Deceitful Vows (Marital Privileges #2)

53. Zoya

53

ZOYA

W hen I spot a familiar face in the crowd, I tell Aleena that I will catch up with her in a minute. Maksim hired a stretch limousine filled with security guards to take us to our concert, so it isn’t like our transport will leave without me.

“Do you want me to wait?” Nikita asks when she realizes who has caught my eye.

It isn’t the man I’ve been trying to rile into making contact all day.

It is his younger brother.

“No. It’s fine. I’ll only be a minute.”

“Okay,” she murmurs before begrudgingly walking away.

We talked today, so she is aware of some of what I’m going through. She knows Andrik is married or getting married and that I had Maksim return the bribe I accepted from his father. I was just a little light on the reason I can’t assist Andrik with his ruse, and how it could have dire consequences on his son if he were to call it off.

I’d never get off her shrink couch if I gave her all the details in one sitting.

“Hey,” I greet when Mikhail spots me gawking at him at the end of the bar.

His glum expression switches to glee. “Hot damn, Sunshine. The masseuse didn’t force him to pull his head out of his ass, but that dress sure as fuck will.”

I curtsy like I didn’t purposely wear this dress to coerce Andrik out of hiding before joining him at his side of the bar.

“Does your brother know that you’re drinking at a rival’s bar?”

I don’t know much about mafia men except they wear exceptionally tailored suits, so my assumption that Andrik and Maksim are rivals is pure speculation. Maksim’s arrogance after his meeting with Andrik adds to my theory.

“He would if he’d answer any of my calls. He cut me off.” His laugh stabs my chest with pain. “Emotionally and financially.”

I dump my purse on the sticky counter like I have nowhere else to be before plonking my backside on the barstool next to him. “Why? What happened?”

“I have no fucking clue. It finally felt like he was letting me in, then bam! I’m out in the cold again.”

I wish I couldn’t sympathize with how he’s feeling.

Unfortunately, I can.

“Do you want to help me pull his head out of his ass?” He looks so desperate for a solution to his dilemma that I don’t wait for him to answer me. “We’re going out. Booze. Dancing. And enough sweat to intermingle scents in a jealous-provoking way.”

Mikhail twists his lips, fighting a grin. “He will kill me.”

“He’d have to be standing in front of you to do that.”

Now he smiles. “Are you sure you’re ready for the consequences this could cause, Sunshine? I won’t be the only one in the shit.”

“If it gives you a chance to talk some sense into him, I’m all for it.” As flashbacks of his argument with his father play in my head, I say, “I don’t want whatever is going on between Andrik and me to affect your relationship with your family. I care about you, Mikhail. You’re like the big brother I never had.”

He noogies my head in an annoying little brother way. “I feel the same, pip squeak. But can we save the declarations of love until we’re in an area where a ton of people will hear them? Maksim locked this place up like a vault last night. Anyone would swear the king’s jewels are stored in his penthouse.”

Since he isn’t far from the truth, I remain quiet.

After slipping off his seat and digging some bills out of his pocket, he tosses them onto the bar and then curls his arm around my shoulders. “All right. Let’s get this show on the road before I have to woo women into my bed with charm instead of an impressive bank balance.”

“Mikhail…”

“I’m joking, Sunshine. My dick reels them in even better than the millions Andrik doesn’t know about.”

The first several hours of our night are a hoot. We dance, drink, and party like I assume people our age did in 1999. However, we don’t see a single sighting of Andrik.

Either he’s left town or our dance moves looked as awkward as they felt.

Mikhail is devastatingly handsome, but there is no spark between us whatsoever. It was like a brother and sister dancing at their grandparents’ silver wedding anniversary dinner. You do it to appease your parents, but you get no joy out of it whatsoever.

After assisting Aleena out of the stretch limousine, I drift my eyes to Mikhail.

He is as sober as I am.

“Do you want to come up?”

He looks at an almost-passed-out Aleena before he returns his eyes to my face. When he shakes his head, I smile. He hates vomit as much as I do.

“Let me get her to bed, and then I’ll join you for a nightcap.”

We leave tomorrow morning, so tonight could be the last time I’ll see Mikhail for months. I don’t want to waste the opportunity to strengthen our friendship for something as unsatisfying as sleep.

He wishes me luck for a vomit-free transition before he heads for the bar to save me a seat.

Nikita and I practically carry Aleena to the elevators.

Nikita laughs when Aleena mumbles how much she loves me into my neck.

“And you thought I was a lightweight.”

“You are,” I tease before quietly returning Aleena’s declaration of love.

I’m not ashamed to admit I love her. I’ve just never spoken those words to anyone but the woman standing next to us, and the remembrance has me wishing I had a way to contact Andrik. I could ask Maksim, but I don’t want to stretch how accommodating he has been.

Furthermore, he’s giving Nikita the world, and I don’t want anything to risk her accepting his plentiful offerings.

Aleena settles faster tonight than the previous two. It’s not hard to crave sleep when you’re burning the candle at both ends.

Nikita’s head pops up from a glossy magazine when she hears me enter the living room. “All settled?”

“Finally.” I flop onto the seat next to her, exhausted. “Today was…”—confusing and cathartic but also what dreams are made of, so I settle with—“amazing.” I twist my torso to face her. “Thank you so much.”

She brushes off my comment as if it is weightless. “Don’t thank me. I didn’t do anything.”

I smack her in the face with a pillow. “No prenup, baby. So any gift from Maksim today was also a gift from you.”

Any knocks my ego endured today become non-existent when she says, “I’ve seriously had the best day of my life. I never would have predicted that would be the statement that ended my day when I woke up this morning.”

“Then what are you still doing here? Why aren’t you taking full advantage of the alone time before we fly home tomorrow? I love Gigi, but you know as well as I do that if Maksim makes you scream like you did earlier today, she’ll take his head off with a baseball bat.”

“Z!”

“What? It was so hot I’m seriously reconsidering my stance on sex club parties.” Next time I might ask Maksim to keep the lights on. “You don’t have to participate, but what are your thoughts on this pose?” I leap onto the couch, arch over it, then shake my tooshie. “Too risqué or tastefully nasty?”

She spanks my ass, adding to the welts Andrik’s hand left yesterday, before she leaps to her feet and heads to her bedroom.

“Are you seriously staying here? He had one request, Keet. One!”

She thinks because her back is to me that I can’t see her eye roll.

She’s wrong.

“It’s late.”

“Don’t act like he isn’t awake, awaiting your return.”

I hide the burn my prolonged wait last night caused my heart by following Nikita into her bedroom. I almost laugh when she squashes her ear to the wall separating our penthouse suite from Maksim’s.

“I don’t want to wake him if he’s asleep.”

“He isn’t asleep.” When I mimic her snooping ass, I learn there is more honesty to my statement than first believed. Maksim isn’t asleep. He isn’t alone, either.

“Maybe it’s the TV?”

“That isn’t the TV.” Nikita’s voice has an edge of pain to it. “There’s nothing but infomercials on at this time of the night, and her voice is too young to be an infomercial host.”

I try to recall if Maksim’s quick scroll through his calendar this morning mentioned a Raya when he says, “I appreciate you coming, Raya. I know it is late, and you’ve traveled a long way, but hopefully I made the trip worthwhile.”

“Of course you did.” Nikita heaves, not missing the ambiguity in Raya’s reply. She either wants to fuck Maksim or has. I hope it is the former.

Maksim’s deep timbre pulls away from us as he says, “Let me know if you need anything.”

He must be walking.

I realize Raya’s hoping for the former when she replies, “I wouldn’t say no to a chaperon to my car.”

When footsteps sound through the door, I lock eyes with Nikita, silently promise her she has nothing to worry about, and then sprint for the entryway of our suite.

I beat Nikita to the peephole. I’m glad. The visual of Maksim walking a redheaded woman down the hall isn’t incriminating, but it would turn the gut of even the most confident woman.

Regretfully, Nikita isn’t one of them.

A second after I inch back from the peephole, she takes my place. She blinks three times before she sinks away from the door, spins, and then flattens her back against the glossy wood.

I can see a million thoughts shifting through her head before she settles on the one I often land on when trying to work out why Andrik went from meeting me and being married in hours.

“Maybe he wasn’t expecting me to give it up so easily.”

“No, Nikita. This isn’t on you. And we don’t even know what this is. She could be an acquaintance? Maybe she helped him arrange all the things he did today?”

“His hand was on her ass. They’re more than colleagues.”

Maksim hasn’t given any reason to lose my trust, so I won’t let my insecurities tear him down. “No, it wasn’t. It was near it but not on it.” When she glares at me, disgusted I am taking his side, I say, “You don’t see how he looks at you. He’s crazy about you.”

“The only thing he’s crazy about is thinking I will let this slide. It is two in the morning. No one has business meetings at two in the morning.”

When she snatches up a chair from the dining room and wedges it under the door handle, I can’t help but laugh. That will keep a man like Maksim out for only thirty seconds. If that.

My smile slips when the beep of a key card being scanned over an electronic lock sounds into the penthouse. The door handle jingles before a commanding yet surprisingly in control voice says, “Nikita, open the door. I know you’re there. I can see your shadow under the door.” Maksim tests the lock again before adding, “You have twenty minutes. If you’re not in my bed in twenty minutes, I will come get you.”

I wait for Maksim’s shadow to disappear from underneath the door before asking, “What are you going to do?”

Nikita shrugs. “Nothing. I’m not going to do a damn thing.”

It takes me a minute, and when the truth finally smacks into me, everything makes sense.

“You want him to fight for your attention. You’re disappointed he didn’t knock down that door and drag you to his bed.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I want to sleep on the same sheets he just messed with another woman?”

“Because you know he didn’t do anything.” I can’t believe I missed the signs for so many years. “I get it. I understand why you feel this way. But you need to stop punishing every guy you meet for something your dad did. He chose to go after the people who hurt your mom, knowing it would take him away from you as well. Maksim?—”

“Is a stranger! So stop acting like he isn’t!”

When she races to her room, a soft hand shoots out, halting me from going after her.

“It’ll be okay,” Aleena whispers like she’s well-versed on arrogant, dominant men.

She’s right. Only seconds later, I hear a manly voice say, “Twenty minutes was far too generous.”

My mouth gapes when Nikita’s door pops open and Maksim walks out with her tossed over his shoulder and whacking into his back. She kicks and hits him while screaming to be placed down. There’s no steam in her fight, no heat, because he is reacting exactly as she had hoped.

“I so want that,” I murmur to myself.

My eyes sling to Aleena when she says, “Then why aren’t you doing everything you can to have it?” I poke my tongue at her when she giggles. “If that’s what you were endeavoring to do when you were air-humping Mikhail’s crotch from three feet away, you need to devise another tactic. That was more PG appropriate than having your mother chaperone your prom date.” I realize I could possibly be a bad influence when she quotes, “If you want to make a man tick, get him thinking with his dick.”

She smiles when I groan. She can. She doesn’t understand how jealous Andrik is. When his green head rears, he’s like a bull in a china shop. But also, she’s right. If I want to coerce Andrik out of hiding, I need more than a risqué hemline and slutty shoes.

As Andrik would say, I have to play this game with the integrity it deserves.

“Drink this.” I thrust a bottle of water into Aleena’s chest before tossing her pain medication and a vitamin B tablet. “Swallow these. And then wish me luck. I’m going to need it.”

“I doubt it,” she replies, tripling my confidence. “But I will give it to you anyway.” She throws her arm in the air and shouts like a cheerleader. “Good luck!”

I am so pumped with nervous recklessness that I make it to the hotel lobby in the blink of an eye. Have you ever driven the same route over and over again that it is only after you put the car in park that you wonder how the hell you got there in one piece? That’s what I’m experiencing now.

One minute, I am racing for the door of the penthouse suite.

The next minute, I’m entering the hotel bar, seeking Mikhail amongst the crowd.

I have the pick of a dozen men, but Mikhail is the only one I am certain will survive my ruse, so I veer my steps toward him.

“Hey, Suns?—”

I cut him off by pressing our lips together.

I’m not going to lie. Our kiss is awkward as fuck. There’s no tongue. No heat. Not a single spark fires between us. It is the equivalent of kissing Grampies.

It has the effect I am aiming for, however.

Out of nowhere, and with the roar of a deranged man, Andrik rips me away from Mikhail before his fist cracks his little brother’s nose.

As the crowd pulls back to create a UFC ring, Andrik plows his fists into Mikhail’s face and body. He gets in five or six non-contested whacks before Mikhail realizes what is happening.

I lied when I said Mikhail wouldn’t be able to protect Nikita. He gives back as good as he gets, and within minutes, there are as many bruises shadowing Andrik’s face as Mikhail’s.

“Stop!” I scream when Andrik headbutts Mikhail hard enough to split the bridge of Mikhail’s nose.

Blood gushes down Mikhail’s face as I endeavor to achieve what the security guards aren’t game to attempt.

I place myself between two maniacs.

“That’s enough! Stop. You’re acting like fucking lunatics.”

Andrik shunts me to the side before he gets back up in his brother’s face. “I told you I’d kill you if you touched her.” He spits at Mikhail’s feet. It is as bloody as his teeth. “I don’t make threats for show.”

His swing rockets Mikhail’s head to the side with a sickening crunch. Before he can get in another jab, I shout, “I kissed him. Me. So if you want to be angry at anyone, take it out on me.”

Help comes from an unlikely source. “She is telling the truth, Andrik.” Ellis steps through the crowd, parting the spectators. “Mikhail had no say.” With Andrik’s fists still ready to punish, he steps between them like I did earlier but more to one side. “He also isn’t to blame for your anger. If you want to take that out on anyone, you need to look closer to home.”

His reply firms Andrik’s fists instead of loosening them, so he shifts his focus to the less hostile one of the duo.

I can’t hear what he says to Mikhail. It must be shocking because his pupils dilate to the size of saucers before his eyes rocket to me.

My ego gets bitch-slapped when he looks seconds from vomiting before his hand shoots up to his mouth to scrub away my kiss. He scrubs and scrubs and scrubs until his mouth is as red as the blood oozing from the top of his nose. It isn’t enough. After pushing through the crowd, he shoves open the bar’s washroom door with enough force to warp the hinges.

“I’ll deal with him,” Ellis announces, removing Andrik’s suddenly remorseful eyes from the swinging restroom door. “You fix this .” He glares at me during “this.” “Then come home. We have plans to finalize.”

He is so confident that Andrik will follow his orders that he leaves after the quickest glance my way. My arm is snatched up in a brutal hold only seconds later.