Clinch (The Underground Book 2) (18 page)

Leo wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her into his side. “We fighters don’t stay down long.”

“I see that. Learned that the night I met Dmitry. That fool was fighting with an injured kidney.”

Mikhail swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood with barely a wince. If someone didn’t know he’d broken four ribs two days ago, they would never suspect. “Starving.” He pushed past them and headed out the door.

Leo followed, letting his hand trail down to grab Katie’s and lead her back to the kitchen/living room area. The place wasn’t exciting. Leo had never done anything to decorate. He didn’t care much about that sort of thing, and besides, they didn’t have the money to waste on frivolous extras.

It was a newer building—less than five years old—done in gray tones with white cabinets, black counters, and gray speckled carpet.

“What are you two up to today?” Ivan asked. He leaned against the counter.

Alena jumped down from the surface and reached into the cabinet to grab some bowls. She proceeded to set the table.

“Errands. I’m going to stay with Katie for a while.” Leo tossed that information out as casually as possible, watching Katie out of the corner of his eye.

She flinched. “You are?”

Leo addressed the others, glancing around the room from Mikhail, who had lowered himself into a chair at the table, to Alena, who was frozen in the middle of the room with a handful of spoons, and Ivan, who had a smirk on his face a mile wide. “There’s been a number of homeless people found dead, their bodies abandoned in a dump on the southern edge of downtown. The area isn’t safe right now. It would be remiss of me to leave her there alone.”

She stepped in front of him, catching his gaze. “That isn’t necessary, you know. I’m perfectly fine on my own. I have locks.”

Leo shook his head. “Are you talking about that flimsy dead bolt on the glass door next to the wall of windows that were installed in the 1960s?”

“There’s an alarm.”

He rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air. “Seriously? What year was that installed?”

She bit her lower lip between her teeth.

“Babe, someone could elbow their way into your clinic. That’s not a good enough alarm system.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ivan mouth the word “babe” at Alena with raised eyebrows.

Whatever. So what if Ivan, Alena, and Mikhail knew the score. It wasn’t a secret.

She released her lip. “The supply room has its own alarm, and it’s always locked.”

“Where the medicines are?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you normally sleep in that room?” he asked sarcastically.

“Of course not, but—”

Leo shook his head again. “Not safe. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing someone could so easily break in and do anything they wanted. Do you even own a gun?”

She gasped. “No. I don’t do weapons. I’m in the business of saving lives, not taking them.”

“Thanks for solidifying my stance.” He grinned.

“You can’t just move in with me. We’ve been…uh…you know…seeing each other for only a few days.” Her face turned red. As if everyone in the room didn’t think they were sleeping together.

“Nobody said anything about moving in. I’ll just pack a duffle bag with a few more things and set it in the corner. You’ll be safer. I’ll sleep better.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” she muttered, leaning into him.

He kissed her, an indulgent grin on his face, knowing he would do no such thing. She could talk all she wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he was about to take up residence in her apartment.

She didn’t need to know yet it had little to do with missing homeless people and everything to do with the Russian mob trailing his ass.

Katie’s phone rang while she was rolling her eyes, breaking the standoff. She glanced at it, but then groaned and stuffed it back in her pocket.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Just my mother. Marshall probably got to her.”

“Shouldn’t you answer it?”

“Not right now. Unless you all want to be subjected to a grown woman being treated like a five-year-old for forty minutes. I’ll call her later.”

Ivan carried the huge pot over to the table and set it on a potholder. “Lunch is served,” he proclaimed.

∙•∙

Katie turned around and stepped away from Leo. Anything to put some distance between them. When he stood in her space, she couldn’t think. “I can’t wait.”

Leo pulled out a chair for her and then slid it back in as she took her seat at the table.

He hovered. Too close. His scent filled her every time she inhaled. His arm bulged at her side, making her want to crawl into his lap. And she wasn’t fond of the way her body reacted to him in front of his friends. It unnerved her.

Alena cleared her throat. Glad for the distraction, Katie turned to look at her, along with the three gigantic men who clearly adored her. The room was so filled with testosterone, you could cut the air with a knife, but when Alena spoke, everyone paid attention. “I’m going to get a job.”

As if rehearsed, and in amazing unison, all three men responded at once. “No. You’re not.”

She glared at them each in turn and sat up taller, as tall as her barely five-foot frame could pretend to be. “I am. I’m done hiding. I’ve been in the US a year. My English is perfect. I’m bored out of my mind. And no one has bothered any of you since Dmitry left town.”

“No,” Ivan declared gruffly, turning his attention to the soup in front of him as if the matter were closed.

Katie fought the urge to smile. Were all Russian men so incredibly dominant and obstinate? Or just the MMA fighters?

She glanced at Leo. Brooding. Intense. Sexier in his dominant he-man mode.

This was going to be interesting.

Alena didn’t back down. “You three really can’t stop me. We’re in the US now. I have a green card. It’s a free country.” She shrugged.

Ivan shot her a glare, setting his spoon down and putting his elbows on the table. “Alena, we have no idea who might be looking for you. Don’t forget that Abram hired men to snatch you from what essentially amounted to a Russian prison cell. We don’t know who was holding you. And we don’t know why. Could have been the government. Could have been the KGB. Could have been some secret department that works under the SVR or the FSB. We. Don’t. Know. It’s. Not. Safe.”

Alena leaned forward, getting in his face. “The KGB. You do realize they went down with the fall of the Soviet Union, right?”

He shrugged and took a bite. “Don’t care. Don’t trust them.”

“That was over twenty years ago, Ivan. I was a child.”

Mikhail spoke. “Alena, he’s right. I don’t trust a single faction of that government, neither the old one or the new. Someone was holding you. We don’t know who. And we can’t know they aren’t still looking.”

“Couldn’t it have been just some asshole with no relation to the government at all?”

Mikhail’s face stiffened. “You’re my sister. You were there. Did it seem like some shoddy situation to you? I distinctly remember every word you told me. And whatever you left out, Abram filled in from intel from the men who rescued you. It was a hidden building. Large. Concealed. Pristine. They held you for months.”

Alena winced.

Hell, listening to Mikhail tell the story made Katie cower too. Maybe Alena really was in danger.

Mikhail wasn’t done. He shouted the same word again. “
Months
. In a clean room with food, water, and facilities. What did they do during that time? Keep you healthy? That’s
it
? Unless you have left out some detail, then I think we have no choice but to assume it was a government operation. Old or new regime, I don’t give a fuck. Your life is not your own. Not even on American soil.”

“I won’t live my entire life in fear. I’m done hiding.” Her voice wasn’t as strong, but she held her head high.

Leo cleared his throat. “I don’t want a repeat of what happened last year when Lauren decided she was done hiding and all hell broke loose. In fact,” he turned to face Ivan, “I was going to suggest you move in here while I’m at Katie’s. I don’t know what Boris and Erik are up to, but I do know they’re tracking us. I smell a rat.”

Katie flinched. He even knew the names of the guys he thought were watching them?

Mikhail nodded. “I’d feel safer with an extra man in the apartment.”

Katie watched Alena’s face flame a deep red. Her skin was usually so white there was no hiding it. Her eyes widened at Leo’s suggestion, and she glanced at Ivan. Her mouth fell open as if to speak, but instead she fidgeted in her seat.

Interesting. Were she and Ivan a thing? And if so, did anyone else know? It didn’t seem like it.

Finally Alena shook her head. “You’re all overreacting.”

Ivan and Mikhail spoke on top of each other.

Leo held up a hand. “Calm down. Everyone.” He turned toward Ivan again. “You move into my room for the time being. And as for Alena working, I’m sure we can think of something she could do that wouldn’t put her in extreme danger but would give her a bit of freedom.”

Katie sat up straighter, slapping at the hand Leo set on her thigh when he finished speaking. He was driving her mad with his touch. “How about my clinic? She could work there. Or volunteer if you prefer. I’m sure we can come up with something.”

Everyone turned to stare at her.

She hoped she wasn’t about to become the new focus of their intense wrath.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Leo said, his hand grasping her leg tighter and stroking too close to her pussy.

“We’ll think about it,” Mikhail said, closing the subject with his tone.

Ivan grunted his agreement and dug into his soup.

Katie glanced at Alena, who almost smiled. Alena had chipped away at their resolve. She was strong. She would win eventually. She mouthed a “thank you” at Katie when no one was looking.

»»•««

Anton finally dropped his computer bag next to his desk at the lab and glanced through the wall of glass opposite his desk to watch the lab in motion down below. Ten people were working. He didn’t give a fuck that it was Sunday. He needed to speed up this process.

Every trial run was a goddamn failure, and he was tired of failing.

He picked up his phone and dialed his father’s right-hand man in New York. Viktor had worked for Anton before he’d gotten locked up. But the man was an excellent companion to Grigory, so he’d gone back to New York with Anton’s father.

Viktor picked up on the first ring.

“How is he?” Anton asked.

“Not well, sir. He’s slowing down considerably. The doctors think he might have pneumonia.”

Anton rubbed his head. The entire situation sucked, but there was little he could do about his father’s rapid decline. ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, had a mind of its own. It moved at its own pace, and Grigory had gotten the short end of the stick. He was growing weaker by the day as his muscles stiffened and shrank. Already he was having difficulty speaking and swallowing. “He say anything?”

“Yeah. He wants to know how the lab is progressing.” Viktor’s tone had a note of mirth in it. Not surprising. The old bastard would not go down without a fight.

“Tell him we’re getting closer. I’ll call you next week with an update.” Anton closed his eyes. He hated that his father had put so much effort into the lab in Vegas only to have his health fail so quickly he probably wouldn’t see the project to fruition. Grigory had in fact paid so much attention to the lab that he’d let Anton’s fighters go by the wayside while he was in jail.

“Will do.”

When he ended the call, he made his way down the clanking metal steps to the lab below, glancing around as he descended. No sign of Christianson. The man was supposed to be there. He put in long hours on Sundays.

He stopped a woman hurrying by with a vial of blood. She was wearing plastic protective clothing and had a cloth mask over her mouth and nose. Everyone in the lab took those precautions.

Everyone but Anton.

He didn’t give a fuck.

“You seen Christianson?”

She shook her head. “Not today.”

He let her go on by and stood staring after her. Where the hell was Christianson? He pulled out his phone again and touched the screen a few times to call the guy.

It rang. No one answered.

“Dammit.”

In a huff, he wandered toward the hall on the left side of the sterile room. The west wing was lined with exam rooms, and most of them were full. He peered into several to find a John or Jane Doe in varying degrees of death. Didn’t matter if they were still breathing. The important thing was they weren’t going to make it.

By the time he got to the end of the hall, he was aggravated.

The last door held the only person of promise.

Thank the Lord.

The woman inside had shocked them all. With her wild red hair and fair skin, he found her intriguing. He hadn’t spoken to her or let her see him in the two weeks she’d been there, but she never failed to make his cock jump to attention. What he wouldn’t give to run his hands through that hair, fist it in his fingers, and force her mouth to take his whole cock.

Jane Doe number thirteen. She was being kept in a barely coherent state. But the woman was alive. She showed no signs of ill effects from the drugs.

Progress. She was still breathing, which meant he might have good news for his father after all.

Anton stared at her for several moments. She truly was gorgeous. The fact that she was alive was unexpected. But no reason why he couldn’t take advantage of that good fortune.

A huge smile spread across his face as he came up with the perfect plan.

Now he just needed to find Christianson.

Katie hesitated when Leo grabbed her hand after lunch and nodded toward the hall to the bedrooms. “Come on. I’ll show you where I live when I’m not with you.”

She tried not to smile while she shot him a glare. Heading to the back of the apartment where they would be alone was a horrible idea. He’d been pawing at her for over an hour while they ate and talked with his friends.

Katie enjoyed getting to know the people who were important to him, but his incessant wandering hand kept her spine rigid and her foot tapping on the floor.