Page 15 of Room Nine: For Their Eyes Only

I should have stayed home. Nothing good can come from three men falling in love with the same woman. Andrei and Vadim are playing with fire. We’re not prepared to share Vivienne.

Love changes everything.

A part of me regrets becoming involved in this job. I should have trusted my instincts, focused on the Donovan case, and left Vivi for my brothers. My fucking ego made me cave.

Andrei threw down the gauntlet. He challenged me and then accused me of dawdling while he and Vadim did all the work. But he was wrong. I didn’t need to spend hours flirting, allowing her to tease me into a lusty frenzy to learn secrets she didn’t want to reveal.

What were they thinking? Why would she tell us on her own? She’s running from her father, a man with brutal men at his disposal. Of course, she’s worried for her safety.

Instead of going the traditional route of tricking her into confessing where she lives, I spent my time tracking her digital footprint. Although her VPN changed her location every time she logged in, I noticed New Orleans had an unusually high recurrence.

As soon as I learned a Genevieve Pink was living in New Orleans, I put things in motion with one of my favorite private investigators, Paul Leroy. He's relentless and a longtime resident of the city—he could find his way around blindfolded. We may have technology he could never afford, but we can’t replace good, old-fashioned detective work in situations like this.

Paul found her two nights ago, probably around the same time Vadim told me he was talking with her, too—a tidbit he accidentally shared with me after consuming too much vodka. He’s always been annoyingly tight-lipped, but something about her made him unload details I didn’t care to hear.

Seconds after his confession, Vadim caught his mistake and asked me not to tell Andrei. I don’t blame him for keeping that part a secret. Our older brother hasn’t been himself. His territorial instincts have betrayed his typically stoic demeanor, and it’s become evident that he wants to do something about it.

Vivienne lives in a gated community near Magazine Street in the city’s Garden District. It’s a nice area, relatively safe for a young woman living alone. I had her address for thirty-six hours before I shared the information with my brothers.

I’m not sure why I chose to keep it to myself. Maybe I’m just a greedy, jealous bastard who wanted to be the first to see her in the flesh. I hacked into CCTV cameras along her street, watching her as she left her apartment, then tapped into cameras on her walk into the French Quarter. I sat for hours, yearning to touch and talk to her, wondering how I fell so fast for a woman I’d never met.

“How did you manage to find her first? Vadim and I tried for days,” Andrei rants, annoyed and dumbfounded that I could beat him to the punch. He wrongly assumed he’d sweep her off her feet and make her spill the details. He’s always had a way with women but didn’t even come close to making her give up her location.

“Apparently, you’ve underestimated your brother’s skills. I accomplished in two hours what you both failed to do over the course of days,” I brag, inadvertently outing Vadim’s secret. It was all going to come out anyway.

“Both of us?” Andre looks at Vadim, but Vadim ignores him and continues typing on his keyboard, his shoulders slumped forward as he stares at the screen. He’s been communicating nonstop with my detective since we boarded our private jet, determined to track her movements until we arrive.

“It’s not a big deal. I spoke to Vivienne twice. She knows I’m your brother, but I asked her not to tell you,” Vadim admits his ruse without batting an eyelash. His lack of shame makes it impossible for Andrei to guilt him.

“We land in approximately forty-five minutes,” a flight attendant updates us, and asks if we’d like another drink before landing.

“Good, I look forward to getting this deal closed,” I lie through my teeth, then ask the flight attendant to bring me another whiskey, hoping to drown the thoughts floating around my head. I’m not the kind of guy who mixes business with pleasure, and I’ve tried hard to keep my distance from this assignment. But the minute I saw her photograph on Andrei’s laptop, I knew I’d ultimately fail.

Nothing is set in stone. There’s a possibility that I’ll feel nothing when we meet.

I’m a voyeur. Of course, I was turned on by the kittenish look of her online persona. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And it was easy to get swept away by the fantasy of finding a woman we could love together. As much as we’ve thought about it in the past, this is the first time my brothers have tried to woo the same woman with a greater objective than simply bedding her. But something about this feels wrong. It’s one thing to share a woman for one night. I’m not sure I want to do it forever.

“It may have started as an assignment, but it’s become so much more. And I know I’m not alone in this,” Vadim speaks up, his eyes darting back and forth from Andrei to me. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

I take a sip and release a shaky breath. There’s no sense in thinking too hard about something that will never happen. Things will undoubtedly change. She's too young and forbidden to pursue romantically, and I’m not interested in making her father my enemy.

“Don’t bring me into this.” I shake my head and deny my burgeoning fascination. It’s easier to continue the charade and feign indifference than admit I can’t stop thinking about her.

“No one believes you, Viktor.” Andrei strides toward the back of the plane, his long legs making quick work of the short journey. He shrugs his jacket off and tosses it on the back of a chair before landing on the leather sofa. He runs his hand through his hair, tousling his salt-and-pepper locks as he huffs. “I know you’re lying, and I bet if I checked your computer, I’d find Pinky’s Bedroom bookmarked and saved to your favorites.”

He’s right. He would.

But I’m not about to admit it now.

“You two need to get your head out of the clouds. We have to be on the same page and ensure our focus is clear. We’ll track her down, take her under cover of night, fly back to New York, and deliver her to her father. When all is done, we’ll wash our hands and move on to the next assignment.” I seethe, furious that I can’t control my emotions. She’s a pretty girl. Of course, I’m attracted to her. Once we’ve completed this assignment, these feelings will surely go away as quickly as they appeared.

As much as I want them to believe I’m unaffected by Vivi’s charm, my commands fall flat. I’d love to pretend she’s just another girl, like the many who have walked in and out of our lives. But I know she’s not.

Holy fuck. Why does this have to be so complicated?

“Boris doesn’t need to know our timeline,” Vadim interjects, too consumed with his search to look up from his computer. “He trusts us to do a job and won't ask any questions if we take a few days to ensure she’s safe. If you recall, Boris is not asking us to return her to New York. He just wants to know she’s safe. And I’m sure he wants us to convince her to call him.”

“We can’t move too quickly. We need time to explore the feelings that I’m almost certain we all share. Or we might live to regret it,” Andrei voices his opinion, certain we’re all on the same page.

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