Alexei (Her Russian Protector #8) (50 page)

“Shannon?” I said her name quietly. “Shannon, what are you doing?”

She lowered the gun by a few inches. “What are
you
doing?”

She seemed confused and scared. Trying to talk her down, I stated the obvious. “I’m standing here. I’m waiting for you to tell me what you need.”

“What I need?” she repeated angrily. “What I need is help, but everyone abandoned me. Ruben left me. You left me. I’m all alone and everyone is trying to kill me.”

“I’m not trying to kill you. I’m trying to save your life. Everything I’ve done since that night at the Arena has been to keep you safe.”

“Fucking this guy is supposed to keep me safe? Is that what you’re telling me? That you bartered your body for me?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Everything Alexei has given me, everything he’s done for me and for you, was given freely.”

She wavered with uncertainty. Her lower lip wobbled as she asked, “Why didn’t you come for me at the motel?”

“I
did
come for you. Kylee and I both came for you. We had to get money first. I went to see Abby to get her to cash a check. I took the ten grand to the motel, but you were gone. Lalo was waiting. He was so angry. He tried to…” My voice drifted off, and I gulped. “I killed him, Shannon. He’s dead. He can’t touch you or me or anyone else we love anymore.”

Her face slackened. The gun drifted even lower. “You killed him?”

“We were fighting. He had a gun pointed at me. I shoved it toward his face, and Kylee hit him. The gun fired—and he died.”

“How are you still alive?”

“Alexei took care of it.” I stared back at her, and her eyes widened. She understood what that meant.

“Took care of
you
, you mean,” she corrected. “Something tells me that he and that mob boss friend of his pinned all this shit on me and Ruben.”

Not wanting her anger to turn on Alexei, I glanced at him. Still holding his bloody arm, he leaned against the wall and watched us with intense focus. I was afraid he would go for the gun and end up hurting Shannon or getting himself killed.

Desperate to save the man I loved
and
my sister, I started walking toward Shannon. “You are not safe here in Houston, Shannon. We have to get you out of the city. We have to get you some place safe.” I moved closer and closer to her, approaching her like a wounded animal that might lash out at any moment. “If you want my help, you have to give me the gun, Shannon. I love you, and I want to save you, but I can’t do that if you’re trying to kill me or Alexei.”

We were so close now that I could smell the cigarette smoke and something far worse clinging to the clothing she had borrowed or stolen. I could see the vein in her neck jumping as her heart raced. Whether it was from fear or adrenaline or the drugs in her system I couldn’t say. She was lost and afraid—and I had to save her.

The door alarm chimed. I knew it was only a matter of time before Stas and Boychenko found us. There was a risk they would overreact and hurt her. I couldn’t let that happen.

Bravely—and stupidly—I gripped the muzzle of the gun and slowly pushed it toward the ground. When she didn’t fight me, I took the pistol out of her hand, tugging gently until she let go. Alexei stepped forward and snatched it away from me. He removed the magazine and cleared the chamber all while scowling at my sister.

Still holding the gun and magazine, Alexei glanced down the hallway just as Stas came into view. My bodyguard skidded to a halt. His shocked expression was almost comical. He looked at me and then Alexei and then my sister. “What the fuck happened here?”

“Shay’s sister dropped her gun, and it went off accidentally,” Alexei lied without missing a beat.

Stas didn’t believe him for one second, but he didn’t question it. Glaring at Shannon, he said, “Sounds like she needs to be more careful with guns.”

“Stas, will you please get Alexei a towel?” I noticed Boychenko lingering behind Stas. He had a weapon in his hand and seemed uncertain about whether or not he should holster it. “Please put that away and help me get this mess cleaned up.” I glanced at Shannon. “Go sit in the office and wait for me.”

With trembling hands, I cupped Alexei’s face and gazed up at him. In that moment, my love for this man overwhelmed me. I could have lost him because of my sister’s carelessness. Choking back a sob, I asked, “Are you okay?”

He nodded stoically. “I think it was just a graze.”

That was just like him to minimize his injury. I pressed a lingering kiss to his mouth. “Let me look.”

Alexei nodded his permission. I managed to rip open his torn shirt sleeve and uncover the wound. It was a bloody, nasty mess, but it wasn’t as bad I had feared. It really was a graze, but the skin was torn open and needed suturing or strips. “You need to go to the hospital.”

“That’s not happening.” His hard expression reminded me of the night he had come to my rescue with that bat. This was the version of himself that he tried to keep hidden from me and everyone else. This was the cold-eyed man who could separate himself from pain and fear and do the terrible things that had helped him survive in prison and on the dangerous streets of Moscow and Houston. “If I go to the ER, they’ll report the gunshot. Eric will come sniffing around and then we’ll have a real problem.”

“Here.” Stas brought some of the medical supplies that he had picked up for me at the drug store. “I’ll bandage it for you, but you’ll need some antibiotics and butterfly closures. I’ll have to make a trip to see our doctor.”

“It can wait until I’ve dealt with Shannon.”

I wanted to be the one who treated Alexei’s wound, but with a bandaged hand of my own, it wasn’t possible. Stas, Alexei and I entered the office and found Shannon sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace. She had her head in her hands and sobbed quietly. Torn between comforting my sister and the man I loved, I hesitated. Alexei made the decision for me when he walked away and dropped into his desk chair. I tried not to let his sudden change in demeanor upset me. He’d just been shot, after all.

Kneeling down in front of Shannon, I wrapped my arms around her. Despite my anger with her for shooting Alexei, I was relieved that she was alive. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. We’ll find a way to make it right.”

Alexei hissed as Stas cleaned his wound. He met my gaze across the room. “We have to get her out of the country.”

“How?” I didn’t know the first thing about something like that. “If she goes to Mexico, she’s walking right into cartel territory. There’s no way we can get her to Canada. I’m sure Eric has her ID and passport flagged.”

“I know someone who can help.” Alexei winced as Stas applied pressure to his wound. “Shay, go upstairs to our bedroom and open the bottom drawer in my dresser. There are some burner phones there. Grab one. Then go to the closet and open the drawer where I keep my ties. Lift the tray and pick up the leather jewelry case there. Bring them to me.”

I nodded dutifully and hurried upstairs to do as he instructed. Burner phones weren’t the only things I found in that bottom drawer. There were loaded weapons, extra boxes of ammunition, two knives and rolls of cash. When I went to his tie drawer, I found the jewelry case. It was stamped with the logo of a high-end jewelry store that I had only ever dreamed of visiting. I ignored the urge to open the case to see what was inside, grabbed a clean shirt for him and hurried back downstairs to the office.

Boychenko was wiping down the floor when I walked by him. “I’ll come by in the morning to repair the drywall.”

I stopped and looked back at the wall and noticed the hole for the first time. Boychenko stood up and held out his hand. The round he had recovered rested on his palm. “Give this to Alexei.”

“What? Why would he—?”

“Trust me.” Boychenko pressed it into my good hand. “He’ll want it.”

I brought everything Alexei had requested to him and placed them on the desk. I started to walk back to Shannon, but Alexei grasped my hand and kept me from leaving. He rubbed his thumb in slow circles over the back of my hand. I understood this was his way of telling me that we were going to be okay. Leaning down, I kissed his forehead and whispered, “I know.”

“Open the jewelry case,” he ordered gently. “I need you to see it.”

I did as he asked and nearly fainted when I uncovered the incredible necklace and earrings. Brilliant diamonds, some white and others canary yellow, glimmered inside the case. “What is this?”

“I bought this for you. I bought it the morning after I saved you in that alley.” Alexei traced the stones with his finger. “I wanted you to have these. I wanted to use these to show you how much you mean to me.”

Not caring that my sister or two enforcers were watching us, I caressed his jaw. “I don’t need diamonds to know how much you care about me.”

Alexei turned his head and kissed my palm. He smiled sadly. “That’s a good thing because I’m going to have to use these to buy your sister’s safety. I don’t keep enough cash in my safe, and we can’t wait for the banks to open. We have to get her out of the city tonight.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling so much guilt at the situation we were in now. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hush.” He kissed my palm again. “I’d spend every fucking penny I have to make you happy. Saving your sister will make you happy. That’s all that matters.”

“I have something that might help you spend a little less money,” Shannon interjected in a ragged voice. “Well—I mean, I did have something that might help. I’m not sure where it is now.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Our house is empty. All of our shit is gone.”

“It’s not gone. It’s here.”

“I figured as much. That’s why I broke in here.” She made an apologetic face. “You’re going to need a new window in your pool room. Your alarm isn’t working either.”

“You’re lucky I forgot to turn on the alarm when we left for the ER,” I said, lifting my hand. “Otherwise, you’d be in the back of a police car right now.”

As if she hadn’t even noticed my hurt hand, her eyes widened. “What happened to you?”

“I burned myself.”

“With those stupid wood burning tools? I told you those things are dangerous! I warned you that those cords were going to get tangled up and that you were going to knock something over and hurt yourself.”

I rolled my eyes. “It was an accident.”

“Why did you break into the house?” Alexei interrupted our sisterly spat. “What did you hope to find here?”

“There was a box in my bedroom. The little jewelry box with the ballerina,” Shannon clarified. “It has something in it that I need.”

“I saw it when the delivery came,” Stas said and pushed off the wall he had been leaning against. “I dropped a box and it fell out. I’ll go get it.”

“What is it?” Alexei asked. “And don’t lie to me, Shannon. The man I’m going to call is not someone who tolerates lies.”

Shannon swallowed anxiously. “Earlier this year, Ruben and I started thinking about getting out of the life. We were tired of it. He was sick of the drugs and the guns and the gambling. He felt like Lalo was never going to let him have his own crew or grow his territory.” She rubbed her face between her grubby hands. “One of his friends from high school—Edgar—came to him with this scheme. He’d been running it small time by himself, but he needed money to get it off the ground and he needed access to computers and businesses.”

“Like mine,” Alexei interrupted with irritation.

Shannon nodded reluctantly. “Like yours. We came up with a plan, and we started small with companies that had little or no security. I would plug in a flash drive, hit a few keys and then let the program run while I cleaned. I would grab them when I was done, hide them in my smock and go to the next job.” She gave a little shrug. “It was easier than we thought it would be.”

“But what was the plan?” Alexei touched his injured arm. “Who was going to buy this information you were stealing?”

“Edgar put a listing on some deep web site. There were a few offers, and he accepted one. We were getting ready to package it and sell it. Edgar was going to Belize. Ruben and I were planning to run away to some place like Thailand.”

“Were you going to tell me before you left?” It was impossible to keep the hurt out of my voice.

Shannon met my gaze. Quietly, she said, “No.”

“No? You were just…what? Going to leave and hope I didn’t notice? You were going to leave me here to clean up your mess?”

“I was going to tell you when we were some place safe,” she insisted. “I wasn’t worried about you. I knew that you’d land on your feet like you always do.” She glanced at Alexei. “I knew that he would come running the second I was gone. He’s been watching you for months. You were blind to it, but I wasn’t. I knew that the moment I was out of the picture, you were finally going to get your chance at happily ever after.”

While I was trying to process all of that, Stas returned with the jewelry box. He handed it to Shannon who opened it and produced a handful of flash drives. “These are the originals. I kept them. All of them. It was the way Ruben and Edgar decided to keep things fair. Edgar couldn’t sell the information behind our backs, and we couldn’t sell it behind his. I don’t have the decryption key that Edgar kept, but I have everything else.”