Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security #13)(11)
“Be careful.”
“Thanks. I will. If, uh, he leaves, will you call me? I’m headed over there right now.”
“I’ll keep an eye on his phone and let you know. Do you need an escort or anything?”
She shook her head. She didn’t need an audience for this, didn’t want anyone to know her personal business. None of her friends from work knew what had happened to her parents—or if they did they’d never brought it up—and she planned to keep it that way. She didn’t want pitying looks. “If you need to tell Porter about this, it’s okay.”
Lizzy just nodded, which wasn’t really an answer whether she was going to tell her husband or not. Dominique didn’t really care though. She needed to talk to Viktor Ivanov right now and ask him why the hell he’d sent her a contract signing over the rights to her childhood home. He supposedly just wanted to give it to her.
For free.
There had to be a catch. Even if there wasn’t, she sure as hell wasn’t taking it. She was going to get to the bottom of this and find out what the heck he was up to. Because a man like Ivanov wouldn’t give away such a valuable piece of property for nothing.
*
Dominique was a mix of nerves and anger by the time she made it to Viktor’s hotel. Or one of them, apparently. She’d known he was successful, but when Lizzy had said ‘one of his hotels’ she’d realized that he must be wealthier than she’d thought.
She had her car valeted because she couldn’t even think about dealing with parking. After a confirming text from Lizzy that Ivanov was still in his restaurant, she headed into the lobby. The decorating was minimalist but everything was high-end. A huge chandelier hung right in the middle of the foyer of the five-star boutique hotel, glittering prettily above everything. She was almost certain the place didn’t have more than a hundred rooms. The interior had an Old World feel to it and was truly beautiful. She’d read about it in one of the luxury publications she kept up to date on for Porter. She just hadn’t realized Ivanov was the owner.
Before she’d taken two steps, a man wearing black pants, a white button-down shirt and a simple black jacket with the hotel’s logo on it approached her, a warm smile on his face. “Welcome. How may I help you?”
She gave him one of her most winning smiles. She hadn’t really thought this through before coming down here. She’d just been so impatient to see him and hadn’t wanted to wait—or call. For some reason that had seemed intimidating. Now, she realized, seeing him in person after she’d told him that his family disgusted her was nerve-racking. Gah, what had she been thinking? “I’m here to see Mr. Ivanov.”
Before the man could respond another man appeared as if out of nowhere, moving silently across the marble tile as he approached. She’d seen him at the Celebration of Chefs on Saturday with Ivanov and thought they might be business partners. He was just as big and definitely as intimidating as Ivanov. The man smiled at her, sort of, and dismissed the hotel employee with a few short words.
“I take it you’re here to see my brother, Miss Castle.”
She blinked at his words, surprised he even knew who she was. “You’re Viktor’s brother?” She hadn’t realized that he had any siblings. Once upon a time she’d done her research on him too. But that had been years ago, when she’d been obsessed with finding out everything about the man who’d destroyed her family. She’d moved on since then, had avoided reading anything about Ivanov once his father died.
“Half-brother. He’s working but he’ll make time for you.” Without waiting for her to respond he turned on his heel and headed toward the open entrance to a restaurant. There was a sign outside that said it was closed until four o’clock.
“I can come back later,” she said as she hurried to catch up with him. Looking at the man now it seemed obvious he and Viktor were related. He was just as big, with similar blue eyes. He even had a similar haircut, buzzed close to his head. “I should have called.”
He stopped as they reached the entrance. “How did you know he was here?”
Feeling her cheeks flush, she just shrugged. “Lucky guess.”
He gave her an assessing look before turning away again and motioning for her to follow him.
She gritted her teeth at his rudeness, but whatever. She’d just shown up here without calling—after illegally tracking Ivanov down. Dominique wasn’t going to throw stones about manners.
He led her across a mostly empty restaurant with white tablecloths on all the tables except a circular booth Viktor was sitting at. There were two men about ten feet away from him, standing quietly by the bar. His bodyguards, she guessed, if the way they sized her up was any indication.
His half-brother held up a hand to them, said something in Russian she didn’t understand. Unlike Viktor, he didn’t have an accent when he spoke English.
Viktor stood, his eyebrows raised as he looked at her, his gaze sweeping her from head to toe. There was a mix of lust thrown in too, which completely screwed with her head.
He started to say something, then one of the men said something under his breath to the other one in Russian, the look the guard gave her easy to define. She might not understand the language but the way he leered at her made her skin crawl.
On instinct she took a step back but to her surprise Viktor moved into the guy’s personal space, getting right up in his face. It was amazing—he didn’t even touch the guy but it was clear he didn’t have to. The guard’s body language showed fear, if the way he tried to shrink back in an attempt to be invisible was any indication. Viktor murmured something too low for her to hear, but whatever it was, the man paled a deathly white and nodded once before practically running from the restaurant. He gave her a wide berth and avoided eye contact as he left.