He could see she was very nervous. He leaned forward and took her mouth. Beneath his, her lips trembled, but she didn’t hold back. She gave herself to him. He wrapped his arms around her. “Is it necessary to scare the crap out of her? She’s safe here.”
“She doesn’t live here,” Ray pointed out. “You all live here. She lives in Evangeline’s house, the house one block from the one Delov is renting.”
“Pick him up and ask him what the fuck he’s doing here,” Fyodor snapped.
“He’s missing too. All of them have disappeared. They could be anywhere,” Jeff said.
“And now they won’t go near the motel again, or Delov’s rented house,” Timur pointed out. He sighed. “I guess I should thank you for the warning, but it always seems that every time any of you come around, you bring trouble with you.”
“The trouble was already here,” Jeff said. “Where is Evangeline?”
Timur glanced at his brother. Fyodor didn’t have much more patience when it came to Jeff’s lovesick infatuation.
“She’s feeling under the weather,” Ashe said, unexpectedly. “The flu’s going around big-time and being in the shop, we get exposed to everything. I told her I’d hold down the fort for the next couple of days for her.”
“Not ,” Fyodor said, “that it’s any of your business.”
Jeff didn’t answer him. He just shook his head, jammed his hands in his pockets and looked into the fireplace. Anton Lipin awkwardly patted his shoulder.
“I think we’re finished here,” the uniformed officer said.
Timur studied his face. He looked to be about forty. Tough. The others clearly respected him. The stranger in street clothes hadn’t said one word. He’d nodded when he was introduced, but that was about it. Timur took another look at him. His features were definitely Russian. His name certainly could have been. Was there a reason he didn’t speak? It stood to reason they might bring in an expert on Russian mobsters.
The cops stood as soon as the uniformed officer made his statement. Timur set Ashe aside so he could stand with his brother.
“Thank you for the warning,” Fyodor said.
Timur deliberately went up to Anton Lipin and held out his hand. There was the briefest of hesitations and then Anton took his hand and shook it. Timur smiled at him. “I really appreciate you coming to warn us. Have you been to the bakery yet?” He was certain the cop hadn’t. He would have recognized the policeman.
“No.” The briefest of answers.
“You’ll have to come in. Evangeline is an amazing baker.”
The man just nodded. He might not be from Russia, but if not, his parents were. Timur would stake his life on that.13TIMUR closed the door on the cops and turned to face his brother, his finger to his lips. He mouthed, house bugged.
“I despise that arrogant prick, Jeff,” Fyodor said aloud. “He’s after my wife.”
“She’s in love with you ,” Timur said. He pulled out his phone and texted Gorya to bring equipment to find any bugs the cops might have left in the house.
Fyodor caught his arm and pointed toward the kitchen. The police hadn’t been there. Still, Timur didn’t like it. He went to the door of the sitting room, put his finger to his lips again and then indicated for Ashe to come to him.
He circled her shoulders with one arm. “Check on Evangeline, baby. Make certain she’s resting.”
“She needs to drink plenty of water,” Fyodor added. “She gets snippy if I tell her to drink it, but if you do, she’ll be good about it.”
Ashe sent him a reassuring smile. “No worries. Where is she?”
“She’s in the master bedroom right now. She’s up, resting on the lounge, reading, but I know she’ll want your company and I want her down as much as possible,” Fyodor said.
Ashe went up on her toes to brush a kiss along Timur’s jaw. “I’m on it, Fyodor, don’t worry about a thing.”
Timur and Fyodor watched her walk down the hall and then both went in the opposite direction to the kitchen. Just to be certain whatever bug the cops had placed wasn’t capable of hearing them, he flipped the switch on the audio jammer. They had them in every room throughout the house and switching one on in one room would activate them in every room. The jammer emitted a random masking sound that desensitized microphones. That would render them unable to record.
“Did you place Lipin? He’s got to be their Russian expert. He was the one who had to tell them about Apostol Delov.”
Fyodor shook his head. “I’ve never seen him before. I didn’t get it at first. I was too busy wanting to rip Jeff’s head off.”
“Jeff was their distraction. He never would have behaved that way in front of a superior officer if it wasn’t planned.” Timur had studied Jeff Meyers for a while, assessing the threat to his brother. Jeff was a cop through and through, a man with principles. He’d acted totally out of character.