Stefan and Jamie both stood when I entered, and the older man followed suit.
“Maura, you look beautiful,” Stefan greeted and stepped away from the table to meet me halfway. He embraced me with a quick hug before planting a kiss on my forehead. I tensed slightly with the sudden show of affection but quickly recovered and forced myself to relax. It was going to take time for me to get used to him doing that.
Circling his arm around my back, he ushered me over to the older gentleman. “Adrian, this is my daughter I was just telling you about. Maura, this is Adrian, the executive chef of this restaurant.”
Adrian gave me a smile and held out his hand. I placed my hand in his and he covered it with his other hand before shaking it gently. “Your Papa is right. You’re stunning,” he said with a thick Russian accent. I thanked him in his native tongue and his smile grew.
“Vy govorite po-russki?” he asked. Do you speak Russian?
I smiled back at him. “Da.” Yes.
That seemed to please Adrian. He started firing off in Russian at Stefan about how I was not only beautiful but smart and that he should be proud. Stefan smiled genuinely down at me before he replied in English, “Yes, I’m very proud.”
“I must get back to my kitchen. Please, enjoy my food and yourselves,” Adrian said before leaving. I took the seat Adrian had vacated at Stefan’s right. We were all looking over our menus when our waiter came in with some appetizers. He asked me for my drink order. I noticed the men were drinking whiskey and ordered the same.
“So what’s the occasion?” I asked. They both looked at me then at each other. Jamie stayed silent, sipping at his whiskey.
“Does there have to be an occasion to go out to eat?” Stefan answered with a question.
I found that suspicious. “That doesn’t answer my question.” Both stayed quiet. I glanced at Jamie, who was refusing to look at me. He took a big gulp of his drink and kept his eyes down. I turned my attention back to Stefan. He was purposely acting obtuse. “We don’t go out for dinner. You don’t like to unless it’s a special occasion or business. You always said it was too risky,” I explained.
“I didn’t like to take the risk when you were younger. You’re not a little girl anymore and less vulnerable if anything were to happen.”
I could sense he was telling the truth and as much as it warmed me to hear that, in a small way, his explanation left me feeling patronized.
Deciding to let it go, I looked back down at my menu and stated, “I believe I was promised chocolate cake.”
Jamie chuckled at that.
“You can’t just eat chocolate cake, Maura. After dinner, we’ll get some,” Stefan admonished.
“I wasn’t planning to. I’m getting a big juicy steak and garlic fries. I was just reminding you about the cake.”
The waiter returned with my drink and took our food orders. While we were waiting on our food to come, we drank, nibbled on the appetizers, and interacted with small talk. It was nice, actually, and I was kind of glad Stefan dragged me out.
Our food arrived shortly after that. It looked so delicious and succulent, I might have drooled a little. With my steak knife and fork in hand, I was getting ready to cut into my steak when the door to our private dining room opened suddenly. In walked a big, dangerous-looking man, dressed all in black and obviously armed, followed by a similarly dressed, dangerous man, and then another.
An uneasiness spun into a ball in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know these men, and with one look at Stefan and Jamie, I could tell they didn’t either. Our three goons standing around us all widened their stances. As each unexpected visitor walked into the room, my instincts screamed at me that something wasn’t right. Without even thinking, I swiveled my steak knife inward, hiding it under my arm before placing it in my lap as I continued to watch as more men entered the room.
Four more mean-looking men filed in, followed by a less bulking man in a gray suit with Russian tattoos on his hands and neck. The last man to enter the room was Sasha, the Russian owner of Anarchy, looking as tall and gorgeous as I remembered from the other night.
I felt a little relieved it was him, but as I looked around the room at all his men, I couldn’t pull myself off the edge of my seat. Something still didn’t feel right.
With my back painfully straight, I watched Sasha walk toward us. Stefan got to his feet and they clasped hands.
“I heard you were here and wanted to pop in to say hi, but I see my timing was poor. Your food just arrived. Please, sit down.”
Stefan gave him a tight smile, not liking the order, but he took a seat anyway.
Sasha looked to me, his remarkable gray-blue eyes filled with recognition. Before he could say something to me, Stefan intercepted, “What can I do for you, Sasha?” His tone was polite. Only someone paying attention could tell it was forced.
“Like I said, I was just popping in to say hi.” He glanced at Jamie. “I heard someone tried to hit one of your trucks yesterday.”
Across the table, I noticed Jamie had tensed up.
After an uncomfortable amount of silence, Stefan schooled his face into a polite facade. “How’d you hear about that?” His eyes traveled the room, studying all of Sasha’s men and how they were surrounding us. His gaze flicked to Jamie and they exchanged a look.
The man in the gray suit pulled out the chair next to mine. As he took a seat, his jacket opened just enough to flash the gun holstered under his arm. “It happened in our backyard. How could we not hear about it?” he stated, slouching back in the chair before looking at me. His eyes traveled slowly down my body, blatantly checking me out. I tightened my hold on my steak knife, squishing it between my arm and thigh, making sure he couldn’t see it. I ignored his wandering eyes by staring forward at Jamie, who was glaring at the man sitting next to me.
“We heard you caught someone from the raid,” Sasha said, pulling my attention from Jamie.
“No,” Stefan replied, and his eyes locked with mine, warning me. It was only for a breath. I almost missed it. My heart rate spiked as adrenaline surged through my veins.
“Are you sure? I had multiple witnesses say otherwise. Unless you killed him?” Sasha was fishing and he wasn’t fooling anyone. I was beginning to think that our truck being hit in Sasha’s backyard was a little too big of a coincidence.
“I think I’d know if we captured someone,” Stefan replied.
Sasha turned toward me. “Maura, it’s good to see you again.”
“You two have met before?” Stefan questioned me.
I opened my mouth to speak but Sasha beat me to it. “Yes. We met in my club the other night.” He reached toward me and grabbed a piece of my hair, twisting the ends around his fingers. “You have a beautiful daughter, Stefan. How have you kept her secret for so long?”
“I’m a lesbian,” I blurted, putting on a stoic mask. “I’m what you call the black sheep of our very Catholic and old-fashioned family.” I gave Stefan a pointed look and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“A lesbian?” Sasha repeated.
“Yup. I’m all about the pussy.”
Sasha shifted his attention to Jamie, who looked ready to lunge across the table. His eyes were glued to where Sasha held my hair. When he looked up at Sasha, his murderous glare spoke louder than words. Pain was in Sasha’s future.