Page 22 of Dima
His eyes were the only thing that could be seen, and they were locked on Bishop. He was on a mission. They had sent one gunman to pull off a hit on one of the most dangerous men in the city.
I needed to at least make it to him or Bishop, and since he was on the opposite side of the crowd, I was more likely to make it to Bishop. It wasn’t long before Bishop’s lawyers and the police escorts pushed past the crowd of reporters and further down the courthouse steps.
I watched the gunman raise his pistol as soon as Bishop was in sight. I used all the speed in me to tackle Bishop to the ground as the shot rang out. The crowd dispersed as bullets flew.
I could see police drawing their weapons and searching for the shooter. He was taken out in less than five minutes, and I was able to pull Bishop back to his feet. Now I had saved Maeve’s and her father’s lives.
“Who the hell is it?”
I spoke to myself out loud since I was the only person in the house. It was foreign to hear the doorbell ring. The only people who knew where we lived were Guard, my father, and the staff who worked here. At least that was what I thought before Dima dropped me off at my front gate the other night.
Whoever rang the doorbell couldn’t have been a delivery person. I hadn’t ordered food, and packages were usually dropped off at the gate. I was irritated that I had to get out of bed, but I forced myself up.
I marched out of my room, down the stairs, and the long hallway to open the door. I swung it open with attitude already etched across my face.
“Can I help you?”
“Yeah. I have a delivery for a Maeve Moore.”
“I am Maeve, but you can leave deliveries at the front gate. Who let you in?”
“The guard at the gate let me in. Look, I was paid extra to make sure I handed this directly to you. Can you sign here for me?”
He handed me the clipboard to get my signature before handing over a large bouquet of roses. They were so beautiful. I sniffed them on instinct.
“Who sent these?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m just the delivery guy.”
He grabbed his clipboard out of my hand and turned to leave. He did a light jog back to his car. I was still watching in shock as he pulled off. I would be sure to report the guard to my daddy because he should have never made it past the gate.
I tore into the card first because I didn’t know who would send me flowers. I hadn’t dated in a long time. It took way more effort than I had time to give.
Hey, just wanted to let you know I was thinking of you this morning. D.
Of course it was Dima. A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, despite what I’d found in his truck last night. I could hide the fact that I liked Dima from everybody else, but hiding it from myself was another thing. Dima had a special effect on me that no one else had ever had, and now he’d sent flowers to my front door.
There was a possibility that Bishop could have opened the door instead of me. Knowing that he wasn’t afraid of my father turned me on more than anything. I’d never met a man who would go up against my father for me, but Dima made it clear that he would.
The flowers came with a vase, but I still had to add water. I walked over to the sink and added water to the vase before taking them upstairs. I wanted to put them on my dresser so I could look at them in the mornings. A small reminder of Dima could never hurt.
I heard the front door open again not long after I made it back to my room. I lay back down since whoever it was had a key to let themselves in. The further they moved into the hall, the more I could hear them talking. It was my daddy, and he sounded upset.
I jumped up out of bed and walked downstairs to see what all the fuss was about. My father walked in circles, and Dima stood not too far from him. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Not only had Dima dropped me off in front of my house and sent flowers to my doorstep, but now he stood in my living room with a man who never wanted anyone to know where we lived.
He must have trusted him a lot more than I thought. That was dangerous since Dima probably wasn’t even his real name. I wondered if it was.
Did he have more than one identity? If so, why?The name Marcus Stewart flashed in my head again, and I decided I would confront Dima about it as soon as we were alone.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
“Nothing for you to worry about, sweetheart. Some fools tried to make an attempt on my life.”
He walked over and kissed my forehead like that would put me at ease. That kiss did nothing to calm my nerves that were rattled as soon as he said someone tried to kill him.
“Oh my God, what? What happened? I thought you had a court hearing this morning.”
“Yeah. They made their move when I walked out of the courtroom.”
