Free Russian Mobster’s Revenge by Bella Rose Page B

of Ivan seemed to surprise the old man. Emily sighed. “Believe me, he can be a jerk. But I’ve known Ivan a long time and he’s really a good man. He’s just rough around the edges.”
    “Like a bear or a boa constrictor,” Krakowski retorted. “Please be careful, my Emily!”
    “I will,” Emily assured him. Although that ship had pretty much sailed, crashed, and burned before sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
    ***
    Across the table from Ivan, Samantha’s face took on an unusual expression. “Don’t look now, but your not girlfriend is headed this way.”
    “What?” Ivan swung around in surprise. Why would Emily be in this area? Was she following him?
    “I told you not to turn around!” Samantha moaned. “My God, you’d be a shitty cop. You know that?”
    “That’s high praise,” he retorted. “And I don’t know why Emily would be over here. It’s ridiculous. This area is miles from my apartment.”
    “And yet you’re here,” Samantha pointed out.
    Emily was headed in their direction, a determined look on her face and a definite spring in her step. Ivan groaned. “She’s going to give me hell, isn’t she?”
    “Oh yeah.”
    “Can you help me out here?” Ivan pleaded.
    Samantha was already standing. “Nope. You’re on your own.” She smiled cordially at Emily. “I’ll leave the two of you to chat.”
    “Thank you,” Emily said with a polite nod. Then she sat in Samantha’s chair. She had a tiny bag stamped with the logo of a stationary store that she set on the ground with her handbag.
    “You drove twenty miles for some pens?” Ivan said with a rude grunt.
    She shrugged. “Twenty miles for you, but you forget that this is my neighborhood. Volkov Real Estate owns that building. Mr. Krakowski is one of our customers. So yes. I took the train over here to patronize his shop the same way I would have if I were still working back in my own office.”
    “I did forget,” he murmured. “Samantha thinks you’re jealous.” The words just sort of fell out of his mouth without any real thought.
    “Should I be jealous?” She cocked her head, a loose strand of blond hair falling over one shoulder. That was when he noticed that she had left her hair down.
    “You didn’t put your hair in a bun,” he said gruffly. “It’s beautiful.”
    “Thank you. But that isn’t going to distract me from my original question. Should I be jealous of this Samantha person?”
    “We’ve been friends since middle school,” he explained. “Now she’s an associate.”
    Emily fiddled with Samantha’s discarded knife, spinning it slowly in circles on the tabletop. “I don’t think she looked like that in middle school.”
    “Huh?” Ivan had never really spent any time thinking about the way Samantha looked. “No. She was short in middle school. Really short, actually. And she had braces. Her teeth were a mess. I think she wore those things until we were in high school.”
    “Wow.” Emily was laughing now and he couldn’t really figure out why. “Samantha is wrong. I’m not jealous.”
    “You’re not?” He was completely confused. “But you’re mad at me for having lunch with her?”
    “Not anymore.”
    ***
    Emily watched Ivan try to work it all out in his head. Men were fascinating creatures. Perhaps nothing could have convinced her of his indifference to Samantha other than the fact that he didn’t seem to realize how beautiful she was. No, Ivan was just going to talk about how awkward Samantha had been growing up. Emily was certain the woman would be thrilled to hear that.
    “Women make no sense,” Ivan growled. “Are you angry or are you hurt? No man can tell. And then when a guy expects a woman to get irritated because he’s actually done something that might be construed as illegal, she just gets over it and says no big deal . How are we supposed to understand that?”
    “I could try to explain it, but I’d be using girl logic,” she told him with a solemn expression.