He opens his mouth to snap back, but before he can, my phone starts vibrating in my hand.
“Cousin,” Dimiv’s voice comes through from the other side when I answer. “I’ve got some news from the guy I’ve got trailing Elena Chernoff and her boy. You’re… not gonna like it, I’m afraid.”
I sit up straighter. “What is it?”
“Their trail went cold about an hour ago.”
That’s not the only thing going cold right now. “What do you mean?”
“He followed them into a shopping mall. They shopped around for a bit and then they went into the food court. That’s where he lost sight of them.”
“Their security?”
“Left the mall without them. Which means—”
“Sobakin had them extracted,” I growl, resisting the urge to fling my phone out the window. “Fuck!”
“He’s planning something, Uri.”
“No shit. And now, he’s got the woman and the boy under his protection so he can move on me and my family without reservations. Blyat’。 That boy was our leverage!”
“We’ll find another way to get to him.”
When I hang up, I can feel Nikolai’s eyes boring a hole in the side of my face. “What?” I snap.
“You can’t afford to be this distracted.”
I glare at him. “I’m not.”
Nikolai’s lips purse up as he turns his gaze away from me. Hard as it is for me to admit it, even to myself, he’s right: I can’t get distracted anymore.
It’s time to get my head in the game.
It’s time to find that motherfucker and end him once and for all.
40
ALYSSA
I inch my way towards the porch, where Uri is standing with his back to me. “I want every security measure we have fortified. And I want another sweep of the property…” He runs a hand through his hair. “… I know and I don’t care. Just do it.”
He hangs up and puts his phone away. “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath, still unaware that I’m watching him. I move in a little closer, waiting for him to notice me like he always does because the man has the peripheral vision and spatial awareness of a damn ninja.
But… still nothing.
Could this really be my time to catch him by surprise? Wonders never cease.
He’s got both hands resting on the porch railing, gazing out at the forest beyond. Closer… closer… I jump forward and wrap my arms around him.
“Gotcha!”
His fist is clenched and up and halfway towards punching a crater into the side of my head before he realizes who is giving him the anaconda treatment around the midsection. “Blyat’，” he grumbles. “Don’t do that.”
“I can’t believe I actually got you,” I say in amazement. “Does this mean I’m the pakhan now?”
He glares down at me as the hand that was just one second ago on a collision course with my face comes to settle protectively around my shoulders instead. “You are supposed to be in bed.”
“I’ve been in bed all morning. I needed to stretch my legs.”
“Stretch them around your room. You shouldn’t be walking up and down those stairs too often.”
I roll my eyes. “Methinks you might be taking the doctor’s advice a little too seriously.”
“Whereas you aren’t taking his advice at all.”
I wrap my arms around his torso. “I’ve been a freaking girl scout all this time. Model patient. But it’s boring up in my room, Uri. There’s only so many books a girl can read. Only so many movies a girl can watch. Only so many naps a girl can take.”
“The day you reach your napping limit will be a worrying day for all of us.” He glances past me towards the open door that leads to the kitchen. “But if you want me to come tuck you in myself, all you have to do is ask.”
My throat is suddenly dry. It’s really, truly unfair how he can do that. One murmured suggestion about anything even remotely bedroom-related and boom, I’m putty in his hands.
“Is that a threat or a promise?” I tease back, biting my lower lip.
“Careful, narushitel—you keep looking at me like that and we won’t even make it to bed. I might just have to spread you out on the kitchen table.”
“Ew, please don’t.” I whirl around to see Polly coming down the steps, wincing uncomfortably at what she just overheard. “We eat on that table.”
“Pol!” Uri says in surprise. “You’re looking… better.”