Zel: Markovic MMA (30 page)

“I thought you stopped working Fridays and weekends.” He needed to steer his thoughts and the conversation into safer waters.

“I did but my sister needed me to cover her shift.” She rose on tiptoes to drag the edge of the duster along the top of a bookshelf. The undershirt she wore prevented him from getting a peek at that smooth plane of stomach he hadn’t glimpsed since the weather turned colder. He wanted to rip that damned shirt to shreds. “But it turned out that Shannon got fired yesterday so she wasn’t on the schedule. Juan offered me a couple of hours of overtime to come here and take this job so—”

“Wait.” He held up a hand and tried to follow what she had just said. “Your sister was fired? For what?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

He had a few of his own. From what he had seen of Shannon’s attitude during her weekly stops at his dealership, he could only imagine the long list of complaints CleanRite had on file for her.

But something else she had said had piqued his interest. “If she was fired yesterday, why did she ask you to work for her today?”

Shay didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she seemed very interested in a corner of his desk. She wiped and swirled a microfiber cloth over the already polished wood. “I think she wanted me out of the house tonight.”

There were only a few reasons he could think of for such a thing. None of them were very good. “Why?” Again she hesitated. “Shay?”

She stopped cleaning and lifted worried eyes toward him. “Some guys came by the house looking for her as I was leaving.”

“Guys? What guys?” His protective instinct raged to life. He shot off the door frame he had been leaning against and crossed the office with purposeful strides. His mind raced as he tried to figure out who might have come after Shay. Knowing what he did of the underworld’s recent and very violent power shifts, he worried it might have been Nikolai’s men. “Who was it, Shay?”

“Those crazy skinheads,” she said, her dark eyes flashing with fear. “There were three of them in a truck. They had tattoos all over them.
Ugly
ones, if you know what I mean.”

He did. Her body language confirmed his worst suspicions. “Did they threaten you?”

Reluctantly, she nodded. “If Spider and his crew hadn’t rolled up, I’m not sure what would have happened.”

Alexei bit his tongue rather than unleash the stream of expletives that burned his mouth. He had always feared that Shannon and her drug dealing boyfriend would put Shay in danger. “What did they want?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t get that far before Spider tossed them off his property.”

He made a mental note to send the motorcycle club vice president a bottle of Dalmore from his private collection. He and Spider had done business over the years and had run in the same underworld circle back in the day. He was a complicated man but a mostly good one. Right now, Spider was the best chance Shay had at staying safe when at home. Alexei wasn’t above bribing the man to keep a close eye on her.

“Alexei?”

The sound of his name coming from that sweet mouth of hers was nearly his undoing. “Yes?”

“They wanted me to go with them. They said their boss wanted to have a chat with me.” She wrung the microfiber cloth between her hands now. “What do I do if they find me again?”

Chat my fucking ass
, he thought crossly. Mueller played the role of upstanding citizen and successful real estate developer but Alexei knew
exactly
what sort of man he was.

That massacre out in eastern Montgomery County a few weeks earlier had been reported as meth dealer on meth cooker violence, but Alexei and everyone with connections to the murky undercurrent of crime running through Houston knew the truth. Mueller and his men had ambushed that meth den with shotguns blazing.

There were whispers that Mueller and his men had let some young black kid go but he didn’t believe that. Not unless there was big money involved or some sort of favor that had been traded for the kid’s safe return.

If they got their hands on Shay?
Blyad
. He couldn’t bear to even
think
about what those hateful thugs would do to such a beautiful Latina girl. The image of her supple skin marked by bruises or worse made him want to hurt someone. His tattooed fingers curled into fists at his sides. He would beat those men bloody if they put one fucking hand on Shay.

“Do you have your phone on you?”

Her brow furrowed at his question. “Yes.”

“Give it to me.
Now.
”

She slipped her hand into the front pocket of her smock and retrieved her iPhone. The device was encased in a buttery yellow leather case. He could see the fine stitching and embossed initials and knew that it was one of her creations. Why she hadn’t made the jump to expand her business he would never understand. Her products screamed luxury and would fly off the shelves but something was holding her back. When this mess with her sister was tidied up, he intended to figure out what that was.

Her thumb danced over the screen, unlocking it with her chosen code, and then she handed it to him. Their fingers touched, and he let them linger there. It didn’t escape his notice that she didn’t pull her hand back either.

Taking the phone from her, he punched in his phone number and saved it as a new contact. “If you see those men again, you call me.” He stared down at her and made sure she was looking right into his eyes when he said, “If you have any trouble with anyone, you call me. If someone tries to hassle you, I want you to use my name.”

“Alexei,” she hurriedly interjected, “I don’t want to drag you into this. It’s not your problem.”

“I’m making it my problem.”

“But—”

“This isn’t up for discussion.”
Why is she fighting me on this?
“Shay, you’re a very smart girl. You know what sort of men your sister hangs out with and you know what people in that world are capable of doing. I’m your best chance at staying safe.”

She wrapped her slim fingers around his thick wrist and a jolt of something powerful traveled up his arm and into his chest. Her anxious expression surprised him. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Not for me,” she added quietly.

He couldn’t remember the last time someone had been worried about him. Maybe Ivan when his friend had cornered that final bare knuckle fight? The realization that Shay was more concerned about his welfare than her own made him want to take care of her even more. She was the sort of person who would put everyone else first without stopping to think about her own needs.

“I’m not afraid to get hurt.”
Not for you
, he silently amended.

“I don’t want you to feel as if I’m taking advantage of our friendship.”

He damn near laughed upon hearing her voice that fear. If anyone was trying to take advantage of their friendship…

“It’s not a concern. We’re fine.” He pressed the phone into her hand and curled her fingers around it. “If I find out that you didn’t call me when you needed me, I’m going to be very upset, Shay.”

It was said with a teasing smile but she seemed to understand that he was serious. If she let her pride get in the way of her safety, he would introduce her to a side of himself she might not like. The side of himself that would think nothing of heating up that perfect little ass of hers to teach her a lesson…

“Shay?” Manny ducked his head into the office and startled Shay. She tried to pull back but he held tight to her hand and the phone, keeping her right there. They were doing nothing wrong, and he didn’t want her to feel as if she had anything to hide.

“Yes?” She avoided his intense gaze and focused solely on her coworker. He could feel her fragile fingers flexing beneath his as she tried to free her hand from his but he was stronger and she soon abandoned her attempt to escape.

“We need some help down on the floor when you’re done in here.”

“I’m finished. I’ll be right down.”

Manny glanced at their entwined hand but didn’t say anything. Whatever he was thinking he kept to himself and retreated from the office.

Alexei held fast to Shay’s hand even after Manny disappeared. She stared at their clenched hands and slowly rotated hers until she was able to touch one of the tattoos decorating the first joint of his finger. Her touch burned his skin as she traced the solid black rectangle. Without lifting her eyes, she asked, “What does this one mean?”

He considered making something up but then she glanced up at him with that curious, sincere expression. “It means I served my full sentence. I did my time without early release.”

“And what about this beetle?” She outlined the scarab there.

“It’s a talisman. For thieves,” he explained, all the while wondering what she was thinking.

“And these?” She touched the five dots marking the web of space between his thumb and pointer finger.

“It means I served time in prison.” Before she could ask, he said, “The white cross on the field of black? It means I served time in solitary.”

“That must have been hard.” She slid her finger to the small black birds flying along the curved space below his thumb. “These are pretty.”

He let loose a sharp breath. “Don’t let Vanya hear you say that. We both had these done when we met in a juvenile labor camp. They say the birds are supposed to remind you of freedom.” He considered the small black shapes. “After a few months, they mock you.”

Her finger returned to the solid back rectangle. “How many years?”

His throat tightened as memories he had set fire to and buried and encapsulated in the far corners of his mind tried to burst free. “Six.”

She slackened with shock. Her dark eyes searched his face. “How old were you—”

“When I went inside?” he finished her question. “Fourteen when I was sent to the juvenile camp and seventeen when they shipped me to a men’s prison to finish out my sentence.”

“You were just a kid!”

He laughed harshly. “I stopped being a kid around seven or eight. I was a grown man when I made the choices I did—and I paid for them.”

“Still…”

“It was a long time ago.” He shut her down carefully but forcefully. Her kindness and horror on his behalf threatened to turn him inside out. He didn’t deserve her concern. He had been a miserable, mean little bastard as a kid. He had deserved all six years of that sentence and probably more.

“I need to go.” She carefully extricated her hand. “Manny and the rest of the team have more stops to make tonight after they drop me off.”

“Where are you going after work?” He was riding right up against the wall he had built between them now and searching for any weakness or opening that might let him through.

She eyed him with uncertainty. “I’m headed home. I have a couple of handbags that need to be finished.”

“Drive straight home,” he instructed. “Don’t make any stops, Shay. Just go home and get inside as quickly as possible.” The million ways her drive home could go wrong flashed before his eyes. “Is there someone you can stay with tonight?”

“Well… I mean, I guess I could see if Kylee wouldn’t mind if I crash at her apartment.”

Two young women alone in an apartment were just as vulnerable. He didn’t like that option at all. “Let me drive you.”

“What? No.” She waved the duster side to side. “That’s way over the top, Alexei. I’ll be fine. I’m going to get in my car, drive home and go inside. It will be fine.”

“Shay—”

“I appreciate the offer, Alexei, but I don’t need a babysitter. I’m a grown woman. I can handle this.”

He didn’t want to fight with her so he simply nodded. “All right. Be safe, Shay.”

“I will.” She smiled at him. “Thank you, Alexei. For everything.”

He understood she meant his offer of help and his phone number. He waited until she was out of sight to turn back toward his desk. He picked up his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts until he found Boychenko’s number. It was time to collect on a favor.

While he waited for the young enforcer to answer, he moved to the wall of glass that allowed him to overlook the showroom and sales desks. He watched Shay trading out the mats along the entrance doors. Down on her hands and knees, she used tight circular motions to wipe away the smudges left behind. The sight of her working like that bothered him. It was honest work, and he respected her for that, but she deserved a fucking break from hard labor.

I could take care of her. I could take her to the apartment and give her everything she wants and needs.

But not everything
, he silently admitted. He couldn’t give her a commitment. He couldn’t give her love and marriage and all the things a woman like Shay wanted and needed. He wasn’t that kind of man. He liked to keep his relationships neatly compartmentalized. He enjoyed the mistress arrangements that had served him well over the last few years.

She’s better than that,
he conceded.
She’s too good for that
.

“Hello?”

“Roman? It’s Alexei. You remember that favor you owe me?”

Boychenko laughed. “A guy gets one discount on a new car…”