiera was in the middle of sending them the audio files right now.

I was sorting through various flavors of ramen noodles that Cass had brought by. None of them looked vaguely appetizing. Not to mention that there wasn’t enough in one of these little cups to sustain me. All I’d eaten today was cereal, and I needed something substantial. I needed some protein, something to stick to my stomach. I didn’t overeat or anything, but I had a healthy appetite. All day, I’d felt like I was starving.

It didn’t help that I was also watching Kiera all day, wanting her.

I felt hungry and horny, and it wasn’t easy to deal with.

I knew that I couldn’t have Kiera, but I felt that I at least should have some food. Real fucking food.

So, I went back into the room where she was hunched over her computer. “You done sending the files?”

“They’re uploading,” she said. “I’ve got a crappy Internet connection, and it’s taking time. It’ll probably be another five minutes.”

“I think we should order food. Pizza’s probably the best bet.”

“Nikolai ordered pizza last night. I don’t think I want to eat pizza.”

“Oh, come on. You’re going to let Nikolai turn you off on pizza for the rest of your life?” I said.

“Not the rest of my life,” she said. “But for tonight maybe. I mean, we just heard him talking about how he likes to torture women. That really didn’t give me much of an appetite.”

“Then you won’t care,” I said, “since you’re not hungry.” It was strange, because she and I had a moment where we understood each other, not more than a couple hours ago. And now, all that seemed to be ebbing away, because she was annoyed with me. I was beginning to think that she simply picked fights with me to have something to fight about.

“I never said I wasn’t hungry.” She glared at me. “I think it’s a good idea to order out. That ramen in there is not going to cut it. But let’s order something else. Like Chinese.”

I shook my head. “I need more than fucking rice, okay?”

“What’s wrong with rice?”

“Whenever I get Chinese, I’m hungry an hour later,” I said. “I want some cheese. I want some sausage. I’m thinking sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and peppers.”

“Eew,” she said.

“Seriously?” I said. “You’re just arguing with me as a kneejerk reaction, aren’t you? You can’t actually disagree with everything I think.”

“Well, what would you care if I was? You don’t care about my opinion. You always just barge in and do it your way. For instance, I don’t want you here at all, and yet here you are. You told me the way it was going to be, and what I thought didn’t matter.”

“This is pizza, Kiera.”

“Yeah, this is pizza,” she said. “And I told you I wanted Chinese.” She got up out of her chair and stared me down.

“Don’t be a child.”

“Stop saying that about me.” She clenched her hands into fists.

I looked over her body. Yeah, she wasn’t a child. “Listen to me, you and I have got to figure out what it is that makes it so hard for us to work together.”

“We don’t have to work together,” she said. “You’re the one who insists on being everywhere that I am all the time.”

“That’s because I’m worried about your safety.”

“That’s because you’re a big, controlling asshole.”

“Asshole?” I shook my head. “You get insulted because I call you a child, but then you call me—”

“Well, you are,” she said. “And go ahead and get whatever you want on the pizza. Don’t consult me. Because that’s how you are. You’re this big, lumbering oaf who just does whatever he wants.”

“It’s not my fault that I’m bigger than other people.”

“Oh, right. You were born with those muscles. You don’t lift weights or anything.”

“I prefer strength training to cardio,” I snapped. “And I don’t do it to intimidate people.”

“Yes, you do. You like being in charge. You like being in control. You like it when people are scared of you.”

I thought of my fantasy, of her wide eyes, of her squirming little body in my grasp, and my jaw twitched. “No, I do not,” I said, but my voice wasn’t strong.

She lifted her chin, triumphant. She knew she’d scored a point somehow.

“People aren’t afraid of me,” I said. “You’re not afraid.”

“No, that’s because I know I can take care of myself.”

“That’s because you’re stupid,” I said through clenched teeth. I thought about taking her by the shoulders and shaking her.

It was her turn to flinch. “Stop saying that. Stop calling me stupid.”

“I’m sorry,” I said in a nasty voice. “I’m hungry, and I’m not in a good mood. Maybe you should stop testing me, or I’ll give you a reason to be afraid of me.” I advanced on her.

She stood her ground. “You are not in charge of me.”

“I’m the one running this sting.” I pointed at my chest. “And if I want pepperoni, I’m going to damned well get it.”

“Oh, that is so like you.” She pushed past me and stalked out in a huff.

I watched her go.

Man. Screw her.

I got out the phone and dialed the pizza place.

My fingers were not shaking. Not at all.