“No, not at all. She told me she loves it here. Fyodor let her take over his home and decorate it anyway she wanted. She likes going room by room and changing things to suit her style. She has lots of rooms to play in.”
“And her house?”
Ashe leaned across the bar to wipe flour from his chest where some had dropped when he’d stirred the batter. “She said she’d been considering putting it up for sale right before I showed up, so my guess is, that’s what she’s going to do.”
“If you like it enough, we could ask her to sell it to us,” Timur ventured, watching her face carefully.
Her eyes widened, and she sat up straighter. “I love the house, Timur, you know I do, but isn’t that moving a little too fast? We can’t just decide to buy a house.”
He indicated the coffeepot with his chin while he worked. “Why not? Our leopards are committed, so are we. You’re not going anywhere. We both know that. If Evangeline is willing, let’s get the house while we can.”
“You’re a distance from work.”
He shrugged. “There’s a large yard, and the garage roof is large enough to land a helicopter on it. We can see about getting permission to keep one there.”
“You can fly a helicopter?” She paused in the act of pouring him a cup of coffee.
“Yes. I have my license here. I learned in Russia, in the military. The skill has come in handy at times.”
She poured him coffee and brought it to the bar. “Do you think Evangeline would sell us the house?”
His heart jumped in his chest. She wanted the house. He heard it in her voice. “Yes. I’m her brother-in-law, and most likely she’d sell it to me anyway, just to get me out from under her feet. It’s close to her bakery and she worries about that all the time. She loves that little shop.”
“I could start inquiries about renting or buying the shop next to hers. I just need to find out who owns the space.”
“Fyodor does. Well,” he hesitated. “We do. Gorya, Fyodor and me. The three of us. We have a business together and the business owns the entire block of buildings. Evangeline was getting shaken down …”
“Shaken down?” She sipped at her coffee, a question in her eyes.
“That territory is actually Emilio Bassini’s. He demands protection money from every storeowner in his territory. When his men came in to collect from Evangeline, Fyodor happened to be there. He shut that shit down and then went to Emilio to offer the money to purchase the buildings. Emilio struck up a deal with him. With us. I don’t think he wanted war and at the time, Fyodor was still a soldier for Arnotto. It was months before he ever admitted to himself or anyone else that he cared about Evangeline.”
“This is fascinating. Even then he was crazy about her.”
“Enough so that when he took over for Arnotto, we all told him he couldn’t go back to her bakery. That was the one place anyone looking to kill him would know he’d be. I think the world knew, at that point, that he had fallen for Evangeline. Certainly, if Emilio knew it, and he wanted to get rid of Fyodor, what better place to hit him? We changed our routes every day. His security was tight, but if he insisted on visiting that bakery, his enemies had only to wait for him to show up. And still he went.”
He put three pancakes on a plate in front of her. She had the butter and syrup already out.
“These look so good. Thanks, Timur. I really will take some cooking lessons. I know I could cook if I had an interest in it, and I don’t want you to have to do it every night.” She scrunched up her nose when she made the offer.
“I don’t mind, but I won’t be home every night. When I’m working late, you could go with me and visit Evangeline and eat there.” Getting her in that habit would be good. Timur didn’t look at her when he made the suggestion, not wanting her to see that he was going to maneuver her into doing what he wanted no matter what. “Especially now, she could probably use a friend. I don’t like that she looks so fragile.” He wasn’t lying about that. Evangeline was very special to him. He knew Ashe could hear it in his voice. And the worry.
Ashe nodded her head. “That’s a good idea. Even if she’s really tired, I could at least be in the house and read or something. I’m a huge book reader. I love stories.”
“Your favorite?”
“Anything Sherlock Holmes or like it,” she answered readily. “Mysteries, but they have to have romance in them. Even an action movie has to have at least a touch of romance or it’s not going to be a favorite.”