Dimitri (30 page)

"No," Nikolai replied with utter seriousness.
"That honor belongs to me."

His frank rebuttal stunned me into silence. He
tapped my cheek and let his hand fall to his side. "But you, Benny?
You're the best thing that's ever happened to him. All this?" He
gestured to the backdrop of destruction and mayhem. "It's nothing
to him, not when it means keeping you safe and in his
life."

Santos cleared his throat. There was a glint of
surprise in his dark eyes as he regarded Nikolai. When he extended
his hand toward me, I caught sight of my purse. "Is this yours?
They found it in the alley."

"Yes." I cringed as I took the soggy bag from
his hand. The zipper was firmly in place and I prayed the contents
had been spared the brunt of the water damage. A quick peek inside
relieved my worries. On my way out the door, I'd grabbed Dimitri's
keys and wallet from the floor, where they'd fallen out his jeans,
and the phone Johnny had given me. "Santos?"

"Yeah?"

I presented him with the phone. "I'm not sure
how much help this will be but Johnny wanted me to give it to
you."

Santos stared at the phone. "Johnny gave that
to you? When? Where?"

I felt Yuri shift next to me. Even though I
hated to lie to Santos, I did. "I can't give you the details. He
was insistent I give this to you. He said there's video of the
shooting on it. I don't know how the chain of evidence works in a
situation like this—"

"It doesn't," he said with a frown. With a
flick of his fingers, he gestured for one of the crime scene techs
to join us. "Can we get this bagged and tagged?"

I waited for the tech to photograph and tag the
phone while Santos took a sworn statement from me on its
provenance. Whether it would help his case, I couldn't say but I
felt a little better knowing I'd fulfilled my promise to Johnny. I
didn't like being on the wrong side of the law and desperately
wanted to get back on the right side, where I'd always
lived.

Once I was cleared to leave the scene, Yuri
took Dimitri's keys from me and Nikolai indicated I should come
with him. I didn't miss the unhappy expression on Santos' face. I
felt sure the next time we saw one another that he would give me a
stern lecture on getting mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Suddenly, I felt so conflicted. The wrong
crowd? What was that exactly? Was it Nikolai and Kostya? Were they
really as awful as their reputations? I thought back to high school
and the way nasty stories were repeated and exaggerated. I'd seen
so many young women crushed by those ugly rumors—and God only knew
how many of them were untrue.

Was that the case with men like Nikolai and
Kostya? Were they as dark and dirty as their reputations would have
me believe? I considered Johnny. Oh, he'd done some stupid, stupid
things. He'd done dangerous and reckless things. Was he a bad
person? No. He was misguided and he'd pay for the mistakes of his
youth for the rest of his life.

What about Nikolai? I sneaked a glance at him
as we rode through the streets of downtown Houston in the back of
one of the private cars in his personal fleet. The two SUVs
guarding us hadn't escaped my notice.

Was Nikolai as terrible as his reputation would
have me believe? Was he like Ivan? Had he come here to start over
but been unsuccessful in making a clean break? Was he slowly
reforming his bad ways?

I honestly didn't know. I wanted to believe
that it didn't matter but I wasn't that naïve. It did matter but I
just wasn't sure how much anymore.

My jumbled emotions unsettled me. Dimitri's
absence affected me deeply. In the last few days, we'd grown so
incredibly close. Admitting that we loved and needed one another
had been the most natural thing in the world. Now, being separated
from him felt like the most awful, terrible thing
imaginable.

At the hospital, the car pulled up to an empty
space along the curb. I followed Nikolai out of the car and onto
the sidewalk. Surprise filtered through me at the sight of Ivan,
Erin, Vivian and Lena waiting for us there.

Lena was on me in an instant, flinging her arms
around me and hugging me tightly. "Are you okay? We wanted to go to
the bakery but Ivan convinced us to come here."

"I'm fine. Dimitri was hurt but not too
badly."

She released me and rubbed my back. "You want
me to come in and sit with you? The waiting room is crazy busy.
They're a little grouchy in there about having too many family
members waiting on one patient."

Family members? With a thud, the revelation
that I wasn't actually alone hit me hard. Yes, I'd lost Johnny
tonight. My brother would be on the fringes of my life for the
foreseeable future but that didn't mean I didn't have family. It
wasn't always about blood connections. Dimitri, my friends, his
friends—we were all connected in varying degrees.

Smiling at Lena, I accepted her offer. "I'd
like that. Thank you."

After exchanging hugs with Ivan, Erin and Vivi
and assuring Nikolai I wouldn't go anywhere alone inside the
hospital except to rejoin Dimitri, I entered the waiting room with
Lena. As she'd described, it was a madhouse.

With some difficulty, I made my way to the
registration desk and asked to have Dimitri notified I was here.
The nurse didn't seem in any rush to get on it but I didn't hold it
against her. I could only imagine what kind of wear and tear she
experienced working night after night of shifts like
these.

Lena and I found a free spot against a wall.
Leaning back against it for support, we talked softly about what
had happened. I could see the terror reflected in her dark eyes as
I related the awful details of our ordeal. I refused to think about
how badly it could have gone. Dimitri and I truly were lucky to be
alive. One wrong move, one miscalculation, and we could have both
been shot or stabbed or beaten to death.

"Benny Burkhart?" A man in dark green scrubs
stood in the doorway of the ER's entrance. Lena gave me a little
shove and I hurried to cross the room. I glanced back at her, but
she waved me on before gesturing outside, silently informing me of
her intent to wait there.

I followed the nurse into the busy emergency
department. We bypassed the larger trauma rooms for a small hallway
lined with curtained cubicles. He dragged back the curtain on one
of them to reveal Dimitri.

His pale blue eyes shot open at the sound.
Though he tensed at first, he spotted me and relaxed. I couldn’t
get to him fast enough. A little sob left my throat as I pressed my
lips to his. He gently caressed my cheek. "Don't cry, sweetheart.
I'm all right."

"No, you're not." Here in the harsh, bright
light of the hospital, I could see all the damage that the dark
street had hidden from me. The stab wounds and gashes he'd suffered
had been stitched and covered. There were smaller nicks and cuts on
his forearms and hands. The deep, reddish-purple bruising along his
jaw and belly made me wince. The arm he'd been favoring during the
fight now sat in a sling. The other arm, the one that had been hit
with a bullet, was cleanly sutured and covered with a neat bandage.
"God, Dimitri! Look at you."

"It's temporary. I'll heal." He tilted his head
toward the bullet wound. "This was only a graze. A few stitches and
I'm fine. This arm isn't even broken. I need a couple of days to
rest and I'll be back on my feet."

My eyes widened. "A couple of days? You need a
week in bed to recuperate."

He made that grunting sound that meant he
didn't agree but didn't want to argue. "That's overkill,
Benny."

"I wasn't asking, Dimitri." I threaded my
fingers through his unkempt hair. "Let me take care of you for
once."

"Well," he murmured and lifted up for a kiss.
"When you put it like that…" I let him have the long, sensual kiss
he wanted. He touched the bed. "Climb up here with me."

I glanced over my shoulder at the slightly open
curtain. "I don't think that's allowed."

"For what I'm probably paying for this horse
stall, I don't really care what they allow or don't allow. Come
here."

Not wanting him to cause a ruckus, I slid onto
the bed, careful to avoid his injured areas. He didn't seem the
least bit daunted by the thought of discomfort and dragged me even
closer to his side, tucking my head against his chest and kissing
the top of my head.

"Was the building a complete loss?"

"No. I heard one of the firemen tell Santos
that most of the second floor was salvageable. I hope we'll be able
to save most of your things."

Dimitri nuzzled my neck. "It's only stuff.
We're alive. That's all that matters."

"It's not just stuff, Dimitri. Your photos,
your memories, my memories…"

"Sweetheart, I'm so very sorry about the
bakery. I never wanted you to lose it that way."

I swallowed the urge to cry, pushing the
painful ball of emotions down my throat and refusing to let it
overwhelm me here. Later, in private, I'd grieve for the terrible
loss. I repeated what he'd said to me. "We're alive, Dimitri.
That's what really matters."

"But everything hanging on the walls? The art,
the newspaper clippings and photographs…"

"Some of it can never be replaced," I conceded,
"but luckily most of the framed letters and newspaper clippings and
photos were copies. We switched those out back when my grandmother
was still here."

"We'll start looking for a new building this
week."

"Dimitri," I gently scolded him. "You have to
recover first. Anyway, I don’t even know who the building belongs
to right now. Is it still mine? Does the deal with Yuri still
stand? Will my insurance cover the fire? I don't even know how this
works."

"We'll figure it out," he assured me. "Don't
stress about it right now."

"I don’t have a choice. There are seventeen
employees who expect to start work in a few hours. How the hell am
I supposed to pay them while I find a new building, get it
outfitted and do all the other legwork? At least with the deal Yuri
offered me, I could keep one business going while I setup the other
one. That meant my employees would have a steady income but now
I—"

Dimitri put his finger to my lips. "Hush. Not
tonight, Benny. We'll sort it all out in the morning. If you keep
worrying like this, you're going to be the one who needs a hospital
bed."

I decided to let him be bossy tonight. After
what he'd done, he'd earned it. With a little smile, I said, "Well
I could use a vacation."

"We'll take one soon." He kissed my forehead.
"We'll go anywhere you want."

"I'd like to see my brother."

"Then we'll do that. I'm sure he'll be some
place wonderfully warm around Christmas."

"I like the sound of that." Snuggling closer to
my big, sexy Russian, I enjoyed his loving embrace. The bustling
noise of the emergency room swirled around us but none of it
mattered to me. Here, in his arms, everything was
perfect.

"Benny?"

"Yes?"

"Move in with me."

There was no questioning lilt to his statement.
I leaned back and gazed into those blue eyes I'd come to love so
much. He stared back at me with such love—and the tiniest hint of
fear, as if he expected me to reject him.

Any other time, I probably would have politely
done just that or asked for more time to consider it but tonight?
Tonight had shown me that trying to plan and control everything
down to the very last detail was futile. I'd almost lost him and
refused to ever have regrets where Dimitri was
concerned.

I answered him with a playful grin.
"Well, considering you're basically homeless now, shouldn't
I
be asking
you
to move in
with
me
?"

He chuckled and nodded slowly.
"
Da
.
Yes."

Carefully, I interlaced my fingers with his.
"After I sell the house, we can move into a new home
together."

His eyes became suspiciously
shimmery. "Yes.
Together.
"

Chapter
Seventeen

Dimitri winced as he slipped out of the sling
that cradled his left arm. It had been six days and his damn elbow
joint still ached painfully any time he extended it fully. The
jarring impact of that bat against his forearm had rattled his
joints badly but it was nothing time wouldn't heal. Like the
sutures, bruises and scabs marking his body, the pain would soon
fade.

Glancing around Yuri's office, he remembered
the last time he'd been there. Then, Yuri had made him a business
offer that he'd been conflicted about accepting. Now he felt surer
of himself.

Front Door Security had grown about as much as
it ever could in a city this size. He had great relationships with
the clubs he provided bouncers for but he'd gotten comfortable with
his success. Maybe it was time to be ambitious again.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nikolai
shift subtly in the shadowed corner of the room. Yuri had dimmed
the lights and the setting September sun spilled just enough light
into the spacious office to give it a nearly sinister appearance.
He hoped the ambience took a more ominous tone before Jonah Krause
arrived.