Chapter 3 - The Man Who Bought My Building
Kalin took me back to my apartment.
“Pack.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“Stop saying my name like it's an order.”
“Pack enough for a week.”
“Where am I going?”
“My house.”
I laughed.
He didn't.
“You're serious?”
“Yes.”
“I barely know you.”
“That's safer than the men who know exactly who you are.”
That ended the argument.
Mostly.
I packed jeans, shirts, toiletries, and my restoration notebook.
Then I grabbed my bunny slippers.
Kalin stared.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You're judging them.”
“They're ridiculous.”
“They terrified your security team.”
“They terrified me.”
I looked at him.
“Really?”
“No.”
I threw them into my bag.
When we entered the hallway, the building manager came running toward us.
“Mr. Kovatch!”
Kalin stopped.
“Everything finalized?”
“Yes, sir.”
I looked between them.
“What finalized?”
Neither answered.
“Kalin?”
He adjusted his cuff.
“I bought the building.”
I stared at him.
“You what?”
“This building.”
“I understand the noun.”
“Then why did you ask?”
“Why did you buy my apartment building?”
“To control access.”
“You bought forty apartments because somebody threatened me?”
“Forty-six.”
“That isn't better!”
The manager quietly disappeared.
I stepped closer.
“You cannot buy every place that makes you nervous.”
“I can.”
“That was rhetorical.”
“I know.”
“You are unbelievable.”
“So I've been told.”
“Sell it.”
“No.”
“Sell my building!”
“No.”
“You're insane!”
“Also been told.”
I stormed toward the elevator.
Behind me, Russo muttered, “I like her.”
Kalin said, “Nobody asked.”
---
Kalin's house wasn't a house.
It was a fortress pretending to be modern architecture.
Security gates.
Cameras.
Guards.
Bulletproof glass.
I walked through the enormous foyer.
“This is ridiculous.”
“It keeps people alive.”
“Do you always talk like a movie villain?”
“Only before lunch.”
I almost laughed.
Almost.
Then an older woman appeared.
“Kalin.”
His entire posture changed.
“Maria.”
She looked at me.
Then my bunny slippers sticking from my bag.
Then at Kalin.
Her eyes brightened.
“Oh.”
“No,” Kalin said immediately.
“I didn't say anything.”
“You were going to.”
Maria smiled at me.
“I'm his housekeeper.”
“Elena.”
“I know.”
I looked at Kalin.
“Does everybody run background checks around here?”
“Yes.”
Maria ignored him.
“Come. I'll show you your room.”
As we climbed the stairs, she whispered:
“He hasn't brought a woman here in six years.”
“I'm not here like that.”
“I know.”
“Then why tell me?”
Maria smiled.
“Because he bought an apartment building this morning.”
---
That evening, Kalin found me in his library.
“You shouldn't wander.”
“I'm inside your fortress.”
“You could get lost.”
“I survived.”
He poured whiskey.
I watched him.
“Why six years?”
His hand stopped.
“What?”
“Maria talks.”
“Maria enjoys being employed dangerously.”
I waited.
Finally he sat opposite me.
“My younger brother was killed six years ago.”
My anger softened.
“Rossi?”
“Yes.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I don't need sympathy.”
“Good. I wasn't offering sympathy. I was offering basic human decency.”
He looked at me.
“You do that often.”
“What?”
“Talk to me like I'm normal.”
“You're my upstairs neighbor.”
“I own the building.”
“You're still the jerk upstairs.”
For the first time, Kalin laughed.
Not a smirk.
An actual laugh.
It changed his entire face.
Then Russo entered.
The laughter vanished.
“Boss, we found the connection.”
Kalin stood.
Russo placed a folder on the table.
“Daniel Parker's debt wasn't random.”
I opened it.
Inside were photographs of paintings.
Old paintings.
Including the one I was restoring.
“What does this have to do with my father?”
Russo looked at Kalin.
Kalin answered.
“Your father wasn't only gambling.”
He slid a document toward me.
May you like
“He was helping the Rossis move stolen art.”
---
