Ivan 2 (Her Russian Protector #9) - Roxie Rivera Page 0,30
“What?”
He scratched his jaw as he yielded at a stop sign and said, “What if we’re focusing on the jail when we should be focusing on something she saw before she was arrested? Back when she was a full-blown addict?”
“But you said that you that you looked into everything before we got married,” I reminded him. “You paid her drug debts and Adrian’s. You said there was nothing else out there that could hurt us.”
“I could have been wrong. I could have missed something. Or maybe someone held onto her debt to use against her later.”
“Like blackmail?”
“Yes.”
I considered that for a moment. “If we are wrong and the parking lot mess and the voicemail are from before she went to jail, it could be anyone.”
“Did Teague use drugs? Maybe he and Ruby crossed paths when she was struggling. Maybe that’s how he knows what was said to you when you were attacked.”
“He never used when we were together. What he’s been doing since then?” I shrugged. “I suppose anything is possible.”
As we waited to make a left turn belong a long line of cars, he made a frustrated sound and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “I shouldn’t be stressing you out with what-ifs. Once Ruby is safe at the house, we can question her and get the answers we need.”
“You’re not stressing me out.” I reached over and placed my hand on his thigh. “And, maybe, we just ask her. Not question. That sounds very police-like. If we try to interrogate her, she’s going to get defensive.”
He grunted but nodded. “Fine.”
Hoping that things would go well between Ruby and Ivan, I kept my hand on his thigh while he drove downtown. I scrolled through my phone with the other hand, hastily typing replies to my friends. Wondering if Lena had the updated contact info for our mutual friend who worked at Teague’s firm, I asked, “What time is it in Russia?”
“Which part?” When he saw the face I was making, he laughed. “I’m serious!” He glanced at the dashboard clock. “It’s 8 p.m. in Novosibirsk. It’s 10 p.m. in Yakutsk. Way out on the coast, near Alaska, it’s after one in the morning.”
“Moscow,” I clarified. “Where one of your best friends lives.”
“It’s after 4.” He glanced at me with one of his amused grins. “In the afternoon.”
While I typed a message to Lena and apologized if I bothered her while she was napping off her jetlag, I asked, “How do you even remember all of those time zones?”
He shrugged. “The same way you know what time it is in LA or NY. It’s something I learned as a kid.”
“Have you ever been to those places?” I put my phone in the cup holder and focused my attention on him. “Novobrisk?”
His mouth twitched. “Novo-SI-birsk,” he corrected gently. “Once. We had a friend who hooked us up with stolen train tickets. We traveled all over that summer.” He smiled at what was probably one of his better childhood memories. “There’s a zoo there. In Novosibirsk,” he explained. “You would like it.”
“Maybe you can take me someday. Our kids, too,” I added with a hopeful smile.
“Someday,” he replied, covering my hand with his for a moment. “But it will have to be a summer trip. Our kids won’t know how to handle the cold after growing up in this humidity and heat.”
“It’s cold right now.” I gestured to the overcast skies.
He snorted. “This isn’t cold.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, here we go.” Imitating his voice, I said, “I am strong as a polar bear. I swam in frozen lakes and played naked in the snow when I was four!”
“I don’t sound like that,” he protested. “And I never swam in a frozen lake.”
“But you played naked in the snow?”
“Probably,” he admitted. “The home I lived at around that age wasn’t very attentive. We ran wild.”
He didn’t like talking about his childhood, and I hated that I had brought up some ugly memories. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s fine.” He glanced at me and smiled. “If our kids are anything like me, we’re going to be exhausted by the end of the day. I was a little maniac, climbing, and jumping and digging and destroying everything in my way.”
“I can see that.” It wasn’t hard to imagine a tinier version of him running around, causing mayhem on a playground. “Ruby was always a risk-taker, too.”
“I bet you followed all the rules and were your