“Enemies?” My voice was tight.
“Men like us always have enemies. But don’t worry, Dmitri is determined to keep you and the little nugget safe.” He glanced back at Alexis in her car seat. “Until we figure out who is betraying us, he’ll make sure only his most trusted men are close.”
I knew he only told me about this because he wanted me to have information that I might need to keep myself safe, but the knowledge that there was someone within the Bratva that couldn’t be trusted rattled me.
Maybe I wasn’t as safe at Dmitri’s house as I thought.
“You’re going to be fine,” Nikolay said, apparently reading my expression. “Dmitri will figure out who the traitor is and make him pay.”
I swallowed hard. “How will he pay?”
Nikolay just shook his head, and I knew he wasn’t going to answerthatquestion. But he didn’t really have to. Life might not be exactly like those gangster movies I’d seen, but I had a feeling that they got somethings right. I doubted that betraying the mafia was key to a long, healthy life.
I glanced at the clock, it was time to head inside for my class, but one more question occurred to me.
“You said that your organizationhas enemies. Does that mean the men who cornered me in the parking lot that night. The ones who killed my boss… do you know who they are?”
Nikolay popped open his door. “It’s best to ask Dmitri about that. I’ve probably already said too much.”
With that, he got out of the car, and I didn’t have any excuse not to do the same. As I got Alexis out of her car seat, my mind lingered on my conversation with Nikolay. I felt like I’d learned more from him in the past few minutes than I had from Dmitri in the two days I’d been staying with him.
Nikolay suggested that I ask Dmitri about the identity of the men in the grocery store parking lot, but it wasn’t exactly easy to talk to him when he made my heart race and an aching desire take root at my core. I could barely think straight, and he was already cagey about his mafia business. I wasn’t sure if I’d learn anything useful from him anytime soon.
***
Walking into the gym with Alexis, I pulled out my membership card and held it up to the scanner at the check-in desk. The man standing there in the light blue polo shirt all the gym employees wore gave me a bright smile.
“Welcome! Will you be taking advantage of our childcare services today?”
Alexis was already tugging at my hand so she could rush to the play area. It was right next to the check-in desk so that parents didn’t have to bring their children onto the gym floor around the machines or weights.
“Yes, please,” I said just as Nikolay stepped up beside me. The employee’s eyes shifted, and his smile faltered.
I looked at Nikolay and realized he’d shifted into bodyguard mode when we walked inside. His eyes skimmed the entirety of the gym, and his expression was hard. He was all business, his body tense and ready for action in a way that made him much less approachable than he was in the car.
“Can I help you, sir?” the employee asked, not quite successful at hiding his unease.
“I’m here to provide security,” Nikolay said.
My eyebrows popped up, surprised he was taking that approach to explain his presence. I highly doubted the gym would be okay with this intimidating man hanging around with an explanation like that.
But it turned out I was wrong. The manager showed up while I dropped Alexis off in the childcare room, watching her head straight for a low table full of building blocks where two other children were already playing. By the time I signed her in and returned to the check-in desk, the manager was shaking Nikolay’s hand and offering him a chair to sit in near the childcare center. He declined and made his way over to me.
“Uh, how did you do that?” I asked.
“You’ll find that associating with us comes with a certain amount of influence in this city.”
I rolled my eyes. “Now you sound just as cryptic as Dmitri.”
He didn’t smile, but I saw amusement in his eyes. “Just go to your spin class. I’m going to stay near the entrance.”
I nodded, thankful that he was lingering near the childcare center. I was sure we would be fine while inside of the gym, but if Dmitri was insisting on a bodyguard for the two of us, I wanted his primary focus to be Alexis.
The spin class took place in a room at the back of the gym, right between the yoga room and the sauna. When I stepped inside, the class was filling with people, but Mira wasn’t here yet. We always took bikes in the back of the room, so I stood beside one and did some easy stretches to warm up.
I’d just bent over to touch my toes when I felt a hand slap my ass. Letting out a yelp, I stood straight and turned to see Mira standing there with a smile on her face.
“Couldn’t resist,” she said.