Page 64 of Beautiful Rush
I pulled her close for a goodbye kiss. We didn’t linger like we should have. I didn’t say the words that I should have.I love you. If I had known then what I do now, I would have said goodbye differently. I would have made sure she knew exactly how I felt about her. That I had no doubts that she and I were meant to be together. Not just for a moment, but a lifetime.
But I didn’t say any of those things. I hailed a taxi and held the door open for her.
“Goodbye, Buttercup.”
“See ya, Batman.” She blew me a kiss as the taxi pulled away and I watched until the taillights disappeared. Then I headed for the subway back to Long Island City to drink vodka with my favorite Russians.
* * *
“Ivan Petrov,”I repeated as I paced the floor of my apartment, my cell phone to my ear. Of all the drug and arms traffickers in the world, he had to come to my city. It sounded like the punchline of a bad joke.
I’d spent enough time on the force to know that coincidencesdidhappen. But this was a hell of a coincidence.
“He’s been laying low,” Casarico said. “Flying under the radar.”
Now he was back in action, and he was getting into bed with Dmitri. To hear Dmitri talk, you’d think Santa Claus was coming early.
“I need you to stay away from Keira,” Casarico said. “No calls, no messages, no late-night visits. No contact whatsoever.”
I’d already told her that last night, but the Ivan Petrov connection put a whole different spin on this. “I need to know that she’ll be safe.”
“The feds have eyes on Petrov. If he contacts her, we’ll know about it. But we have no reason to believe that she’s in any way involved.”
Would Petrov contact Keira? She was a link to his dead son. It would be a personal visit and he would have no reason to involve Keira in his business. Not that we knew of, anyway.
“You’d better hope to hell that if he does contact her, she doesn’t talk,” Casarico said. “If your cover is blown, this whole operation is jeopardized. We’ve put too much time, energy, and resources into this to—”
“She hasn’t told anyone, and she won’t.” I was confident that it was true. I had faith in Keira. She’d be loyal to me, knowing the stakes were high. She hadn’t wanted to be a part of her father’s world, but she understood how it worked and didn’t readily offer up information. Keira knew how to keep secrets. I looked forward to the day when I didn’t have to be another one of her secrets.
I crossed to the window and flicked up the blind, staring out at the East River. Dust motes floated in the sliver of sunlight streaming into my apartment, bare except for the essentials.
“Stay focused,” Casarico said. “Do your job and we’ll have everything we need in a few weeks.”
I needed to keep my eye on the prize and trust that Keira would be safe.
“I need to go,” I said, lowering the blind. Time to hang out with my BFF.
Slinging my gym bag over my shoulder, I strode out the door and walked to the gym, my aviators warding off the bright sunlight. As I entered the boxing gym that Viktor owned, I stowed my sunglasses in my gym bag and blinked a few times, adjusting to the gloom. The gym smelled like sweat and blood.
* * *
“Clothes make the man,Kosta. Never underestimate the power of an expensive suit. It makes people sit up and take notice. They treat you with more respect. You’ll see. I’m going to take you to my tailor and my barber.”
“Are you asking me to be your prom date?”
Dmitri laughed and pointed his gloved hand at me. “You’re funny. You make me laugh. Not many people do.”
I knew that. Few people joked with Dmitri. They were too busy kissing his ass or trying to protect their own. Thwack. My fist slammed into the leather bag.
“Who taught you how to box?” he asked.
“I learned how to fight on the streets.”
“You have good form,” he pointed out.
My grandfather taught me how to box. He hung a leather bag in the garage and gave me gloves when I was ten, and still small for my age. I used to spend hours in the garage, punching a bag, trying to work out my excess energy. I’d wanted to grow bigger and stronger. With every punch, I was beating up all the bad guys who had screwed Natalya both literally and figuratively, to the point where she could only see one way out. Taking her own life.
“Self-taught,” I said.
