Page 102 of Scarred (Russian Sinners 2)

“Since the day he arrived, he has been exiting the house at eight a.m. like clockwork,” Ilya explained. He checked surveillance of the home and nearby streets for the past five days.

“Goes to the same newspaper stand, gets a paper, and stands there for five minutes. Then he returns back to the house.”

“It seems odd,” Andrey chimed in.

“Any of his guards follow him?” Nikolai asked.

“No, just him,” Andrey replied.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I remarked, and all three men looked at me.

“Why not?” Ilya asked.

“Because even when Malcome was untouchable, he never left the house alone,” I commented. Nothing about this seemed to add up and was contradictory to Malcome’s habits. “He is adamant about his routine,” I started explaining. “But even if he decided to go for a drive at three a.m., and we are talking about just a drive, he ensured he brought a bodyguard along. Always.”

“Maybe he doesn’t have enough guards?” Andrey tried to offer an explanation.

“But he does,” Nikolai interrupted. “There are at least five staying with him in that house. So why would he change that habit now?”

“It could be he doesn’t want to attract attention to himself,” Ilya brainstormed. “He’s a wanted man now. If he had bodyguards trailing behind him, it would make people notice him more.”

None of it made sense to me. It seemed to me that Malcome Schmidt was trying to make himself appear non-threatening. That in itself was a joke. But the question was why would he do that. And why come to Russia?

“He could have disappeared to any corner of this world where nobody would even glance his way,” Nikolai’s line of thinking mirrored mine. “Why come to Russia? This country is corrupt, but it doesn’t exactly look the other way. If anything, he’d be blackmailed into assuring his safety.”

My gaze returned to the screen. What if he was here solely for me? I couldn’t understand such an obsession, but then I couldn’t really understand anything about that man.

“He’s not Russian, right?” I asked. I wasn’t even sure where that question came from. His last name sounded more German than anything.

“If I remember correctly,” Nikolai answered. “He’s an immigrant. There was no trace of him before his parents first entered the U.S., but all their paperwork indicated he was Polish.

My eyes snapped to Nikolai. “Polish?”

“Yes. Why?”

“That can’t be his real last name then,” I answered Nikolai. Schmidt didn’t sound Polish at all. “Could it be he changed it?”

He tilted his head as if considering it. “It could be. It doesn’t hurt looking into it.” He typed a quick message on his phone and shot a message out, then raising his head explained. “I’m sending a note to your brother and Sergei to check into it. Oliver can check U.S. records and Sergei has a couple of contacts in Poland.”

His reply came almost instantly. “Okay, they are both chasing it,” he confirmed. “Ilya and Andrey. You two make sure security is tight. When Tasha and Olivia are outside, have eyes on them at all times.”

“We got it,” Ilya confirmed.

“I never considered his last name to be fake,” Nikolai confessed. “But then it really didn’t matter to me since my goal was just to bring him down. I should have looked into his origins.”

I guess his confession didn’t surprise me. His only goal was to make Malcome pay, ultimately with his death. The fact that Nikolai intended to kill Malcome didn’t bother me at all. The man deserved to be tortured and killed. He murdered Nikolai’s sister and who knows how many other women he hurt or possibly murdered.

“That’s why you have me,” I marveled with a smile.

“You are right,” Nikolai retorted, his palm lightly slapping me on my butt then staying on my butt. I instantly blushed since Ilya and Andrey were still here and witnessed it.

“I better go check on Tasha,” I muttered, red as a beet. Nikolai’s eyes were on me, and I could see he was enjoying himself tremendously. Too much, in fact!

“Let’s go together,” he suggested. “We will wait and see what information Sergei and Oliver return.”

Ilya and Andrey left ahead of us. Nikolai stood up and wrapped his arm around my waist.

I guess it was better than going into the lion's den quite yet. Although, I’d be glad when it was all over.

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