The Devil's Beauty (Crime Lord Interconnected Standalone Book 2) (35 page)

“Christ!” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Who?”

He asked the question of John Paul, who merely shook his head in response.

“Had to be Elena,” he decided. “No one else is this determined.” He sucked in a breath and peered at Ava, so small against the mound of pillows. “I thought for sure she would keep her head down.”

“The question is why she wants Ava dead as badly as she does,” John Paul corrected. “It’s with a single minded determination that boarders on obsessed.”

“She mentioned a tree,” Ava piped in. “That night she had me taken. She said something about bringing down a tree.”

“A tree?” Dimitri frowned.

“Me.” Hands clasped at his back, John Paul met his gaze. “She’s referring to me.”

“But why?” Ava asked.

“Elena seldom requires a reason to do anything,” John Paul muttered. “There is obviously more to this, but we can deduce that Ava is not safe until I have Elena.”

“She’s not safe anywhere if Elena has her eyes set on her,” Dimitri said. “Elena won’t stop. She’s like a dog with a bone.”

John Paul nodded. “Agreed.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Ava looked from one to the other. “Witness relocation? CIA? Homeland? And for how long? I mean, I need to go back to work and my apartment—”

“I’ve already taken care of your apartment and any bills you may have had,” John Paul assured her. “That isn’t important.”

“And you’ll get another job,” Dimitri added. “The only important thing is keeping you alive.”

Ava sighed. “And I appreciate that, but I…” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “This is all just too much.”

John Paul smoothed a hand over the top of her head. “We will fix this,
ma petite chou.
”

“Sir?” Penny clicked into the room on her pale, pink pumps, phone in hand. “I apologize for interrupting, but there is a matter I believe requires your immediate attention.”

An awkward sort of silence followed her into the space as all heads turned in her direction. She must have felt it as well as she came to an abrupt halt two feet over the threshold.

“Who’s this?” Ava asked casually, but there was just a hint of something underneath that made the skin between Dimitri’s shoulder blades prickle.

“I’m sorry.” Penny hurried forward, hand extended. “I’m Penelope Beauchamp.”

“I know you,” John Paul said slowly, accepting the woman’s tiny fingers.

“Yes sir.” Penny paused to shake Ava’s hand before taking a hurried step back. “We’ve met … when I worked for Ms. Maynard.”

Realization flickered across John Paul’s face. “Yes, that’s right.”

“I hired Penny to be my assistant,” Dimitri offered carefully.

“Assistant?” Ava prompted.

“I was going to tell you tonight,” he told her, careful not to make any unexpected movement and even more careful to keep his gaze unwavering. “I got the chair. I’m head of the north.”

Ava didn’t move for a full second. Her green eyes bore into his, reflective and painfully vivid. It seemed like hours before her expression changed, before the softness of her mouth turned up into a smile.

“Dimitri!”

She was off the bed, clipboard abandoned, and leaping into his arms. Hers twisted around his shoulders, forcing him to stoop slightly at the knees to meet her. Even then, she was pulled to her tiptoes. Her weight settled perfectly against his. Their fronts were in perfect alignment in all the places that made his blood stir and his fingers tighten against her back. Her sweet fragrance dripped through the foul stench that occupied hospitals and spread until it was all that he could smell.

“I’m so proud of you,” she whispered into his ear. “You’re going to do so much for this city.”

A lump had begun to form in his throat, a golf ball sized knob that made it nearly impossible to speak.

“Only if you’re with me,” he breathed into the side of her throat. “I need you with me, Ava.”

She said nothing for so long he began to think he’d made a mistake. He honestly hadn’t meant to say anything. The words had come out of him before he even knew he’d been thinking them.

“Don’t hurt me again.”

Four little words and she’d stuck a rusted dagger into his chest and torn him open. They bled through him in crystalized shards of ember that burned and cut all the way up to enclose around his heart. He started to tell her he swore it on his life when a discreet cough reminded them where they were and just how long they’d been standing there, tangled together.

He expected her to jerk back, but she held on a second longer before her arms loosened and her feet went flat on the floor, detaching her from him. She peered up at him once more, eyes pleading before she turned to Penny with a whole new sort of smile, this one void of the steely edges.

“It’s really nice to meet you.”

Penny inclined her head. “Likewise.” She faced Dimitri. “Sir, that matter…”

“I’ll be right back,” he told Ava, who nodded and stepped aside to allow him to pass.

He followed Penny just outside the door to the nurse’s counter.

“It’s Syndicate business,” she told him quietly. “There’s been a shooting in a market place.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Another thought struck him then. “How did you know?” She’d only been his assistant for all of an hour.

Penny nodded grimly. “Eight dead. Six injured. Two of them were children. And I have connections in the north … and, well, everywhere. It’s my job.”

A muscle tightened in his chest. “Who was it?”

She shook her head. “My informant doesn’t have that information, but it was the north against an outside attack.” She raised her chin. “Would you like me to deal with this, sir? I will gather further information and select the appropriate group to contain the situation.”

Dimitri thought about it. He knew he couldn’t deal with the matter himself. He wouldn’t leave Ava alone, not after this and she was his main priority until his mother was found. But this was a matter he would need to deal with on some level. If someone hadn’t heard of the new switch in power and was trying to creep their way into a takeover, he needed to stop it now before it got out of hand and more innocent people suffered.

“Call a meeting with all the clans in my territory,” he told Penny. “I want every head present and I want a full report on the people responsible, even those who retaliated.”

“Yes sir, and where would you like that meeting to take place?”

Fuck.

“Find me a building, Penny.”

Penny inclined her head once and then hurried away with her face bent over her phone.

Dimitri returned to the room to find Robby had taken his side of the bed. His giant friend had lodged himself in the chair across the room, far away from the others. John Paul was on his phone by the window and Ava was on the bed, looking over the clipboard once more.

“Everything okay?” Ava lifted her face when Dimitri approached.

He nodded. “Territory stuff.”

Robby shifted. His eyes narrowed contemplatively. “So, if I wanted someone killed, would you be my guy?”

“Robby!” Ava swatted him in the gut.

“What?” Robby laughed. “It’s a legit question. There’s a guy in my residency class—”

“He’s not killing anyone for you!” Ava hissed.

Dimitri only shook his head. While amused, he was too exhausted. It had been a nightmare of a month and there didn’t seem to be a fucking end.

“Hey.” He hadn’t heard Ava get off the bed and move towards him until her cool fingers had curled around his. “It’s going to be okay.”

Without realizing it, he drew her to him, needing her calm like an addict needed a hit. He tucked her against his chest. His finger slipped beneath her chin. He tipped her face to his. His own face reflected across the soft pools of green peering up at him with question, with trust, and a longing he couldn’t ignore.

He kissed her. He let his lips linger for a full stroke of breath over hers, allowing them that heartbeat to re-remember the other’s taste. It had been so long he could have wept with every long, slow drags of her that he claimed. Her infinite sweetness, its healing abilities coursed through him, pooling in all the broken pieces inside him like soothing resin.

“Dimitri…”

Her hesitance, the waver in her voice even as she opened for him tightened his grip.

“Let him see it.” He nipped lightly on her bottom lip. “I’m not hiding anymore.” He drew back to frame her flushed cheeks between his palms. “I’m not hiding you.”

The glimmer in her eyes was more than just tears. They shone with the light and laughter he’d stupidly banished from his life. They glowed with a radiance that washed over him in a warm, loving caress that made him feel more like a man than anything ever had. She smiled and every evil in the world simultaneously vanished. There was nothing but the absolute love and happiness that seemed to pour from that single gesture.

“You still owe me dinner,” she teased him. “And, if you play your cards right, breakfast.”

She wiggled her eyebrow suggestively and Dimitri burst out laughing. It just broke out of him in a flood of sound that could no longer be contained. The deep rumble of it swamped the room, overshadowing everything else.

Ava giggled.

He kissed her again, harder before pulling back.

Penny took that moment to step back into the room. She met Dimitri’s gaze and gave a nod.

John Paul was off his phone and was staring a bit too hard at the stretch of fading sun in the distance. He turned at the sound of Penny’s heels. He glanced from her to Dimitri and narrowed his eyes.

“How did you wind up with Theresa’s assistant?” he asked, sounding more like an accusation.

“Luck,” Dimitri stated simply.

John Paul wasn’t ready to let it go that easily. “Theresa isn’t the sort of woman who would simply give up something she considers her possession. My apologies,” he added for Penny, who shook her head.

“I needed an assistant and Theresa had one.”

If he thought that would appease John Paul, it didn’t. The man’s lips curled back over his teeth.

“You never seem to stop taking things that don’t belong to you.”

“Dad!”

Dimitri settled a gentle hand on Ava’s lower back, but kept his gaze fixed with the man across the room. “I only take what I feel deserves better.”

Crimson splotches appeared on the man’s cheeks and a tightness formed around his mouth. But he didn’t press, though, Dimitri could see he wanted to.

“Stop.” Ava moved between them, but faced Dimitri. Her small hands settled lightly on his chest. “Please don’t make me choose between you, because I won’t and it’s not fair to make me.”

John Paul looked away.

Dimitri turned his gaze down to her. He followed the soft lines of her face and the shadows of sadness that had replaced her earlier happiness, and he knew he’d do anything she asked to erase it.

“You don’t have to choose,” he told her quietly. “But I’m not going anywhere either.”

The hard lines of her shoulders relaxed, mirroring the relief in her eyes.

“This is the best drama I’ve seen since
Days of Our Lives
.” Robby broke through the tension with a seamless ease that made Ava laugh.

Dimitri shook his head, but said nothing. His gaze went to the last man in the room, the one who hadn’t moved or said a word in all that time.

“Who’s your friend?” he asked, eyeing the man’s massive bulk and stern features.

“This is Ki,” Robby introduced, dropping down on the bed. “He’s my dealer.”

Ki’s squinty eyes narrowed into thin slits.

“John Paul hired him to keep Robby company,” Ava supplied, shooting her friend a glower.

“That is a very diplomatic way of saying babysitter,” Robby countered breezily.

“Will you stop?” Ava’s whine was mashed into the palms she scrubbed into her face. “Why are all the men in my life so frustrating?” She lowered her hands. “I swear, you three are going to drive me to drink.”

“Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt … again, but if I could borrow you again for—”

The doctor arrived then, interrupting Penny. He faltered at the sight of all people already inside, but he recovered quickly.

“Ava?”

“That’s me.” Ava stepped forward only to abruptly stop when the two other figures walked in after the man in the white coat.

John Paul stiffened the same time Dimitri did. The coil in their muscles filled the small room with a thick sort of tension only those averse to law enforcement would understand. Neither glanced at each other. They didn’t need to.

“Ms. Emerson?” The taller of the two stepped forward. “We’d like to ask you some questions.”

“Sign here.” The small, French manicured finger slid down the length of the page to yet another line. “And here.” The page was flipped over before Dimitri even had a chance to lift the pen. “A few more,” the tiny blonde promised. “Here. Here. And … here.”

Penny, Theresa’s assistant was the polar opposite of her boss. Where Theresa was a powerhouse of sophistication, charm, and confidence, Penny was timid, skittish, and looked like she was so stressed out, she’d forgotten to eat … for a week. There were dark circles under her gray eyes and a perpetual tremor in her chin like she was just holding on. And every so often, he’d hear the faint whine of her stomach.

“Here,” her voice cracked slightly. “I’m sorry.”

Dimitri shook his head. “Don’t be.”

She flipped the ninth page of what could have passed for an encyclopedia. Her fingers were beginning to tremble, making the pages rustle. Dimitri wondered if it was from fear of his impatience or hunger.

“Here.”

“How long have you been with Theresa, Penny?” he disturbed the crackle of papers to ask.

“Two years, sir. Here.”

“Impressive.” He ticked the box she indicated. “You must be very good at what you do.”

“Yes sir.” She flipped to the next page.

“What exactly do you do?”

She paused in her signature directing and straightened a notch. “Whatever Ms. Maynard requires.”

“Do you like it?”

“I’m sorry?”

He looked up at her. “Do you like your job?”

Her hesitation spoke before she did. “Of course. Ms. Maynard is a … wonderful employer.”

Her lie was so thick,
he
almost choked on it. But he let it slide and focused on the next set of documents and the low whimper growing increasingly louder the longer she leaned over him.

“Are you hungry, Penny?”

She visibly started. “Sir?”

He scribbled his signature where she indicated and turned the page himself. “Are you hungry?”

“Uh…”

“I haven’t had lunch yet,” he went on, indicating to the untouched plate of burger and fries growing cold at his elbow. “And since you’re here, asking me to sign away my soul and first born, you should at least join me.”

He could have sworn there was a glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes before she blinked them away and squared her thin shoulders.

“That’s kind, but Ms. Maynard is expecting me straight back.”

Dimitri flicked a glance up at her face. “There’s at least another hour of signatures here. Sit.”

Her butt hit the chair like an obedient retriever. He pretended not to notice. He returned his attention to the pages.

“Eat.”

He was careful not to look at her again while he skimmed through the documents Theresa had deemed imperative he address immediately.

“Official Syndicate business,”
she’d called it in her text.

He still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to track him down across town at the hole in the wall burger joint, but that was where Penny had found him.

The papers were his acceptance into the organization. It officiated his position, his duties, and obligations. There was even a map outlining the exact perimeters of his territory.

His territory.

Christ.

His hand gave a tremor that disfigured his otherwise confident and aggressive loops.

He had a territory.

It hadn’t really been a reality until that moment as he signed his life away, in one case, quite literally. He was
officially
the head of the city. His title stated the north, but it was all his. He held sixty percent of a hundred percent share. He just became the wealthiest man in the entire province.

“Jesus.”

“I’m sorry?” Penny’s head jerked up so quickly, he heard the snap of her neck.

Her big eyes seemed even bigger over the bulges of her stuffed cheeks. One bit of fry sat on her lip, half chewed, half being shoved the rest of the way, but now frozen as she blinked at him around horrified guilt.

“No, not you,” Dimitri said quickly when she started to lower her hand, half eaten fry still pinched between her fingers. He shoved his untouched drink closer to her. “Keep eating. I want that plate empty.”

He went back to staring at his new life, a life of unimaginable power, wealth, and, Christ, power! So much fucking power. He could feel it rushing through his veins in a burning wave.

He couldn’t breathe. A tsunami of emotions rolled over him, sucking him through the carnage until he was crushed by it. The heady sensation was both exhilarating and terrifying. He didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

He was untouchable.

No. No one was untouchable. Not even him. But in that moment, he may as well have been.

“Sir?”
Penny hastily set the empty cup down, wiped her hands and fingers on a napkin, and rose. “Please, sir, I really need to get back.”

With a sigh, he placed his signature on the last line on the last page and closed the file.

“I think that’s the last of it.” He stacked it all neatly together and passed them to her, noting how much steadier her grip seemed to be. “Anything else?”

She shook her head. “No, thank you, and I’m very sorry.”

“For?”

Her cheeks turned a violent red that almost had him concerned. “For interrupting your lunch … for eating your lunch. God, I’m so sorry!” She reached for her purse. “I’ll get you a fresh plate.”

He stopped her when she turned on her heels and started searching for a waiter. “Penny…”

Her face had gone a deathly white. “No, no, I … I’ll fix this.”

He rose when her voice hitched and took her firmly by the shoulders. He held on until her tear filled eyes stopped darting frantically around.

“Slow breaths,” he instructed softly. “You’re fine.”

He watched her carefully, waiting for her rapid, shallow breaths to even out, fully prepared to force her head between her knees if necessary.

“I’m okay,” she croaked. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell Ms. Maynard.”

He relinquished his grip on her. “Do you have everything?”

With a sniffle, she nodded.

“Good, now, calm down, collect yourself and get back.”

She nodded again, more vigorously. “Thank you, sir.”

“I don’t want it,” he said when she pulled out several folded bills. “Just get there safely, okay?”

File clutched to her chest, she hurried off the restaurant’s patio and ducked into a rusty pile of crap that was more duct tape than metal. The yellow bug must have been something she got from a dump for a penny. It wasn’t worth more than that. If anything, it was a death trap just waiting to explode if she braked wrong.

It shrieked as she pulled away from the curb. He heard it all the way down the block and around the corner.

He put down what he owed for the meal, plus a little something extra, and left the restaurant. He caught a cab to the financial district, a fifty block radius dedicated entirely to people helping other people spend their money while skimming a little extra off the top. Time Group Financial, the home of Evan Maynard sat in the very heart of it, a sophisticated spear of glass and steel twisted into to a tower of power. It rose above the city line from a hilt of concrete. Dimitri had never had a reason to visit the place, but he had one now.

He dug out his phone and called Theresa.

She answered on the fifth ring.
“God invented texting for a reason, Tasarov,”
was her greeting.

Dimitri prolonged his response by wandering over to a street vendor and motioning for the number two hotdog combo.

“And I suppose competence is for the gifted,” he replied as his hotdog was prepared. “Next time you want something done properly, send someone who actually knows what they’re doing and not some scared little mouse that jumps at her own shadows. The girl’d been useless. I’m actually insulted that you would interrupt my lunch with her.”

He accepted his fully loaded hotdog, drink, and bag of ranch chips, and made his way to a nearby bench.

“Penny has been a very successful project of mine for nearly two years. I hand trained her myself. I don’t believe—”

“Then maybe feed her once in a while before she blows away with the wind. I’m a bit embarrassed for you.”

Something cracked in the background.
“Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying.” He took a bite of his hotdog. “She’s supposed to be representing you, and from what I gathered, she makes you look weak and pathetic. Just being helpful.”

He hung up. Then he waited.

He could have counted the exact moment from the time he cut communication to the second Penny stormed from the building on one hand. She held a box of her things against her chest and looked about two seconds from bursting into tears. He almost felt bad for her.

Dimitri rose. He tossed his wrappers into a trash bin and went to her.

“Penny.”

Her head snapped up. Bits of pale blonde blew across her flushed, wet cheeks. Her gray eyes blinked, then widened.

“You!” Her items were slammed down on a marble ledge making up the flowerbeds lining the stairway to the front doors. “You got me fired!”

Dimitri nodded. “I did.”

Tears skated down her cheeks, but her expression was livid. “Why would you do that?”

He held out a napkin that she ignored. He sighed and stuffed it into her hand anyway. She pitched it aside angrily. The wind caught it and it drifted out of sight.

“All right,” he mumbled. “I understand you’re upset—”

“I am … pissed!” she spat, almost screamed. “This job was my life! I worked my ass off to keep that woman happy. I sacrificed everything…”

“Breathe, Penny,” he murmured softly when she began to wheeze.

“Fuck you!” she shrieked at him. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

He had to remind himself she had every right to be angry when his own temper prickled.

“I got you away from a man-eating beast,” he snarled back. “Tell me you actually liked the way you were being treated.”

She said nothing for a long time, but the anger didn’t dim from her eyes. They continued to shine like she wanted nothing more than to kick him in the crotch.

“I needed that job,” she ground out through clenched teeth. “I needed that job!” she said louder. “You had no right to decide anything for me. And to think I actually thought you were one of the decent ones. Why would you do this?”

“Because you would never have left and she would never have let you go otherwise.”

Penny blinked. “What?”

“I want you to work for me.”

Her jaw swung open so wide, he could see all the way down to her tonsils. “What?”

“I need an assistant, a good one. I don’t like searching for things and you seem qualified.”

“I
seem
qualified?” She stared at him like he was a moron. “You had me fired because I
seem
qualified?”

Dimitri exhaled, patience waning. “Do you want the job or not?”

She gasped, disgust curling her lips. “Yes, I want the bloody job! I clearly need one now, thanks to you.”

“Good. You can start now.”

He started turning on his heels.

“Hold on a minute,” she called after him. “You haven’t told me what I’m getting paid.”

He paused and glanced back. “What were you getting paid before?”

She hesitated. “Twenty-five an hour?”

“Okay, double that.”

Penny blinked, quickly caught herself. “I mean, thirty, plus full benefits.”

“Done.”

She bit down her lip, poorly concealing the grin glowing in her eyes.

“You can add an hour lunch to that,” he continued.

“And weekends off?” she pressed, carefully, slowly, a little fearfully.

Dimitri nodded. “Fine.”

She gave a little gasp, something between an exhale and a squeak. But she must have remembered she was supposed to be a professional, because she straightened quickly and rearranged her features to appear stoic.

“Deal, but I want all that in writing.”

“Write it up and I’ll sign it.”

She snatched up her box. “Lead the way, sir.”

They left her car. He refused to get into it and she didn’t seem eager to have him in it. Instead, they grabbed a cab that he hadn’t realized he had nowhere to take until they were crammed into the backseat.

“Sir?” Penny prompted when Dimitri sat squinting at the back of the driver’s seat, trying to determine what was supposed to happen next. “Was there somewhere you wanted to go?”

He didn’t. All of this was new to him. He hadn’t really thought any of it out. Penny hadn’t been part of his plan that day. He’d gone to have lunch and think over what he wanted to do with Ava later when he picked her up. Penny had been a surprise.