Russian Mobster's Forbidden Mistress (7 page)

“I wondered where you were.” She wrapped her arms around her midsection as if she were determined to hold herself together. “I suppose you heard us fighting like little kids?”

“All that was missing was the hair pulling,” Josef agreed.

“Yeah, I did like to go for hair.” She nodded her head, her gaze focused on something far away that he couldn’t see. “I scratched a lot too. Today I could have happily scratched out his eyeballs.”

“That wouldn’t be productive.” Josef moved closer, unable to let any distance remain between them. He caught her light, feminine scent. It was as enticing as ever.

“I need you to talk to Papa.” She turned and looked up into his face when she made the request. “You have to tell him the truth about Igor Rusnak.”

“What truth?” Josef frowned. “Your father has known Igor since he was a child. It’s not like it’s some big secret the way he’s turned out.”

“But Papa
doesn’t
know, Josef,” she argued. “Papa told me that Igor is a wonderful man who will love and cherish me. He seems to be under the impression that Igor is a fine upstanding gentleman. You can’t tell me that you believe that.”

Josef pursed his lips and tried not to seem as uncomfortable as he felt. “You’re putting me in a really tough spot here, Dani. Are you suggesting that your brother has deliberately deceived your father about Igor?”

“Hell yes!” Dani said emphatically. “Just talk to Papa, all right? Be honest with him. That’s all I’m asking.”

Josef sighed. “I feel like I’m going to regret this.”

“No, you won’t. I promise!” She flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

The contact seared him to the core. It felt so good to have her against him. She was soft and warm. Instinct demanded he wrap his arms around her and kiss her until she was too sated to think about leaving his side.

Instead, he deliberately set her away from his body and turned toward the elder Mikalevich’s suite. He had been inside the room many times over the last year. Each time was a special sort of torture. Josef hated to see the man who had dominated so much of his youth lying in bed as though he were weak as a babe.

The darkness of the room was oppressive. Josef couldn’t see the nurse anywhere and wondered where she was. The man was supposed to have constant supervision. Instead he was lying in the bed alone with the covers pulled up. His frail body was barely half the size of the robust man he was only two years before.

“Papa Mikalevich?” Josef had used that title since boyhood when addressing the man who had more or less taken him in.

“Josef?” The elder Mikhail wheezed and then tried to cough. “Is that you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Come in and sit with me awhile.”

Josef did as he was asked, taking the chair that sat beside the bed. Leaning forward, Josef rested his elbows on his knees and tried to get his thoughts together.

“You have much on your mind,” Mikalevich said gravely. “I might be almost blind, but I can feel your frustration.”

“You took me in when I was just a boy,” Josef said suddenly. He didn’t know where these words were coming from. Guilt perhaps? “You were my role model. I can remember being so incredibly jealous of Mikhail and Daniella that they had a father who cared so much for them when mine never even claimed me as his son.”

“That was his loss,” Mikalevich said quietly. “I believe he knew that eventually, but it was too late for him to go back.”

Josef hadn’t come here to talk about the man who had sired him. “I don’t like to see Mikhail and Dani at odds like they are right now.”

“Neither do I.”

Josef swallowed. This was harder than he’d thought. “Dani is concerned that you truly believe she should marry Igor Rusnak.”

“And you do not?” The old man’s eyebrows lifted as he tried to focus on Josef’s face.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Igor treats women like trash to be used and then discarded. The man has scattered bastards all across the city.” Josef thought about Dani. “I would hope better for a woman like Daniella.”

“I am confused.” The sunken face took on a deep frown. “Mikhail has told me that Igor has turned over a new leaf. That he has been solicitous toward Daniella and respectful toward our family. Mikhail believes that Igor wants this alliance as much as we do.”

“I imagine that much is true,” Josef concurred. “About wanting the alliance, I mean. Igor stands to gain quite a lot of cash should he start taking a small percentage of all of our imports as opposed to a large chunk of what he can manage to get his hands on.”

“Mutually beneficial?” The elder Mikhail sounded confused. “That doesn’t sound like enough of a reason to give a sister in marriage.”

“I imagine Mikhail sees other benefits,” Josef said lamely. The old man was right. Where was the real advantage in this arrangement? “But I can tell you that Igor has not changed at all. He is the same man. He is the same as when he was a young boy.”

“Why would Mikhail deceive me?”

The tone of the old man’s voice tugged on Josef’s heart. He was also starting to feel more than a little disloyal to his friend. It was a bit like tattling and it didn’t set well at all.

“You love my son.” The old man reached out with one papery hand.

Josef gently took the hand offered. “Yes. Mikhail is like my brother.”

“I want you to discover why he is doing this.”

Josef’s belly knotted with apprehension. This was going to put him in an untenable position. “Sir?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t understand,” the old man admonished. “You are uniquely positioned to discover the truth of this matter. Mikhail trusts you. Find out if he truly has ulterior motives for deceiving me about Igor’s character, or if he has been misinformed.”

“You’re hoping that’s what this is about?” Josef asked softly.

“As are you, Josef. Neither of us wants to believe Mikhail capable of lying to our faces.”

Chapter Nine

Dani sat on the tree branch, waiting to see if Josef would appear in the yard below. She half hoped he would, and yet dreaded his appearance. What if he had discovered something bad when he’d spoken with her father?

The night air was cool on her cheeks. The spicy scent of the tree was almost overwhelming. Her butt was just starting to go numb when she heard the back door open and close down below. A few moments later she caught the scent of cigarette smoke over the tree’s pungent aroma.

“Are you going to attempt the climb down tonight?” Josef’s low voice drifted up from the ground.

She peered down into the dark shadows of the yard, careful not to accidentally pitch forward. “I was thinking about it, but the getting back up is so problematic.”

“Ah,” he mused thoughtfully. “Yet we managed.”

“I was standing on your shoulders so awkwardly that I think I might have actually stepped on your face.” She recalled the incident with mixed feelings. “It was fun, but kind of embarrassing.”

“You put far too much importance on projecting an image of complete knowledge,” he informed her.

“What does that even mean?” she asked with a laugh. Grabbing a tiny twig complete with leaves, she tossed it down at him.

“It means that you’re obsessed with making everyone think that you absolutely know what you’re doing.” Surprisingly, he caught the twig. Twirling it between his fingers, he walked closer to the base of the tree. “I would think that would be exhausting, but that’s only my opinion.”

“What did my father say?” she asked, finally unable to hold back her curiosity any longer.

“I wondered when you would ask.”

“So?”

“I believe that you were right.”

She realized that his words were vague. “Wait. So Papa is okay that I don’t want to marry Igor?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“If Mikhail lied to him, then why wouldn’t Papa change his mind about the marriage?” It seemed like a no-brainer to Dani.

“He has trouble believing that Mikhail would knowingly deceive him.”

Dani was outraged. “Oh, but I would?”

“Look, I just do what I’m bid.” Josef seemed frustrated. “Fortunately for you, the wedding day isn’t tomorrow.”

“Yeah? Well what am I supposed to do? Wait two years and
then
worry about it?”

Josef made a little growling sound in his throat. “Give it some time.”

“Papa doesn’t
have
time!” Dani felt almost panicked. “What happens when he passes away and Mikhail makes promises on my behalf?”

“As you pointed out, this is not the Dark Ages. You’re a modern, independent woman. Right?”

So why did she feel so helpless about this situation? Carefully standing up, Dani put her hand against the main trunk of the tree to steady herself. The bark was rough beneath her bare feet. She focused on that tactile sensation and not the strange feeling in her heart.

“Dani?”

“What?” she snapped. She sent a hot glare below.

“I usually come out here to smoke around now.”

Dani paused in the act of going back over the railing of her balcony. “Wait. Are you telling me that because you want to hang out with me or something?”

His low laugh made her shiver. “Or something.”

“What does that mean?” she demanded. Leaning over the balcony, she struggled to see Josef’s face or body language in the dim light. “Don’t pretend you don’t want to see me again.”

“I’m not pretending.” He stepped into the glow of the carriage lamps and she could see that he was staring up at her with a very intense expression on his handsome face. “I know I want to spend more time with you. I know I shouldn’t. I know that it’s putting me precariously close to violating Mikhail’s trust.”

“Hanging out with me is violating Mikhail’s trust?” Dani didn’t exactly buy that.

“Not the hanging out part,” he teased. “We only hung out for a few hours last night. The rest was decidedly
more
.”

Dani inhaled sharply. Yes. Everything else last night had most definitely fallen under the heading of
more
.

* * *

Josef turned and walked back up the steps and through the back door of the house without giving Dani any more of an answer to her half-asked question. He still felt incredibly conflicted about the line he was crossing by exploring his infatuation with her.

“There you are,” Mikhail said, his tone almost grouchy.

Josef glanced around the kitchen. It was just the two of them this evening. “No cards tonight?”

“No. There is a shipment coming in tonight, and Vasily and Boris were going to handle that problem with the bookie across town.” Mikhail sat down at the kitchen counter with a bottle of beer and a huge slice of cake. He suddenly gestured to his impromptu snack. “Help yourself, Josef. What’s mine is yours.”

The words needled Josef’s already tender conscience. He swallowed back a lump, feeling uncomfortable. “I spoke with your father today,” Josef began slowly. He took a seat on a stool beside Mikhail. “He asked me what I thought about your sister marrying Igor.”

Mikhail snorted, shoving a huge bite of cake into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. “What could the old man mean by asking you that? Why would you even have an opinion?”

“I think he was more interested in being certain that Igor is a good man.” Josef felt as if he were tiptoeing across a tightrope suspended over a thousand feet of open air.

“Igor!” Mikhail slammed his bottle down on the counter. “That little shit? If I didn’t want immunity from the fees he slaps on anything that comes into port, I wouldn’t think him worthy of marrying into the Mikalevich family.”

“So you don’t think he’ll make Daniella happy?” Josef felt his hopes plummet. This was not going well.

“Happy?” Mikhail scoffed. “That spoiled princess can be happy on her own time. She needs to fulfill her duty to the family just as everyone else does. Happiness is a privilege to be paid for. It isn’t earned or given.”

“You
do
realize that you can’t actually make Daniella marry Igor, right?” Josef wondered what else his friend had up his sleeve.

“You sound like a feminist.” Mikhail belched loudly and gave a hearty laugh. “Shall I get you a bandage for your bleeding heart?”

“I’m just pointing out the obvious.” Josef lifted his hands in surrender. “You can’t force anyone into marriage.”

“I can make their life a living hell if they don’t do what I want,” Mikhail said belligerently. “And that’s what Daniella is going to discover if she doesn’t cooperate.”

Josef stared at his friend until Mikhail finally met his gaze. “She’s your sister,” Josef said quietly. “Why would you do anything to deliberately hurt her?”

“I keep thinking that there is some reason you seem to be taking her side in all of this.” Mikhail’s words came slowly.

“The two of you have been my family,” Josef said quickly. “That is all. Your father tasked me with looking out for her when we were young.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. Although Josef was pretty certain that sleeping with Dani most definitely didn’t fall within the boundaries of that request.

“No. This is more.” Mikhail leaned in closer, until Josef could smell the beer and sugar on his breath. “If I discover that you are somehow going behind my back to destroy this alliance with the Rusnaks, you and I will have a problem. Do you understand?”

The hair lifted on the back of Josef’s neck. His own alpha male instincts were roaring at him to get in Mikhail’s face and remind him which one of them was more dangerous in a fight.

“Do you get me?” Mikhail curled his lip, the aggression rolling off his body in waves.

“Do not mistake loyalty for cowardice,” Josef said quietly. “I have responsibilities to the entire family. Never forget that. And never forget that until your father passes away, he is my boss.”

Mikhail blinked in surprise. “My father?”

Josef inwardly cursed his stupidity in drawing attention to that detail. He could see the wheels turning in Mikhail’s head. No doubt his friend would work things out and realize that the elder Mikhail had asked Josef to investigate.

“Know your place,” Mikhail said suddenly. “Or you might find that it is not as secure as you once believed.”