Chapter Nine
Dmitri
This shit storm of a situation had been a huge pain in the ass for the last three months, and just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, I locked eyes with the woman I had a one-night stand with four years ago.
I’d seen the prosecutor’s witness list, but Sarah was a common name, and I never got her last name, nor gave her mine.
My muscles went rigid, spine snapping straight as my eyebrows shot up in surprise. Of all the women in New York City, what were the chances that the prosecutor’s most strategically important witness would be someone I slept with? Someone who ignited a passion inside me that I stillthought about alone in bed four years later.
While my lawyer, Viktor, made his opening statement, prattling on and on about circumstantial evidence, conspiracy, and the burden of proof, I took a moment to look at her. Sarah was just as beautiful as I remembered. She’d immediately caught my eye that night in the bar, with her stunning green eyes and curvy body that still drove me crazy. If I were seeing her in pretty much anyother place or at anyother time, I would already have an erection and be thinking about how to get her in bed again.
But this was my trial for enterprise corruption and conspiracy tied to a man’s death, and she was the witness who put my men in the victim’s office days before he was killed. She didn’t know me. She never saw me. But she could swear under oath that the men who threatened Henry Moss worked for me—and that was enough to make her dangerous,, even though I didn’t do the damn crime.
It was strange that I would still feel so drawn to a woman I only spent one night with. I’d never been the type to go back for seconds with a woman. I always kept things casual, having no-strings-attached sex and then barely remembering them afterward.
Sarah left an impression. She wasn’t just hot as hell. She burned with a passion that consumed us both that night. She was unmatched, and after we parted ways, I found myself wishing I’d gotten more information about her so I could track her down for another night together.
Even more shocking was that I wanted more than just another rough and satisfying fuck session. I enjoyed talking to her, and that was rare for me when it came to strangers.
I continued to stare at her, my mind reeling from the shock and stuck somewhere between fondly recalling the past and trying to deal with the horror of the present. A part of me wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t run out on me in the middle of the night. Would we have actually dated?
The concept was so foreign to me that I couldn’t imagine it. I wasn’t the type to make romantic gestures or share my feelings with women. But maybe we could have spent some time together, gotten to know each other without all of the lovey-dovey shit I’ve always wanted to avoid.
I shook my head at my own thoughts. What the hell was I thinking? Sarah was looking at me like she was just realizing that she spent the night with a monster. The way her jaw dropped and eyes widened told me she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her.
She pulled her gaze away from me and watched my lawyer walk back and forth in front of the jury as he spoke. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and I forced myself to stop staring at her. The last thing I needed was to be distracted while my life was on the line.
“I want you to think about one thing,” Viktor said, his voice just the right mix of charming and ardent. “District Attorney Reid had a lot of passionate words to share about organized crime and taking a stand against it. I’m not going to argue against that, because who would? Of course, we all want a safer city. But that idea has nothing to do with my client. You’ll learn during the course of this trial that not only does the DA have no evidence that directly connects my client to the death of Henry Moss, but there’s also no credible evidence to prove that he’s a part of any criminal organization. The truth is that the DA is up for reelection next year, and coming out as tough on organized crime will make him look good to the voters. So, he’s concocted this theory that my client is a part of the Russian mafia. Why is that? Because his great-grandfather was born in Moscow? Because he’s a successful businessman with a Russian surname? Because a crime was committed and the DA needed a villain who fit a convenient narrative? Is that the crime that has made the DA believe he’s a part of the infamous Bratva?”
A few jurors shot uncomfortable looks at the DA. Viktor was good. His light implication that there could be some kind of prejudice against me at play hit its mark with the jury.
And he had a point. The authorities might have long suspected that the Gorsky family ran the Bratva in New York City, but the only ones whoknewit was true were the cops on our payroll.
I was just glad my old man taught me the importance of covering my tracks. My father was a real bastard, and in mostaspects, I wished I never knew the man. But this was one thing he taught me that had some value. I’d always been careful to hide my true identity. That was why I had an office at the construction company and even filed my taxes as CEO of Gorsky Construction. On paper, I was a perfectly normal, law-abiding citizen.
“I want you to really think about what the evidence tells you during this trial, not the sensational story the DA feeds you. He doesn’t have much to make his case. Even his sole witness is unreliable,” Viktor continued. I stiffened at the mention of Sarah. “She’s the one who found the body, after all, and her fingerprints are on the knife. Just something to think about.”
I couldn’t resist looking at Sarah again, noticing that the color had drained from her face. Even from a distance, I could see the fear in her eyes as her shoulders curled inward.
Anger rose, sharp and overpowering, and I leaned toward my lawyer the moment his ass was back in the seat beside me.
“That shit you just said about Sa—the witness, drop that.”
His eyebrows popped up. “What?”
“Don’t push the narrative that the witness might have had anything to do with this.”
I barely knew Sarah, but a part of me knew it she didn’thave anything to do with this. One look at her and I wassureshe wasn’t involved. More than that, I felt a surge of protectiveness toward her.
Sarah was vulnerable in a way that brought to life an instinct to protect and defend that I never knew even existed inside me before now. It rattled me because the only people I everfelt protective of were my family members.
I couldn’tlet my lawyer hurt her by implying that she was in any way responsible for her boss’s death.
“My suggestion that she’s involved in this crime won’t come to anything,” Viktor said, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. Which was fair enough. I kind of felt like I had. “It’s just a diversion.”
“Find another way,” I said. “Sarah is off-limits.”
His eyes narrowed. “Sarah?”
I didn’t mean to use her first name and give Viktor an idea that I had a personal connection to her.
“Just drop it,” I snapped, refusing to explain myself to the man.
I was having a hard enough time understanding my decision myself, but I couldn’t focus on trying to figure out what motivated me to protect her. I needed to give this trial my full attention.