Chapter Two

 

Nikolai couldn’t concentrate on a single word Mr. Li was saying. Worse, the head of the Chinese triad wasn’t even speaking in his native Mandarin but out of politeness and respect to Nikolai, spoke in English. Damn it to hell. Nikolai couldn’t stop picturing Risa in that tight red dress.

The nerve of that woman, thinking she could dress that way in public. Didn’t he raise her better? Raise? No. He didn’t want to think of that word. Back when Risa was sixteen, she’d been manageable. Sweet. Now?

He woke up in complete and utter misery every single day, knowing she was so close, within his reach but remaining untouchable. Inaccessible. Only the worst kind of scum would lust after his dead best friend’s daughter. Judging by the way Risa acted these days, it was hard to see her as anything but a woman.

His woman.

“We’ll look over the numbers again,” his business partner and second-in-command Mikhail said. “I’m sure we’ll come to a better agreement.”

Thank God, he brought Mikhail along to this meeting. Mr. Li stood up. They shook hands.

“Then I look forward to another meeting with the Petrovic Family,” Mr. Li said.

Once Mr. Li and his group left his office, Nikolai sank into the leather couch opposite his desk.

“You’ve been distracted the entire time. Problems at home?” Mikhail grabbed two cold beer bottles from his mini-fridge, then opened them and handed him one.

Nikolai gave Mikhail a pointed look but accepted the beer. He took a long pull. Mikhail was the only man in his organization who knew about his particular dilemma. Ignoring Mikhail’s earlier question, he checked his watch and swore.

“I promised Risa I’d swing by the gallery. She’s holding an exhibit,” he said.

“You sound like a proud father.”

He wanted to choke Mikhail for that comment alone, especially since Mikhail knew what a touchy subject this was.

“I am proud,” he said, finishing his beer instead of giving in to useless anger. Before Risa came into his life, Nikolai had been famous for his short temper. With a young girl to look after, he tried to be a better man. A more patient one at the very least, and boy, did Risa try his patience plenty of times.

He continued. “She worked hard, getting those photos ready, finding a gallery to host them. She refused to let me pay for her college. It was all her. I should’ve rescheduled this meeting.”

Guilt hit him. Maybe she’d worn that dress earlier for a reason. To get his attention. Lately, Nikolai had been burying himself in work, to distract himself from the temptation waiting for him at home.

For all he knew, Risa had found some nice young man who’d treat her right. Nikolai gripped the beer bottle in his hand tight. The thought infuriated him. It would be easy, hunting that poor bastard down and put a bullet to his skull.

He phoned his driver and told him to bring the car in front of the building. Nikolai owned this building and several others in the city. He and Mikhail waited downstairs for his ride. Nikolai called Matthew, his long-time butler, who reported to him whatever went on in his house.

“Did you see if Risa left the house with anyone?” he asked. Next to him, Mikhail rolled his eyes.

“Yes, sir, a young man named John Stevenson, I believe he’s one of Miss Risa’s ex-schoolmates.”

“Is he? Do a background check on him.”

“Of course, sir. Are you on your way to Miss Risa’s exhibit?”

Nikolai let out a frustrated growl. “Why is everyone in my life so damn nosy?”

“Everyone merely wishes for your happiness, sir. Anyone with eyes could see Miss Risa would make you happy.”

He ended the call with his butler only to see Mikhail grinning at him. No surprise the bastard eavesdropped on his conversation. To his relief, Harry arrived in his car.

“I’d offer to drop you off somewhere, but I’m a hurry,” he told Mikhail.

“Oh, I understand. Happy hunting, boss.”

Before he could tell Mikhail off, Harry started the engine.

“To the Riverside Gallery, sir?” Harry asked him before he could open his mouth.

Nikolai grunted. His phone pinged. An email from Matthew. The majority of his staff were ex-military or police, and Matthew had been a particularly renowned spy before he started working as a butler for Nikolai’s father, then for him.

He scanned through the details on Risa’s date, not liking what he read. Stevenson had a long police record. He’d been arrested before for taking nude photographs of the women he dated without their consent. The guy hadn’t been charged with rape, but it looked to Nikolai that it was only because he’d paid his accuser off.

How did he not know of Stevenson before? If Nikolai had known this kind of scum was hanging around his woman, he’d have already put him in the dirt. Risa had a good heart, but sometimes, she didn’t know how to read people properly.

“Step on it, Harry,” he said. If he found that bastard with his hands on his Risa, he didn’t care who saw him at the exhibit. He’d murder Stevenson before he could draw another breath.

****

“Have another drink,” John told her.

“No thanks, I’m feeling a little tipsy,” she said. Risa’s head spun. She could barely focus on the people crowding the exhibit, or recognize the faces walking up to her and people shaking her hands. Impossible. She couldn’t be this drunk after two drinks—or did she have more than she thought?

“Nikolai’s going to kill me if he finds out,” she whispered, touching the closest wall to balance herself.

Her feet ached. Risa wished she’d worn shorter and less painful heels. Her stomach didn’t feel right either, like someone was constantly scraping the walls with a scalpel. Risa wanted to go back home and take a long nap. Then she’d wake up and have breakfast with Nikolai. He always made it a point to sit down and eat the first meal of the day with her.

“Who’s Nikolai?” John asked, nibbling at her ear. Then he kissed her neck.

Repulsed, she tried to push him away.

“John, what are you doing? We’re friends.”

“What if I want to be more? Tell me, who’s this Nikolai? Are you making me jealous?”

“What?” Her skull throbbed like tiny shrapnel had been digging into the bone.

John grabbed her arm and started leading her to the less crowded area of the gallery. They breezed past a throng of people, before reaching the end of her exhibit.

“Wait, where are you taking me?” she demanded. She tried to tug her hand back. Warning bells rang in her head. Her purse. She’d left it in the bathroom, and it contained her SIG Sauer P238 and her pepper spray. She was no sniper, but she could shoot decently, according to Nikolai.

One of the first things Nikolai had taught her was how to defend herself. One, two drinks in her, and she forgot her purse.

“He’s going to be pissed off.”

John stopped but hadn’t let go of her hand. She looked around, wondering how she let John bring her out to the back alleyway of the gallery. The night air bit into her exposed arms and shoulders. It smelled of piss and garbage everywhere. Maybe if she hadn’t altered this dress, she wouldn’t be so cold or in this position.

What was happening? Why did her entire body feel sluggish? Why couldn’t she think straight? Did John put something in her drink?

“I’m leaving,” she told John, but he dug his fingers into his wrist.

They both tugged. John gasped her arm again. The pearl bracelet Nikolai gave her for her seventeenth birthday broke, the black pearls scattering to the ground. A sob caught in her throat as John yanked her to him by sheer force.

“You’re not going anywhere, not until I say you can.” John’s brown eyes gleamed menacingly in the dark. The next thing she knew, he’d pushed her against the graffiti-sprayed wall. Her skull rang when it hit the harsh surface, disabling her senses temporarily.

“Why are you doing this? What’s wrong with you?” she cried out. Fabric ripped, and cool air touched her exposed breasts. Was she trapped in some kind of freakish nightmare? This couldn’t be happening to her.

“Me? Pervs pay me a good amount of cash for my photos.” A flash went off, nearly blinding her eyes. John tugged down her dress. She opened her mouth, about to scream for help. Before John’s hand reached her left breast, she glimpsed a large black shadow behind him.

Relief filled her as Nikolai ripped John away from her like he was nothing more than a pest, a fly.