“You get in car, Elena. Or I make you. Be a good girl, no argue. Da?”
All her amusement bled away. Dealing with Evgeni in the bar—a relatively controlled and public environment—was easy. Their interactions seemed innocent enough, fun even. It was hard to remember he was supposed to be some dangerous criminal when he joked and smiled at her like he did while she was working.
It wasn’t hard to remember now. In fact, all she could think about were the warnings Kirill and Luka had both imparted. Stay away. He’s a bad man.
Now that bad man wanted her to get in his car, and there was no one around to stop him if he tried to force her.
Her heart fluttered at the idea.
Grooming—that was what they called it when a bad person tried to make their victim malleable to future abuse by buttering them up. Was that what he’d been doing to her with all his flirty games and conversation?
“I…” Elena split a glance between the car and the sidewalk beyond Evgeni, weighing her options. She wasn’t stupid; trying to run with him so close wouldn’t get her anywhere, and it would very likely piss him off. She knew she shouldn’t get in the car, knew it went against the advice of every crime show ever, but right now it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice.
Part of her was scared, but part of her wanted very much to get in the car. For one thing, she was freezing. She had also developed an irrationally annoying itch to please Evgeni whenever the chance presented itself. That aside, his caveman-esque display of chivalry in the bar earlier tonight had her thinking he wasn’t as bad as everyone said. After all, it wasn’t as if he’d had a dog in that fight, but he’d defended her honor anyway. Maybe it was naïve of her to think so, but she thought it all the same.
When her slumping shoulders signaled defeat, she felt the weight of his hand between her shoulder blades. His mouth quirked up in a satisfied smile.
“Good girl.”
She allowed him to turn her toward the car, chewing her lip in nervous silence as he opened the door and ushered her in, then shut it behind her.
As he came around the front of the vehicle, Elena tried to settle her nerves. She was taking one hell of a leap of faith tonight.
The vehicle creaked and shifted with Evgeni’s weight when he lowered himself into the driver’s seat and slammed the door. He fiddled with the knobs on the dash, turning up the vent so that heat blasted across her knees and thighs. Then he was reaching over her—heedless of how he crowded her space—to roll the passenger window back up.
She watched all of this in silence, pressed back against the seat to give him as much room as possible. He sent a sidelong glance her way as he sat back.
“Is better than walking, yeah?”
Elena nodded.
He put the vehicle in gear and they crept into motion. “So, where I go?”
Elena pointed up the street. “Right on Soltsevo. It’s just a few blocks up.”
Evgeni grunted, steering with his knees as he pulled his cigarettes and lighter from his pocket. Once he’d placed one between his lips and lit it, he tossed the pack and lighter on the dashboard.
“You say you have knife. Show me.”
She frowned. The knife was balled in her fist, just like it had been the entire time she’d been on the street. Would he be angry to see she’d had it handy the whole time? Would he take it from her? She swallowed hard, fighting the urge to deny him.
She really, really didn’t want him to be mad. Who would? It was a terrifying thought. Unhappily, she lifted her hand and turned her palm up, unfurling her fingers to reveal the folded pocketknife she’d been clutching.
He didn’t take his eyes off the wheel, just extended a hand and motioned for her to give it. She did so, feeling sheepish at how small the thing looked cupped in his palm. Evgeni gave it a cursory glance and made a disgusted noise, not even bothering to open the thing and examine the blade before he discarded it on the dash alongside his other things.
Evgeni was fishing in his pocket again, this time extracting a much larger version of what she’d just presented to him. With frightening ease, he flipped it open and gripped the blade, extending the handle toward Elena. “Here, take. Look.”
Again she obeyed, cautiously wrapping her fingers around the handle of his knife. Unlike hers—a tiny, smooth thing with no real shape—this was a dangerous weapon. The handle was molded with bumps and ridges that fit her grasp, the rough material making it easy to grip. It was a heavy hybrid blade—the leading edge straight, the back half serrated—a wicked-looking thing.
“Stick from knife you have, so small… it just make a man angry. For defend, you need knife big enough to do damage.”
Elena brought the weapon closer, turning it over in her hands as he spoke.
“Someone attack you? Always aim for eye, throat, kidney. Soft places, da? This is good knife.”
“Okay, I’ll, uh. I’ll look at getting one,” she muttered as she tried to hand the thing back. Evgeni shook his head.
“Keep it.”
“But I—”
He shot her a look so intense Elena’s protest shriveled in her throat. She closed the knife and slipped it into her pocket.
“Is good to be prepared. But you won’t need to use, will you?”
Elena shook her head, trying to get a read on him from the corner of her eye.
“Cause why, solnyshko?”
She hesitated, trying to puzzle out what he wanted her to say as he steered the car around the corner. “Because I… won’t be walking alone at night by myself anymore?”
“Ahh!” He sounded pleased, as if he’d just taught a child a lesson he thought might stick. Evgeni elbowed her in the ribs when she pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest. “Da, da. Is good. Don’t be… ah, what is word? Brat?”
“I’m not a brat!”
“You are,” he insisted with a chuckle. “If you were mine, I spank you for being careless.”
Elena stiffened, her insides fluttering with an excitement she shouldn’t have felt. She cleared her throat, trying to banish the sudden image of herself sprawled over Evgeni’s lap with his hand primed to strike.
“I’ll be more careful.”
“Mmm. That is shame. You could use spanking, I think. See how you blush? You know.”
Elena huffed, shoving her hair back from her face. She wanted to curse the streetlamps for giving him enough light to see the color staining her cheeks. It wasn’t fair, the effect he had on her. He was screwing up her senses.
She pointed out the windshield. “It’s that one, the blue one, on the left up here.”
Evgeni sighed, easing the car over to the curb in front of Sven’s house. He dipped his head, looking out the window at it. “Windows are dark. Friends not home?”
Elena slid a cautious glance his way. “It’s late. I’m sure they’re sleeping. Thanks for the ride.”
She put her shoulder to the door, gloved hand curling around the handle. But before she could push it open, Evgeni twisted his fist into the front panel of her coat.
Evgeni leaned over the center console, his free arm slung across the back of her seat. He tightened his grip on the fabric over her chest, dragging her up into his space.
Elena held her breath, staring up at him in wide-eyed surprise, too nervous to move. His cigarette was gone, and when he parted his lips in a sigh, her eyes flickered to his mouth.