Page 9 of My Russian Protector

I like the effect that my attention is having on him, so I embolden myself and take his throbbing tip between my lips. He places his hand on the back of my head and I brace myself as he inches a bit further into my mouth.

We nearly jump out of our skin as someone knocks on the door. Alex pulls away from my hungry mouth and fixes his pants.

“Bathroom,” he tells me and I run naked into the tiny room and close the door.

I listen as Alex opens the door and says, “What do you want? I told you to forget that we’re here.”

It must be the woman from the reception desk. She mutters something I can’t make out before Alex closes and locks the door.

“Come out,” he calls to me and I return to the room wrapped in a bath towel.

He looks at me and raises his eyebrow, “Now you’re bashful?” he gaffs.

He’s holding a folded piece of paper in his hand and says, “Someone wanted to send us a warning.”

He hands me the slip of paper and I read it, “You’re not going to find what you’re looking for. You need to go home.”

“Do they think that something like this will scare you away? They must not know you,” I tell Alex.

“No, I expect that this is just an introduction. When we don’t turn tail and run, they’ll come out of the shadows and reveal themselves. They always do,” he replies.

“Can I ask you something?” I summon the courage to ask him the question that’s been burning in my mind.

“Of course,” he replies.

“Why didn’t you kill those guys today?”

“Because we can’t leave a trail of bodies all over the village, little girl. That will draw too much attention. And, because I know them and I know they’ll run their mouths. Hopefully, word of my presence will spread to your father. He’ll get scared and stupid. That’s what he does. When he gets stupid, he’ll also get careless and that’s how we’ll find him. Now, I didn’t have breakfast because I threw it in the street when I had to rescue you. I’m going to get us some lunch. This time, stay here.”

5

PUZZLE PIECES

ALEX

As much as I want to continue my game with Anna, I need to know who left the note, so I tell her that I’m going to get lunch and head downstairs to interrogate the unappealing woman. She sees me coming and tries to escape to the room behind her desk. “Stop! I need to talk to you,” I shout and she stops in her tracks.

“I don’t have anything to tell you. A man gave me a note. He said to bring it to you and I did. Nothing more,” she babbles.

“There’s plenty more,” I say calmly and crack my knuckles for emphasis. “Like what did this man look like?”

“Older. He had silver hair and he was thin,” she replies.

“This is a small village. Have you seen him around before?”

She shakes her head and says no, but there’s a slight hesitation and that tells me everything I need to know.

“Either you’re protecting someone or you’re afraid. I’d say that given your self-serving personality, fear is the correct choice. Mob? Government? Which one?”

She looks me up and down and then rolls her eyes. She leans in close to me and says, “You must not be from around here. Around here they’re the same thing.”

Government corruption is not uncommon the farther away you get from the cities, but she’s talking about a mob-run government. It can’t be true. Some farmer probably got behind on their taxes and, when he lost his land, he started a rumor to discredit the village officials. That’s what tends to happen in places like this. The poor people consider the government the enemy and will believe all sorts of crazy things about them.

I exit the hotel and walk toward the restaurant, keeping a keen eye on my surroundings. I suspect that I’m being watched and the only way to move forward in this investigation is to catch them in the act so I can interrogate them. I detect nothing out of the ordinary so I enter the restaurant and place a lunch order to go.

I know that I need to be alert and vigilant but my mind wanders back to the sweet taste of Anna and how nice it was to be inside her mouth. The thought of being with her makes me want to scrap this case right now and take her back to the city where she’ll be safe, but I’ve never run from a fight and I can’t run now. Besides, she’s so bent on finding her father that she’d probably hate me if I stopped looking.

I tap my fingers on the counter as my impatience grows. If this trip is going to be uneventful, then I don’t want to waste the time that I could be spending with Anna.

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