Page 38 of Darling Wildfire
“Nope, I’m good, thank you,” I said, trying to go around him and head back up the stairs. His arm went around my waist and before I realized what I was doing, I turned and punched him squarely in the jaw.
We both cursed at the same time. He stumbled backwards, his lip cut, while I shook out my hand with a hiss. Punching someone hurt. I hadn’t meant to react that way but the Warren weighed heavily on my mind and I’d just reacted. The man I punched cursed at me angrily and he and his friend stepped towards me. I backed up a few steps, glaring at them.
“Fuck off,” I snapped.
“Bitch,” he hissed and tried to grab me.
I kneed him in the groin and he fell forward into me, sending me stumbling backwards into another door. Unfortunately, the door was being opened at the same time I hit it and I fell through the doorway with the two drunk men on my heels. By some miracle, I kept my feet under me but the one I’d kneed wasn’t so lucky and fell onto the ground in front of me. I punched the second guy, again, and his nose started running blood. He stumbled against the wall clutching his face and that’s when I heard the low rumble of a laugh from behind me. I turned to see ten pairs of eyes fixed on me.
“You are every bit as lovely as I imagined you’d be, Ms. Bennett.”
A tall, handsome man around Theron’s age stood up from where he was seated around a table. He had black hair with a gray streak but it was his eyes that were truly captivating. He had scars running through one of them turning it white and the other was the most beautiful shade of gold I’d ever seen. He hadhis sleeves rolled up revealing tattoos and with a flick of a heavily ringed hand, two of his men forcefully escorted the drunk men out.
“I’ve been eager to meet the woman who finally caught North’s attention,” he continued, looking at me in amusement as he made his way around the table and stopped in front of me. “Your name precedes you of course but I must say you are much more captivating in person.”
His energy was similar to Theron’s, nearly oppressive with an aura of power and danger. But I didn’t feel unsafe and so when he reached for my hand, I let him take it. He raised it to his lips but stopped just short and instead pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and gently placed it over my knuckles that I realized were lightly bleeding. He carefully wrapped my hand in the cloth, his eyes never once leaving mine. He kissed my fingers and let my hand drop.
“My name is Demetrius Volkov,” he said.
“Pleasure,” I murmured.
“I wish I had the time you deserve, my dear, but unfortunately you caught me in the middle of important business.”
“I apologize—”
He held up his hand with a smile. “The interruption was worth it.” He winked at me and then his eyes shifted over my shoulder and I turned to see Viktor scowling near the door. I left the room feeling Demetrius’ eyes on me until the moment the door closed behind Viktor and I.
“I told you not to leave the room,” he growled.
“I had to pee,” I sniffed. “It wasn’t my fault two of your patrons were drunk out of their minds this early in the evening.”
The drive home was silent as usual and when we got back to the house, I waited patiently in the entryway while he swept the house and made sure everything was clear. I went into the kitchen and untied the cloth around my hand. It hurt—quite a bit. Punching someone was not glamorous even if it had been satisfying. I grimaced when I put my hand under the water to wash the cuts.
“Let me see,” Viktor said, suddenly beside me with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some bandaids. The cuts weren’t bad and only one even needed a bandaid.
“Demetrius is my older brother,” he said after a moment.
“Seems like a cool dude,” I muttered dryly.
Something rumbled through Viktor that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
“You’re Bratva, aren’t you?” I said. When he didn’t answer right away Iscoffed. “Viktor, I stumbled into a room full of Russians who look like textbook mobsters. I don’t need to know what you were doing, but I know mob business when I see it.”
A ghost of a smile flickered across his face and he looked at me and nodded.
“Yeah—Demetrius is the Pakhan.” It didn't surprise me that Theron would have powerful friends so the fact he was close with the leader of the Russian mafia just had me nodding in understanding.
I tilted my head, studying him. “How did you get in with Theron?”
“Kon and I owe him our lives,” he said.
He grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and handed it to me. I hoped he’d continue but after he watched to make sure I put the icepack on my knuckles, he left to do his usual rounds of the property. As I watched him cross the back patio, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into that Theron would have to leave someone behind to watch me. At first I thought it was just a precaution against Cooper, but now I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with that and everything to do with Theron’s own enemies.
Viktor’s eyes fluttered open and before he could freak out, he noticed my hand in his, then his eyes quickly looked around at his surroundings and he cursed in Russian before meeting my gaze.
“Are you okay,lisichka?” he said, groaning as he sat up.
I nodded. Shortly after the scene at the club, the twins had started calling me by my name after I’d snapped at them for the hundredth time, then soon after Theron returned, they’d started calling melisichka, or “little fox.” When I’d asked about it, they said it was because I was tricky like a fox, escaping from Cooper, and a play on the company I worked for. I thought it was adorable.
