Way Off Plan (Firsts and Forever 1)

I stepped back to let him in. “That won’t be necessary.”

He went into my living room and made himself comfortable on the couch, and I sat on a chair opposite him. Sokolov seemed to miss nothing as his eyes slid over my apartment. When his gaze returned to me a few seconds later I felt like he knew everything about me now. That was how shrewd this man appeared. “So Mr. Sokolov, what can I do for you?” I asked him, crossing my left ankle over my right knee and leaning back in a move of intentional casualness.

“I simply wanted to meet the man that has my nephew so smitten.” He waited for me to say something – maybe confirming or denying my relationship with Dmitri? I remained silent, holding his gaze steadily. “You’re very careful,” he said, reading me like a book. “Trying to give nothing away. You’re obviously a good cop, Officer Nolan.” I maintained eye contact wordlessly, and after a moment he continued, “I know you and my nephew are seeing each other. I know you’ve been together every night since you met at his club last Friday. So I was curious about you. I wanted to get a sense of you. Determine exactly what I’m up against.” He smiled pleasantly, as if that was a perfectly normal thing to say to me.

“So, now you’ve met me. Will be there be anything else, Mr. Sokolov?” I kept my voice and my expression neutral.

He watched me for a long moment, then said levelly, “You’re obviously a nice kid from a nice family, Jamie. Your dad, a decorated police officer, your mom, a volunteer in the pediatric unit at the hospital – they’re good people. And your sisters, Carol, Erin, and little Maureen – getting married in just a few months – they’re good people, too.” He paused for a moment, then said, “You shouldn’t be mixed up with the type of individuals my nephew associates with, Jamie. Not a boy with your background, with your family. It’s just not safe for you. You and my nephew, you don’t fit. It’s like flint and tinder. Wouldn’t you agree?”

My blood was running cold in my veins. It took everything I had to keep my game face on as Gregor Sokolov explained to me in no uncertain terms that he knew all about my family, and knew right where to find them. As threats went, it was supremely subtle. But supremely effective.

I wanted to tell him to shove his threats up his ass, wanted to let him know I was onto his game. But that would only piss off a man like this. So instead I called upon all my training and years on the force and said calmly, “Thank you for your opinion, Mr. Sokolov.”

The fact that he was getting nothing from me obviously irked him. He kept his expression neutral, but there was one tell: a tightening of the right side of his jaw as he almost imperceptibly ground his teeth together. Often far more useful than my police training was the fact that I’d been playing poker with my cousins since I was twelve, and knew how to read faces.

Sokolov rose to his feet and smiled at me, his eyes cold as he said cheerfully, “Well, I must be going. It was a pleasure meeting you, son.”

I trailed him to the door of my apartment, and pulled his gun from the waistband of my shorts. I ejected the magazine into my hand, then pulled back the slide and checked the chamber before handing the gun back to him handle-first, dropping the bullets into my pocket. He was probably reading a lot into that. It may have told him I understood he was a threat. Or maybe he just thought I was acting like a police officer. Regardless, I wasn’t about to hand a loaded gun back to this thug.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, Jamie,” he said with a reptilian smile, before turning and sauntering down the hall.

I closed the door and let out my breath, slowly. Even his parting words, simple as they were, came across as an ominous threat when delivered by Gregor Sokolov. There was something evil about that man. Soulless. Ice cold. I counted to ten and then clicked the deadbolt on my door – best to wait until he was out of earshot so he wouldn’t know he’d rattled me enough to bolt the doors. Then I went into the bedroom and located my cell phone, and dialed Dmitri’s house.

Catherine answered, and I said, “Hey, it’s Jamie. You ok?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“How did the meeting with your father go?”

“I’m really not sure,” she said. “He started asking me a bunch of questions about you and Dmitri. I tried to tell him I didn’t know anything. But I always feel like he manipulates me into revealing more than I intend to.”