Page 84 of Disguised as Love

“You…should…not…be here.” Every word he spoke was pained and sharp.

He directed what was supposed to be a glare in Cruz’s direction, eyeing Cruz’s pristine condition with distaste, and I could imagine what he was thinking. He thought Cruz hadn’t tried to defend me, but the truth was, Cruz was here when he easily could have walked away.

Mama and Malik were forced to their knees next to me, and I assessed them both. Mama looked untouched, but her eyes were wild, and her cheeks were pale even in the darkened room. Malik had a long slit on his neck caked with blood, a black eye, and a broken nose. He hadn’t been worked over quite like Ilia, but he wasn’t unscathed.

For a moment, I lost my breath, wondering if Cruz had been right the night before, if one of them hadn’t held up to the torture. If it had been Mama or Malik who’d given up our location at the boathouse, or if they’d simply been saved the vicious attack Ilia had received because of who they were: Russian mafiya royalty.

Rurik turned his gaze toward Cruz. “Did you find it?”

Should I pretend I didn’t know what he was referring to? Should I be shocked that Cruz was supposedly working for him? Cruz didn’t respond, and Rurik laughed, bitter and cold.

“No, of course you didn’t, because if you had, the FBI would have already quietly released its contents to the world.” Rurik’s ease disappeared for all of a second, a furrow to his brow before it slipped behind his mask of nonchalance again.

He stood, slowly stepping forward to put a gentle hand on Mama’s hair, caressing it and making me long to push it away, to kick and scream and act like a wild cat trapped in a cage. He lifted Mama’s chin with his hand.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, krasavitsa,” he said to her, a silkiness to his voice that told of what he really wanted with my mother. My chest tightened more, my breathing coming in harsh waves that threatened to make me pass out as I had the day Cruz had shown up at Stanford. I forced myself to inhale slowly and deeply while I watched.

Mama did the one thing I would never have expected. She spat at him.

His eyes darkened, and he reached for a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping her spit off his hand before dropping the cloth at her feet?a clear sign to everyone in the room. He moved on to Malik and said, “You can save your sister and your mother from death. I just need the SD card.”

“Go to hell,” Malik growled in Russian, as if he could really send Rurik there with just his words.

Rurik stopped in front of me. “My sources say he sent it to you, Raechka.”

I couldn’t hold back the surprise that rolled through me.

“My father would not put me in that kind of danger,” I said quietly.

Rurik laughed. “You knew him so little. Petya would do whatever he thought worked to his advantage.”

“Not if it meant sacrificing one of us,” I said through gritted teeth.

“No?” Rurik smiled malevolently. He turned his head toward Malik. “You’ve not told your sister of how he sat here, in this very bar, and watched you being flogged for your failure in Connecticut? For trying to cut us out of the deal with the Kyodaina?”

My blood pounded, heart twisting, as I turned my head to look at Malik. The sneer that had been present ever since I’d arrived in Russia was hidden behind a bland mask, giving Rurik’s calm a run for his money.

Rurik lifted my chin, and I fought against the touch, but it only made him grip me with a fiercer hold, the nail of his thumb biting into my cheek. “You don’t know your family at all, Raechka. But I know you. I know you will do whatever it takes to protect your mother. Give me what I want, and I promise you will both be safe.”

I had no idea where the SD card was, but maybe Malik did. My eyes darted to him, and he shook his head, but his eyes flitted down to my locket. My father had given it to me when I’d graduated high school, knowing I was going off to Stanford. Inside the locket was a picture of the four of us and one of him and Mama. When I’d opened it, Papa had said, “To keep us safe, close to your heart, Raechka,” and I’d thought it had been metaphorical.

Unfortunately, Rurik saw the look Malik shot at the necklace as well, and he smiled as if he’d won the lottery. He reached down, one hand encasing my neck, the other gripping the locket, and Cruz went ballistic next to me. He slammed elbows into the guts of the men who stood behind him, and two more men stepped forward as Cruz fought. It took all three of them to force him face-down on the ground with their boots and guns shoved into his back.

Rurik hadn’t once looked away from me.

“You should have given it to me,” he said quietly. Then, in one swift move, he ripped it from my neck, causing the chain to slice my skin.

Cruz fought harder, and a butt of a rifle was slammed into his cheekbone. His face hit the wood dance floor, and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out both at the stinging at my neck and at the giant that was Cruz Malone being subdued, being battered and bruised…because of me.

I glared at Rurik. “It’s nothing, Uncle. A simple locket. Pictures of my family.”

Rurik’s eyes gleamed with a twisted satisfaction, lifting his gaze to the men in the booths. “I call on you, the jury of this court, to sentence Malik Leskov to death. He and his friend Isamu Yano bombed the funeral procession yesterday, taking out dozens of our friends. Men we loved. Men we counted on. Men we trusted with our lives and businesses. Even worse, I have proof that he murdered his own father, our dear friend Petya, who was the best of us?who helped us solve our problems without killing one another. Malik has always been jealous of his father. Hated him for trying, in vain, to make him into a man we could respect.”

The crowd of men roared.

But through the chaos of voices and pounding feet came a voice that made me want to cry as hope winged through me, painful and strong.

“It would be hard for my son to kill me, Rurik, when I am very much alive.”

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