Ivan 2 (Her Russian Protector #9) - Roxie Rivera Page 0,13
quickly he could run everyone off without being a rude asshole.
“Did she manage to get a good look at them?” Dimitri asked, pulling Ivan from his thoughts.
“They were in all black. Masks. Shirts. Pants. Boots. She thinks they were all white men. Two of them had green eyes. She remembers that very clearly. They were fit and shorter than me. That’s all I got out of her.”
“It probably happened so fast that she didn’t have time for details,” Dimitri reasoned. “It’s a good thing you were teaching her self-defense.”
“I shouldn’t have to teach her how to fight,” he growled, hating that his wife was forced to brawl in the fucking street to defend herself. “She should be able to walk to her car without getting attacked.”
“Yes, she should,” Dimitri agreed, “but the world is a fucked up and dangerous place. You gave her the skills she needed to protect herself. You should be proud of her for not freezing.”
“I am proud of her.” He didn’t even have the right word to describe how proud he was of his wife.
“What do you think they meant?” Yuri asked as he helped himself to a splash of Canadian whiskey. “Keep her mouth shut about what?”
“Fuck if I know,” Ivan replied, slashing his hand through the air when Yuri gestured toward him with the bottle. He wasn’t in the mood for a drink right now.
“It has to be something that Ruby saw in jail,” Nikolai reasoned. “We made sure all of Ruby’s debts and other problems were handled before you married Erin. There’s nothing else out there.”
“She may have seen something in one of the drug dens she used to visit,” Dimitri suggested. “She may have seen a murder or some other crime?”
“Maybe,” Ivan said uncertainly. He caught Nikolai’s gaze. Both men had spent time in prisons back home, and both understood more than Yuri or Dimitri ever would about the sort of horrible shit that happened behind bars. “I worry she saw something happen in jail.”
“Like inmate on inmate?” Yuri took a seat and sipped his whiskey. “Or something worse? The guards doing something they shouldn’t?”
“If that’s the case, we’re going to have a hell of a time finding out what it was,” Dimitri remarked.
“When is Kostya back?” Yuri asked. “This is what he does best.”
“He almost died,” Dimitri said with irritation. “His heart actually stopped. You’re really going to sit there and ask when he’s coming back from Mexico to start chasing down dangerous leads?”
“It’s his job,” Yuri replied matter-of-factly.
“Was,” Nikolai interrupted. “It was his job.”
“And what exactly does a retired cleaner do?” Yuri wondered. “Do you really think he’s just going to stop being what he is? A fixer? A spy? An assassin?” Yuri shook his head. “He’ll come back when he’s ready, and he’ll want to do what he does best.”
“Not for me,” Nikolai stated. “He can freelance if he wants, but his days of cleaning up our shit are over.”
“You better find a new housekeeper then,” Yuri advised. “The underworld is a dirty, messy place. You don’t want to track all that muck back to your clean, tidy house.”
“I don’t need you to tell me how things are, Yuri.” Nikolai’s eyes hardened in a way that would have made lesser men avert their gazes and apologize. Not Yuri, though. He had been pushing Nikolai’s buttons since they were children. Clearly not wanting to argue, Nikolai ended that line of discussion with a simple, “It’s all being handled.”
“I may have a way to get some information about the jail,” Dimitri said, his gaze focused on his phone. “One of our guys is married to a woman who used to work there as a detention officer. I’ll see if she’s willing to talk to me about her experience there. She might know something useful.” He slipped his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. “I’ll be vague. Careful,” he added. “Until we know more, I don’t want to raise any suspicions.”
“What about our detective friend?” Yuri asked, his expression grim and irritated as he mentioned Eric.
“He was at the hospital.” Ivan held Nikolai’s gaze, noticing the slight narrowing of Nikolai’s eyes.
“What did he want?” Dimitri looked worried. “He doesn’t work robberies.”
“He thinks Erin and Zoya are lying and hiding the real reason for the attack. He thinks it’s something to do with my past.”
“That’s all we need,” Yuri grumbled. “Eric fucking Santos digging through our lives again. If he goes after Ruby...”
He let the thought hang unfinished. It was no