“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. And he told me in no uncertain terms that I was to cease and desist any and all involvement with one sexy biker. Okay, so he didn’t say it exactly like that.” It was much worse.
“What the hell? How would he know that? Is he in town?” she asked in surprise.
“No. Which means he has someone watching me,” I murmured and nervously picked at lint on my leggings.
“And that’s not creepy at all,” Geneva said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. “What the hell, Ki? Why would he do that? You’re a grown-ass woman. You can do what you want and who you want.”
She clearly didn’t understand the Russian Bratva. Then again, she had no idea that was who my family was.
“My father is angry because he wanted me to marry someone and I refused.” It was better not to get into too many details, because the life my family led was akin to something out of the movies. Most people had no idea things like that happened in real life.
“Ki, that’s crazy. We don’t live in the middle ages. Regardless of his beliefs, that doesn’t give him the right to have you followed and then to threaten you.” Disbelief had her voice rising to a near shriek. She was shaking her head, causing her red curls to bounce and fall in her face.
“My family is very old-school. My father immigrated to the US when he was a small boy. My mother was born here, but her parents were Russian born. They live by antiquated traditions. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s what they know.” It pained me to make excuses for my father, but I also didn’t want to come out and say, “Yeah, my dad wants to me to marry the heir to the New York City Bratva to allow for a stronger alliance between the two.”
“What about your mother? Is she okay with this?” Geneva asked in outrage. It almost had me smiling that she was championing me the way she was.
“No, but there isn’t much she can do,” I said with a sigh. My mother had been loved by her family, and they thought they were doing her a favor and honor by marrying her to my father. He had money; they had the elite bloodlines but no money. They had no idea the kind of man my father was.
“So my question to you is… what are you going to do?” Geneva asked as she gave me a worried glance.
“For now, I’m going to go switch my laundry.” I shot her a half-hearted smile and got up from the bed.
“You know that’s not what I was talking about.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to think about it right now.” Not waiting to see if she had more to say, I left the room and went to the laundry room. As I pulled my third load of laundry for the day from the wash and tossed it in the dryer, I heard Sasha barking, then the doggie door rattled and flapped.
Good Lord, she was going to rip it off one of these days.
The sound of voices registered over the sound of the dryer. Ass in the air as I sorted through the last of my clothes, I ignored whatever Geneva was up to.
“Now that’s one of the best views I’ve had all day.”
At the deep purr of Ogun’s voice, I abruptly stood upright and spun around. “Ogun!”
The intensity of his stare was sending my heart rate into overdrive.
“What are you doing here so early?” I glanced at my watch to see that it was actually much later than I’d realized.
Sasha was desperately trying to shove her face into his hand for his attention. The chuckle that rumbled out of him did crazy things to me. Studying his interaction with my huge puppy, I again appreciated his masculine beauty. The thought of not seeing him again sucked.
Those icy-blue eyes met mine. “You got that bag packed?”
“Ogun… I told you I didn’t think it was going to be a good idea.”
“And I told you it was.” His voice dropped down a notch. “Besides, I need to talk to you about a few things. Are you sure you want your roommate to hear them?”
Suspicion making my brow furrow, I gave him a side-eye. “What kind of things?”
For the longest time, he simply stared at me. It was unnerving and I began to fidget.
“How about the fact that Grishka Kalashnik is your dear old dad?”
I froze.
“How did you know that?”