Mafia Hitman's Daring Lover (The Karzhov Crime Family Series Book 2) (5 page)

Desi couldn’t believe how lucky she’d been this evening as she entered her vehicle once again. The meeting had taken place, right on schedule, and she was thankful that Ivan was so predictable. She was also thankful that he seemed overly confident that Pinellas Park was such a safe place to do business.

It hadn’t escaped her notice several weeks ago that the businesses along the street all miraculously closed down early each week on the same day and time. It also hadn’t escaped her observations that Ivan and his men were the reason for that. What she didn’t understand was why the local police weren’t intervening.
Are they involved with Ivan?
That was the only explanation she could possibly come up with, and it wasn’t one that sat well in her brain.
Dirty cops?

She didn’t want to even go down that road. While she had only become a police officer to discover who had killed her father and brother, she knew her father and brother had firmly believed in their calling. For herself, she was already starting to think about doing something else. Something that didn’t involve constant censure and the feeling that she would never measure up.

Turning her thoughts back to Ivan’s meeting, she started scrolling through the pictures she’d taken. Five vehicles in all had attended the meeting, and she not only had pictures of the license plates, but she also had pictures of the men as they exited those vehicles. One of the vehicles had contained two older men, accompanied by their driver and a very large bodyguard. Two of the other vehicles had contained men she’d recognized but didn’t know the names of. She now had pictures of them, and it would only be a matter of time before she figured out who they were and how they were connected to Ivan.

It was the last two vehicles that caught her attention. The license plates indicated they were from much farther south, maybe around the Miami area. The first vehicle had contained four men who she had assumed were bodyguards. They had scanned the area and then surrounded the passenger door of the second vehicle, carefully concealing whoever was inside.

The passenger had exited the vehicle, but all she’d been able to see was the top of his head. She gauged his height to be around six feet, but the guards had done their job well, and she might never know the identity of the man they protected.
He’s the key to all of this.

As she stowed the camera away, she let her mind wander back to the detectives that had been present earlier in the afternoon. She’d recognized all four of the men: Detectives Ramirez, Johnson, Baker, and Murphy. All four of those men had counted themselves friends of her father.

Were they secretly trying to find his killers?
They had been less than pleased when she had joined the police academy, even going so far as to verbally argue against her being hired. She’d been heading towards the captain’s office but had stopped upon hearing her name mentioned in the break room. All four men had cornered Captain Peters and urged him to reconsider hiring her.

She’d been upset and had worked diligently to try and change their opinions, but nothing had worked so far.
But if they were trying to find who killed Dad and Joe, then why are they buying drugs from these men?
As she sat there in the dark early morning hours, those thoughts kept her mind busy.

Before long, her mind wandered back to the handsome stranger she’d accosted that morning. She’d made a complete fool of herself, first for assuming he’d been harming Dennis and then for being smacked in the face by the diner door. She lifted a hand to her sore head, then gingerly touched her nose. There was just enough light from the streetlight to see the discoloration that was sure to worsen by morning.
Thank goodness my eyes haven’t swollen shut as well.

It was getting close to three thirty in the morning when movement on the street captured her attention. A large shadow made its way around the side of the dry cleaner, skulking through the narrow alley and then disappearing.

Curious, Desi grabbed her personal gun from the glove box, having left her service revolver back in Clearwater. She tucked it into the palm of her hand, then climbed out of her car and quietly shut the door. Glancing along the street, she saw that all was quiet, and she carefully made her way to the alley where the shadow had disappeared.

She watched as the person disappeared around the side of the building and then slowly and quietly followed behind. When she reached the back of the building, she listened for any noise, silently praying that Ivan and his cronies weren’t still inside the building. She heard the scrape of a metal door on concrete, and peered around just in time to see the shadowy figure slip through the back door.

Desi quickly traced her steps back down the alley until she reached the fire escape. Tucking her gun into the waistband of her jeans, she climbed up on the Dumpster and jumped, grabbing the bottom rung of the metal ladder and holding her breath while it lowered to street level.

Once it stopped moving, she made short work of scaling it to the rooftop. She’d already poked around inside the warehouse space, having used the movable skylight for access. She breathed a sigh of relief as she approached it and saw that it was in the same position as the last time she used it. Unlatched.

She quietly slid it open, glancing inside to just make out the shadowy figure moving towards Ivan’s office. She slipped through the narrow opening, letting herself down onto the support beams, then carefully made her way across them until she reached the center pillar and the attached ladder.

She kept an eye on the office door, carefully working her way down the metals rungs until her feet finally touched the concrete floor of the warehouse. Her tennis shoes were silent and she stepped carefully, not wanting to give her presence away. She kept low and crept towards the office door, wondering what other enemies Ivan had managed to acquire.

She could hear the person rummaging around in the office, but the door was closed, so she squatted behind a stack of clothing racks and waited. She tried to slow her breathing, but the smell of the dry cleaning chemicals made her lightheaded and slightly nauseous. She been fighting nausea and a massive headache since earlier that morning, and now she concentrated on pushing the feelings away. She didn’t have time to come down sick.

Approximately thirty minutes later, she watched the office door open slightly, and the figure emerged, clad from head to toe in black. A black ski mask was pulled over the head of what she assumed to be a man. A very tall and very muscular man. He wore gloves on his hands, and other than his deep blue eyes, no other part of his skin was visible.

He held several sheets of paper in his hands, indicators that he’d found something of interest among Ivan’s papers.
I want to know what’s on those papers!
She watched as he approached her hiding spot and stopped.

Desi held her breath, hoping she hadn’t done anything to give her presence away. She gripped her gun tighter, nervous at the thought of using it on someone. She’d never actually taken a shot at a live target before, but she knew in her heart that she would and could if it came down to it. While she was still stuck on that thought, the sound of the automatic garage door opener engaging had her gasping and looking around wildly.

She was sure to be seen from her current hiding spot, and while she was still trying to decide her next move, the black-clad figure turned and spotted her with a loud curse in a language she couldn’t understand but was most definitely Russian. She’d heard Ivan and his goons using similar sounding words often enough.

*****

Grigori heard the garage door engage at the same time he heard the feminine gasp. Turning, he locked eyes with none other than Desi! She was a sitting duck in her current location but seemed frozen in place.

Grigori didn’t wait for her to unfreeze; he simply bent his shoulder down and tossed her over it. Keeping one arm wrapped tightly around the backs of her thighs, he ignored the way her delectable rear end wiggled against him.

“Shush!” he commanded her in a harsh whisper. When she continued to struggle, he switched the papers to the hand holding her legs, and then with his free hand he smacked her on the butt and issued the command again. “I said be quiet! Neither one of us wants to be discovered, and I’m trying to save your ass! A little help would be appreciated!”

“Who are you?” Desi whispered back, her backside smarting from his smack and her head beginning to throb ferociously in her upside down position. That combined with the chemical smells had her ready to vomit, and she doubted she would be able to hold off much longer.

“Please!” she whispered, trying to gain her capturer’s attention before she lost the battle with her stomach.

“Shush! Hang on a sec and I’ll let you down.” Grigori had seen the side door as he made his way down the alley, and he only hoped it was not barred or chained. They needed to get out of here, and as he glanced back at the garage doors, they only had a few seconds left.

He reached the door, smiling when he found it secured by no more than a deadbolt. He threw the bolt and then hesitantly opened the door, looking both ways down the alley before he exited the building and quietly shut the door behind him.

“Put me down now!” Desi commanded the stranger who still held her over his shoulder.

“Not yet.” Grigori wasn’t putting her down until he had her some place safe and secure. He wanted answers, and now seemed like as good a time as any to get them.

He kept a firm hold on her legs, smacking her ass once again when she began to kick and squirm. “Stay still or I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”

“What are you talking about?” Desi demanded, still feeling like throwing up and her stomach beginning to ache from being draped over his massive shoulder.

“I don’t want to drop you, and we need to get away from here.”

“Who are you?” Desi asked, struggling again at the man’s reference to taking her somewhere else.
If he’d only put me down, I could at least have a fighting chance to get away!

The man was silent, but she managed to turn her head around enough to see that he was quickly making his way towards a big black Humvee.
Is he the one who was following me earlier?

As she realized the man holding her captive most likely worked for Ivan, she began to struggle more intensely. She’d heard the rumors and seen the aftermath of crossing Ivan. It wasn’t pretty, and he didn’t seem to care if his enemy was male or female. He treated them all the same way. And lately there had been a string of missing persons—most of them female, and so far, no signs of the women had been found. 
I do not want my picture to join those others on that missing person’s wall.

“Desi, stop struggling!” Grigori issued the harsh demand, struggling with the keys to unlock the passenger door.

Desi stopped upon hearing her name and asked, “How do you know my name?”

Grigori flung open the door and bent to deposit her on the leather seat. “We met this morning,” he told her, pulling off the ski mask and grinning at her.

Desi only could stare, and then she got angry. “What in the hell were you thinking, sneaking into Ivan’s like that? You could have been killed.  Did you even know if he was still in there?”

Grigori grinned at her. “Buckle up. We’ll talk in a minute. We really do need to get away from here.” He wouldn’t mind engaging Ivan and his men, but not with Desi caught in the middle.

Desi moved to scoot off the seat. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
The man from this morning. Greg something or other. He doesn’t look like a Greg. He looks dangerous.

“Yes, you are.” Grigori reached across her, pushing her back into the seat, and deftly clicked the seat belt in place. Jogging around the vehicle, he had the engine purring and was pulling away from the curb before Desi could get her seat belt undone.

“Where are you taking me?” Desi could hear the note of fear in her voice and tried to calm her breathing and focus on getting away. “Are you taking me to Ivan?”

“No! Why would I be taking you to Ivan? I just broke into his place.”

Desi thought about that. “Yes, you did. Do you work for those other men?”

Grigori wasn’t in the mood to play twenty questions. “Look, just sit back and be quiet until we get there.”

“Where are we going?”
If I can get away from him, whom do I call for help?
That thought had her falling headlong into depression.
I have no one I can call.

“Someplace we can talk without the fear of being overheard. What were you doing following me?”

“I didn’t know I was following you,” Desi answered, taking exception to the way he had manhandled her.

“I got that,” Grigori said, rubbing his stomach where she had kneed him several times.  A few inches lower and he would have been singing soprano for some time to come. For someone so much smaller than he, she sure put up a good fight. Before he could stop himself, his mind wandered.
Is she a lioness in bed as well? Or does she purr like a kitten?
God, where did that thought come from?

He looked at her, hoping to find something to push that thought away, but instead, his mind kept going down the road to perdition. She was still struggling with the seat belt, so he reached over and grabbed her hand. When she tried to pull it away, he squeezed it and gave her a warning look.

She tried to pull her arm away once more, and when he didn’t release her hand, she gave a small groan of frustration, the sound travelling straight to his gut and causing his body to harden even more. He grinned at her struggle, and she struggled even more. He was more than a foot taller than she was and outweighed her by over a hundred pounds.
She’s not going anywhere until I say so!

“You think this is funny? Let go of me!” Desi struggled to remember any piece of her self-defense training that might help her in this situation, but she came up with nothing.

“No.”

Desi pulled once more, only succeeding in pulling their clasped hands over into her lap. His knuckles brushed against the tops of her thighs, sending shards of pleasure straight to her core, adding to her confusion. She shivered in reaction, and when he let go of her hand a moment later, she tucked it between her thighs, trying to still her reaction.

Grigori watched her from the corner of his eye and inwardly grinned at her reaction. She wasn’t immune to his nearness, and even though she’d protested him keeping hold of her hand, he’d felt her body’s reaction to his touch.
She’d like having me touch her. Liked the danger and excitement of struggling against my hold.

That thought started his mind wondering what she was like in bed. Would she get excited if he pinned her down? Or would she become the aggressor, fighting him for control? Grigori could find pleasure in both. He’d often mixed a little kink in with his physical relationships, the slight edge of danger and the forbidden adding something to the mix that he found fascinating and highly enjoyable.

Grigori steered the Humvee into the back parking lot of the hotel and backed into the parking spot next to the dumpster. Turning the engine off, he turned to see her looking at the hotel with a light of battle in her eyes.

“We are going to quietly go inside and up to my room. Once there, you and I are going to have a chat.” Grigori leveled her with a stare, trying to inject a little fear in her, enough so that she would obey and not put up more of a struggle. He didn’t want to scare her, but he also didn’t want to draw a lot of attention to the fact that he was bringing a woman back to his room in the wee hours of the morning.

Desi shook her head and then glanced at her watch: 4:45 a.m.  God, she was tired!  “We don’t have anything to talk about.” She resisted the urge to reach up and rub the bump on the back of her head. It had now been six hours since she last took some aspirin, and it was beginning to throb once again.

Add to that the slight throbbing that had begun in her nose and between her eyes from hanging upside down and the bruises she would most certainly see on her ribs come morning, and she was not in the mood to accommodate anyone’s wishes but her own.

Reaching for the door handle, she almost got it open before Grigori hit the automatic lock. Glaring at him, she demanded, “Open the door.”

“Only once you’ve agreed to come inside with me.” Grigori crossed his arms over his chest, causing the sleeves of his long black T-shirt to ride above his wrists. Desi’s eyes were drawn to the tattoos barely visible, and it was several moments before she could make herself look somewhere else.

“Desi?” he inquired when she simply stared at his arms blankly.
She looks exhausted.
He narrowed his eyes as he perused her face, then asked, “How long has your head been hurting?”

“All day,” she murmured without thinking. When she raised her eyes to his own, she realized what she’d said and blushed at the look of censure on his face. “I’m okay.”

“You needed medical attention this morning.”

“No. I didn’t.” A yawn worked its way into her jaws and she struggled to keep it hidden. “I need to get going. It’s late.”

“Precisely. Let’s go,” Grigori told her, exiting the vehicle and waiting for her to follow suit.

“Look, Greg—”

“Not Greg.” Grigori wasn’t sure why he felt the need to tell her the truth, but she seemed fragile, and after watching her interaction with Dennis, he somehow knew she would never understand subterfuge.

“What?” Desi asked, confused and quickly losing control of the conversation. Her headache was becoming more prominent, as was the nausea and sense of being out of control.

“I’ll explain upstairs. Come on. We’ll talk, and then if you want to leave, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.” Grigori closed his door and walked to the front of the SUV to wait.

“I can walk,” Desi offered, dreading the two extra blocks she would need to traverse in order to reach her car’s hiding place from the rear.
You can do it. Tell the nice man “good-bye” and take off.

Opening the SUV’s door, she attempted to do just that. She avoided his gaze, keeping the car door open instead and effectively blocking any chance he had of grabbing her. She slipped behind the Dumpster and then skirted quickly behind the cars until she found a small gap in the fence.

She could hear him coming after her, but she didn’t waste any time looking to see how close he was. She pushed at the chain link fence in front of her and managed to get one leg and one arm through the fence before she felt him bearing down on her.

She struggled to complete her escape, but her shirt had gotten caught on part of the fence and the only way she could continue her forward progress was to either remove the shirt or tear herself free. She could feel the tears fill her eyes as she struggled to get away, but all that did was blur her vision, keeping her from seeing him reach her position and stop to watch her struggle.

Grigori felt like yelling, he was so frustrated with the young woman currently trying to free herself from where the chain link fencing had pierced her shirt. He probably would have blasted her if she hadn’t chosen that moment to look up at him, tears spilling from her eyes and trailing own her cheeks.

God, he couldn’t stand it when women cried.
Images of the women in the jungle came rushing back at him and he staggered back a step.
No one will ever hurt her like that. Never!
He didn’t stop to analyze his feelings; he just reacted to them.

Reaching down, he unhooked the fabric of her shirt while pulling her back through the fence, being careful not to cut her on the metal. “Desi, stop fighting me. We’re going upstairs. Now.”

Desi shook her head but put up no resistance when he simply picked her up in his arms and headed towards the rear entrance. He opened the door with the keycard, then used the same card to call the elevator.

Desi tried to distance herself from his strength, but it was hard. His chest was warm, he smelled fantastic, and for some reason she couldn’t stop the tears that were silently running down her cheeks. She didn’t even think of trying to get away. She was suddenly very tired, and hurting, and just wanted this night to end.

Grigori watched her with concern in his eyes. She had gone very passive in his arms, something he wouldn’t have thought she had in her. She was crying, but silently. He jostled her in his arms, and then he felt the butt of the gun sticking up from the back of her jeans.