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As soon as everyone said their goodbyes, then strategically left the club, it was only me and Maksim still left behind, and at this point, I wasn’t sure if he had stayed behind to check on me, or if I was still here to keep him from losing his shit all over the city.
Finally, he said, “I’m taking this very personally.”
“I would imagine so,” I replied evenly.
Maksim’s dark eyes slid my way. “If anything happens to Akim, I will not respond well.”
“Neither will I,” I assured him.
Then, in a rare moment of openness, Maksim ran his hands through his dark brown hair, his frustration obvious. “Blyad.’”
Yes, fuck was the appropriate word for a situation like this, but venting wasn’t going to get us anywhere. We needed something tangible to help us with this clusterfuck, and even if Klive had gone on to recruit more men after the massacre at the Schurman Curve, it was Louie and Klive that we needed, not some more pawns that were nothing but mere distractions.
“We will find them,” I promised.
“Before they try something with Akim?” he challenged.
That got a grin out of me. “You heard your brother. He’s not a pussy.”
Maksim smirked, and his shoulders relaxed a bit. “No, he’s not.”
“If you would like, I can assign someone to him,” I offered.
At that, Maksim finally chuckled. “Yeah, because I can see that going over well.”
Yeah, we were a stubborn lot, for sure.
Chapter 28
Samara~
As I drove to the building on Westchester, I did my best to tamp down my anger and resentment, but it was hard. Everything felt like it was still out of my control, and I didn’t appreciate the feeling.
When I’d woken up this morning, it’d been to find my purse sitting on the kitchen table, and only Gosha could have put it there. Despite the argument that my sister and I’d had the other day, she was in an actual relationship with the man, and so she had informed me yesterday that he wasn’t going anywhere, prompting me to spend the entire day searching for a job. If Masha was going to choose Gosha over how I felt about him and who he was connected to, then he could pay my half of the condo’s expenses, leaving me free to find a small apartment where I could live by myself.
I also refused to feel bad about it. My sister’s self-centeredness had her choosing a man that she’d only known a few days over what I’d been through, and if that was the case, then I no longer owed her safety and security. Though her choices hurt like hell, I wasn’t going to let my love for her hold me hostage. If she felt like her happiness was more important than mine, then I was going to step back and let her be happy, only I was going to choose my own happiness as well.
At any rate, after finding my purse and checking to see that everything was still inside, I’d eaten breakfast, then had taken a shower and gotten ready to go out and look for a job. While I had updated my resume online and had applied to lots of online ads, that hadn’t been enough. I wanted out of the condo as soon as possible, so I figured that there’d be no harm in looking for a job the old-fashioned way as well. It would show that I wasn’t afraid to put in the effort to find myself a job, and with the entire world wanting internet fame to pay the bills for them these days, hard work and dedication should be a selling point in my favor.
Incredibly, after I’d left the third restaurant of the morning, I had run into a gentleman that had been heading into the same café that I’d been eyeing as a potential place to work and eat. By this time, it’d already been noon, and I had been starving.
Luckily for me, he had ended up behind me in the line, and our casual chitchat had ended up with me telling him how I was looking for a job, and him telling me that he was hiring waiting staff for a huge surprise party at his house in Kingsford Hills. At the mention of the neighborhood, I done my best not to swallow my tongue, but I wasn’t sure if I’d succeeded. Kingsford Hills was where the wealthy went to vacation in Maryland. Yeah, it’d be a forty-minute drive, but the payout would be worth it. Since it was a private party, additional staff were going to be paid under the table while the catering company would be invoiced for their services.
Now, while it wouldn’t get me into an apartment, it was something. Thanks to Avgust, I no longer had a job, so every little bit counted. When I had first called Huckabee’s this morning to see if I could get my job back, they had immediately refused, informing me that they wanted no problems with Avgust Kotov, and I’d been livid as my imagination had run wild with what Avgust could have told them about quitting my job. So, with Huckabee’s not an option, I’d begun to wonder if there were other clubs that Avgust had black-balled me from, so this opportunity gave me some breathing room, even if it was just a little bit.
Still, things had only gotten worse when he had asked me to meet him at one of his businesses on Westchester, and knowing that it’d be too far to walk, I’d been ready to schedule a ride when Masha had tried to extend an olive branch by casually mentioning that our car had been fixed. Unfortunately for her, all that’d done was piss me off further, knowing that only Avgust could have paid for the repairs. Nevertheless, because I couldn’t pass up easy cash, I’d taken the car to meet Mr. Jack Simons and fill out a quick application for the job. Though I’d be paid under the table, he’d made a good point about not wanting to give criminals access to his home, and so an application would need to be filled out, and that included permission to run a background check.
So, as I pulled a car that I wished hadn’t been fixed with bratva money into an empty parking spot, I looked around, and the place looked rather deserted, and that quickly had me wondering if the job offer was nothing but a scam. Yeah, he hadn’t asked me to meet him after dark, but we were still a bit from town, and the more that I looked around, the more that all the buildings seemed empty.
However, before I could give it any more consideration, Mr. Simons was walking out of the grey brick monstrosity that was sandwiched in between two storage containers, and a part of me wondered if we were in Sartori territory. As far as I knew, storage containers like those were usually found in ports, though we were nowhere near water.
Letting out a deep breath, I grabbed my purse, then exited my car. Doing my best to don a convincing smile, I made my way to where Mr. Simons was standing near the front door, and as soon as I approached him, I stuck my hand out for a professional handshake. I was still dressed in the conservative white blouse, black pencil skirt, and sensible heels that he’d met me in this morning, and I’d purposely worn the outfit to show him that I was serious about the job. With any luck, if he found himself impressed with me at the party, he might consider me for a job opening if his company had any.
“Thank you so much for meeting me here, Ms. Andreev,” he greeted as he took my hand in his. “I’ve had back-to-back meetings all day, and this was the only time I could carve out for our unexpected working opportunity.”
“Oh, no,” I replied graciously. “This is fine.”
He smiled at me, and while Jack Simons wasn’t hot enough to grace a billboard, he was still good-looking and self-assured enough to appreciate. I also liked how he wasn’t wearing a suit, and that spoke of a deeper sense of confidence. Jack Simons wasn’t trying to impress anyone with his money, and that showed integrity. He knew what he was worth, and it was enough that he didn’t have to yell out his net worth to anyone.
