Guarded Rebellion (The Baranov Legacy)

13. Lev

13

LEV

E va stayed in our apartment for the most of the twenty-four hours of her discipline. Those hours were long, and I wasn’t deluded to assume she’d be happy when the time was over. I counted on her being even more rebellious. If putting her in time out wouldn’t teach her a lesson about acting out and deliberately trying to push the boundaries I—and her uncle—had set out for her, then I’d think of something else.

My fantasy about spanking her was an impossibility I couldn’t waste my time on, but the longer I thought about her sulking in her bedroom, I grew uneasy. Just that one wall separated us, and with her so angry at me and my frustration with her anteing up higher, I knew I needed some distance.

She wasn’t supposed to tempt me. I had no business lusting after her, stimulated and attracted to how gorgeous she was when she cracked. Losing that icy, frigid bitch persona let me see her , a young woman eager to get her way for once.

Not happening.

My job was to keep her safe and pure. And that was what I’d fucking do.

That didn’t mean I had to stay here and be “grounded” with her. A quick call to Marcus secured the apartment once more.

“She’s not to leave.” I furrowed my brow as I looked down at him. “At all.”

“Yes, sir,” he dutifully replied. “When will you be back to take over?”

I looked at the time, wondering how long it would take for me to investigate the matter of what Rurik had texted me. My motivations to leave the apartment were split two-fold. I needed a break from being near Eva when she tempted me so. But I also had to pay due diligence in following up with what Rurik had reported. More Petrov soldiers had arrived on campus, near another dormitory, and I was suspicious about that development.

“A few hours. I will contact you when necessary. Until my return, however, she is not to set foot out of this apartment. Nor should anyone enter.”

“I got it. I hear you.” He lifted his hand in a wave, turning to survey the living room of the penthouse apartment. “I’ve got this.”

Do you?

I wondered if anyone would ever prove to be adequate when it came to Eva. The thought of her facing any danger bothered me—not just because she was a job but because I wanted to see her well.

With a heavy sigh, I left the building to find Rurik on campus. On the drive there, I mulled over what I’d told Eva before punishing her and telling her she was locked in for the day and night. Missing a class or two couldn’t set her back. She was damned smart and from what I could tell, ahead with her grades and assignments. Keeping her in her room for the rest of this night just felt right, to drive in the point that she had no power to determine how her life should be.

That didn’t mean I liked it. I wasn’t a fan of such a bold, sharp soul as hers being trapped and confined. More acutely, I loathed the concept of some asshole owning her and being the boss of her. No man could handle her without crushing her spirit. The longer I lived with her and watched over her, the more I got to know her and learn about her quirks and habits, the less I liked the idea of her being a possession. Deep down, I knew she was more than just a wife to use as a token or a vessel to pop out heirs.

But that’s the way it is. The way it always has been.

Rurik met me in the parking lot. His brow was pinched and his body language suggested he was tense.

“More of them have arrived,” he reported.

I shook my head, closing the door and walking out with him. Darkness had fallen on campus. Without any snow to lighten up the scene, shadows seemed to hang too heavily. Streetlights illuminated patches of walkways, but not many were out and about on this cold night.

“Where? Are they just here to guard Irina?” I asked.

“Yes and no,” he replied. His breath clouded before him, marking the bite in the air, but he wasn’t struggling with my brisk pace. “They seem to be meeting near her dorm, or what is supposed to be her dorm.”

“Because she’s not actually staying there, right?” I assumed the first week here that Irina wouldn’t be living on campus. If the Petrov security force assigned to the other Mafia princess had any common sense, they’d relocate Irina off campus like I had done with Eva. It was far safer to control all the variables of her temporary residence.

“No. I don’t think so. She has gone in to visit what seems to be a small group of friends and classmates who are residing in that dorm,” Rurik said, tipping his chin in the direction to the specific facility he referenced, “but she always leaves. I suspect she is living off campus but allowed to visit there.”

“Huh.” I narrowed my eyes as I scoped out the paths branching out among all the dorms around here. The tall building Eva would have roomed in with Kelly was further back, but the structure Irina was supposedly rumored to have been assigned to was a shorter, more modernistic, newer build closer to the square.

An uptick of Petrov men on campus made me suspicious, but it also confused me. If Irina were present on campus, then the soldiers near her would make sense. But she was rooming off campus.

“Why would Petrov forces be here without her?” I asked.

Rurik shook his head. “I don’t know, but a big part of the reason I texted you to come do some surveillance with me here while Eva is grounded is because of their not staying. They come and go.”

“Are they transporting something?” I asked. That would be the most logical assumption to make, not that any assumptions would be wise. Waiting to act and make decisions based on facts and hard evidence was smarter than this speculating game.

“They’re not carrying anything. It’s more like they’re looking for something. Or supervising.”

“A drop?” Again, I couldn’t stop thinking about the drugs. We’d both been informed of more drugs being circulated on campus, as well as an increase in rapes. Those two issues were likely commonplace in colleges and universities all over the country—hell, all over the world.

“Maybe,” Rurik replied. “And that makes me wonder who’s supplying the drugs around here.”

“You think this is what the Boss wanted me to spy on?”

“Yeah. Possibly. He asked you to spy on them in general, and they’re on the move. But this is what really bugs me.” Rurik lifted his finger to his lips in a universal sign for silence as we walked along a sheltered path alongside another dormitory. Stone walls surrounded us, and the simple roof of more bricks hid us from being seen. It was an open-air hallway, and his destination was the end, where a camera was anchored up high. To the left, over the cut-open parts of the stone wall, was a view down at a couple of Petrov men. They walked back and forth, leisurely and not alert. I didn’t get the impression that they were patrolling, but more like they were waiting, killing the time and smoking until they received orders.

Rurik frowned, gesturing for me to walk back out toward the more-open area of the square. “That was where I think I saw him.”

“Him who?” I studied him.

“The man you supposedly killed. The one everyone’s talking about.”

What the fuck? “The guard I killed when I took out Yusuf Ilyin?”

He nodded. He’d seen the grainy pictures that had been captured years ago. It was all they could compare to my proof-of-death picture I took that fateful day of finally finishing the hit on Yusuf.

“Goddammit. He’s dead.”

Rurik shrugged.

“I’m glad I called in for more backup,” I muttered. If something fishy was going on, where a dead man who’d guarded an Ilyin boss was lurking with Petrovs, I’d need more resources to solve this one. Both the Ilyins and Petrovs were enemies of the Baranov Family. At times, peace could be hinted at, but we would never be considered allies or friends in any way. Competitors was likely the nicest description we could use for one another.

“Marcus is watching her again?” Rurik asked.

I nodded.

“Then maybe we can do a few more laps. Check the perimeter and see if that mystery guard will resurface again.”

He’s dead. I killed him. I knew I had. Men didn’t just pop back from the afterlife.

“Yeah, I’m not in a rush to get back to Eva.” Not when I was struck with this conviction that something big could be brewing here. Following or spying on the Petrov men on campus seemed like the best use of my time and attention right now.

Because the alternative—going back to the apartment and keeping Eva locked in as punishment for acting out and kissing that punk—didn’t appeal.

It felt too damn good to boss her around. It was too dangerous to command her to be obedient and listen to my orders when she would glare at me right back. Taunting me. Testing me.

Her submission wouldn’t be mine to claim and treasure.

But I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t want it. Eva was caught and stuck in her life. I acknowledged that, but with that realization, I understood just how badly she was craving and seeking direction, too. She needed guidance, and I wished I could be the one to really give it to her. To support her and give her the strength to be the bold and vivacious woman she was at heart.

But she can’t be yours.

It’s not going to happen.

“Let’s see what we can find,” I told Rurik, hating how smart it was to insist on this buffer, on this distance from the woman I desired but remained out of my reach.