Time Stood Still (4 page)

And most of those times were only because Luka was there too.

Lauren hoped to at least talk to her, see whether there was anything she could do to help—though she doubted there would be since what she assumed was bothering her, Lauren wouldn’t be able to help anyway—but she did want to gauge whether or not Mishca should talk to her. Lauren knew what it was like to let wounds fester, and she didn’t want that for Alex.

Washing the dishes Mishca had used, Lauren straightened back up the kitchen, going to take a shower next. By the time she finished, and was dressed, she was no longer alone in the apartment. Since you couldn’t actually reach the penthouse without a special key, she knew it was Alex—or even Luka since they both owned a key.

Amber was out there too, Lauren noticed when she came out of the room, but there was a noticeable tension between Luka and Alex who were sitting on opposite ends of the couch. The farther in she walked, the more curious she felt.

“Everything okay?”

Amber glanced back at her, eyes wide, and it was easy enough for Lauren to read the question she didn’t ask aloud.

What the hell was up with them
?

Her eyes shielded by a pair of mirrored sunglasses, Alex put on a tight smile, nodding once, turning back to the phone she’d been typing on. Luka, who shoved a hand through his damp hair, glared over at her, mumbling something beneath his breath.

Turning his attention from her, he smiled over at Amber. “I think I left a shirt at your place back—”

“Why were you at her place?”

Amber, obviously reaching her own conclusion as to why they were acting weird around each other, tried to explain. “It wasn’t—”

“At least I could understand why you’d sleep with her, unlike that—”

“
Poshyol ty’—
Fuck off.”

Lauren, moving to sit beside Amber, blinked when she heard the curse. She didn’t think she had ever heard Luka curse at Alex that way.

Canting her head to the side, a smile growing, Alex asked, “Sensitive about your whore, Luka?”

“Who I fuck doesn’t concern you.”

“Likewise.”

If Lauren had to guess, he looked like he was on the verge of hurting her, but before it could escalate to that point, she butted in.

“I thought you were with Mish today?”

He glanced at Lauren, his expression unreadable, before his eyes cut back to Alex, that fire reentering them. “Long fucking story. I’ll get the car.”

He was on his feet, heading out without a backwards glance. Alex headed towards the hall bathroom in the opposite direction. As the elevator chimed for Luka, the bathroom door slammed.

“Soo…does this happen often?” Amber asked.

“Normally, it’s a lot more civil. They kind of have a…thing.”

Laughing softly, she shook her head. “Yea, I can see that. Are all your Russians this intense? I may have to rethink my policy on not dating guys that are involved in illegal things.”

“If you mean territorial, then yea, maybe, though I can’t really say for sure about anyone besides Mish and Luka. Alik seems pretty cool, reminds me of Luka a little bit if you like the whole blonde thing.”

“No, I was—”

“Or Klaus.”

Whatever protest she’d been about to say before Lauren interrupted her was forgotten as her face scrunched up. “First of all, gross. That would be like dating Mish, and while he’s nice to look at and all, just…no. Second, I don’t want the evil twin. He scares me.”

It had actually been by chance that Amber even met Klaus. She’d come over one day, just to hang out since she had an off day from the gallery she worked at. While Lauren and Mishca had been running late, Klaus decided to break into their place—a hobby of his he’d said—and chill until they arrived. Amber, thinking it was Mishca of course, had immediately launched into a conversation with him, not realizing that he’d had no idea what she was talking about, or even who she was for that matter. Once they did arrive, however, her reaction had been priceless.

Lauren shrugged. “That’s a no on Alik and Klaus. Luka, though he’ll never admit it, has his thing with Alex—”

“Not to mention she’d probably shank me if I ever made a move on him.”

“Oh!” Lauren said with a snap of her fingers, suddenly remembering. “Klaus has a friend. Irish, I think, and his name is—”

“Are you trying to set me up?” Amber asked cutting her off.

Laughing, she put her hands up. “Just giving you some more options should you choose to jump back out there.”

Ever since her breakup with her boyfriend, Rob, who she’d dated for longer than Lauren had even known her, Amber had remained single though Rob was happily living his life with her cousin of all people. Not that Lauren was an expert or anything, but she thought it was long overdue for Amber to let Rob go and move on.

“No offense to evil twin, or his friend, but the idea of dating a mercenary freaks me out. Didn’t you tell me they have more enemies than even your husband? Yea, no thanks. Now, if we’re done talking about my nonexistent love life, we should get going so we can shop for your trip.”

By the time Alex came back out of the bathroom and they were all in the car heading into the city towards the boutique Lauren favored, the mood had considerably lightened though it was pretty clear that Luka and Alex were now ignoring each other.

They arrived at the shop, Luka going off to park when Lauren’s phone rang. Almost at the same time as Amber’s phone chimed.

“Hey Mom,” Lauren said cheerfully once she answered.

“Hi darling, how are you?”

Smiling, she followed Amber and Alex into the store. “Good as always, shopping for a dress for your big day.”

At that, Susan’s voice softened. “I’m glad you guys can make it.”

“Of course. Mish made sure we wouldn’t.”

The interesting thing was, Susan hadn’t wanted to ask out of consideration for Mishca, knowing what and who he was, and that it may have made it difficult for them to go—especially since he wasn’t going to let her fly alone. It only took one phone call from Ross with a single command— “Get your ass here.” —that Mishca had made the reservations. No matter how gruff Ross was with Mishca, he never took offense.

It was just one of the perks of being married, Mishca had said.

“How long are you staying? I feel like I haven’t seen you.”

It had felt that way. “At least a couple of days, but I have so much to tell you about when I get there.”

“Good, I can’t wait to hear it. Well, I was just calling to check in. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

“Okay. Love you, Mom, and tell Ross I love him too.”

“I love you too and will do.”

Amber and Alex were already lost amongst the sea of people in the store. Since Luka wasn’t far behind her, Lauren just waited for him.

“Do you want my honest opinion?” Lauren asked since they were alone for the time being.

“No.”

Deciding that she would tell him anyway despite his somber mood, she kept on. “I don’t think Mish would actually kill you if you had a thing with a particular someone that’s close to him.”

“Leave it alone, Lauren.”

“I’m just saying—”

“Jesus fucking Christ. Leave it alone. If I wanted your advice, I would have asked for it. Stop trying to ‘fix’ shit when you should be worried about yourself.”

Six months ago, she might have started tearing up at that, but now she just looked over at Luka. “Won’t happen again.”

Turning away from him, Lauren headed towards the shoes department, knowing that was more than likely where she would find them. Luka was right in some regards, she was trying to ‘fix’ whatever it was between him and Alex. She wanted them to be happy, as happy as she was with Mishca, but it was pretty clear from his attitude that whatever was broken between them, they’d have to fix it themselves.

Sure enough, Alex and Amber were busy trying on shoes when Lauren walked up. Forcing a smile, Lauren did what she came to do, and by the end of the day, there was more than one person ignoring the enforcer.

***

After meeting with Roman in Green Hill to finalize his plans for the parlor, Mishca still had a long day of driving around the neighboring boroughs, checking in on his men and the work that needed to be done. Business was far from perfect and it would be a while before it even got close, but he could say that things were far better than even he had anticipated. Even the men he answered to were impressed, and that was a hard thing to accomplish.

It didn’t hurt, however, that he was fair with the men under him. It became pretty clear that the better work you did—that didn’t include enforcing his rules—the more likely you were to receive a bonus.

Money was always a great motivator.

Hundreds of men answered to him now that he was at the top, and that didn’t include the number of workers he had at his clubs, and yet, there was only one person he was desperately close to strangling.

Mishca stood behind the chair in his office and could almost feel his hands wrapped around the throat of his enforcer, but because he knew Lauren would take Luka’s death hard, he kept his fingers where they were, his knuckles gone white with the force of his grip.

“Luka,” he started through gritted teeth, trying to force his annoyance down, wishing for once that Luka would do what he asked without having to make a joke out of it. “This is serious.”

Since that night in the motel room, and Mishca had taken over as
Pakhan
, Mishca had seen less of his enforcer—and if he were being honest, it was in part because of his harboring resentment for what he had done, but mostly because he was entirely too busy.

But with the shift in power, Mishca didn’t have many people left he trusted implicitly—and Luka had only been doing his job after all. Some wondered how he could trust Luka without knowing a single thing about him, and if he were on the outside looking in, Mishca would wonder the same thing, but Luka had never made him doubt him. Ever. He’d witnessed and heard of enough bloody shit that Luka had done that there was no doubt that he was who he said he was.

That didn’t mean Mishca didn’t have the inclination to look into him now after everything that had happened. He just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

“Serious? This is serious. Very serious,” Luka agreed, shaking his head vehemently. “I’ll make sure nothing falls to shit while you’re off choking the dragon.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, Mishca squeezed his eyes shut. “Luka—”

“Jerking the chicken?”

“
Get out
.”

Luka pouted like he had been looking forward to saying more.
 

“One more thing.”

He turned as Mishca came around his desk, rolling up his sleeve. Luka’s eyebrows went up as he watched in fascination at what Mishca might do next. But Mishca didn’t say anything, only slung out his fist, connecting with Luka’s nose.

His head snapped back, his hands immediately coming up to cup his nose, a surprised laugh spilling out of him. Dropping his hands, blood streaming from his face, he wiped it with the back of his hand.

Grinning, he said, “You hit like a bitch.”

At this point, even Mishca was smiling. “Don’t ever break my finger again.”

CHAPTER THREE

It was organized chaos the next morning as they readied to leave, wanting to get to the airport early. A few of the men that Mishca had brought over, Lauren had never seen before, but he made sure they stuck close to the elevator and didn’t venture any further into the apartment. While he’d finished the last of his rounds of walking through the place making sure everything was secure, Lauren was waiting for him, on the phone with Susan, letting her know what time they were supposed to be arriving.

Mishca passed a set of keys to Luka and said, “Keep things running smoothly.”

“Yea, okay.”

He gestured for them to enter the elevator, pulling Lauren to his side as one of them pressed the button to go down. There were a number of people in the lobby, but seeing Mishca’s security, they moved to the side, eyes wide.

Luka went around the back, going to bring the car around while they waited outside. Mishca scanned the street, not very surprised at the unmarked car that was parked a few blocks down. He knew he was under a microscope, so he always made sure to pay careful attention to when and how he conducted his business.

Once Luka arrived, he hopped out the front, popping the trunk to place their luggage in. He reached for the bag Lauren held, but she smiled tightly, as she hefted it in herself, not meeting his eyes as she said, “I got it.”

Lauren was nice, more so than she needed to be in the world they lived in, and Mishca had never seen her treat Luka with anything less than sisterly affection. Now? She looked like she didn’t even want to be around him.

Mishca looked between the pair, trying to decipher what the problem was, but the moment he asked, Lauren smiled with a shake of her head, and Luka didn’t bother with a response at all. Once Lauren was beside him in the back of the Range Rover, and Luka was maneuvering them into the morning traffic, Mishca looked over to Lauren.

“What did he do?”

It was clear that it was definitely something, he knew her too well to think otherwise, even as she continued to deny it.

Ignoring that, he asked, “Do I need to have a word with him?”

“It’s fine, Mish. I’ve got it under control.”

She fell silent again as she took out her phone, absorbed in whatever she was looking through on her phone. He left her to it, needing to send out a few last minute messages to some of his men that were not in the need to know about him leaving the city.

While they were only going to be in Michigan for a couple of days, his plan to take them to Sardinia was going to be a bit longer, three. He would have loved to stay gone for longer, but currently, he couldn’t afford to let his businesses go unattended for that long.

Even before he became
Pakhan
, there were always enemies hovering, waiting for the moment when he would make a mistake so that they could steal territory from him, encroach on his business contacts, but Mishca hadn’t gotten this far by making mistakes, and so long as he had allies, he could be fine.