Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security Series) (Volume 13) (3 page)

BOOK: Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security Series) (Volume 13)
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“Does he know my address?” she murmured, strapping herself in.

He nodded, strapping in as well before telling Kir to head out.

“Did you have fun tonight?” she asked, her dark gaze on him.

“It was fine.” The bright city lights played over her delicate features as they drove toward downtown.

Her mouth quirked up. “That’s not really an answer.”

“It was…business. Not for fun.” Fun would be stripping her naked, making her come, seeing her lose control. He didn’t do relationships. He’d never had time, but lately he found himself thinking he’d make an exception for Lucy. Which, again, was stupid since she was an employee.

Now she shrugged. “So? You can still have fun at events.”

He’d seen her talking to a multitude of people tonight, some clearly for business, but others he knew she was friends with. Because everyone seemed to adore Lucy. It was hard not to. “It was fine,” he said, repeating his earlier statement. He felt stupid and tongue-tied around her. Always.

She gave him one of those frustrated looks and started to respond when her phone dinged from her giant bag, indicating an incoming text. Instantly she reached for it.

“You don’t have to worry about work anymore. It’s okay to go off the clock.” He worried that she might burn out. Maybe they were working her too hard?

She laughed as she responded to the text. “When you and Viktor slow down, I’ll slow down.”

He swallowed hard, looked out the window. It was doubtful he and Viktor would slow their pace anytime soon. Money gave him security and some days he couldn’t seem to make enough. Abram had grown up poor, unlike Viktor. But it didn’t matter. Viktor’d had it bad too. Abram was glad he’d only had limited contact with their father when he was young. After he’d turned eight he’d cut off all contact with the bastard, told his mom he didn’t want to see him again. Thankfully his mom had been more than happy to, even though it had meant cutting off any support from the sperm donor.

He’d assumed Viktor was just like that monster but he’d found out differently when he’d started to dig into him more. Only then had he approached him and had been surprised Viktor had no clue about his existence. It had taken time, but they’d eventually become friends.

Best friends. The first one he’d ever had. Abram didn’t trust many people. Just some of the guys he’d served with from his Marine Corps days. And his brother. No one else.

When he realized Lucy was still texting, he plucked the phone from her hands.

Letting out a soft gasp, she stared at him. “What are you doing?”

“You’re done for the night.”

“Damn it, Mr. Ivanov—”

“Abram. My name is Abram,” he gritted out. She called his brother by his first name. But she’d never called him by his first name. She either completely avoided using his name, or when she was annoyed called him Mr. Ivanov. It was ridiculous and made him insane.

She let out a frustrated growl. “I know that. Please give me my phone. I just need to respond to one thing and then I’m done for the night. Promise.”

“Say my name and you get your phone.”

She blinked at him, her cheeks flushing pink. “What?”

“My first name. Say it.” He knew he was pushing her, should probably stop. But he didn’t care. He felt practically possessed right now with the need to hear her say his damn name. He was also aware of Kir watching him in the rearview mirror curiously.

“Fine, Abram. Can I have my phone now?” She held out her palm, her hand slightly trembling.

He frowned, wondering if he’d frightened her, but…he didn’t think so. Her eyes were slightly dilated and her cheeks were still flushed. She almost looked aroused, but that couldn’t be possible. The woman couldn’t seem to stand him some days. He gave her the phone. “Don’t call me Mr. Ivanov anymore. If you do I’ll start calling you Lucia.”

She simply gave him a dark look as she took the phone and didn’t respond one way or another. For some reason she didn’t like her given name, but he thought it was beautiful. It fit her.

As she continued to text, he looked out the window at the passing lights and traffic. He should have just walked her to her damn car. Not given her a ride home. Being around her always put him on edge, made him feel awkward. Maybe he should limit his contact with her even more. Normally he just emailed or texted her with instructions about work but sometimes working with her directly was unavoidable.

The truth was, though, he looked forward to the time they did spend together. Even if she seemed perpetually annoyed with him. Or aloof, which was even worse.

* * *

When he saw the number on screen he answered the phone after three rings, forcing himself to remain patient. “Yes?”

“Abram has definitely taken an interest in the new assistant. He followed her around all night.” The man snorted in amusement.

“Are you in a secure place?”

“Of course. I’m at a park. No chance of anyone overhearing.”

“Good… What else do you have?” Because that wasn’t enough. He’d seen that himself over the last couple months. And Abram wasn’t the one he hated. It was Viktor, with his smugness, the way he looked down on him. The man thought he was better than him. Which was ridiculous. Viktor’s father had been a common criminal, a thug.

“That’s it for now. You wanted me to call with updates on them.” His contact sounded annoyed.

“What about Viktor?” He couldn’t keep the disgust out of his voice.

“What about him? He never brings women around.”

He knew that. Viktor seemed to prefer paying whores, which was no use to him. He needed to find the man’s weakness and a woman would be the best one there was. Men became stupid over women. He didn’t let his disappointment show. “This is good. Thank you for the update.” Even though it wasn’t what he wanted, he liked to keep his contact happy because he never knew when he might get something useful.

“I’ll be in touch when I have anything else.”

He ended the call. There was no need to talk any longer. He’d approached the man he’d been using for information because he knew of the man’s secret addiction to strip clubs. Pathetic, really. Spending all that money for nothing except some grinding and maybe a blow job in a back room.

But the man was risking a lot by crossing the Ivanov brothers. They’d been careful though. No one would ever figure out he was getting information on them, building up a reserve of information he might be able to use.

Because Viktor would pay for taking from him.

Chapter 3

Dominique glanced up as her boss, Porter, stepped out of his office. He’d been here earlier than her this morning, which was pretty unusual, especially for a Monday.

Their two offices were connected by a big door and they both had huge windows overlooking the city. The elevators opened right up into her office space where she was the basic ‘guard’ for Porter. Not that he really needed one. He oversaw one of their security divisions so the only people who ever came to see him were employees directly under his purview. Or potential new clients, but he usually met with them in one of the conference rooms down the hall.

“You don’t have any meetings until ten,” she reminded him. It didn’t matter that she updated his online calendar—and had synced it to his email account and phone so he got hourly alerts—he still sometimes forgot stuff. He’d once told her it was because he was getting old, which was ridiculous since she was pretty sure he was only thirty-four. She had a feeling his forgetfulness had more to do with his one-year-old son who hadn’t been sleeping through the night lately.

“I know. I forgot to tell you I’ve got someone coming in. It has to do with what happened to Raegan. Would you get some coffee and refreshments for us?”

“Of course,” she said, automatically standing. “Do you have news about who drugged her?” Her friend had been drugged on Friday night. And Raegan was Porter’s cousin so of course he’d be involved in finding out what happened to her.

Too much had happened over the weekend. Raegan had been drugged—and almost taken by some random guy at a club—but thankfully someone had been there for her. A ‘sexy cop,’ as Raegan liked to call him. Dominique had no idea what was going on with those two but she had a feeling she’d find out all the details soon enough. She was just glad Raegan was okay.

“No, but I’m hoping to get something this morning,” Porter answered.

“Any news about what happened Saturday?” Raegan had been almost attacked at the Celebration of Chefs, as well. Dominique had missed most of the commotion because she’d been out front talking to her cousin.

He shook his head, his expression grim.

“Do you think…the two things are related? Raegan didn’t say, but I thought maybe, I don’t know. It seems like a coincidence that two bad things like that happened to her so close together.”

“I…don’t know. We’re looking at the events as if they might be connected. The cops are doing what they can, but we’ve got better resources. The guy who’s meeting me has a video of Friday night. I want to go over it. You were there too so if you wouldn’t mind looking at it, I’d appreciate it.”

“Of course. Anything I can do to help. I’ll go grab those refreshments and be back in a few minutes. What time—” She stopped talking as the elevator doors whooshed open and Viktor Ivanov stepped out.

Seeing him made a sharp burst of anger pop inside her, but she shoved it back down. She was a professional and she’d worked very hard to get a job like this. She wasn’t going to ruin that because she couldn’t control her temper. Even if she did want to punch Ivanov right in his perfect, chiseled face. This must be the meeting Porter had been talking about.

Of course. Ivanov was the owner of the club Raegan had been drugged at. It made sense he would be here. But he looked more like a thug than anything else. The no doubt custom-made suit he had on didn’t hide the fact that he might as well be a street brawler. His dark hair was more or less a buzz cut, cropped close to his head, and his blue eyes were icy. She could see a few tattoos peeking out under the cuffs of his jacket and the ones on his knuckles were always visible. She’d heard the rumors that he’d once been part of his father’s criminal organization in Miami. When his father had died he’d supposedly gone legit, but she didn’t buy it.

She pasted on her best smile and hoped it didn’t look too fake. “I’ll grab the coffee,” she murmured to Porter as she nodded politely at Ivanov—who was staring intently at her—and left her office. Her heels clicked against the tile as she headed down the hallway to the community kitchen they shared with the other offices on this floor. Red Stone owned the entire building and they didn’t rent out offices to anyone else so everyone here was a vetted Red Stone Security employee.

When she stepped into the kitchen she was glad it was empty. Right now she didn’t feel like exerting any energy to make polite small talk. After starting a fresh pot of coffee, she pulled out the tray of muffins, cookies and scones they kept on hand for impromptu meetings. Everything was fresh, replaced daily. Once she had the refreshments set up on the rolling tray she headed back to her office and tried to ignore the nausea churning in her stomach.

Seeing Viktor Ivanov just reminded her of everything his family had taken from hers. From what she’d heard, he was just as bad as his dead, gangster father. She couldn’t believe Porter was meeting with the man, but to get video of the club where his cousin had been attacked…yeah, she would meet with the devil too if it would help her friend.

When she rolled the cart into Porter’s office, she found both men sitting in front of Porter’s laptop. Porter paused the video as she entered and both men stood.

It annoyed her that Ivanov was being polite and standing for her—and still watching her with those intense blue eyes. She ignored him and smiled at her boss. “If you want I can set up the projector in the conference room for the video. You’ll be able to see everything more clearly.”

He nodded once, his expression still tight. “That’d be great, thanks.”

Leaving the refreshment tray, she exited the office, able to breathe again now that she was out of Ivanov’s presence. She usually towered over most people, or was at least the same height as most men in her heels, but not him. She hated that.

It was rare that someone made her feel off her game, but he did. After what his family had done to hers, what his father had done to her mother… She swallowed hard, shoved all those thoughts aside as she focused on her job. She could get through this morning then he’d be gone and she’d never have to see him again.

Unfortunately, an hour later she found that not to be true. Porter and Ivanov walked back into her office as she was getting off a phone call.

“Dominique, if you can spare the time, would you mind walking Mr. Ivanov out? He has some questions about Red Stone and I told him you’re the best person to answer anything.” He smiled, a genuine one as he turned back to the big thug. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Ivanov half-smiled. “I have an assistant like that as well. She keeps me in line.” There was just a hint of an accent in his voice.

She knew he’d been born in the States, was an American, but his father and she was pretty sure his mother had both been born in Russia. It explained his slight accent.

Even though she wanted to say no, there was no way she ever would. No matter her feelings for this man, she would do her job. Porter had placed a lot of faith in her the last few months and she’d already gotten one raise. She wasn’t going to screw this job up. Smiling, she stood from her desk.

“Of course. Don’t forget, ten o’clock.”

Porter blinked once, letting her know he actually had forgotten, then nodded. “Right. I’ve got everything ready to go.”

He’d been part of the security team for so long that she guessed transferring to a more admin position had been an adjustment for the former Marine.

Keeping her fake smile in place she nodded at Ivanov and motioned toward the elevators. “So what would you like to know about Red Stone?”
Ugh.
She hoped he wasn’t looking to hire the company. Though she wasn’t sure they’d even take him on. Porter’s dad, the founder, had an intense vetting process, even for their clients. He didn’t take on known criminals, no matter how much money they had.

BOOK: Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security Series) (Volume 13)
5.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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