Mob Bride (The O’Rourke Brotherhood #5)

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Carrie

“Murder?”

“Yes, murder. Carrie, look at the scene. I know you waited for him to get closer to get the clear shot. Maybe you even wanted him to see it was you, but what it’s going to look like to your investigators and his men is that you murdered him, shooting him in cold blood before his men could get to him.

“What are you doing?”

“Texting our cleaners.”

“Cleaners?” My brow furrows, then my eyebrows shoot straight up. The team that’ll come in and remove any sign of a crime scene at all. They’ll clean up all the bio-waste, all the shell casings. Anything that could lead law enforcement to Shane’s family. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me he has them on speed dial. He pauses as we both hear sirens and angry voices.

“Carrie, there’s no time left. Go. I’ve got this.”

“I am not leaving you on your own to deal with this.”

“It would be so much better if you did. Which one of the two of us has been in this position before? We both know the answer to that.”

It’s against my better judgment, but I listen to him and turn in the direction I came from, which is the opposite direction of the sirens and the angry voices. I get far enough down the path to duck out of sight, but still see what’s going on. Shane’s got his gun raised and pointing again at the oncoming voices.

“Which O’Rourke are you?”

Oh, fuck me in the ass with a pogo stick. It’s Tymoteusz. I definitely can’t leave Shane now. I don’t know if he’ll need me, but there’s a good chance he will. I don’t want to reveal myself, but I don’t want him getting killed on my behalf.

“Does it really matter which one I am? You know I’m an O’Rourke. We’re all one and the same.

I hear Tymoteusz grunt. “What the fuck happened to my cousin?”

“What does it look like? He attacked me on a run.”

“Oh, yeah. You single-handedly took down these men without a scratch.” Tymoteusz’s disdain rings in the air.

Shane points to where we stood off the trail. “I had a better vantage point. Jacek and his men didn’t plan well, and I could shield myself and they weren’t. They were easy picking.”

“Fuck you, motherfucker.”

“What? Did I say anything that isn’t obvious? It’s not my fault your cousin’s batshit bonkers. Or at least he was.”

I watch Tymoteusz approach, and Shane hurries to reload his magazine. I don’t even carry a spare with me. He just whips it out of his sweatpants’ pocket as though he were pulling out a candy bar. It boggles the mind. He reloads and aims and shoots the trail, right between Tymoteusz’s feet. It all happens so quickly nobody can anticipate what he’s doing. Tymoteusz’s men are ready to shoot, but he holds his hand up.

“No. It’s bad enough Jacek’s hit. We can’t take out O’Rourke. He knows that. He’s banking on the fact his family will annihilate mine if we touch a pretty little red hair on his head.”

Even from this distance, I can see Shane shrug, and I can picture his smirk.

“Tell me what you want to do.” Shane calls out as though he’s asking what they want for dinner. “Do you want my cleaners to take care of this? They can get here faster than yours. You going to take Jacek’s body? You want us to dump it? I know you hate him, so I don’t think it would bother you if we disposed of him for you.” The cadence of Shane’s speech is so casual; it’s flippant even. As though he’d be doing Tymoteusz a favor, and a covert one for me.

In some ways he would be, but that’s not how I imagined this conversation to go.

“Where’s Kaja?”

“Who?” Shane’s confusion is genuine.

“Kaja. She goes for a run here. Where is she?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about, and I haven’t seen anybody else. That’s why Jacek picked here to attack me. There’s nobody around, and neither of us could have seen anybody because nobody’s gone past.”

I know he’s going to have questions, wondering who Kaja is, and he’ll come to me to see if I know. Fucking hell. The sirens get louder as police approach. Somebody must have called it in. There aren’t too many homes nearby, but that also means sound carries with little to absorb it.

“Make up your mind soon.”

Shane calls out to them as he continues to text one-handed. He still has his gun pointed at Tymoteusz, but his eyes must dart between his phone and the now seven men who all have weapons pointed at him. It’d be a fucking firing squad.

It tempts me to come out of hiding and stand alongside him, but that would only spur Tymoteusz and his men to shoot. They won’t wait to see who’s coming, and they definitely wouldn’t wait to find out why it’s me. I just have to bide my time, and it might drive me crazy.

“Come on. We’ve got a few seconds left. It’s your men or my men. What’s it gonna be? Decide.”

Tymoteusz scowls but concedes. “Yours.”

“You want his body?” Shane speaks of Jacek as though he’s the last piece of pizza, not a human being.

Then again, that is a stretch, considering he’s acted more like a beast than a person. I know I certainly won’t miss him. I wonder how Bartlomiej will feel about this. He cares about his brother because they’re brothers, but I know he doesn’t like Jacek as a person. However, he relies on him as a second-in-command. This will elevate Tymoteusz if Jacek dies—nobody’s checked on him, which says something. The assumption is he’s already dead.

That makes me focus on the body for a moment. Double fuck me in the ass with a pogo stick. Even from here, I can see blood is still flowing from him. Dead bodies don’t pump blood. Blood drains like a vacuum into the body’s cavity. It doesn’t continue to geyser. That means Jacek is still alive. That means there’s a chance they could get him to the hospital.

It still makes me wonder why none of them have checked on him, even if they assume he’s dead. They would still check, wouldn’t they? Do they want him to bleed out? Did Tymoteusz give the order not to? Or are none of them motivated on their own to do it? That leaves so many questions without answers right now.

“Yeah, we’ll take him.” Tymoteusz sounds about as thrilled to do that as he would if he were getting a colonoscopy.

“All right, cleaners are on the way. They’ll be here, but we have to move the police to somewhere else.”

His right shoulder drops ever so slightly and pulls back just a fraction of an inch as though he’s giving me a sign to fallback farther. Somehow, he knows I’m still here. I’m certain he didn’t see me. He must have a sixth sense about it.

“All right, how do you want to play this? I’m all for me running, you chasing me, guns drawn.”

“The hell we are. No suicide by cop today.” No surprise Tymoteusz isn’t down for that idea.

“Then you have to shoot in a different place. Draw them away and make them think whatever this is moved on. It would mean people are alive to keep shooting at each other. Do you really want my name connected to your name?”

Even from here, I can see how Tymoteusz’s scowl darkens. There’s simmering rage now close to boiling over. He knows Shane’s right and doesn’t want his name connected to them. It’ll spread, and once people know Jacek is dead, they’ll deduce it was an O’Rourke who did it. It’ll only build Shane’s reputation in the underworld.

It might lead law enforcement to have another charge against him. But knowing he took down the Polish second-in-command would certainly make many people think twice before crossing the O’Rourkes. They could eliminate more than just Jacek as an enemy.

I wonder if Shane’ll say thank you. I’ve been told I have a dry wit. I don’t know how funny that was.

Tymoteusz’s still pointing his weapon at Shane as he takes a step back, then another. “Don’t fucking shoot me in the back.”

I suspect Shane is laughing from the way he sounds when he responds. “Obviously, I’d shoot you looking straight at you. That’s what I did to Jacek. Why would I shoot you in the back? I don’t fear you.”

“Fuck off, motherfucker.”

“By all means, you go your way. I’ll go mine.”

Shane takes several steps backward until he can move into the curve of the trail where he’s not exposed. We both watch Tymoteusz’s men hurry forward and grab Jacek. There’s a soft groan. It makes me want to echo it.

Fuck me, he’s not dead. That means I am.

I barely made it home before Bartlomiej comes pounding on my door. My hair’s wet from my shower, and I’m still naked. I know it’s him because he’s calling out to me. He’s going to wake the entire building. I hurry to grab my robe with my hair wrapped in a towel. I open the door, but I leave the chain latched as I peek around the door to see Bartlomiej and two of his most trusted men standing behind him.

“It’s me, Kaja. Let me in, or I’ll kick this door down, so move back.”

I know he isn’t exaggerating right now. “All right, hang on.”

I close the door and slide the chain. I wish I could give him an excuse to leave me alone, but there’s no way he’s going to take it. Obviously, he’s already heard about his brother. I open the door, and he barrels forward, cupping my jaw as he kicks the door shut in his men’s face.

“Oh, ksi??niczka .” He’s kissing me before I stop him.

It’s even more demanding than the last time I saw him upset. I pull away from him to catch my breath. All I really want to do is wipe my mouth. I always have that visceral reaction to his kisses, but now it’s stronger than ever.

“Bartlomiej, what’s the matter? What’s wrong?” I hope I sound genuinely confused.

“It’s Jacek. They shot him.”

“What? Who shot him? Come here.”

I take his hand and lead him into the living room. I sit down on the sofa, and he takes a seat beside me. I try to let go of his hand, but he clutches mine. He’s distraught.

He’s showing me emotions he’d let no one else see. Part of me wants to skip and twirl and say yippee. I have him so convinced of my affections he trusts me enough to be this vulnerable. Part of me just wants to get this conversation over with so I can get dressed and have breakfast.

“It was Shane O’Rourke.”

“What? When?”

“An hour ago. I came to make sure you were okay. It was the same place you go running every day. Tymoteusz said he didn’t see you on the trail.”

That makes my stomach clench. I know he knows where I run every day. I have to tell him at the beginning of the week what my workout plans are, so he has somebody make sure I’m safe at the beginning and the end of my run.

He likes me to use this trail because it’s secluded. It’s unlikely I’m going to cross paths with many people. It’s also a trail his men could drive up if they needed to. I didn’t see any of his men this morning when I returned to the bus stop. I count that as a blessing.

“On the same trail I run? Oh, my god! Where?”

“Around the three-mile mark from the way you go in.”

“Really? I didn’t see or hear anything. I must have already been on my way back.”

He looks at the towel on my head and the hair peeking out near my forehead, then at my robe.

“I stopped to get a sports drink because I forgot my water bottle. I only got home a bit ago. But I finished the same time I usually do.”

Which would be true if I hadn’t been involved in a shootout. I had to book it back to the trail head once I knew Shane was going to follow me. I’m certain he wanted to make sure I left. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got to the parking lot just as I got to the bus stop. At least the bus arrived before I could have another confrontation with him.

“How do you know who it was?”

“The man had red hair, so that gave away he was an O’Rourke. The longer he spoke the more Tymoteusz grew certain of who it was.”

“They talked?” I tried to sound incredulous, my face looking puzzled. I have to be careful not to overdo it.

“Yeah, he was just standing there alone, apparently. Happy as you please. They pretty much chatted from what I understand.”

“Tymoteusz didn’t attack him? Didn’t shoot him or anything?” I still try to sound disbelieving.

“No, Shane O’Rourke is part of the boss’s family. He’s untouchable unless there’s a shootout happening right there and then. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why Jacek was there, but they found Shane with Jacek.”

Oh, fuck me. He didn’t say with the body or Jacek’s body. How is he barely hanging on?

“He’s in intensive care.” Did he read my mind?

“Oh, I’m so sorry. What can I do? What do you need?” Do I sound like a loving girlfriend?

I know what I need. I need to finish the job. I should have shot him right through the head or right through the heart, but that would have looked like an assassination. The aim would have made people question who it was even more. I went for the belly and the shoulder to let him bleed out, but to not look like an expert marksman. Like a sniper.

“No, I just need to hold you.”

“What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know. If he survives the night, the doctor said there’s a chance he’ll survive tomorrow. If he can survive the next week, then there’s a good chance he’ll recover. He’s in a coma.”

“A coma? Like a medically induced coma or one that happened on its own?

“Medically. They said, for right now, that’s the best way to allow his body to do some initial healing.”

“How long do they think he’ll have to stay that way?”

I’m trying for stunned and scared, but not scared for myself. Scared for my boyfriend’s brother. Whatever I’m doing works because he hasn’t looked questioningly at me at all.

“They don’t know. It could be a week, a couple weeks, a month. It just all depends on what happens.”

“Oh, my goodness. Thank God Tymoteusz was with him.”

“Tymoteusz wasn’t with him.” Immediately, he looks at me suspiciously.

“I don’t understand. If he wasn’t with Jacek how did he know? That makes little sense. He’d have to be with him. Otherwise, how’d he know to get to Jacek? I don’t understand.”

I repeat myself to sound too shocked to comprehend. More than once, I’ve played the slightly less intelligent female than I am. The sometimes easily confused. It always puzzles me when he buys that because there are other times when he asks my opinion on topics I should know nothing about.

“Tymoteusz said Jacek went after you again, and Tymoteusz went to stop him.

“I didn’t know any of the other O’Rourkes ran that trail.”

Now he looks at me accusingly. I shouldn’t have said other, as though Shane’s usually there. He knows I met Shane at the shootout at the lumberyard. Does he believe we had some illicit meeting?

“Do you think Shane used me as a lure? Would he do that sort of thing? Would he use a woman to get your men and Jacek as his target? What kind of man does that? I thought women and children were off limits. You said I’d be safe with you.”

I infuse panic into my voice, and he strokes my hair before cupping my cheek. He kisses my temple. And again, it’s so at odds with the man I know he can be. The suspicion he felt a moment ago is gone. He went from mob boss to boyfriend in the bat of an eye. It’s disconcerting now that he’s being so loving to me again.

“They are supposed to be off limits, but things have been fucked-up for the last five years, and it’s all because of Shane’s family. They broke that golden rule. Now women and children—well leaders’ women are—sometimes targets.”

“Sometimes?!” I jump out of my seat and step away from him, crossing my arms around my waist and shaking my head.

“Bartlomiej, you told me I was safe. You told me I wouldn’t be a target. That it would be okay to be with you. Now you’re telling me for the past five years women have been targets. You lied to me. You risked my life even more than I realized.”

“Kaja, you know I’ve been with other women before you. None of them have been targets before.”

“Oh, is that supposed to make me feel better? I guess I’m the lucky one.” Sarcasm drips from my voice, and I don’t have to try. “That does nothing to reassure me. You telling me that just scares me even more. Why me? Why do they suddenly want to go after you? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet. After what happened at the lumberyard, the O’Rourkes weren’t who I was expecting.”

“Expecting?!” I practically scream the word. “Okay, that makes me think you knew I was a target. That there was a good chance somebody would come after me. You should go. I don’t want you here, Bartlomiej. I don’t want to die. Not for you, not for anybody. Leave.”

“Kaja.” He stands and approaches me, but I back myself against a wall. Part of it is to truly protect my back, but part of it is because I know he’ll follow. He’ll cage me in, and he’ll try to calm me with lust and affection. To him, they are usually one and the same. Ever since Jacek attacked me and beat me, they’ve been different.

“Come back and sit with me, ksi??niczka . Nothing’s going to happen to you. I’m making sure you’re properly guarded from now on. You’re not going anywhere without at least four guards, Kaja. One for each side of you.”

“What? That’s no way to live. You’re going to make me your prisoner. I told you from the very beginning I wouldn’t agree to something like that. You told me it wouldn’t come to that.”

“Well, it has.”

I flinch. I know that’s part of what he wants. He wants me to submit to his will, so I have to put up enough fight to look reasonable, but then I have to back down.

“Kaja, this is the way it is. You knew who I was when we started dating. Nothing has changed about that. I know you know little about this life, but you are not that naive.”

“No, not naive, but I trust you because you are you.” I poke my finger into his chest.

He grabs my hand and pushes it aside and kisses me again. His hands try to roam over my body, but now I push him away.

“Bartek, please, this isn’t what I want right now.”

“I’m going to make you feel better.”

“I’m terrified. Making out isn’t what’s going to make me feel better.”

“Oh, I think it will. I think you need a distraction. I think you need to feel me holding you, loving you, and reminding you who I am.”

My hand covers his cheek, and I brush my thumb over it.

“Believe me, I know exactly who you are. I know you’re trying, but I’m still scared. Put yourself in my shoes. I know you’ve known no other life, but there must have been times when you were a kid where you got scared because you didn’t understand everything going on. Like when your parents tried to shelter you, but this world exposed you to something you weren’t supposed to see. I’ve had a lot more years of being sheltered—I guess—than you have. This isn’t normal to me yet.”

He seizes that word. “Yet? As in, you could get used to it?”

“I’m going to try, but you have to give me time.” Time for me to finish this investigation.

“You ask for time a lot, Kaja.”

I jerk my chin back and scowl. “You’re going to throw my virginity back at me because I have a deep faith that says I shouldn’t sleep around. I should save myself for one person. You’re going to do that right now?”

“I’m sorry. That was unkind. You’re right. You know I want that with you in the future.”

“I thought we were moving toward something more, but now I need to think about this, and making out with you won’t allow me to clear my head. Please, don’t crowd me right now. You should go.”

He studies me before he moves away. “All right, Kaja, this time. For now, I’ll give you space, but only today. I want you to move in with me, at least for right now.”

“What?” I shake my head. “No, you’re asking me to consider too much stuff right now. I can’t. Please, let me figure out one thing at a time.”

“I can protect you better. I can keep you safe.”

I know I must eventually give in because that’s exactly what I’ve been aiming for all along. I just need to finish this mission before it goes further, and I’m sharing a bed with him every night.

“I’m not saying no entirely. I’m just saying no for right this minute. Let me think, okay? I love you. I want to be with you. But this is all I can handle for one day. Okay?”

“All right.” He sighs with resignation. “Fine. I’m leaving four men with you, two outside your door, two downstairs in the lobby.”

“Thank you, Bartek. That makes me feel better.”

“I’ll keep you safe, Kaja.”

“I love you.” Like someone loves herpes.

“I love you, too.” He gives me a hard, fast kiss, and then he’s leaving, and I’m breathing easier.

I’ve got to slip out and meet with my handlers tonight. They’ll have found out what happened by now. They’re going to want the details. The burner we use to communicate had one text. It just said:

Tonight.

That’s all well and good, but with four guards at my door and in the lobby, I’m kind of stuck. We keep our communication to a minimum, so I can only text back:

I’ll try.

I wonder how much they know about what went down and who was involved. I flop onto the sofa after I get changed. I’m trying to pay attention to the reality show I’m watching, but it doesn’t keep my attention. I replay today in my head, making sure I know exactly what to say to Johnny and Steve when I see them. I also think about when Bartlomiej was here.

I never want to be intimate with him. I don’t enjoy it, but there’s something else about today that made it feel even more wrong. I don’t want to consider what that is, but my mind keeps nagging. The answer is right there, but if I let myself actually think it, then it becomes too true.

It felt like it would betray Shane.

There. My brain said it.

It makes no sense at all. He kissed me, and that’s it. We’re not in a relationship of any sort. We’re inconvenient acquaintances. We’re physically attracted to each other, but that’s it.

He’s been trying to keep me safe ever since he met me. I don’t appreciate the meddling. I definitely don’t appreciate his high handedness, but he’s doing what he thinks is best for me. I know a lot is also for my mom’s sake.

To do more with Bartlomiej feels wrong, but I doubt Shane is worrying about me and what I might think if he’s off with someone else. I don’t know if he has anybody, whether he’s in a relationship or even a situationship. Who knows? It irritates me even more that I’m concerned about it. I don’t want to care.

I look at my front door, and I’m trying to figure out a plan again to get out. I really don’t want to go anywhere. I’m so tired. I just want to sleep. I’ll just text my handlers back in a couple hours and say I can’t.

Yesterday might have been the longest day and night of my life. Bartlomiej texted me four times and called me twice to make sure I was okay. He was very insistent I come by today, so here I am. This is going to be another tedious day, and I still need to figure out a way to ditch his men and see my handlers. I don’t know how I’m going to do that.

“Bartek, I didn’t go for a run this morning. Can I at least go for a walk? I’ll go stir crazy if I have to be in this house all day. You don’t even want me to go in the backyard. Please. I just need some fresh air. I need to stretch my legs. You know how I get when I don’t work out.”

“I don’t think one day off from a run will kill you.”

“I know that. That’s why I asked for a walk.” I try to infuse light-heartedness into my tone.

Bartlomiej nods to two of his guys. “I’ll round up two more. Meet them at the front door.”

Blessedly, I set off for my walk a few minutes later. Now, I’m two miles from the house when I spot Shane’s car. I wonder if any of the men see it, too. I can’t tell about the guy in front or in back of me, but I dart my gaze to the guys beside me. None of them seem to have noticed, but if they do, they don’t want me to. Shane ducks down fast, so maybe he’s in the clear. If that’s the case, it makes me wonder just how situationally aware these guys are if I’m scanning our surroundings and noticed that, but they don’t.

I can’t point it out to them or Bartlomiej without admitting I saw Shane, and I have no interest in Bartlomiej tightening his security detail around me. I see another familiar face driving toward me. I can’t tell if she’ll be a friend or an agent for this conversation, but we’ve positioned her as a friend of mine before.

I point to the oncoming car. “I know her. I’m just going to say hi.” I lean over when she stops and winds down her window. “Hi, Stella.”

“Hey, what’s with the extra guys? Something happen?” She sounds inquisitive like a friend not conspiratorial.

“You know Bartlomiej. He just likes to make sure I’m safe. I’d rather be too overprotected than not protected enough.”

“I was planning to call you to see if you could come over tonight. I broke up with Johnny, so I was really hoping we could have a girls’ night to take my mind off it.”

That must mean they’ve reassigned him. I wonder if that’ll make her my full-time handler along with Steve. It would make more sense. I’ve said that all along one of them should be a woman, so we could stage situations like this.

“Yeah, that would be great. I’d love that. What time should I come over?”

One of the men clears his throat, but I ignore him. Bartlomiej never said I couldn’t go places. He said I had to go with four guards.

“Why don’t you come over at like seven? We can order something and just hang out.”

“That sounds good to me. It’s been forever since I’ve had a girls’ night. I’ve almost forgotten what they’re like.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then. I’m so glad I ran into you.”

“You, too. Have a good day. I’ll see you in a bit.

Angela drives away. Just like my name isn’t Kaja, her name isn’t Stella. I decide I’ve pushed my luck with these guys, so I tell them I want to head back. The conversation doesn’t go over well with Bartlomiej, but he gives in, and he lets me head over to Angela’s place.

It was nice to get away from Bartlomiej, but I have to spend more time than I want explaining what happened yesterday to Angela and Steve. I skip a lot of details and make it sound like I wasn’t actually at the scene. I waited until she let me know they’d heard Jacek got shot, but there was no evidence found before I admitted to anything more than just I hadn’t seen it.

They don’t know about the scene at the trail. They only talked about where I guess Tymoteusz and his men went. They scattered before there were any arrests, but at least it drew NYPD away from the actual scene.

It makes me think Shane’s cleaners must have done a good job. The only reason any law enforcement knows about Jacek is because his wounds were so severe there was no avoiding going to a hospital. Gunshot wounds and stabbings usually require getting the police involved, bringing in a man practically dead from two gunshot wounds is definitely going to mean an investigation.

It suddenly makes me wonder if the doctor who put Jacek in a medically induced coma did it because that was the best course of treatment or because Bartlomiej told him to do it, so no one could force Jacek to give a statement right away. I don’t know, but either seems highly plausible to me now. I can’t convince Bartlomiej to let me go back to my apartment for tonight, so I’m already in bed here.

He said he had some paperwork left to do. I’ll pretend to be asleep when he comes in. I need to know when that is and what kind of mood he’s in. He promised he’d let me sleep and not touch me tonight because he often wakes me up. I made the mistake of trying to reject him the first night he did it. We had a massive argument. He learned I don’t enjoy being woken any more than he enjoys being turned down. I thought he was going to dump me. Now he sticks to some heavy petting then spooning me.

I hear voices, and I don’t recognize any of them. I creep out of bed, avoiding any of the creaking floorboards. This is an older home. It’s nice, but it has definitely settled. The first couple of times I got up to tiptoe around made a floorboard creak. I passed it off as needing to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water since you have to walk toward the bathroom to get to the bedroom door.

I ease it open, having sprayed some WD-40 on it just a few days ago to make sure it doesn’t squeak. I count to thirty before I ease the door open enough to look down the whole hallway. I count to thirty again before I step out.

I ease the door shut behind me before I creep along the landing and tuck myself away in a nook I’ve always thought a man must have designed because it’s nothing but wasted space and a perfect spot to collect dust.

I strain to hear what’s going on. I can put a face to the voice. Andranik Derian. He’s the Armenian boss. What the hell are they doing together if Bartlomiej was supposed to have a deal with the bratva? Is that why it fell through? Because they know about Bartlomiej and the Armenians?

The Polish might get along with the Armenians for now, and they might get along with the Russians, but the Armenians and the Russians aren’t on any better terms than the Russians have been with the Albanians for a couple years now. I know tensions in their motherlands aren’t as high as they are here in New York.

“You were supposed to get us that shipment from Bogdan. Instead, it’s been days. We hear nothing from you. We know you lost that fucking shootout. We know you never got the product. So, what are you gonna do, Bartlomiej? How are you gonna make it up to us?”

That’s what they were really there for. Does that mean the Kutsenkos found out Bartlomiej was doing a deal with the Armenians, and that’s why they shot at them instead of following through?

“Look, I told you the last three times we talked I’m working on it. It’s not like I can make that many kilos appear out of thin air. It’s going to take me a while.”

“You’ve had a while. If you don’t get it to me by the end of this week, you and I are done.”

Bartlomiej takes a step forward, not appreciating the threat. The two guys are matched in size. Bartlomiej puffs out his chest, and Andranik’s man steps forward. The guy looks ready to push Bartlomiej away. His hands are at his sides. I know he’s restraining himself.

“Back up, Bartek. I’m already pissed off at you. I already know what happened to your brother. Do you want to wind up like him, but in your own home?”

Bartlomiej laughs. “You don’t have enough men for that.”

“So you think, but it only takes one bullet. Whether you have a lot of men or none—whether I have a lot of men or none—I’ll still kill you.”

Bartlomiej’s men appear like specters out of the night. They surround Andranik and pull him backwards. He can’t do shit since Bartlomiej’s men would have searched him for guns. He probably has at least one knife with him. He has no way to put a bullet in Bartlomiej, unless he thinks he’s going to pound it in with his fist.

“End of the week, Bartek. I’m not joking. That’s all you’ve got. If you don’t take care of it, then I’m going to the Mancinellis and getting it from them. I’ll make sure they know exactly why I chose them over you.”

“You’re going to let them know you need them more than you need me? That’s how Salvatore’s going to see it. He won’t look at it as you picked them. He’s going to look at you like you came begging because you can’t take care of your people’s needs anymore. So go ahead. Go to Salvatore. I don’t care.”

He does because he needs the payment. He definitely wants the money that would come from however many hundreds of kilos of coke he was expecting to sell. I scoot back as I wait for the Armenians to leave, but they don’t. Instead, Bartlomiej turns and walks into the living room, nodding for his men to let Andranik follow him.

Just a lot of posturing. Now they’re going to get on with negotiations. I wait for the guards to disappear again. This time I know they aren’t lurking because I hear doors shut. I ease my way down the stairs and into the kitchen. The blessing of this being an older home is it’s not open concept. I can get into the kitchen and get as close to the living room as I can. They switch to Armenian, which I didn’t know Bartlomiej spoke. The languages are nothing alike, so I understand nothing. I consider going back to the bedroom, but there’s a chance they could switch back to English or even Polish. Then I could follow along. Fourteen months of intensively learning Polish to prepare for infiltrating the Polish mob made me nearly fluent.

Because I don’t understand what they’re saying, the meeting wraps up sooner than I expected. I hear Bartlomiej say goodbye. Fuck. I’m trapped in the kitchen because the stairs up to the bedroom are by the front door. I rush to open the fridge as I hear Bartlomiej’s voice getting closer.

“Kaja?”

I twist to look over my shoulder. “Hi.” I look back in the fridge.

“What’re you doing down here?”

“The Chinese we had tonight made me so thirsty, so I came down for a drink. I remembered your mom dropped off that cake, so I planned to snag a slice. But it’s gone. You didn’t leave me any.” I aim for playfully petulant.

He walks over and wraps his arms around me, drawing me back against him. I feel him harden, and I want to jerk away. I shift to close the fridge door, which forces him to step away.

“You know you’re not to come down here when I have people over.”

I exaggerate my wince. “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear any voices until I got in here. Then I understood nothing, so I grabbed the drink. That’s when I thought of the cake.”

Luckily, I had a glass I used earlier for water. It irritated Bartlomiej in the beginning, but I insist people use the same glass throughout the day if they’re drinking the same thing. It happened after he implied I should do dishes when I’m here. I told him the only way I’d play maid is if there was nothing for me to wash. I suggested the one glass rule which he rejected. I took so long doing the dishes the next time—drawing out the time, then insisting it was because there were so many glasses and mugs to rinse then load in the dishwasher—he instituted the rule. Little things like that make him think I’m a girlfriend who plans to stick around.

“Do you want anything, sweet one? There’s no cake, but I can make you a sandwich. You ate little today.”

“I had plenty at Stella’s. I was saving room because I knew we’d have snacks along with dinner. The cake just sounded tempting.”

“I’ll have Mama bring one tomorrow that’s just for you.”

“No. That’s unnecessary. It was a moment’s temptation.” I pretend to stifle a yawn.

We head up to the bedroom, and I turn my back to him when we get in bed. He sighs, but just spoons me. I let myself doze, but I watch more minutes tick away on the clock than not. I never sleep deeply here. I didn’t trust Jacek not to kill me in my sleep. If he survives, I don’t trust him not to kill me while I’m awake. I fucked up letting him live.