The poor girl has no idea what’s coming. It’s going to make all this look like a tiny slap on the wrist. Nobody breaks into my house and watches me jerk off without paying for it.
I’m already texting Nikolai to tell him we’re on our way before I’ve even shut Vadim’s car door. I still can’t believe what just happened and judging by Vadim’s huge grin, neither can he.
“That was the easiest police questioning I’ve ever seen,” he says, switching to Russian with a laugh. “What do you want to do about the daughter? She was a hot little thing, wasn’t she?”
I clench my fists at his words and feel my body stiffen.
“We’renot doing anything about her. You’re going to forget you ever saw her,” I say, surprised at how angry I sound.
Vadim glances at me quickly before putting his focus back on the road. “You don’t want to press charges? This would humiliate the chief.”
“I don’t give a shit about him,” I mutter.
Vadim gives a soft laugh and taps the steering wheel. “Ah, I see.”
I look at him, irritated by the glee I see in his eyes.
“You don’t see shit,” I say. “Just stick to the lawyer stuff and leave the rest to me.”
He laughs but doesn’t say anything else. Vadim’s a great lawyer and has helped us out of jams on more than one occasion, but I don’t want him butting in where he doesn’t belong, and Gina is most definitely a part of that.
We spend the rest of the drive in silence and when he pulls up in front of the club, I say, “Send me the bill,” before getting out, making it clear that his job is done for the day.
“Oh, I definitely will,” he says with a big smile.
I walk away without looking back, tossing my hand up in a wave when I hear him drive off. Knowing Vadim, the bill will be in my inbox in about thirty minutes.
Going in through the backdoor of the Red Wolf, I see Aleksei and Nikolai waiting for me. They jump up as soon as they see me and walk over.
“What the fuck was that all about?” Nikolai asks before I’ve even made it halfway to them. “Is it true that Jimmy’s dead?”
“Yeah. Belov said he was found beaten to death in an alley. How’d you find out about it?”
“Everyone’s talking about it. They’re also saying you did it.” Nikolai’s rage is sitting extra close to the surface today. He paces while he talks, running a hand over his newly grown beard. “As if you’d be so fucking stupid,” he mutters angrily.
I look at Aleksei, but he doesn’t look apologetic at all. He looks me in the eye, like a man who did what needed to be done and is damn proud of it. I take a step closer to him, and he holds his ground which makes me smile. It wasn’t too long ago that a move like that would have had him stepping back and practically pissing his pants.
“You don’t have to look so damn proud of yourself,” I say, making him grin. “I take it you called Jamie who then called Gina?”
He nods and says, “I thought maybe Gina might have more information about what was going on. I don’t know what in the hell she did, but I guess it worked. I thought for sure they’d hold you the full twenty-four hours.”
“They would have, and you’re never going to believe why they let me go.”
Nikolai and Aleksei look at me, waiting for me to go on. Before I do, I holler over to where Anton is standing and tell him to bring me a drink. When I’ve got a large glass of vodka in my hand and I can feel the alcohol starting to work its magic as my shoulders begin to untense, I tell them all about what happened. It takes a while for their laughter to die down.
“That girl’s got bigger balls than you, Dima,” Nikolai says, giving me a rare grin.
“It was a gutsy move,” I admit, “and a damn stupid one. She’s lucky I didn’t catch her that night. That girl needs her ass spanked.”
“I’m sure you could help her out with that,” Aleksei says, laughing.
“You better not have known what she was up to,” I say, pointing my glass in his direction.
He immediately holds up his hands. “I would’ve told you if I’d known. I don’t have a death wish.”
I study his eyes for a minute, searching him for any signs of guilt, but I don’t see any. He was just as shocked by the news as I was. Looks like his little girlfriend doesn’t tell him everything.
“What are you going to do about her?” Nikolai asks.