Page 38 of Creatures in the Night

Nevertheless, desperation was one hell of a motivator, so instead of answering his question, I asked, “Is there a pawn shop open this late around here?”

“There are a couple,” he answered, his eyes regarding me seriously. “What are you looking to pawn, dorogoya?”

“What…what does that mean?” I asked like an idiot.

The man grinned, and that simple act transformed his face into a piece of art. “Darling in Russian,” he answered. “Earlier, I called you darling girl. This time, darling.”

“You have a beautiful language,” I remarked lamely, though it was true. I liked the way that it flowed off his tongue, and he spoke it well.

“Enough about my native tongue,” he said. “What was it that you wish to exchange?”

Refusing to give up the gun in my pocket, I slid my wedding rings off my finger, then handed them to him. Yeah, he could race off with them, but I didn’t get that vibe from him. Plus, what would it matter at this point. I’d be lucky to find a place where I could sell them without them asking me for identification. It would be worth the finder’s fee if it got me enough cash to get the hell out of here.

Taking the jewelry in his fingers, I watched him examine them, and when his brows furrowed, my stomach sank. What if the stones were fake? In fact, that would make more sense than them being real since Noah hadn’t ever wanted to marry me in the first place. I was probably going to have to sell the gun to get any money, but would they buy it if it wasn’t registered to me?

“What is your name, dorogaya devushka?” he asked after he was done examining the rings.

“Shea,” I answered. “Shea Burke.”

“Irish, no?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“And Shea Burke, why are you wanting to part with such stunning jewelry?”

“I lost my purse,” I semi-lied. “Sooner or later, I’m going to need to eat, Mr…?”

“Ivan Kiselyov,” he said, introducing himself graciously since I was in his territory.

“Well, Mr. Kiselyov, I’ll need to eat at some point,” I continued. “I can’t live at this bus stop forever.”

Ivan handed me back my rings, then said, “I know the place where you can sell these and get something to eat.”

My stomach sank with apprehension because I knew better than to leave a well-lit area to go off with a stranger in the middle of the night. Yeah, I still had Noah’s gun, but something told me that Ivan probably had a few of his own. I honestly didn’t know what to do, and I felt the walls closing in on me with every breath that I took. Still, I knew that I was safer at the hands of this stranger than I was with Noah, so I didn’t have much of a choice but to follow him.

“We also get you jacket,” he announced. “It’s too cold out here for you.”

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“Drebeden’,” he rushed out. “Nonsense. You need a jacket.”

Before I could argue some more, Ivan removed his own, then placed it around my shoulders, and it almost made me cry. I needed kindness right now, and I wasn’t too proud to admit it. I was tired, injured, and lost, so I could use all the kindness that I could get right now.

His brows furrowed again when he asked, “Why is your head hurt? Did your husband do this?”

I shook my head, remembering the bandages. “I was…robbed,” I hedged. “They shot me.”

“Where else are you hurt?”

I lifted my left arm. “They shot me in the arm, too. Luckily, it went straight through, and the doctors were able to patch me up quickly.”

“And what does your husband say about all this?”

Knowing better than to tell him anything about the O’Briens, I said, “He has more important things to see to at the moment.”

“Dorogaya devushka, nothing is more important to a man than his wife,” he commented, trying to be helpful, but failing miserably.

“That depends on the man, Ivan,” I countered.

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