Chapter 5

Yekaterina Kozlova had been a devout member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Her family had believed in God for generations, and even in an age when war erupted and people died in droves, they never surrendered their faith. The Kozlovas were poor, but theirs was a proud and dignified lineage. They found joy in helping others, and Katya, as Yekaterina was known, followed that family tradition by becoming a nurse.

No one who knew her could have imagined that Yekaterina would fall in love with a man named Vasily Kiselyov. The Kiselyov family had worked as butchers for generations, and because Vasily had learned no other trade, he earned his living skinning animals and removing their entrails. It was an age that claimed no honest occupation was beneath respect, but in practice, butchers were not held in high regard.

When rumors spread that the beautiful, kindhearted nurse had fallen for the taciturn butcher and begun following him everywhere, people first dismissed it as a poor choice made during her cycle. Young Alphas and Omegas had been drawn together during their cycles for as long as anyone could remember, so those who secretly admired Katya comforted themselves by calling it a fever that would soon break.

But months passed, then half a year, then several years, and Katya never left Vasily’s side. Eventually, she began taking him to church with her arm linked through his. The lowborn man who had never possessed a shred of faith decided, for the woman he loved, to try believing in God.

Vasily Kiselyov’s faith endured even after the woman he had loved more than life was gone. He told his son Yuri that God dwelled in every human heart, and that even those who sinned could be forgiven and restored by Jesus the Savior if they sincerely repented.

Bullshit.

Yuri stood outside smoking as he stared down the quiet night street.

He loved his father, but he despised the innocence of believers. To Yuri, the faith they spoke of seemed little more than a convenient excuse. The idea that one could sin, regret it, and be absolved struck him as brutally selfish. Was faith anything more than a belief designed to ease the guilt buried deep in one’s heart?

The instant a sin was committed, it left a mark that could never be erased. It became a fact, a moment in time that could never be undone. If someone turned another person’s life into hell and then repented, what became of the victim’s life?

If the dead could not be saved but their killer could, Yuri wanted nothing to do with such a God. Absurdly, many criminals believed in one. Yuri found that breed so revolting that sometimes merely looking at them made him feel sick enough to die.

At some point, he had abandoned faith altogether.

Yuri Kiselyov was a sinner. He had been one from the moment he was born in Saratov. Katya and Vasya had been an ordinary married couple who fled a collapsing country and crossed into America, where they needed new identities and money to survive.

A man named Igor Volkov gave exiles like them the means to live, then chained them beneath debts too enormous to repay. Saratov was full of people who had walked blindly into that trap. Born in a mafia stronghold that profited from every crime imaginable, Yuri naturally grew into the same world. He had been given no choice.

Once the organization seized on his parents’ debt, Yuri did whatever he had to do to survive, including things that should never be forgiven.

“Yuri, you ready?”

By the time Alexei came up behind him, Yuri’s cigarette had burned almost to the filter, the ember nearing his index finger. He exhaled a veil of gray smoke, then pinched out the ember with his fingertips. Orange sparks scattered through the air and vanished.

“Was there something to prepare?”

“I meant the mental preparation to stay glued to Goodnight.”

Alexei hid his apology inside a joke. He seldom cared what other people thought, but in his own way, he paid close attention to the few people he cherished. His standards were entirely arbitrary, so it did not happen often, yet the situation appeared to be weighing on him.

“Not particularly. I’ll put him in a hotel and bring him whatever he needs. This should be over within ten days.”

Cherriot Goodnight’s personality was extraordinarily grating, but the fee was excellent, and although Yuri had been assigned the role of bodyguard, Cherriot was in no position to roam freely. The job should amount to standing watch while the man rested. They would not have to spend much time together.

“Ideally, yes.” Alexei’s mouth twisted. “But plans have a way of going wrong.”

“Taken the wrong way, that sounds as though you hope they will, Alyosha.”

“Not a chance.” Alexei frowned as if the idea were unthinkable, but when his eyes met Yuri’s, his stern mouth gave way and he laughed. “Honestly, today was the first time I realized you could be thrown off like that. Usually, you barely listen when someone talks nonsense.”

Apparently, Yuri’s disgust at Cherriot’s behavior had been deeply entertaining. He watched his friend laugh, let out a faint chuckle of his own, and slipped a hand into his pocket. Pulling out the portable ashtray he always carried, he dropped the cigarette butt inside and answered flatly.

“That’s because no one has ever spoken to me that way before.”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Yuri had always been someone frightening, someone others did not dare approach. Even Omegas in cycle who clung to him never looked him in the face and showered him with compliments. Most were too afraid to meet his eyes.

Was that why those green eyes had stayed in his memory? Because almost no one had ever looked straight at him before?

Since moving to Vancouver, Yuri had occasionally been asked out by Omegas, including the woman earlier that afternoon. Even they, however, had been too shy to hold his gaze.

“But you really are handsome, aren’t you?”

Alexei’s sudden compliment interrupted Yuri’s thoughts. He frowned and stared at him. They had been together since they were old enough to run, yet this was the first time Alexei had ever commented on Yuri’s appearance. Yuri had never said anything about Alexei’s, either. Perhaps their bleak upbringing was to blame, or perhaps Russians were simply too blunt for easy praise, but compliments had never been part of their friendship.

He’s changed so much since coming here.

Yuri realized, with a faint start, that someone he had believed he knew completely had changed without his noticing. The unfamiliarity of it did not feel bad. Since becoming lovers with the person he had loved for so long, Alexei had grown more honest. His friend had always valued action over words and cared little for outward expression, but he seemed to have learned, quite well, how to be gentle.

The realization made Yuri part his lips. He wondered whether he should thank him or perhaps say that Alexei was handsome too. In the end, he chose another answer.

“I don’t want to hear that from an Alpha.”

“That’s fair. Maybe if I were a cute Omega.”

Apparently, Alexei had meant nothing serious by it. He only shrugged in agreement.

Yuri studied his expression, then pulled out another cigarette. An odd ache had begun near his solar plexus. Perhaps it came from realizing how much the friend he had known all his life had changed. The thought left Yuri feeling as though he had been left behind.

Lowering his head, he stared at the ground and drew in smoke. It filled his lungs, stale and dark, and he found himself wondering whether he was someone permitted to remain at his friend’s side.

Cherriot Goodnight had said he wanted to entrust the request to Alexei because Alexei was a “good” person. Heather had probably thought both Yuri and Alexei good because they had helped her without demanding payment when she was in trouble. But a single act could not measure goodness. What mattered was the sum of a person’s sins. Unlike Alexei, who had grown up in a den of criminals yet never crossed certain lines, Yuri…

“I’m bored. When are we leaving?”

Perhaps Yuri had sunk too deeply into the past. With Alexei beside him, he had let down his guard and failed to notice Cherriot approaching from behind. He paid for that lapse when Cherriot suddenly wrapped both arms around his shoulders.

For all Cherriot’s beautiful features, the force with which he seized Yuri was heavy enough to drive the breath from his lungs. Yuri’s body went rigid. His arm had already begun to rise when Cherriot’s pheromones reached him, and he barely stopped the fist that almost flew.

“Govno!”

He could not stop the curse from escaping.

“Wow. What did you just say?” Cherriot’s tone brightened with delight. “Say it again.”

His breath brushed Yuri’s ear. The excited, boyish delivery clashed sharply with the low vibration of his voice, which rolled against Yuri’s skin with a chill. Alexei watched the spectacle and burst into disbelieving laughter.

“I’ve lived long enough to see someone beg to be cursed at twice,” Alexei said. “That was an insult, Mr. Client.”

“Even Yuri’s curses sound nice.”

“Why don’t you let go before he actually hits you?”

“But Yuri’s staying still, isn’t he?”

Yuri was enduring the contact only to avoid punching Cherriot in the face, yet the man kept spouting nonsense. Irritation flared so sharply that Yuri twisted his head to curse at him again, only to discover Cherriot’s lips close enough to brush his cheek.

His eyes narrowed. They had nearly touched.

“Get off me. Now.” Yuri’s voice turned lethal. “Touch me like this again, and I really will hit you.”

Yuri had a rule against laying hands on ordinary civilians, but at that moment, anger nearly made him forget it.

At Yuri’s vicious tone, Cherriot loosened his arms as if he meant to release him, then clung tighter again. “Would it be all right if I warned you before touching you?”

“Are you insane?”

Yuri very kindly cursed him in English this time so Cherriot could understand.

“I might be a little insane,” Cherriot admitted, “because your face is exactly my type.”

“If looks are all you care about, you must fuck just about anyone. Even animals have more restraint.”

“Not necessarily. Sex is better when the other person likes me too.”

For a moment, Yuri could think of no reply. He was so dumbfounded that his chest tightened, but he suspected that if he kept arguing, Cherriot would drag him into some maze of deranged logic. Swallowing a sigh, Yuri caught Cherriot’s arm and began peeling it away.

Cherriot, on the other hand, remained pliant, letting Yuri move him as he pleased, then bent close to his ear. “So you hate it when I touch you, but it’s fine when you touch me?” His voice sank conspiratorially. “You don’t hate contact between Alphas that much after all, do you?”

“Shut your mouth.”

“Then I’ll change strategies and make you touch me instead.”

Rather than waste breath explaining that such a thing would never happen even if he died, Yuri wrenched Cherriot off his back and shoved him away. Better to leave before the man attempted something even more insane.

“Alyosha, stop laughing and do your job. I’ll take this man to the hotel. Go to his place and bring his things first. The two of you can decide what he needs.”

Alexei had watched their scuffle with the serene detachment of a man observing a fire on the opposite bank of a river. At last, he nodded. As he headed toward the car parked in the alley, he told Cherriot to text him the instructions for entering the condo and a list of what to bring.

Meanwhile, Yuri started his car and considered where best to deposit his oversized headache.

First, he needed to assess the danger Cherriot actually faced. Based on what they had heard so far, the threat remained difficult to gauge. The fact that the gang had approached him openly in a place full of witnesses bothered Yuri. Criminals gained nothing from attracting public attention. When they exposed themselves that boldly, it usually meant someone involved was willing to go to prison if necessary. Very few idiots, however, would take such a risk over a mere affair. With a target as famous as Cherriot, it would be far more profitable to weaponize the scandal and blackmail him. These were people willing to commit every degrading act imaginable for money, after all.

After weighing the possibilities, Yuri chose a crowded destination. Cherriot’s height and build made him conspicuous wherever he went, and in a deserted area, he would become a beacon for trouble. A busy hotel offered safety in numbers, making it harder to isolate him from the crowd. The plan would have to remain flexible, but Yuri’s objective for the night was simple: install Cherriot in a reputable hotel and escape his orbit, even if only for a few hours.

“I’m here, Yuri.”

Right on time, Cherriot opened the passenger door and climbed in. He was considerably taller and broader than Yuri, and his reddish-blond hair nearly brushed the ceiling.

“Is there a hotel you usually use?”

Yuri shifted into gear and headed downtown without bothering with pleasantries. Cherriot had not fastened his seat belt and was busy forcing the passenger seat back as far as the rails allowed.

At Yuri’s question, he lifted his head, his green eyes narrowing with a sly gleam. “What changed your mind in the last few minutes?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“You’ve decided you want to sleep with me, haven’t you?”