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“He has Fight Club today.”
“Fight Club?”
I laughed and spread my hands helplessly. “I don’t know whattheycall it. It’s where all of Misha’s guys get together and beat the shit out of each other in the basement.”
Ilya laughed and nodded. “It’s just sparring, but I see what you mean. Have you ever seen them fight? Misha and Sasha?”
I shook my head. “No. Only Sasha.”
He gave a low, appreciative whistle. “It’s intense, man. Like two junkyard dogs going at it. No one wants to get in the middle of that.”
“Who wins?” Not that I doubted Sasha or his abilities, having seen them up close and personal, but Misha had military training on top of whatever he picked up in the criminal world. If Ilya’s training was anything close to what his uncle was capable of, Misha was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with.
Ilya laughed again. “I don’t know if anyone wins, to be honest. More like, who walks away less bloody. And that entirely depends on the day.”
We parked in the city lot down the block and walked to the Adler, letting ourselves in the side door.
“I don’t know how long this is going to take,” I said to Ilya, stopping short when I saw Samuel. “Hey man.”
Samuel was on his way to the stage and jerked to a halt as soon as he spotted me. His eyes nearly tripled in size before he scurried off, disappearing behind the set without a word of any kind. The guy texted me almost nonstop for months until all of a sudden it stopped, without explanation.
Today was the first time I’d seen him since the night of the show and it was definitely not the reaction I was expecting. I mean, I figured it might be a little awkward once he found out about Sasha, but I didn’t think he’d bethatweird about the whole thing. It’s not like I led him on or anything. In fact, I’d been miserable for most of the time we talked, so I was fairly certain I wasn’t sending out any flirty vibes.
“What was that all about?” Ilya asked, sounding as confused as I was.
“I have no idea.”
He shrugged and shot me a grin. “I’m going to go see if Polina is in today.”
“Just ask her out already.”
“What? No. It’s not like that. I just—”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll text you when it’s wrapping up.”
Ilya stared at me for a minute, like he was waiting for me to say something else. Then he spun on his heel and hurried up the side aisle of the auditorium at a record pace. Yeah, not flirting my ass.
Laughing, I joined the rest of the directors on stage, taking my place in the circle on the worn wooden floor next to Samuel. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He didn’t look up and I swore he actually scooted away from me.
A frown crept across my face as I studied him, trying to figure out what his deal was. “You ok?”
“Yep.”
“Are you sure? You seem, I don’t know, jumpy. Or something.”
“I’m good. Really.” His dark gaze lifted, meeting mine for half a heartbeat before he looked away again.
Whatever. Even if I could smell the bullshit from a mile away, I wasn’t going to push it. I didn’t want to believe his strange behavior was because I turned him down, but I had no idea what else would have him acting so… different. I was taken. So what? Did that mean our friendship had all been a ruse just to get into my pants?
I was still brooding over that very possibility when a popping noise rang out behind me.
Feodor shushed us all, bringing the meeting to a standstill. We looked at one another, no one daring to ask the question we were all thinking. Were those gunshots?
The popping turned to bangs. Most definitely gunshots. And they were getting closer. How many gunmen were out there? More than one from the sounds of it. Three? Four? I had no idea.
“Everyone, hide,” Feodor said, hurrying to push himself to his feet with his cane and dig his phone out of his pocket at the same time. I grabbed his elbow and hauled him upward, helping stabilize him while he jabbed at numbers on his phone. “Go,” he said, shoving me toward the rear of the stage.
