“Totally normal.”
That part’s not exactly true, but I don’t want to worry either Nikolai or Uri. The truth is, my blood pressure reading was a few points over the norm. Apparently, I’m stressing out too much. But until Polly’s back home with her family, I don’t think that’s likely to change.
“Are you hungry?”
“No. But I am getting more and more irritated by the second.”
He rolls his eyes. “Okay, message received. I’ll stop with the inquisition.”
“Bless you.”
He smirks and goes back to picking at his nails. Nervous habit? I’m not sure, but as I watch him closely, I sense that he definitely seems a little on edge. It can’t be just because of me.
“Is there something I should know?” I ask suddenly.
“Hm?”
I narrow my eyes. “Nikolai.”
He sighs and glances at Lev, who seems too focused on his game to pay any attention to us. Still, Nikolai leaves his armchair and comes to sit down beside me. “Uri got a credible lead about where Polly might be,” he whispers to me.
I gasp and clap both hands over my mouth. “You’re joking. Really?”
He nods. “He’s on his way there with our cousin, Dimiv.”
“I didn’t know you guys had a cousin. I’ve never seen him around here.”
“He lives in Russia. He moved there a decade ago because his wife was homesick.”
“But he’s here now?”
“Flew in overnight. Uri told him about Polly and he came to help.”
“Wow. That’s good of him.”
“That’s family.”
I nod, automatically clutching my charm bracelet the way I do whenever that word gets brought up lately. “It’s ride-or-die, huh? I remember how that felt.” I swallow back the lump in my throat.
“Ziva is not your only family anymore, Alyssa,” Nikolai says softly. “You have a whole new family now.”
“I know.” I glance down at my stomach. “Problem is, my family insists on giving me heartburn, both from the inside and out.”
He doesn’t laugh at my lame joke. He just covers my hand with his and fixes him with that gaze that’s so eerily similar to Nikolai’s. “I mean it, Alyssa. You aren’t alone anymore. You’ll never be alone again.”
Against my wishes, my eyes fill with tears and I have to bite down on my tongue to keep them from spilling out. “Thanks, Nikolai. That means a lot to me.”
His mouth twitches. “Are you getting all misty-eyed on me?”
“Hormones,” I say quickly. “Don’t get any ideas.”
He laughs. “Sure. Hormones. We’ll go with that.”
I give him a playful whack on the arm. “Uri’s lucky to have a brother like you, you know.”
“Tell him that,” he drawls with a bemused snort.
I smile. “He already knows. Even if he doesn’t always show it.”
“It’s my fault.” He leans back and scrubs a hand down the side of his face. “I can get… insecure about our roles in this Bratva, in this family. Even though I’m the older brother, he’s obviously the alpha.”
I shrug. “So he’s the pahkan or whatever. You’re still the older brother. And as far as I’m concerned, you’re a damn good one, too.”
A buzzing sound interrupts us. Nikolai looks down at his phone. “Speak of the devil. Excuse me for a second.”
He gets up and walks to the door. He talks low, so I can’t make out exactly what he’s saying. But I do catch the edge of disappointment in his voice.
“… it’s getting crowded down there… yeah, okay. See you soon.” He hangs up and walks back to me. “Polly wasn’t there. But we know who has her now.”
I sit upright. “Is that where Uri is going now?”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. We’ll have to figure out how to rescue Polly. The man who bought her isn’t exactly the reasonable type.”
I frown. “What type is he?”
“The type who wants revenge,” Nikolai says with a sigh. “My father is responsible for killing his entire family back in the day.”
My eyes go wide. “W-what?”
“They were a small-time outfit at the time. Oleg Agapov’s dad was in charge and he and my father got into a ton of territory disputes. It could have been settled with a little cash and some decent negotiations, but Gavrill Agapov decided to fight dirty.”
“How?”
“He tried to kill my mother and make it look like an accident.” My jaw drops. He’s relaying the story so casually, too. It’s making my hair stand on end. “Of course, my mother was not so easy to kill. She jumped out of the moving car and clocked the man driving after her. Recognized him as one of Agapov’s men. The next week, the Agapov family was all but ash. Oleg and his younger sister were spared only because they were children.” Nikolai looks me in the eye. “No one fucks with this family and lives to tell the tale.”
“Jeez. When you guys tell stories like that, all I can think is that I’m glad you’re on my side.” He laughs and I squirm in my seat. “Nikolai, I really need a shower. I’m going down, okay?”
“Do you need any help—”
“No.”
He holds up his hands, palms out to placate me. “I was going to offer to walk you down the stairs. Not shower.”
“Can never be too careful with the Bugrov brothers. You two have a habit of overdoing it. Just stay here with Lev. I need a couple minutes.”
“I’ll come down to check on you in ten.”
“Twenty.”
“Fifteen. Final offer.”
“So annoying,” I mumble as I wobble unsteadily towards the door. His laughter follows me all the way down the hall.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I get to my room and I’m able to strip down. Throwing off my clothes is liberating, not least of which is because my body temperature is straight-up haywire these days and I’m sweating like a pig. I crank the water on and adjust the temperature until it’s cool and soothing. Then I get in, ready to soak down my blood pressure for fifteen minutes.
Knowing Nikolai, though, I’ll be lucky to get half that.
I’ve just soaked my hair when my bathroom door is thrown open. Thinking it’s Nikolai, I scream and grab my towel—but then I freeze when I see it’s Uri.
“My God! You scared me.” The look on his face is bleak. It definitely doesn’t help my blood pressure. He opens the shower door and turns off the water. “Uri…?”
“Get out now,” he orders. “And get dressed.”
My brow ripples with unease. “Why?”
“Because we’re leaving. It’s not safe here anymore.”
31
URI
“This is our ‘bare bones hideaway spot’?” Alyssa is gawking at the cabin like she’s never seen Scandinavian architecture and exposed timber before. Her hair is still damp from the shower and twisted into a long tail over her shoulder. I want nothing more than to wrap it around my hand and coax her down…
Grimacing, I haul a bag onto each shoulder and nod. “Do you have a complaint you’d like to voice, narushitel?”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “You said we’d have to ‘rough it for a while.’”
“The cabin has only six rooms and no staff quarters. So we’ll have to cook and clean up after ourselves.”