Under the Skin (17 page)

Alexei rolled to his side, sliding from Patrick’s body and pushing to sit at the edge of the bench, unable to meet the plea in his lover’s eyes. He would never be free of them, not completely, but there was no way he could expect Patrick to understand that. “It is not so simple,” he said harshly. “I am no better than Konstantin—worse, in fact. He at least had no choice in what he has become.”

“Did you?” Patrick challenged, sitting up as well. He refused to accept that Alexei was the greater criminal here. “From the little you’ve told me, it seems like the only true choice you made was to become
vor
rather than simply stay a bodyguard. And while I hate that you had to make that choice, I do understand it. Or do you not want free of this tangle we’ve landed ourselves in? I thought—” Patrick shut his mouth quickly, not daring to say that he’d thought Alexei might share his dreams, however slim, of some kind of future together. He had never said as much, but their last few meetings had given Patrick hope. False hope, it seemed.

“I’m sorry. I should know better than to make assumptions.” Patrick started to rise, shoulders slumped. “I’ll do what I can to keep Konstantin out of jail, but I can only do so much, particularly if his file lands on someone else’s desk.” Picking up the towel Alexei had tucked beneath his head, he wrapped it around his waist. “You’d better get back to him. He might start wondering where you disappeared to.”

Patrick’s withdrawal wrenched something in Alexei’s chest that, before meeting the young policeman, he would have sworn long dead. “Konstantin means nothing,” he repeated, rising to stand before his lover, tattooed fingers caressing a smooth cheek. “He means nothing to me,” he insisted, though even that was not wholly true, but he could not explain the muddle of emotions he felt for the younger
vor
without giving away secrets that were not his to reveal.

“If that’s true,” Patrick asked, leaning into the touch, seeking the reassurance he desperately needed, “then why won’t you leave him? Nobody would ever have to know you helped me.” He knew he was begging, was fully aware of how pathetic that surely made him in Alexei’s eyes, but he could feel any future they might have had slipping through his fingers. Why he felt sure this was his only chance, he couldn’t have said, but instinct told him that if Alexei went back now, all hope of tearing him away from the
vory
was gone.

Alexei would give anything in that moment to be able to tell Patrick the truth—anything but the revenge that had become the only purpose left in his life decades before. The only meaning—until now. He closed his eyes and let his hand fall to his side. Opening them to meet Patrick’s troubled gaze, he offered all he could, knowing it would not be enough. “I cannot. There is something I must do, something I need him to achieve.” Inhaling deeply, he held his breath, gambling everything on his next words. “Can you trust me?”

Chapter 12

K
ONSTANTIN
was waiting at Alexei’s apartment when he returned from the gym, making Alexei glad he’d taken the time to shower after Patrick left. Konstantin was edgy enough between Fyodor’s arrest and the abortive drug deal, already suspicious that Alexei had insisted he had business to wrap up before they could talk. The last thing he needed was to show up reeking of sex.

“Where were you?” Konstantin demanded as they walked inside. “We had cops at electronics store and at home. I barely escape them.”

“Cleaning up after your fucking mess,” Alexei snapped. The time for kowtowing to Konstantin’s every whim was over. The trick would be to turn Konstantin’s instinctive obedience to his father’s authority to Alexei instead, to lead Konstantin without his realizing he was being led. “You see now why
vory
stay away from fucking drugs? If you were arrested for possession and intent to distribute, minimum mandatory sentence is ten years.
Ten years
, Konstantin. Is federal charge, not local.” He let his voice soften, cajoling rather than condemning. “You are head of family now, Konstantin. Is chance for you to prove what you can do without your father’s interference. You and me, Kostya. Together, we show them all.”

“Sorry, Lyoha,” Konstantin said, draping his arm around Alexei’s shoulders. Alexei wasn’t sure if it was the threat of serious jail time or the lure of proving himself without his father’s control that led to Konstantin’s sudden contrition, but he would use it in either case. “I should listen to you,
da
? So what I do now?”

Alexei ran a comradely arm around Konstantin in turn. “I talk to police after raid. They have questions about your father. Would be better if you go to them, rather than let them pick you up. Show them you have nothing to hide, eh?”

“Nothing to hide?” Konstantin repeated. “We have too much to hide. What about my father?”

“You are
vor
—you tell them nothing,” Alexei assured him. “Whatever questions they ask about your father, you don’t know what they’re talking about. If they ask where you were the night
politsiya
was killed, tell them you were with me.”

“
Da
,” Konstantin said slowly. “When I am head of family, you will still help me? We will be partners, eh?”

“You are head of family now, Konstantin. Cops will not let Fyodor get away with killing one of their own. You must be smarter than he was, not make same mistakes.” Alexei squeezed Konstantin’s shoulder, ignoring the memory of Patrick asking what Konstantin was to him. “I am here for you, whatever you need. Partners,
da
.”

“So we should go now?” Konstantin asked. “Before they look for me here?”

“That is good idea,” Alexei agreed. “I get car and drive you there.”

Alexei used the trip to the police station to coach Konstantin on what he needed to remember when dealing with the police. “They try to confuse you, trick you up. Don’t tell them anything. If they ask about your father, you know nothing about his dealings. If they ask where you were when cop was shot, you were with me. Remember, Konstantin.”

“
Da
,
da
,” Konstantin replied, his impatience clear in his voice. “I do what you say.”

Alexei hoped the younger man’s impatience wouldn’t ruin everything, but it was out of Alexei’s control. He had to let Konstantin walk into the precinct by himself and hope for the best. “Leave guns here,” he prompted before Konstantin got out of the car, concealing them in the storage well between the seats and finding an empty space in the lot to park. Then he settled in to wait.

He expected to be called in for questioning himself once Konstantin told the police he’d been with Alexei the night the detective was killed. Alexei wasn’t worried—he’d been subjected to far worse interrogation techniques than anything the American police would try, with their Miranda rights and taped interviews. And when his story and Konstantin’s corroborated each other, any allegations Fyodor might make against either of them would be refuted.

Fyodor wasn’t stupid, and when the gun he had planted in Alexei’s apartment showed up in his own vehicle, along with the dead cop’s wallet and a packet of drugs Alexei had snagged from Konstantin’s supply, he would have known Alexei was behind his arrest. That did not worry Alexei in the least. There might be no fingerprints on the gun, but Konstantin had seen Fyodor check the dead man’s wallet and then return it to his pocket the night he’d shot him, and once ballistics confirmed that the gun had fired the bullets that killed the detective, there would be no chance for Fyodor to weasel his way out of a conviction. He’d face life in prison at least, the death penalty at worst. Alexei felt not one grain of remorse at his part in making Fyodor pay. The old
vor
had more crimes than just this killing to answer for, and while vengeance could not bring the dead back to life, it brought its own grim satisfaction.

And if Konstantin broke and admitted being anywhere other than with Alexei, he had other ways of protecting his own skin.

It took nearly two hours before Konstantin rejoined him. “They want to talk to you. I give them your number.”

As if on cue, Alexei’s cell phone rang. “Boczar.”

“Mr. Boczar, this is Detective Li with the Chicago Police. We’d like to talk with you concerning Konstantin and Fyodor Volkov.”

“Am always happy to cooperate with police,” Alexei said. “I should come to you?”

“To the Area 3 headquarters on Belmont.”

“I will be there in hour,” Alexei answered. Never mind that he was sitting in the parking lot now. He needed to take Konstantin home. He didn’t want Konstantin around when he dealt with the cops.

The detective thanked Alexei and hung up.

“What happens now?” Konstantin asked.

“Now you go home.” Alexei put the car in gear and pulled out onto Belmont Avenue. “Tomorrow will be busy day. You need to start running things now. I will be there to help you,” he added when he saw the panicked expression on Konstantin’s face. “You will show your father, the other
vory
, all of them, what Konstantin Volkov can do.”

“
Da
, Lyoha,” Konstantin agreed with a wide smile. “We will show them all. We will be strongest family in Chicago.”

Alexei refrained from rolling his eyes. With Fyodor’s arrest, he had fulfilled half his promise. He only needed to keep his new boss under control until he could fulfill the rest.

Having left Konstantin at home, Alexei returned to the precinct, leaving his own weapons in the car as he had made Konstantin do. He hoped he wouldn’t run into Patrick there, though this late at night he expected the detective was off shift. He didn’t want anything to put his lover’s career at risk.

“May I help you?”

“Alexei Boczar. Detective Li wishes to speak with me.”

“One moment, Mr. Boczar,” the receptionist said. “I’ll let Detective Li know you’re here.”

A few minutes later, a slender Asian detective appeared to escort him through a metal detector before leading him upstairs into an empty office. “This isn’t a formal interrogation, Mr. Boczar,” he explained. “You aren’t accused of any crime. We just want to ask some questions about your involvement with Fyodor Volkov.”

“I answer what I can,” Alexei replied.

“First, can you confirm your whereabouts for Wednesday night between ten and two?”

Alexei let nothing show on his face, but his gut tightened as he remembered the feeling of sleeping with Patrick in his arms. “I was with Konstantin Volkov at his apartment all evening. He is my employer.”

“That’s not what Fyodor Volkov says. He said Konstantin Volkov was with him.”

Alexei shrugged. “I do not control what Fyodor says. I only know where I was.”

“He also says he had taken Konstantin outside to rebuke him for his involvement with the Chechen drug trade. He states that you were staffing the electronics store when Detective Stachowicz was killed.”

“He is mistaken, or perhaps he is lying for reasons of his own.” Alexei could have ended this farce by simply admitting that he had been with one of the department’s own detectives, but he would never put Patrick in a position that would appear in any way improper. Besides, it wasn’t necessary.

As if the timing had been coordinated with his thought, the door opened and an imposing black detective stalked into the room.

“Lieutenant Graves,” Li stammered at the senior officer’s glare.

“What’s going on here, Detective?” Graves barked. “Didn’t you read the note in Mr. Boczar’s jacket that I was to be informed at once if he was brought in?”

Li fumbled through the manila folder on the desk in front of him. “I didn’t see any note, Lieutenant. I didn’t know you were involved with this case, or I would have informed you at once.”

“Well, you know now, Detective.” The larger man folded his arms while Li scrambled to his feet and toward the door. “I’ll take it from here.”

Chapter 13

“
C
AN
you trust me?”

Alexei’s words had echoed in Patrick’s head for days. He hadn’t known what to say that night, had ended up replying honestly that he didn’t know. And the question had haunted him ever since. He’d told Reba he trusted Alexei, but it was one thing to trust his information. It was another thing entirely to blindly trust Alexei to deal with his career, his future, his life. He had no real reason to trust Alexei and a multitude of reasons not to, the stars on the Russian’s shoulders just one among thousands. And yet despite all the evidence to the contrary, all the reasons to say no, he’d wanted to say yes, even then.