Owned by the Russian Mafia Boss: A Mob Romance (10 page)

The first thing she did was go back to the filing cabinet in the corner. And, of course, she found it locked. “So now you don’t want me going through your things,” Natalia murmured with a glare. She turned to the desk and began to hunt for the key. When she couldn’t find anything, she moved to the other desk and began to shuffle through the drawers. It was filled with receipts and account books but no key. Feeling a bit more daring, she tried the door to Alek’s office.

Also locked.

“Can I help you?”

Natalia looked up to see a tall, sexy man staring at her. Blonde with startling blue eyes, the guy was easily as tall as Alek with the same defining muscles. They both had the same hard look on their face.

He probably wasn’t the gardener.

“I’m looking for the key to the filing cabinet. There’s a file that I need,” she said as she crossed her arms. “Who are you?”

“Are you Alek’s new woman?” his eyes swept over her. “You don’t look like his type.”

Natalia narrowed her eyes and instinctively balled her fist. He hadn’t said anything threatening, but she couldn’t help but feel uneasy around him. “And you didn’t answer my question. Who the hell are you?”

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Forgive me. I don’t mean to be rude. My name is Grisha. I’m looking for Alek.”

“He’s not here right now. I’d be happy to give him a message for when he returns.”

Grisha took a step forward, and she immediately stepped back. That ridiculous small smile on his face widened. “No message. I’ll call and set up a meeting. I’m sure Alek is quite busy now that he’s in charge. The key to the filing cabinet is usually kept in the office, but there used to be one hanging on the inside of that desk. You’ll have to crawl around and find it.”

There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye, and Natalia crossed her arms. “You aren’t trying to get me crawl on my knees, are you? I’m not sure Alek would like that very much.”

Grisha threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Oh. I think Alek would actually quite enjoy it. You surprise me. Normally his lovers are boring. I look forward to seeing you again, beautiful. Perhaps next time you won’t be hiding your body from the world.”

Natalia tensed, but the man simply turned and walked out. She hurried to the window and watched as he got into his car and drove away. There was something tantalizing about him, but there was also something dangerous. He was different from Alek. Natalia felt at least some protection from Alek, but with Grisha, she’d felt completely vulnerable.

Pushing it from her mind, she immediately dropped down to the floor to inspect the first desk. There was a small wedge of space between the back of the desk and were the drawers ended. Squeezing her fingers behind it, she drew her hand up and down until they touched something metal. With a hiss of victory, she knocked the key off the loop and caught it as it fell to the floor.

Dangerous or not, Grisha certainly knew his way around the filing cabinet. Sliding the key into the cabinet, she pulled the drawer open and began searching for the file she was most interested in. Her father’s file was still in her room.

After searching thoroughly, she rested on her heels with a frown. Alek’s file wasn’t in there. Of course it wasn’t. That would make things too easy for her. Going through, she began to pull a few files out by random and checked the information. Out of the first ten she’d pulled, Petr Primac was listed as the recruiter for eight of them. One of them had been seven years old. What the hell would a mob want with a seven-year-old?

Her hands trembled, and she sat on the floor and closed her eyes. Her father had destroyed so many lives. Is that why he was always trying to do things for her? Was he trying to make up for what he’d done in his past?

She wanted to question him. Of course, if she tried to see him while in Alek’s custody, she would break their agreement. Besides, what would she say to her father? Did she really want to know the answer? Would she believe him if he told her he didn’t have a choice?

What kind of man must Grigori have been to recruit fucking orphans?

The sound of breaks squealing caught her attention, and she dropped the file in her hand to glance out the window. Misha and Sasha were jumping out of the car and helping Alek out.

Natalia gasped. Alek was holding his shoulder and dripping blood. “Ana!” Natalia shouted. “Ana!”

“Damn you’ve got a set of lungs on you,” Ana said as she popped her head in the office. “What?”

“Does Alek have a nurse or doctor on staff? He’s back, and he’s hurt.”

Ana hurried to the window and let loose a string of vulgarities. “No. He fired the last doctor we had and never replaced him.”

“Of course. And the chances that we can take him to a hospital?”

Ana shook her head, and Natalia shoved the curtain back. “Damn man deserves to die. Make sure they bring him upstairs. We’ll have to clean the wound to see the amount of damage. We may have to call that fired doctor back if he needs stitches. See if you can find his number,” she ordered. Racing upstairs, she began to search the bathroom for basic first aid stuff.

Under the cabinet, she found gauze, rubbing alcohol, and cleaning pads. By the time Misha and Sasha dragged Alek in, she was rolling up her sleeves.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Alek growled, but she could hear the pain in her voice.

“Never mind that,” Natalia snapped. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Knife. Never saw it coming,” he groaned. As he leaned against the counter of the sink, he reached down and carefully peeled off his shirt. The stab wound was intense.

“Christ. At least it’s not bleeding all over the place. It must already be clotting. You’re lucky, you know. Who the hell stabbed you?”

“I don’t know. It would have been through the heart had Misha not been watching,” Alek said as he nodded his head to his men.

“We’ll go back and see if we can’t find anything else out,” Misha said quietly. He and his brother left the room, and Ana popped her head in.

“I found the number for the doctor. Do you want me to call?”

“Do and you’ll be fired,” Alek snapped. “I don’t want him anywhere near this place.”

Natalia rolled her eyes. “What the hell did he do to piss you off?”

“None of your business.”

“Fine. I’ll just ask Ana later.” She smiled at her friend. “I think it’s fine. I just need to clean it up and bandage it. Thank you.”

Alek looked at her steadily when they were alone. Natalia tried to ignore the tension in the air as she focused on the cleaning the blood around the wound. “Were you hoping that I wouldn’t make it?” he said softly. “I imagine your life would be so much easier if I died.”

“You’re so quick to assume that I’m the type of person who would wish someone dead simply because it would make my life easier,” she retorted.

“If I died, you’d never get to know how it feels to have me inside you,” he said huskily. “Have you thought about that?”

Natalia tried to relax, but her heart was beating rapidly under his heated gaze. “Maybe you should be concerned that you’ll die before you get to experience being inside me,” she retorted, but there was little heat in her words. Unable to look him in the eye, she focused on the task at hand. She was already aware of the sinewy muscles under her touch. She wanted to grasp his biceps and squeeze.

“Maybe I should bend you over right now and find out.” He reached down to her. Immediately, she danced away from his touch.

“Maybe you should sit still and let me finish cleaning and bandaging your wound. It may not be deep enough to kill you right away, but you’re going to have to see a doctor if it gets infected,” she said hotly.

“You’re right,” he said after a moment. “Please continue.”

“So I guess one of your businesses decided you were charging them too much and stabbed you? Serves you right,” she muttered as she went back to cleaning the wound.

“I charge far less than my predecessor, and all of my business owner flourish and profit under me,” he said mildly. “I was accosted on the streets between businesses.”

“A mugger? Someone in this country doesn’t recognize you?” she asked in surprised. That didn’t even seem possible.

“A professional,” Alek said darkly.

“A professional assassin stabbed you on the street? Of all the ways to get the job done, that seems the hardest. Why not just shoot you?”

“Shooting is loud and messy. That’s my territory. A single gunshot is heard, and they’d never make it out alive. Making personal contact with a knife is risky, but it’s quiet. If Misha hadn’t seen the knife in time, he would have succeeded. He was quick, and had a getaway already mapped out. Before we could even turn around, he was gone.”

“I’m sure you have plenty of enemies,” she said softly. Once the area was clean, she grabbed the bandage and began to wind it around his arm. His skin trembled under her touch, and she swallowed hard. How the hell could he be aroused when he was in pain?

“I do. Starting with the woman imprisoned in my home. You were gone for quite a long time last night, Natalia. You didn’t happen to hire someone in that time, did you?”

Natalia finished securing the bandage and raised her head to meet his gaze. “I’m sure you’ve looked into my finances. I don’t exactly have tons of money lying around to hire a professional hit man.”

“You have other talents,” he said softly, and the insinuation was clear. She couldn’t help but lash out in anger as her blood boiled.

“Are you serious? Just because I agree to be your whore to save my father doesn’t mean I offer my body to everyone who comes along. I am not so weak that this choice here affects the way I present myself to others.”

He didn’t bow his head in contrition, but his gaze did soften. “My apologies.”

“Not accepted. Next time Ana can clean up your fucking wounds.” She whirled around to leave, but he moved faster that she anticipated. Before she could react, he had one arm around her and was pulling her flush against his body.

“I don’t apologize to many people,” he said softly in her ear. “Keep that in mind.” She thought he’d do or say more, but he just released her. Instead, he slipped past her into the bedroom and began hunting for another shirt.

“You’re welcome,” she said sarcastically with a frown.

“What have you been doing with yourself dressed like that?” he said as he pulled his shirt on. He winced, but Natalia refused to go help him.

“Exploring. You had a visitor today, but he failed to leave a message. He seemed to know quite a bit about the place. Even knew where the key to the filing cabinet was. He said his name was Grisha.”

Alek froze and stared at her. “Grisha was in this house? And he was looking for the key to the filing cabinet.”

Clearly she wasn’t the only person who was uneasy around Grisha. “He was in the house, but he wasn’t looking for the key to the filing cabinet. I was looking for the key. I wanted more information on my father.”

Alek buttoned up his shirt. “And just how long did you two speak?”

Was that jealousy in Alek’s voice? “Not long. A few minutes. Don’t get pissed at me. If you don’t want Grisha in the house, tell your people not to let him in.”

“It wouldn’t make a difference. Grisha knows this house like the back of his hand. He grew up here. Next time you see him, you are to stay away from him. If you want information about your father, all you have to do is ask me.”

Natalia wasn’t just looking for information about her father, but she didn’t tell Alek that. “You’re just so forthcoming with tidbits about the past these days,” she said sarcastically. “What do you mean Grisha grew up here? Was he one of Grigori’s orphans? I haven’t seen him around. He doesn’t work for you.”

“No, he doesn’t. That’s because he’s not one of Grigori’s orphans. Grisha Grigori is my predecessor’s son.”

Chapter Nine

So Grisha Grigori was back. It seemed like more than a coincidence that he showed up at the same time that Alek was stabbed. Of course, it also gave him a perfect alibi. Grisha used to be good, but he wasn’t good enough to be in two places at once.

“How you feeling, boss?” Sasha said as he looked up from the kitchen table. When the brothers weren’t working for him, they were in the kitchen eating.

“I’ll live,” Alek said dryly. “Apparently Natalia had a visit from Grisha today. Have we not been keeping tabs on him? Did we know he was back in Russia?”

The brothers exchanged uneasy glances. “We have contacts following him in the US, but he slipped their detail two weeks ago. We should have told you, but he hadn’t done anything to raise any red flags, and our contacts assured us that they would find him again.”

Alek grunted in displeasure. Grisha had the potential to ruin everything for him. “What was he doing in the US?”

“Traveling, mostly. He picked up a few odd jobs, but he traveled from California all the way to New York. He didn’t have any contact with any of the mob bosses in the US, so we thought he’d gone legit.”

“It seems highly unlikely that anyone with Grigori blood in him would go legit,” Alek muttered. When he was a kid, he and Grisha were actually friends, but when they hit their teenage years, Grisha began to see Alek as a rival. Alek thought it was nonsense. It was common knowledge that Grisha would take over the family business, but when Grigori’s will named Alek as the successor and owner of the all the companies, Grisha disappeared. The truth was Alek didn’t even want the job, and for three months he’d searched for Grisha without any success. It wasn’t until a year ago they found him, and Alek was too far in now to go back.

If Grisha were going to make a claim, things would get violent. Alek knew his men would be loyal to the Grigori bloodline.

“Now that he’s in Russia, I have the highest confidence that you two will be able to find him and keep an eye on him,” Alek said evenly. He hoped his meaning was clear.

“We can,” Sasha said as he chewed. “But someone has to keep an eye on you. Your head is not in the game. You were almost killed today, boss.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Alek growled.

Sasha didn’t even bat an eye. “Ever since that woman moved in, you haven’t been focused. She’s not good for you, boss. If you want to teach her old man a lesson, I’d be more than happy to help you out.”