The Devil's Beauty (Crime Lord Interconnected Standalone Book 2) (37 page)

“Christ!” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Who?”

He asked the question of John Paul, who merely shook his head in response.

“Had to be Elena,” he decided. “No one else is this determined.” He sucked in a breath and peered at Ava, so small against the mound of pillows. “I thought for sure she would keep her head down.”

“The question is why she wants Ava dead as badly as she does,” John Paul corrected. “It’s with a single minded determination that boarders on obsessed.”

“She mentioned a tree,” Ava piped in. “That night she had me taken. She said something about bringing down a tree.”

“A tree?” Dimitri frowned.

“Me.” Hands clasped at his back, John Paul met his gaze. “She’s referring to me.”

“But why?” Ava asked.

“Elena seldom requires a reason to do anything,” John Paul muttered. “There is obviously more to this, but we can deduce that Ava is not safe until I have Elena.”

“She’s not safe anywhere if Elena has her eyes set on her,” Dimitri said. “Elena won’t stop. She’s like a dog with a bone.”

John Paul nodded. “Agreed.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Ava looked from one to the other. “Witness relocation? CIA? Homeland? And for how long? I mean, I need to go back to work and my apartment—”

“I’ve already taken care of your apartment and any bills you may have had,” John Paul assured her. “That isn’t important.”

“And you’ll get another job,” Dimitri added. “The only important thing is keeping you alive.”

Ava sighed. “And I appreciate that, but I…” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “This is all just too much.”

John Paul smoothed a hand over the top of her head. “We will fix this,
ma petite chou.
”

“Sir?” Penny clicked into the room on her pale, pink pumps, phone in hand. “I apologize for interrupting, but there is a matter I believe requires your immediate attention.”

An awkward sort of silence followed her into the space as all heads turned in her direction. She must have felt it as well as she came to an abrupt halt two feet over the threshold.

“Who’s this?” Ava asked casually, but there was just a hint of something underneath that made the skin between Dimitri’s shoulder blades prickle.

“I’m sorry.” Penny hurried forward, hand extended. “I’m Penelope Beauchamp.”

“I know you,” John Paul said slowly, accepting the woman’s tiny fingers.

“Yes sir.” Penny paused to shake Ava’s hand before taking a hurried step back. “We’ve met … when I worked for Ms. Maynard.”

Realization flickered across John Paul’s face. “Yes, that’s right.”

“I hired Penny to be my assistant,” Dimitri offered carefully.

“Assistant?” Ava prompted.

“I was going to tell you tonight,” he told her, careful not to make any unexpected movement and even more careful to keep his gaze unwavering. “I got the chair. I’m head of the north.”

Ava didn’t move for a full second. Her green eyes bore into his, reflective and painfully vivid. It seemed like hours before her expression changed, before the softness of her mouth turned up into a smile.

“Dimitri!”

She was off the bed, clipboard abandoned, and leaping into his arms. Hers twisted around his shoulders, forcing him to stoop slightly at the knees to meet her. Even then, she was pulled to her tiptoes. Her weight settled perfectly against his. Their fronts were in perfect alignment in all the places that made his blood stir and his fingers tighten against her back. Her sweet fragrance dripped through the foul stench that occupied hospitals and spread until it was all that he could smell.

“I’m so proud of you,” she whispered into his ear. “You’re going to do so much for this city.”

A lump had begun to form in his throat, a golf ball sized knob that made it nearly impossible to speak.

“Only if you’re with me,” he breathed into the side of her throat. “I need you with me, Ava.”

She said nothing for so long he began to think he’d made a mistake. He honestly hadn’t meant to say anything. The words had come out of him before he even knew he’d been thinking them.

“Don’t hurt me again.”

Four little words and she’d stuck a rusted dagger into his chest and torn him open. They bled through him in crystalized shards of ember that burned and cut all the way up to enclose around his heart. He started to tell her he swore it on his life when a discreet cough reminded them where they were and just how long they’d been standing there, tangled together.

He expected her to jerk back, but she held on a second longer before her arms loosened and her feet went flat on the floor, detaching her from him. She peered up at him once more, eyes pleading before she turned to Penny with a whole new sort of smile, this one void of the steely edges.

“It’s really nice to meet you.”

Penny inclined her head. “Likewise.” She faced Dimitri. “Sir, that matter…”

“I’ll be right back,” he told Ava, who nodded and stepped aside to allow him to pass.

He followed Penny just outside the door to the nurse’s counter.

“It’s Syndicate business,” she told him quietly. “There’s been a shooting in a market place.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Another thought struck him then. “How did you know?” She’d only been his assistant for all of an hour.

Penny nodded grimly. “Eight dead. Six injured. Two of them were children. And I have connections in the north … and, well, everywhere. It’s my job.”

A muscle tightened in his chest. “Who was it?”

She shook her head. “My informant doesn’t have that information, but it was the north against an outside attack.” She raised her chin. “Would you like me to deal with this, sir? I will gather further information and select the appropriate group to contain the situation.”

Dimitri thought about it. He knew he couldn’t deal with the matter himself. He wouldn’t leave Ava alone, not after this and she was his main priority until his mother was found. But this was a matter he would need to deal with on some level. If someone hadn’t heard of the new switch in power and was trying to creep their way into a takeover, he needed to stop it now before it got out of hand and more innocent people suffered.

“Call a meeting with all the clans in my territory,” he told Penny. “I want every head present and I want a full report on the people responsible, even those who retaliated.”

“Yes sir, and where would you like that meeting to take place?”

Fuck.

“Find me a building, Penny.”

Penny inclined her head once and then hurried away with her face bent over her phone.

Dimitri returned to the room to find Robby had taken his side of the bed. His giant friend had lodged himself in the chair across the room, far away from the others. John Paul was on his phone by the window and Ava was on the bed, looking over the clipboard once more.

“Everything okay?” Ava lifted her face when Dimitri approached.

He nodded. “Territory stuff.”

Robby shifted. His eyes narrowed contemplatively. “So, if I wanted someone killed, would you be my guy?”

“Robby!” Ava swatted him in the gut.

“What?” Robby laughed. “It’s a legit question. There’s a guy in my residency class—”

“He’s not killing anyone for you!” Ava hissed.

Dimitri only shook his head. While amused, he was too exhausted. It had been a nightmare of a month and there didn’t seem to be a fucking end.

“Hey.” He hadn’t heard Ava get off the bed and move towards him until her cool fingers had curled around his. “It’s going to be okay.”

Without realizing it, he drew her to him, needing her calm like an addict needed a hit. He tucked her against his chest. His finger slipped beneath her chin. He tipped her face to his. His own face reflected across the soft pools of green peering up at him with question, with trust, and a longing he couldn’t ignore.

He kissed her. He let his lips linger for a full stroke of breath over hers, allowing them that heartbeat to re-remember the other’s taste. It had been so long he could have wept with every long, slow drags of her that he claimed. Her infinite sweetness, its healing abilities coursed through him, pooling in all the broken pieces inside him like soothing resin.

“Dimitri…”

Her hesitance, the waver in her voice even as she opened for him tightened his grip.

“Let him see it.” He nipped lightly on her bottom lip. “I’m not hiding anymore.” He drew back to frame her flushed cheeks between his palms. “I’m not hiding you.”

The glimmer in her eyes was more than just tears. They shone with the light and laughter he’d stupidly banished from his life. They glowed with a radiance that washed over him in a warm, loving caress that made him feel more like a man than anything ever had. She smiled and every evil in the world simultaneously vanished. There was nothing but the absolute love and happiness that seemed to pour from that single gesture.

“You still owe me dinner,” she teased him. “And, if you play your cards right, breakfast.”

She wiggled her eyebrow suggestively and Dimitri burst out laughing. It just broke out of him in a flood of sound that could no longer be contained. The deep rumble of it swamped the room, overshadowing everything else.

Ava giggled.

He kissed her again, harder before pulling back.

Penny took that moment to step back into the room. She met Dimitri’s gaze and gave a nod.

John Paul was off his phone and was staring a bit too hard at the stretch of fading sun in the distance. He turned at the sound of Penny’s heels. He glanced from her to Dimitri and narrowed his eyes.

“How did you wind up with Theresa’s assistant?” he asked, sounding more like an accusation.

“Luck,” Dimitri stated simply.

John Paul wasn’t ready to let it go that easily. “Theresa isn’t the sort of woman who would simply give up something she considers her possession. My apologies,” he added for Penny, who shook her head.

“I needed an assistant and Theresa had one.”

If he thought that would appease John Paul, it didn’t. The man’s lips curled back over his teeth.

“You never seem to stop taking things that don’t belong to you.”

“Dad!”

Dimitri settled a gentle hand on Ava’s lower back, but kept his gaze fixed with the man across the room. “I only take what I feel deserves better.”

Crimson splotches appeared on the man’s cheeks and a tightness formed around his mouth. But he didn’t press, though, Dimitri could see he wanted to.

“Stop.” Ava moved between them, but faced Dimitri. Her small hands settled lightly on his chest. “Please don’t make me choose between you, because I won’t and it’s not fair to make me.”

John Paul looked away.

Dimitri turned his gaze down to her. He followed the soft lines of her face and the shadows of sadness that had replaced her earlier happiness, and he knew he’d do anything she asked to erase it.

“You don’t have to choose,” he told her quietly. “But I’m not going anywhere either.”

The hard lines of her shoulders relaxed, mirroring the relief in her eyes.

“This is the best drama I’ve seen since
Days of Our Lives
.” Robby broke through the tension with a seamless ease that made Ava laugh.

Dimitri shook his head, but said nothing. His gaze went to the last man in the room, the one who hadn’t moved or said a word in all that time.

“Who’s your friend?” he asked, eyeing the man’s massive bulk and stern features.

“This is Ki,” Robby introduced, dropping down on the bed. “He’s my dealer.”

Ki’s squinty eyes narrowed into thin slits.

“John Paul hired him to keep Robby company,” Ava supplied, shooting her friend a glower.

“That is a very diplomatic way of saying babysitter,” Robby countered breezily.

“Will you stop?” Ava’s whine was mashed into the palms she scrubbed into her face. “Why are all the men in my life so frustrating?” She lowered her hands. “I swear, you three are going to drive me to drink.”

“Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt … again, but if I could borrow you again for—”

The doctor arrived then, interrupting Penny. He faltered at the sight of all people already inside, but he recovered quickly.

“Ava?”

“That’s me.” Ava stepped forward only to abruptly stop when the two other figures walked in after the man in the white coat.

John Paul stiffened the same time Dimitri did. The coil in their muscles filled the small room with a thick sort of tension only those averse to law enforcement would understand. Neither glanced at each other. They didn’t need to.

“Ms. Emerson?” The taller of the two stepped forward. “We’d like to ask you some questions.”

The spit turned to ash in Ava’s mouth. Its gritty texture rubbed the roof of her mouth sore with every desperate attempt to swallow and regurgitate actual words. Her fingers slipped clumsily down the length of Dimitri’s toned forearm and clasped around his hand.

“Is there a problem?”

It was a stupid question. She’d been missing two weeks after the shooting of three men and now, she was in the hospital for being shot at. It was a wonder the police hadn’t tracked her down sooner.

“We just have some questions, ma’am,” the one on the left said, one hand resting comfortably, but with authority on his belt.

“Your friends can wait for you outside,” said the second one. “This won’t take long.”

“Yeah, but what’s this about?” Robby had moved to stand at Ava’s other side. “Ava hasn’t done anything.”

“Sir,” the single word vibrated with warning. “Please wait outside.”

“It’s okay.” Ava reached out with her free hand and lightly squeezed his.

Robby looked about to argue, but he relented. He and Ki left quietly, followed by Penny, but not before Dimitri murmured something in her ear before motioning her to leave. Then it was just her, John Paul, Dimitri, the doctor, and the two cops.

“I’m her father,” John Paul said when the officers glanced at him.

“Forget it,” Dimitri said the moment they turned their attention to him.

The two exchanged glances, but it must not have been a problem worth fighting over, because they didn’t push.

“Can I examine her while you ask your questions?” the doctor asked.

The bigger one nodded once and the doctor immediately motioned Ava back to the bed. She sat rigidly on the edge, eyes on the two men in the doorway while her blood pressure was taken.

“Ms. Emerson.” The smaller one stepped to the foot of the bed and removed a pen and pad from his pocket. “I’m Detective Newlyn. This is my partner, Detective Arellano. We’re investigating a string of murders that all seem to have one thing in common—you.”

“Were you at the East End Hotel in Williamsburg, May twenty-first, Ms. Emerson?” Arellano asked, staying by the door, watching his partner’s back.

“Yes,” Ava whispered, cotton mouthed. She cleared her throat. “I was there for the journalist convention.”

The scratch of pen on paper filled the room.

“How many nights had you planned to stay?”

Ava shook her head. “The one. I was going to leave in the morning.”

Newlyn flipped to an earlier page, then flipped back. “The convention was a full weekend event.” He raised his head and fixed her with his cool, hazel eyes. “Why were you leaving early?”

“Because I didn’t want to be there in the first place,” she confessed. “My boss was making me go.”

“So, it was for work?” Newlyn pressed.

Ava nodded. “I’m … was … may still be an editor with Chaud.”

“You’re not a journalist?”

She shook her head.

“But it was a convention for journalists,” Newlyn prompted.

Ava sighed. “My boss thought it would be a great way to scout new writers and make new readers for the magazine.”

“And did you?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Did you meet new writers and readers?” Arellano asked.

Ava hesitated. “Well, I met people, if that’s what you mean.”

“Detectives.” The doctor interrupted the questioning to jam a flat stick in Ava’s mouth and check down her throat. It wasn’t the best time to be so close to her gag reflexes, Ava thought, especially when she was barely suppressing the urge to throw up as it was. But she managed to control her breathing just long enough for him to pull out.

Arellano continued when the stick was removed. “What happened at the hotel, Ms. Emerson?”

She tasted Dimitri when she licked her lips. The urge to glance at him nearly had her faltering in her concentration. It wouldn’t have been because she needed his guidance to tell the story, although, maybe, she did a little of that too. But she knew if she looked at him, she’d remember that kiss and she didn’t think the police would appreciate her animalistic leap to claim the man standing a few feet away. Really, it was a bad time to be thinking of anything, but what she was being asked. Acting scatter brained and incoherent would most likely get her tossed in jail.

“I honestly don’t know,” she said simply. “I was sleeping when it all happened.”

“Ms. Emerson, we have witnesses who put you in the bar and then leaving with a man.” Arellano scrutinized her face carefully when he asked, “Was he the one who kidnapped you?”

That prickling insistence to glance at Dimitri was a palpable assault grinding into the base of her skull, taking over her motor skills.

“It was me,” Dimitri broke in. “I took her from the bar. She had too much to drink. I took her to her room. Your witness will attest to it.”

“And you are?” Newlyn twisted his torso in Dimitri’s direction, pen hovering over a clean sheet.

Cold sweat slickened her skin, dampening her clothes and making her stomach writhe. She did turn to him now, unable to stand not seeing his face when he explained who he was. At the same time, she had no desire to watch when they realized his identity and snapped him in cuffs.

“Dimitri Tasarov.”

Ava bit back a gasp; she had been so certain he would give a false name.

Newlyn scribbled that down.

“And what were you doing in Williamsburg, Mr. Tasarov?”

“I went to see Ava.”

“Were you there when the men came to her room?”

“No—”

“Yes,” Dimitri cut Ava off. “I shot them.”

She couldn’t fathom why on earth he was just telling them that. How could he not be scared mindless? She was. She could barely think straight past the dull numbness of fear.

“Dimitri…”

He spared her a firm glance filled with meaning she didn’t understand. “They need to know, Ava.”

She didn’t think so at all. If it meant that she would lose him again, just when she got him back, she didn’t care.

“Mr. Tasarov, could you please walk us through the events of that evening?”

He turned his attention back to the two men who both had their hands resting with purpose on their belts, inches from their guns.

“We were in Ava’s hotel room and they came in.”

He walked them through every second of their adventure. He concealed nothing, not even blowing up his safe house. He described in detail his journey to find her when she’d been taken. The only thing that never came up was Hector or Julian. There was no one else mentioned except her and him.

When he finished, he peered from one to the other as though waiting for their response. But they must not have realized the exact extent of it, because they seemed incapable of speech for almost ten heartbeats. They exchanged glances, speaking in that way only two people who were very close possibly could. She used to have that power with Dimitri. It might still have been there, though she couldn’t be certain, because it wasn’t working at that moment.

“The man who brought Ms. Emerson back to you, do you remember his name?”

Creases formed across Dimitri’s brow, giving him the illusion of really having to think about that. Slowly, he shook his head.

“No, can’t say I do.”

“Really?” Arellano raised an eyebrow. “This man brought back the woman you love and you don’t remember his name?”

One shoulder lifted in an almost sheepish jerk. “I’m not very good with names.”

Arellano glanced at Ava. “What about you, Ms. Emerson?”

Ava shook her head automatically. “I don’t.”

The detective looked nowhere near appeased, but Newlyn interrupted his prodding.

“Why was the police not informed of any of this, Mr. Tasarov?”

“There was nothing they could have done,” Dimitri said. “Ava and I only just arrived this morning.”

“Which is why we must insist that this interview be concluded.” It was the first time John Paul had spoken and everyone, including Ava, had forgotten he was still there. “Ava needs her rest.”

“Sorry.” Newlyn snapped his notepad shut. “That won’t be possible. You just admitted to more crimes in the span of two weeks than I have seen my entire life. I’m sorry, but you’re under arrest.”

“No!” Ava lunged to her feet, but Dimitri stopped her with just one hand.

His gaze remained fixed firmly on the pair watching him back.

“That, I’m afraid, is not going to happen.”

“Oh yeah? And why’s that?” Arellano asked.

Dimitri switched his gaze to the second man, expression frighteningly calm. “Because I have a date tonight and getting arrested is a hindrance.”

While incredibly romantic, enough so to make Ava’s terrified heart pause in its panic to flutter, it did nothing for the police officers.

“Well, change of plans.”

Arellano stepped forward, cuffs already in hand. Newlyn had a firm grip on his gun hilt, eyes watchful for even a flicker of movement. Dimitri never moved. He watched the pair with something akin to mildly annoyed. He checked his watch. Then peeked at the doorway.

He exhaled. “Traffic,” he said like that explained everything.

No sooner had he spoken when three figures stepped through the doorway. The first was a handsomely dressed man in a navy suit and a beautiful smile beneath a razor straight mustache. He wore an officer’s uniform with his cap tacked beneath one arm. Medals gleamed against his left chest and shoulder. The second one was a uniformed officer, and lastly, Penny.

Dimitri stepped forward. “Police commissioner.” He extended his hand. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

Ava thought he’d looked familiar. She’d probably seen him during one of John Paul’s parties, but she couldn’t place his name.

“Your assistant insisted it was urgent,” the man said, gesturing to Penny. “I would have been here sooner, but traffic is a nightmare this time of day. Now.” He looked over the faces in the room. “What do we have here?”

“We’re making an arrest,” Arellano blurted. “This man has confessed to multiple offences and—”

“Dimitri is a very close friend of mine,” Geaten cut in gently, but sternly. “I’m sure you must have heard incorrectly.”

Newlyn and Arellano exchanged glances, neither wanting to be the one to question the commissioner of police.

“Sir, with all due respect,” Arellano began.

“What I see here is a hospital room where sick people come to get treated.” Geaten took another step into the room. “This isn’t the place for this. Why don’t you two come with me and we can discuss all of this on our way back to the station, hmm?”

“But, sir, the fugitive…”

“Are you questioning me?”

Arellano quickly snapped his mouth shut.

Geaten smiled. “I didn’t think so. Now, let’s get on the road and you can tell me everything.”

The two hesitated, but they’d already pushed their luck as far as it would go.

“Oh my God,” Ava breathed the moment the group had left and oxygen returned to the space once more. She dropped down on the bed, making the frame squeak. “I…” she broke off when she remembered the doctor, standing just to her left, quiet and slightly ashen.

The others seemed to remember as well as all eyes fixed on him. 

The doctor shifted, a faint flutter of his hands before they were stuffed into the pockets of his coat. “I’m just going to get a nurse to help me with—”

Dimitri moved before the other man could even lift his feet.

“By now you must have concluded that I am dangerous and have many friends in very high places,” Dimitri interjected, blocking the older man’s speedy escape. “What do you think I could do to a doctor who couldn’t keep his mouth shut?”

The doctor shook his head. “I … I wouldn’t…”

“I know,” Dimitri assured him. “You’re a smart man.”

The two clashed gazes, steel against butter. Dimitri won when the doctor’s chin dropped.

“Actually, Doctor, before you go.” John Paul moved forward by three steps. “Now that you know the full story, could you examine Ava properly? I would like the entire checkup done, overseen personally, by you.”

The doctor’s lips parted. “I have other patients—”

John Paul’s eyes narrowed. “Are you saying that my daughter’s health is an inconvenience for you?”

“No, of course not. I was just—”

“Full exam,” John Paul stressed. “Now.”

“Dad,” Ava protested. “I have to go home.”

“Not until you have been checked.”

“And you’re not going home,” Dimitri added. “Elena found you in a public market. There is nothing stopping her from getting you at your apartment.”

Ava’s jaw dropped. “I can’t go home?”

It made no sense to her after the words had left her why it was such a shock. Logically, everything they were telling her made perfect sense. Her life was in danger. She was completely out of her element and if she wanted to stay alive and avoid being on another cargo boat, she needed to trust them to keep her safe.