Page 44 of Baby for the Bratva

“Sorry, I just…”

I pull the rifle from my back, slipping it out from under my coat in two seconds flat. “You see this? Anyone even gets close to me tonight, and I’m riddling them with so many bullets they’ll be a pink mist before they hit the ground. This is war, Akim. The sooner you realize that, the better.”

He grits his teeth, searching the back of his mind for a response, but he can only come up with a simple, “Yes, sir.”

“Good,” I snap, slinging the rifle back to its hidden place. “Now let’s go see what we can find in Chekhov’s room.”

I ash my cigar out even though it’s only a quarter of the way smoked. I hate to waste a good Cuban, but there’s no time to enjoy anything. I thought I’d have at least a few days of relaxation on this cruise, but I was wrong. I’ve boarded the devil’s cruise, and we’re heading straight to Hell.

I take the elevator down to Chekhov’s floor, passing a few drunken couples in the hallway. One of them is making out so passionately that they seem to be seconds away from taking their clothes off and having sex on the spot.

The cold twist of jealousy in my stomach makes me nauseous. That could’ve been me tonight, but I’ll be getting nothing from Stella, not even another kiss. I miss her already because I know she won’t trust me after this. Whatever she felt for me before is likely gone.

I clench my fists as I hurry down the hall red carpeted hallway with Akim. Whoever is behind this is going to pay with their life. There’s no other way around it. They’re dead the moment I find them.

Public. Private. In front of the police station… I don’t care. I’ll twist their miserable little head off for putting me and my Bratva through this.

There are two of my guards in front of Chekhov’s room when we arrive. I wave them away. “You look too suspicious out here. Go find something else to do,” I grumble.

They give each other a nervous look before walking away down the hall in the direction opposite from which I came with Akim.

I’m not worried about the hired muscle in my organization. They can think what they want, but the leaders understand that situations like this can’t be solved with guns and threats of violence. It takes cold, calculated moves to get us out of something like this, and a keen eye for suspicious behavior. Searching Chekhov’s room is essential to finding out what happened to him.

I open the door with my all-access keycard, going in before Akim and holding the door open for him.

Inside, the room is messy. Chekhov is very particular about the way he lives, and that’s the first sign something is wrong. He’d never leave such a mess in his room unless he was leaving in a hurry.

He had nowhere to be but at his meeting, and he failed to reach his destination. Either he was running late and scrambled to get ready, or something else prompted him to leave like this.

I scratch the stubble on my chin, brooding in silence, and Akim stands off to the side. He knows better than to interrupt me while I’m thinking. My eyes scan the open drawers and scattered clothes. There’s a sheet of gold condoms on the bed with one torn off the top.

I rub my forehead with the pads of my fingers. This means that Chekhov is either busting a nut in some woman down the hallway, oblivious to the fact that he’s the reason everyone is panicking, or he thought he was going to be busting a nut, and got his head busted instead.

Either way, I suspect this has to do with a woman. Why else would he leave condoms here?

My mind drifts to Stella, wondering if there’s some connection here. The same night I’m trying to get lucky, and Chekhov goes missing under similar circumstances. I don’t want to believe she could be a spy, but there’s always the possibility…

I sigh, turning to Akim. “It’s foul play, or he’s getting his dick sucked and he’ll show up in a few hours. We’ll know when we check the cameras. He was out of here in a hurry, and that says a lot to me.”

Akim glances at the condoms on the bed. “Can’t trust women these days.”

“A tale as old as time,” I say, more to myself than to him. I should be more careful around Stella. She’s just a tiny little thing, but there’s no telling what she could do to me if I allow myself to fall for her. Women have been known to bring men to their knees with the promise of love, only to slit their throat while they’re sleeping.

I suck in a sharp breath. I just can’t imagine Stella doing something like that, but with Chekhov missing, I’m not ruling anything out. He was supposed to do a little research on her and her supposed ex-boyfriend Tyler, but now he’s gone.

I let out a string of curses in Russian, scanning the room one last time before turning toward the door. “Okay, let’s get out of here. I need to see what the cameras were able to catch.”

Akim follows me out, and we rush down the hallway toward the CCTV control room.

21

Stella

Thirty minutes pass before there’s a knock on the door to Yuri’s room. I’ve been lying on his bed this whole time, keeping Dima in my peripheral vision as I stared up at the ceiling.

I sit up immediately, every muscle in my body suddenly awake again.

Dima grabs at the gun from inside his suit jacket, pressing a shoulder up to the door before loudly asking, “Who’s there?”

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