by Snow, Lucy
Shit. Now I knew I was in trouble. He was going to tell me to get out, and then I’d be out on the street with nowhere to go and no one to ask for help. Ronan was going to wash his hands of me and leave me to whomever Greg was dealing with.
I looked back at him, unable to find the right words, but desperate to make it clear to him that I needed help and that he was the only one who could help me.
“Tell me something, Kara. What language were they speaking?”
“Huh?”
“The guys who killed your ex-boyfriend,” Ronan sneered, “what language did they speak?”
I replayed a few snippets of their random conversation in my mind before answering.
“Russian.”
Chapter 05 - Ronan
Son of a bitch. The fucking Russians.
I didn’t need this shit.
Of course, right when you don’t need shit is always just when shit decides to enter your life. And just in front of it came my gorgeous stepsister, traipsing back and showing herself off in a dress to kill for.
I had to keep my head screwed on straight, or I was gonna be fucked. And not in the good way.
I leaned against the glass. I liked to call it my ‘thinking position.’ I needed it right now just to even approach something like thinking, with the way Kara looked sitting there, asking me for my help.
She needed my help not because she cared or because she trusted me. She needed my help because I was a mobster. Because while she was trying to help some dumbass ex-boyfriend she’d inadvertently entered my world and didn’t know how to get out of it in a way that didn’t involve an early grave.
Fuck. Now she looked at me like she thought I was gonna kick her out and leave her twisting in the wind, for the Russians to find and pull apart.
Fuck that. I’d only recently started dealing with the Russians, but if there was one thing I knew about them already, it’s that they didn’t do anything by half-measures. They were for sure watching this asshole Greg before he came to stay with Kara, and they sure as shit would have quickly figured out where he moved to, even temporarily.
That means they knew about Kara and now that things with Greg had gone south, they’d be looking to tie up loose ends with her, just on the off-chance Greg had told her what kind of ‘business’ he was trying to get into.
Even if I wanted to get her away from me, just so I could go about my life as normal, now there was no chance I could do that. She needed my help, and, sort of family or not, I had to help her.
What I really needed to do was tell my father all about what I’d just learned. And not just because it involved his ex-stepdaughter, but because the Russians were on the other side. This was key information and he needed to know it, especially if the Russians were taking pot shots at low level drug dealers. I couldn’t even begin to consider that Greg might have been anything bigger than that. I might not have kept up with Kara, but I refused to believe, like she said, that she’d have gotten involved with a guy moving serious product.
You can only hide a side or primary business like that for so long before your girl gets wind something’s up and starts asking questions. My father had learned that the hard way with Kara’s mother years ago.
“What’re you going to do?” Her question was plaintive, fearful, unsure. She thought I was going to show her the door, maybe even make her take the stairs.
“You can’t stay here.” That much was abundantly clear.
The family and the Russians had had strained relations ever since the Russians arrived in town a few years ago. There had been no serious beef or bloodshed yet, just a few minor ‘misunderstandings,’ that had been cleared up, or at least brushed off to the side, after a few phone calls from the family heads, after cooler thoughts prevailed.
But that still didn’t mean we didn’t have huge issues to resolve. The Russians were coming in heavy, intending to take over as much of the city as possible as quickly as they could, and we were the only ones in a position to even try to put a stop to that, or slow their progress.
That’s what these negotiations were all about. Finally a chance to sit down and hammer out control, make compromises and ensure that everyone stayed making money and in good spirits. Or at least left the bargaining table only slightly mad.
Not mad enough to pull a knife or gun, and certainly not mad enough to start bullets flying through the streets. No one wanted that.
At least, we didn’t want that. I hoped the Russians felt similarly, but I could never really tell with them.
Before the negotiations started in earnest, though, if the Russians were shooting people over deals not going quite the way they’d liked, that was something we needed to know.
That would mean, though, telling them about Kara.
“Then I guess I have to find somewhere else.” Kara started to get up, brushing herself off and heading toward the door.
“Wait.” She stopped but didn’t turn around. “I said you can’t stay here.” Now she turned around, hope beginning to crawl across her beautiful face. “We’ll go somewhere else.”
Kara’s eyes widened as she took in the meaning of my words. “Ronan,” I winced as she said my name; I loved how it sounded on her lips but had to keep cool, “Thank you so much. I don’t know how I could even think of repaying you.”
I waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. You’re family. We should get moving. Do you have everything you need?”
She nodded. “I do, let me go to the bathroom and clean up a bit first, give me 5 minutes?”
I nodded, and pointed off to one side; Kara found the bathroom and went inside. I turned and stared out the window again.
I was really in the shit now. Hiding Kara from the family, trying to keep her safe from the Russians at the same time? Right as I needed to keep my head in the game? This was all bad news.
But what choice did I have?
Kara coughed from across the room. I turned back inside; she’d cleaned up nicely and despite no more raccoon face, managed to look gorgeous again. I had to work to keep my jaw from dropping and I knew I couldn’t even hide my erection as much as I tried.
Kara, thankfully, didn’t seem to notice. “I’m ready,” she said, smiling as she adjusted her coat. That coat was the only thing keeping those curves from view; for now, I needed it there.
“Let’s go, then.” I walked to my desk and started rummaging around, gathering things.
“Did you call the car service?”
“Nope. This time I’ll drive.” I found my keys in my desk - I didn’t drive often, so it took a little extra time. I knew the place we were going would have everything she needed, and I didn’t intend on staying.
Staying would be bad.
We headed downstairs, taking the same elevator till we got to the garage. My car was in its usual spot, after the building valets had cleaned and washed it.
I didn’t drive often, but when I did, I drove in style, in a top of the line BMW, as dark a blue as I could get and still call it blue. It was the closest thing I had to a child and I took care of it as such. When I had some free time on weekends I used to take it out into the hills and drive as fast as I could through the winding streets, knowing one slip or wrong turn would send me tumbling over the edge.
Moments like that were what life was for. I wouldn’t have it any other way. With a passenger like Kara in the car, though, and the situation we were in, attracting attention by racing around the city was at the bottom of my list of things to do tonight.
The machine roared to life and I eased us out of the garage; Kara focused out the window. It was just after midnight and over the next couple hours the partiers without the stamina to keep going or early plans in the morning would tap out and blearily stumble on home. But for now, the roads were relatively empty and we made good time.
Neither of us spoke on the ride. I focused on the driving while mulling over the Russians’ increasingly aggressive moves over the last few months. Hearing Kara’s story was just an
other data point in a set that had become significant: the Russians had changed the game, and were making moves like they expected to be in charge going forward.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not with all my family had invested over the years in getting to where we were, operating just on the outside of the law but not attracting the attention of those who would love nothing more than to shine a huge spotlight on our dark dealings. I couldn’t let the Russians swoop in here out of nowhere and just take over.
Not on my watch. Fuck no. This city would be mine one day and no one would take that from me. I gripped the wheel tighter and gave the beast a little gas just to emphasize the point in my mind, and Kara jumped up in her seat like she was just starting to pay attention.
Poor kid. She was totally out of her depth. She had always been the good girl, never gotten in a single lick of trouble. That was fine by me; someone needed to balance me out and convince our parents that we weren’t completely hopeless cases.
Which is why I knew she’d never have gotten involved with this now-dead guy Greg if she’d known beforehand that he was such scum. Drug dealing was something the family had never gotten involved in. Nightlife, protection money, graft, all those things were morally far more upstanding, in my mind, and more importantly up till now for the family, in my father’s mind, and I intended to keep that policy up when I got in charge.
Drugs were poison and we didn’t want to be known for poisoning our own people, or anyone, for that matter. Pulse, and our other nightclubs, occasionally became the target of dealers trying to ply their trade inside our walls or just outside, willing to sell the clubbers a bump before they went inside. As soon as we figured out who they were, each and every single one of them got the beating of a lifetime and were told never to be caught within 500 feet of any of our clubs. To our knowledge none of them had ever come back. And our clubs gave such a great experience that our customers didn’t mind going in relatively sober.
The Russians, though, seemed to have no such moral compulsion, and it looked like their first move was to corner the city’s market for illegal drugs by intimidating or straight-out killing the street level dealers and distributors.
I didn’t know what this Greg guy had been, but if the Russians had even tried to set up a deal with him he must have been bigger than the random guy asking if you’re looking to score some coke behind a nightclub in the middle of the night.
I should make a call right now to my father, and tell him just what was going on, where I was going and who I was going with. But I couldn’t do that. Not with the talks with the Russians just about to start.
My father was a cold and hard man, and I knew him well enough to know that if he was pressed during these negotiations, he’d give up Kara in order to further the interests of the family. As much as he’d loved her mother, their divorce had left him hurt and angry, and he’d never quite gotten over it.
I couldn’t tell him about Kara and what she’d seen or that she was at all mixed up with the Russians. She was too good a bargaining chip. The truth is that they were more powerful than we were, and could probably get more outside support than we could if they really cashed in all their favors.
So my father would take anything he could get at this point, and though I was still the lead on the negotiations, I wouldn’t be able to overrule him or prevent him from reaching out to them.
No, I had to play this as close to the vest as I could; tell no one about Kara. Luckily, the safe house we were headed to was for my private use only. I’d set it up after I started making my name known around the city, just in case I needed a place to lay low until I could call in the cavalry.
This was the first time it had even occurred to me to use it, but unfortunately there were no cavalry on the horizon at the moment. And I couldn’t trust that to change any time soon.
I pulled into the covered driveway of the safe house a few minutes later. It was the perfect cover. Still inside the city, in a rapidly developing section, I’d found the detached in-law unit of a bigger house up for rent a couple years ago. The old lady who lived there loved me. She never went deeper into the city, and knew me as a businessman who just liked to have a place he could spend random weekends. I made sure to come down here once a month, always by myself, to keep up appearances.
Kara turned to me in surprise as I pulled into the long driveway and drove past the main house, all its lights out, and stopped in front of the mini-house a hundred feet behind it. A cozy little cottage if there ever was one. A strange place, still situated in the city itself, but feeling like a small town, and still close to places like Pulse.
The perfect place for her to lay low. I’d tell the old lady a family friend needed a place to say for a few days, if she asked.
After I parked, we got out of the car. There were no bags to carry, so we went right up to the door and inside, after I unlocked it. I turned on the lights after we piled into the main room.
I’d left the furnishings just the way the old lady had them. It did look a little strange, a well-dressed man in his late 20s trying to live in a granny-furnished tiny cottage, but I wasn’t hear for the creature comforts, and I never had guests here. That’s what my penthouse was for.
Kara put her purse down and turned around in the center of the room, taking it all in with a growing smile on her face.
“Don’t you laugh at me.” She near doubled over trying to keep it all in, but I heard more than one snicker escape. “It’s a safe house. It’s not exactly supposed to scream ‘Ronan lives here.’”
Kara kept laughing. “Shut up.” I waved her away.
She wiped away the beginnings of tears forming at her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said between more laughs, “it’s just so…it’s just so…”
“Don’t say it.”
“It’s just so you!”
I didn’t say anything. All I could do was stare at her, and marvel at her beauty. By now she’d shrugged off her coat, and that painted on dress outlining those curves made my mouth water.
When Kara had finally composed herself, she stepped toward me. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry, it’s just…too funny.” She dabbed at her eyes again. “I really needed that. You have no idea.”
“I have some idea.” She came closer, till we were almost touching. I could feel the energy coming off her. She was alive again.
“Yeah?” She took a step closer.
“Yeah.” I wrapped my arms around Kara’s waist, pulled her in close to me, and kissed her like I’d never kissed anyone before.
Chapter 06 - Kara
Ronan kissed me like no one had ever kissed me before. It was strong and commanding but gentle and teasing at the same time. I was so surprised when he did it that I didn’t know how to respond at first, but luckily for me my body decided what it wanted most was to collapse into his sexy muscled arms, which is exactly what I did, crushing myself against his chest.
I parted my lips to let his tongue in and kissed him back like my life depended on it. His ripped arms closed over me, and I no longer needed to support myself; Ronan was all around me. The kiss became hungry, and he only broke it to kiss down my neck slowly, forcing a small gasp out of my mouth with every touch.
“Oh, Kara,” he murmured, his face nestled right at the spot where my neck and shoulder met, “I love how you taste.”
I couldn’t reply; I didn’t have the self control to move my mouth and throat the right way to form words that he or anyone could understand, and even if I could they wouldn’t even be remotely able to do the moment justice.
All I knew was that I wanted him to touch me more. I needed my stepbrother to touch me more. All over. Over and over.
Ronan must have heard me despite the lack of coherent words coming out of my mouth. He reached one huge hand back behind my head and grasped my hair at the root, pulling gently down in such a way that forced me to bear my neck toward him even further.
Ronan’s eyes gleamed as he moved back in, leaving small kisses all up and down
my neck and upper chest. The sensation was wonderful, and just as I found the ability to speak again, he cut me off by kissing me full on the mouth, completing his early journey around my upper body.
Before I knew what was happening next, my feet were no longer touching the ground; Ronan had picked me up, and all I could do was wrap my arms around his neck for stability as he carried me to another room. I closed my eyes and savored the moment, not caring where he took me as long as we could stay connected and touching like this.
We stopped in a dark room not too far from where we’d started. Ronan left the lights off, but I could see pale moonlight coming in through the cottage windows, illuminating a small room with a big bed, and a couple chairs. I had a hunch we were headed toward the bed.
Ronan didn’t disappoint, laying me down gently on top of the soft mattress. I lay there for a moment before opening my eyes, slowly moving my arms and legs across the silk blankets, feeling their coolness and luxuriating how they gripped my skin.
When I finally opened them I saw Ronan standing just above me at the foot of the bed, a dark mountain of a man in the low light of the room. He watched me, a curious smile on his face.
I held out a hand to him. “Come to me, Ronan,” I said, just above a whisper, like I was scared someone else was listening and I didn’t want them to hear my secret words.
Ronan reached out and took my hand, running his fingers through mine but not coming any closer yet. He kept that same smile, only now it got brighter. A smile like that could light up the room; I wondered how often he used it, and I hoped it wasn’t often.
“Where would you like me to go?” Ronan’s other hand brushed against my leg, stroking me softly. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in every sensation and trying to hold that each successive moment as long as I could. I couldn’t remember a time that my body felt so present and turned on, like a live wire.
