Alexei

  And then I caught sight of the security system console mounted on the wall around the corner. The small screen showed a live feed from a camera mounted somewhere above the front doors. I recognized the man standing there almost instantly—and my stomach knotted with distress.

  What is he doing here?

  Inhaling a steadying breath, I punched in the code Alexei had given me and walked to the front door. I turned the deadbolt and door knob locks and opened the door a few inches. Trying to hide my anxiety, I faked a warm smile and hoped to hell Detective Eric Santos couldn’t tell my hands were shaking.

  “Hello,” I greeted softly. “Can I help you?”

  “Shay?” Eric Santos’s face registered shock. He took a step back and gazed up at the façade of Alexei’s house as if to reassure himself he was in the right place. “What are you doing here?”

  “I sort of live here,” I said, still not quite believing it myself. I didn’t add that it was a temporary situation. I didn’t need Eric digging around in my personal life. “Are you here to speak with Alexei?”

  Eric nodded. “I came here to speak with him about you actually.”

  “Me?” Oh, this wasn’t good.

  “Well you’re missing—”

  “I’m not missing, Detective. I’m right here.”

  He shot me a perturbed look. “I think we need to talk.”

  I didn’t want to talk to him. I really, really didn’t. But I knew that if I acted odd or gave him any reason to suspect something wasn’t right, he was going to make trouble for Alexei.

  I stepped aside and waved him into the house. “Come in, please.”

  Eric entered, and I shut and locked the door behind him. I walked him into the living area and gestured toward one of the couches there. I took a seat in a chair across from him and tried to look calm and relaxed. I thought about asking him if he wanted something to drink, but I wasn’t familiar enough with the house. If he saw me peeking through cabinets or going down the wrong hall, he would automatically know something was up.

  After taking his seat, Eric whipped out a notebook and pen and flipped to the page he wanted. “Your neighbors said they saw a truck at your house on Friday evening. They said three or four men got out of the truck and hassled you. Your landlord and his crew intervened.” He lifted his gaze from his notes. “Does that fit your recollection of the evening?”

  “Yes.” I leaned back in the chair, drawing up my legs and crossing them. I tugged my oversized sweatshirt over my knees and reminded myself to be very, very careful with my answers.

  “And do you want to tell me who those men were?”

  “They were just some guys looking for Ruben.” The lie came so easily. I sort of hated myself for not telling Eric the truth. He had been trying to help Shannon get straight for years. He was a good guy, and he was someone I had trusted—until my loyalty shifted to Alexei.

  “And?”

  “And they left when I told them he wasn’t there.”

  Eric’s expression remained impassive. I couldn’t tell if he believed me or if he was using those super detective powers on me. “We’ve been trying to find your sister and Ruben.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we think they may have had something to do with the disappearance of this man,” he said and flashed me the screen of his iPhone. “Do you know this guy?”

  Expecting to see Lalo’s face, I reluctantly glanced at Eric’s phone. The license photograph wasn’t his. It was some blond guy I had never seen. “No.”

  “His name is Edgar Vasquez. He went to school with Ruben. They seem to have kept in touch and the rumor is that they’re working together.”

  “Detective Santos, you know that I don’t have anything to do with Ruben or the life he lives. I barely tolerate Shannon’s involvement.”

  “Is that why you’ve moved in here?”

  “I live here because Alexei asked me to live with him. It has nothing to do with Shannon.” Lies. Lies. Lies.

  “How long have you been dating?”

  “I don’t think my personal life has anything to do with that man.” I motioned toward his phone. “I’m not going to answer questions about my relationship with Alexei.”

  Eric seemed surprised by my reply. Had he expected to push me around that easily? As if trying to push my buttons, he asked, “And those rumors about you and Lalo Contreras?”

  My face wrinkled with disgust. It was a reaction I couldn’t hide. “There has never been anything between me and Lalo. Those rumors are all lies.”

  “Even the one about you and Lalo going into a back room together at the Arena on Friday night?” His arched eyebrows dared me to lie, and I knew I was caught.

  Carefully, I explained, “I went to the Arena on Friday night looking for Shannon. She was supposed to be there with Ruben.” Not wanting to talk about what had happened in that back room, I came up with another lie on the fly. “I ran into Lalo there. I couldn’t hear him over the music and the crowd so he took me to a quiet room in the back. We talked for a few minutes about Shannon and the show and then I left.”

  “You just talked?” He didn’t believe me. “You’re sure about that?”

  “Yes.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  “Because those bruises on your throat and on your face tell me another story, Shay.”

  Shit. I had completely forgotten about my busted up face. Alone with Alexei and Stas, there had been no reason to smear on concealer and foundation.

  “Those bruises tell me a story I’ve heard from other girls who were unfortunate enough to run into Lalo on a bad night,” Eric said. “They tell me that he tried to get rough with you.” He tilted his head and studied me. “But I think you fought back. I think the story I heard about Lalo getting the shit beat out of him by a pretty little dark-haired doll is true.”

  I swallowed nervously. “It was self-defense.”

  “I don’t doubt that it was,” Eric assured me. “Lalo is a pig. He got what he deserved.” Sliding his pen into the metallic coils atop his notepad, he admitted, “I saw the footage of you going into the Arena. I also saw you going into the back of the building with him. I didn’t see you come out the front or back exits, but I did see him stumbling out the back with a bloody towel on his head.”

  “I went out a window,” I said quietly. “It was the only way out of that room.”

  He didn’t have to ask why I hadn’t called the police. “You realize he’s not going to take that embarrassment lightly.”

  “I’m not worried about what Lalo or anyone else thinks. Alexei won’t let anything happen to me.”

  Eric narrowed his eyes. “I know what Alexei used to be. I know what he still is.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Take off those designer suits and those expensive watches and he’s nothing but a gangster with money. He’s a criminal who lives in a fancy house. He’s got blood on those tattooed hands, and it doesn’t wash off, Shay.”

  “Are you trying to scare me away from him? Because it won’t work.”

  “Obviously,” he said with a dark laugh. “You and your sister seem to have a type. I always thought you were the smarter sister. The one with goals. The one who was going places.” He glanced around the beautiful room with its lavish décor and vaulted ceilings. “Looks like I was right about you going places and having goals. I was just wrong about the type of goals you had and what you were willing to do to attain them.”

  His barb hit its mark. Like a bullet to the chest, it burned through me, spreading humiliation and embarrassment as I realized what he was insinuating. He thinks I whored myself out for a big house and money.

  “When was the last time you saw your sister?”

  Still hurting from his cruel remark, I said, “Friday afternoon.”

  “And you haven’t talked to her since then?”

  “She texted me a few times. She heard about my run-in with Lalo.” It was close enough to the truth. “We haven’t talked since yesterday.??
?

  “You should know that I’m going to pull Shannon’s phone records. If you’re lying—”

  “Yesterday was the last time we spoke.”

  “May I see your phone?”

  “Do you have a warrant?”

  Eric shot me a warning look. “I can get one.”

  “When you have one, come back and ask me again.”

  “You should be careful playing these kinds of games, Shay. You don’t have nearly as much experience as Alexei. You’re bound to get burned.”

  I didn’t have a smart reply to that.

  “Was Ruben with Shannon the last time you spoke to her?”

  “I didn’t hear him, but they never spend much time apart so who knows.”

  “And Lalo? The last time you saw him?”

  “Friday night,” I lied.

  “You haven’t had any contact with him since then?”

  “No.” The lie came quickly and without a hint of emotion. I would take that secret to the grave rather than put Alexei and Kylee in danger.

  “Tell me about your car.”

  His question threw me off but I quickly recovered. “It’s in the shop.” Not exactly a lie.

  “The body shop, you mean,” he interjected. “Because your boss told me someone beat your car to hell in the parking lot. He said that some guys in a truck that looked exactly like the one in front of your house took bats and crowbars to the car.”

  It seemed Eric had done quite a bit of snooping before coming here to talk to Alexei. “That’s what he told me, too.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing,” I said with a careless shrug. “I called Alexei, and he had one of his friends tow it to a shop.”

  “And that’s it? No insurance claim? No police report.”

  “Alexei took care of it,” I reiterated.

  Narrowing his eyes, Eric asked, “Is Alexei going to take care of Lalo?”

  And that’s when I realized that Eric didn’t know Lalo was dead.

  Treading carefully, I said, “No.”

  “I find it hard to believe a man like Alexei is going to let someone like Lalo put his hands on his woman and not doing anything about it.”

  You have no idea, I thought grimly. “Believe whatever you want, but I’m telling you the truth.”

  “Maybe I’ll ask Alexei about Lalo,” Eric said in a threatening tone.

  “Fine.” If Eric thought he could outsmart Alexei when it came to something like this, he was a fool. Eric had said it best. Alexei was a gangster through and through. He was never going to let the police get a step ahead of him. “That’s why you’re here isn’t it?”

  “I’m here because I heard a rumor on the streets that Alexei was playing sugar daddy to a cleaning lady. I figured he might know where you and your sister were hiding.”

  “I’m not hiding. I’m right here.”

  Eric grunted in annoyance. “Where is Alexei?”

  “He’s swimming.”

  Eric shot me a disbelieving look. “It’s raining.”

  “In his other pool,” I corrected. “It’s indoors.”

  “Of course it is,” he grumbled and rose to his feet. Stuffing his notepad into his pocket, he said, “Tell your boyfriend I’m going to come see him at the dealership tomorrow.”

  Eric should have known that type of intimidation tactic wasn’t going to work on Alexei. “I’ll make sure to let him know to expect you.”

  “You do that.”

  I stood up, and Eric thrust one of his business cards at me. “If you hear from your sister, you need to call me.” He stared down at me, and I tried not to look away, desperate not to reveal my guilt. “That friend of Ruben’s? Edgar? His neighbor called in a disturbance, but when the police went inside his apartment, you know what they found?”

  I shook my head slowly, not wanting to hear Eric’s answer.

  “Six fingers and a cracked computer monitor with his blood and hair on it,” Eric said in an ominous tone. “That’s it.”

  I didn’t even want to think about what had happened to the rest of Edgar. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “I’m telling you this because your sister is in deep shit, Shay. This is so much bigger than the dog fighting a few weeks ago. This is bigger than even the drug dealing Ruben does.”

  “I don’t know anything about Shannon or Ruben or this Edgar guy. That’s not my life, Detective.”

  “You better hope to hell it isn’t,” he warned. “If I’m knocking on this door looking for you, who else do you think is coming next? Lalo? Those men who hassled you at your house and totaled your car?”

  Eric was so far behind on this case. I almost felt bad for him. He had no idea that Lalo was dead or that Ruben and Shannon had double-crossed him. He probably assumed Ruben was dead and maybe even thought the same thing about Shannon.

  Stay out of it, Shay. Don’t say a word. You have to protect Alexei and Kylee.

  “I’m a big girl, Detective. I can take care of myself.”

  “No, you can’t.” Eric’s mouth flattened into a grim line. “But that mobbed-up boyfriend of yours can.”

  For a long moment, we simply stared at one another. Eric must have sensed that I wasn’t going to say anything else. He turned on his heel and marched toward the front door. I let him out, and he left without another word.

  Thinking of what he said about other people coming to look for me, I locked the door and switched on the security system. Feeling ill at ease and worried about this new complication, I went in search of Alexei. I finally found him in a room connected to his home gym.

  It was like walking into a high-end spa with the honey-colored travertine and glass walls and doors. There were potted plants and miniature trees in the corners of the room and plenty of comfortable seating. The French doors along the back wall overlooked another part of his property that I wanted to explore when the weather wasn’t quite so bleak.

  I stepped into the pool room and watched Alexei gliding through the water. The rectangular pool was narrow and long and perfect for swimming laps. It seemed a bit wasteful to me to have two pools, and I didn’t even want to think about the upkeep costs of an arrangement like that. More and more, I suspected Alexei’s money wasn’t just from his dealerships and that trucking company he owned. There was no way he was clearing enough money from those businesses to live like this.

  But I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know where the money came from. I remembered what Stas had said. I shouldn’t ask questions, right? Maybe Stas had the right idea. He had obviously figured out a way to survive in the shadowy world Alexei had once lived in and I would do well to heed his advice before I found myself in even more trouble.

  Not wanting to disturb Alexei while he swam, I sat on one of the lounge chairs near the pool and waited. It was no hardship watching him. His powerful body cut through the water at a steady speed. I envied his ease in the water. Swimming had never been a skill I had tackled. Even now, water deeper than a bathroom tub made me nervous.

  I hadn’t been sitting there long before Alexei noticed me. He paused at the far end of the pool and wiped the water from his face and eyes. His happy expression turned to one of concern, his forehead furrowing with worry when he had a good look at me. After Eric’s mini interrogation, I didn’t have the energy to smile and look pretty.

  Alexei swam to my side of the pool and rested his forearms on the tile deck. “Malysh? What’s wrong? You look upset.”

  I held up the business card. “Eric Santos was just here.”

  Alexei’s expression turned stormy. “The detective? He was here? In my house?”

  Even though he hadn’t raised his voice, I could tell he was upset. “Yes.”

  Alexei swore under his breath. “You shouldn’t have let him inside, Shay. It’s not safe to have the police poking around in our business.”

  Hearing him call this mess our business made it seem somehow less daunting. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do. He was standing on th
e front porch, and I didn’t think it was a good idea to let him walk away without answering.”

  “It’s all right. I know this is new territory for you. The next time you see Eric, you tell him that you’re not talking to him without a lawyer.”

  “I don’t have a lawyer, Alexei.”

  “You will. Tomorrow morning, I’m getting you one.”

  “That seems a bit extreme.”

  “Do I need to remind you of all the shit that’s happened since Friday? You need a lawyer.” Running his fingers through his wet hair, Alexei asked, “What did Eric want?”

  “He was looking for me. Apparently, I’m missing.”

  Alexei cursed again. “And he came here because…?”

  “I guess there’s a rumor about you and me going around,” I said with a sad smile. “People like to talk.”

  “Yes, they do.” Clearly unhappy to be the subject of the underworld rumor mill, he asked, “What else did Eric want?”

  “He knows that Lalo and I got into an altercation at the Arena. He has video evidence.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Yeah. But he doesn’t seem to know about anything else.” I didn’t want to say the words, and I didn’t need to because Alexei understood.

  “None of it?” Alexei seemed surprised.

  “He warned me to be careful about Lalo. He also told me to call him if I see or hear from Shannon or Ruben.”

  “He doesn’t have the faintest fucking clue, does he?” Alexei shook his head in disbelief. “Well that’s good news for us.”

  “I guess.”

  “It is,” Alexei assured me.

  “Eric told me to tell you that he’s going to visit you at the dealership tomorrow.”

  Alexei snorted with amusement. He wasn’t the least bit intimidated. “As if he can rattle me with a threat like that!”

  “Alexei,” I said pleadingly. “Please be careful. I’ve known Eric a long time, and he is not the sort of man to let things go. He’s like a dog with a bone, and if he thinks there’s a chance you’re involved with this whole mess, he will make your life a living hell.”