Icing on the Cake Chapter 9

“Then it would be best to spend about two days looking into the internal situation through our contacts. In the meantime, hire a bodyguard. Your residence seems to have been exposed, so stay at a hotel and avoid going out as much as possible. Until this is resolved, the safest option would be to stay in a city other than Vancouver. Since you’re sitting out this season anyway, it shouldn’t matter if you leave for a while, right?”

Before the words had even finished, Cheriot and Alexei both looked at him at the same time. As Yuri slightly narrowed his eyes and glanced between the two, Cheriot’s green eyes sparkled as he asked.

“How did you know I’m out for the season? I didn’t mention it.”

“Indeed, Yuri.”

Alexei chimed in with a mischievous grin. He had only remembered something he happened to hear on the radio, but their interpretations were over the top. Instead of answering and giving them ammunition, Yuri decided to wrap things up for the evening.

“I’ll call a taxi for your way back, so stay at a hotel tonight.”

“But what about a bodyguard? Wouldn’t it be dangerous to go back into the city?”

Cases where that level of close surveillance was employed were usually for the purpose of murder, and what Cheriot had done didn’t seem to warrant that kind of price, but since they hadn’t investigated yet, it was hard to let his guard down. Yuri thought for a moment, then said to Alexei.

“Take him on your way back. You’re heading that way anyway.”

“That’s not difficult.”

Alexei shrugged. Watching the situation unfold, Cheriot pushed the floor with his long legs, leaning his chair back, and furrowed his brows like a sulking boy.

“I’ve never hired a bodyguard to protect me from this kind of thing before.”

“Call a security company. Aren’t you swimming in connections?”

“That may be, but for this matter, the fewer people who know, the better. There are plenty of people around me who’d sell information if there’s money in it.”

Yuri wore an expression of incomprehension.

“So?”

“I’d like one of you two to protect me until this is over. Until the job is done. You said the investigation period would be about two days, and if negotiations are possible, you’d only need to stay with me for a few days—it wouldn’t be long.”

“No.”

Yuri refused immediately, but Alexei was different.

“That does make sense. The whole reason he came all the way here was to avoid a scandal, wasn’t it? What if we poke around with other people and end up causing something he doesn’t want?”

Alexei had apparently already decided to help Cheriot for certain. Knowing full well that his stubborn friend was hard to sway once his mind was set, Yuri had to find another way.

“Then call T-Mac.”

“Are you serious? T-Mac?”

T-Mac was another friend of theirs, a guy who had come over with them when they left Saratov. They called him Taylor McDonald for short—T-Mac—and despite being an alpha, he was rather timid and had no knack for fighting. What a waste of his build.

With no more candidates coming to mind, Yuri fell silent, and Alexei slowly reached out and patted his shoulder. As Yuri squinted at his childhood friend, Alexei gave an apologetic smile.

“But if I stay by his side… Valery wouldn’t like that, you know. Besides, he seems to have taken a liking to you, so couldn’t you just bear with it a little?”

Between Alexei, who had someone waiting for him at home, and himself, it was better for Yuri to spend the night outside. Logically he knew this, but it truly didn’t sit well with him, and as Yuri hesitated to answer, Cheriot, who had been listening, drove the nail in.

“A hundred thousand dollars.”

With a thud, Cheriot brought the legs of his tilted chair back to the floor and leaned his upper body forward. Following the living room light, a long shadow fell across the table, reaching all the way to Yuri.

“As a retainer, I’ll give each of you a hundred thousand dollars. The success fee will be separate. US dollars, not Canadian. In cash, if you prefer.”

It was an excessively large amount for an upfront payment. The man who spoke so innocently of an amount that Yuri could never have saved no matter how hard he tried made his expression harden with discomfort, but at the same time, any justification for further refusal had vanished.

Purely in terms of conditions, this was a deal with more profit than loss. Letting out a sigh, Yuri wiped his brow, then forcibly swallowed his reluctant feelings. Letting himself be swayed by emotion would be the stupidest thing he could do. It was time to be rational.

“…Do as you like.”

The reluctant answer left his lips. As if he’d been waiting, Cheriot leaned in even further and extended his hand toward Yuri. His outstretched white hand was as large as his frame, and unlike his delicate face, it was covered in calluses. But there were no scars etched into the back of his hand like Yuri’s—only the marks of diligent training.

“I look forward to working with you, Yuri.”

Yuri reluctantly took the hand of the uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared. Following the whisper of reason that said he should at least deal with the man now that he was a client, he grasped the large hand, and as if it had been waiting, a firm strength gripped his hand tightly. Unlike Yuri’s cold hand, Cheriot’s was warm, like the color of his hair.

∞ ∞ ∞

Yekaterina Kozlova was a devout Eastern Orthodox believer. Her family had believed in God for generations, and even while living through times of war and death, they never lost their faith. The Kozlova family was poor but possessed a dignified bloodline. They loved helping people, and Katya—that is, Yekaterina—followed that family tradition and became a nurse.

That was why no one around them had expected Yekaterina to fall in love with a man named Vasily Kiselov. The Kiselov family had been butchers for generations, and Vasily too knew nothing else—his trade was cutting animal hides and gutting carcasses. It was an era when they said there was no nobility or baseness in occupations, but a butcher was not a respected profession.

When rumors began to spread that the beautiful, kind-hearted nurse had fallen for the gruff butcher and was following him around, everyone initially said it was just Katya making a bad choice while in heat. It had been that way since the beginning of time—young alphas and omegas drawn to each other during their cycles—so those who secretly admired Katya consoled themselves that it was just a passing fever.

But Katya didn’t leave Vasily’s side after a few months, after half a year, and eventually after several years. At some point, she began bringing Vasily to the church with her arm linked through his. The lowly man who had never possessed any faith decided to try believing in God for the sake of the woman he loved.

And Vasily Kiselov’s faith continued even after the woman he loved more than his own life died. He told his son Yuri that God was always in the human heart, and that even if one sinned, the Savior Jesus would forgive and restore those who repented.

…Nonsense.

Having stepped outside for a smoke, Yuri gazed at the quiet night street. He loved his father, but he hated the naivety of those who had faith. To Yuri, the faith they spoke of felt like nothing more than a convenient excuse. The idea that one could sin, repent, and be forgiven was thoroughly selfish. Was it not merely a belief to alleviate the guilt deeply rooted within oneself?

Sin leaves an indelible mark the moment it’s committed. It is an event that has occurred, a moment that can never be reversed. If you turn someone’s life into hell and then repent, what becomes of the victim’s life? The dead cannot be saved, but if the killer can be saved, then Yuri did not want to believe in such a God. Ironically, many criminals believed in God. Yuri found them so utterly repulsive that sometimes just looking at them made him feel like dying.

And so, at some point, Yuri abandoned faith.

Yuri Kiselov is a sinner. He had been one ever since he was born in Saratov. The ordinary couple, Katya and Vasya, had fled the collapsing country and come to America, and they needed identity and money to survive on this new land.