VICIOUS MEN: THE COMPLETE VICIOUS CITY COLLECTION

by Renard, Loki

  “I’m sorry,” Slick says, emerging from the apartment and grabbing her up. “She got away from me. She must have gotten out, followed me to the warehouse and then back here. I’m really sorry. She’s a hell of a…” he just barely holds back from swearing as she lashes out and kicks him in the shin with the back of her heel.

  “Just get her out of here and keep her away from Kitty until you have her convinced not to open her fucking mouth about this.”

  “Oh you better fucking believe I’m telling Kitty,” Blaze rants. “When she finds out….”

  Slick shoves a piece of cloth into her mouth and gags her. The absence of her voice is a great relief to all concerned. The last thing I need is Kitty waking up and hearing this. That would ruin everything.

  “Get her out of here,” I tell Slick. “Or Shadow is going to do another job tonight.”

  12

  Slick

  Blaze is more than a handful. She’s a boatload of fucking trouble. I saw her skulking around outside the warehouse and almost caught her there, but she got away again and led me on a chase across the city, back to Vicious’ building. Now we’re back at my building and the cursing, wriggling pain in the ass is doing her best to throw herself off my shoulder before we get inside.

  “Quit it!” I slap her ass hard enough to make her curse, but not hard enough to stop the flailing. When I get her into my place, we are going to have some serious…

  I step off the elevator and stare at what she’s done. My thoughts stop dead.

  Holy.

  Shit.

  My front door is completely destroyed. I walk through the open arch and find that my apartment looks like I left a feral Rottweiler inside it. The kitchen countertop is shattered. The side of the cabinet is gone completely, splintered into dozens of pieces. The front door is similarly destroyed. She’s put something through the lower part of it. Maybe her boot, or maybe something else. One thing I can say for sure is that she didn’t have to make this much of a mess to get out. This is malicious damage, and she is a little shit.

  Vicious told me that Kitty had picked his office lock. I wish Blaze was that subtle. Instead she’s gone out of her way to fuck my place up as much as possible on her way out.

  I pull the gag out of her mouth and set her down on the floor. “What the fuck is this, Blaze?”

  “You should have taken the collar off.”

  She looks ridiculous. She still has the collar around her neck, the chain attached, and bits of what used to be my kitchen cabinet still hooked to the ring.

  “it’s your fault,” she adds. “Never choose anything that isn’t structural for an anchor point.”

  She’s absolutely right. No chain is going to hold her. A girl like this need to be damn well caged. Which leads me to my next problem, one even more pressing than the destruction to my home. How the hell am I going to stop her from talking? Blaze doesn’t do quiet. Vicious would probably whip her ass. Or fuck it. Or both. That’s not my style, but maybe it’s going to have to be.

  “Listen,” I say. “What you heard and saw tonight, you have to keep it secret.”

  “I’m going to tell Kitty,” she says, fuming. “You know I’m going to. You would tell Vicious if he was being fucked around by some evil woman.”

  “You can’t tell her. He’s not lying about what’s important.”

  “Then what the fuck is going on? Tell me now. Tell me fucking everything.”

  I am going to have to tell her something for sure. She’s too damn curious and too much trouble to fob off much longer.

  “Help me put this damn door back together first.”

  “Yeah, that’s not going back together. You’re going to need to get a maintenance guy to replace it.”

  She’s right again.

  An hour later, a handyman is working on unfucking what she fucked up. The collar is off her silly little neck, and she’s perched on my couch, a cup of hot chocolate clutched between her hands as I tell her a story.

  “Kitty worked for Rollo Hall. Rollo got mixed up with the CIA. Started sending out couriers doing their bidding. Kitty was involved in an operation that they’d like to clean up. So yes, people are trying to kill her. Government people.”

  She gives me a hard look. “If the government want you, they get you. You don’t get to sit in some fancy apartment. You’re lying.”

  “Yes,” I admit.

  Blaze

  This guy is such a fucking asshole.

  “You fucking asshole,” I say to let him know, just in case he doesn’t.

  “The point is, anything and everything you’re going to be told is outlandish and fucked up.”

  “Except the truth.”

  “Especially the truth,” he says, his blue eyes holding sincerity someone like Vicious could never muster. “But I can tell you this. If you tell Kitty that Vicious lied to her, she will stop trusting him. She’ll be hurt. Betrayed. She will disobey him. And the people who are out there, looking for her, will find her. If you open your mouth, Kitty dies. I can promise you that, Blaze. You think telling her is the loyal thing to do. It will destroy her. And you.”

  I try to think of a retort to that, but I can’t. He’s right. If I tell Kitty that Vicious had her kidnapped and terrorized, she might not believe me. She didn’t believe me earlier today. She’s been different since that man has been around. He fucks with her head, and now he’s taken it to a whole other level. If I tell her, and she doesn’t believe me, all I’ve done is fuck myself out of a friendship. And if I tell her, and Slick is telling me the truth now, he’s right. She will do something stupid and it will be over for her.

  “Shit,” I sit back. “You’re such a fucking asshole. I believe you.”

  He smiles, though it’s not a happy one. There’s a sadness in his eyes which I can feel in my gut. He is a man who bears the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  “You know, Blaze, you’re a good kid.”

  That makes me laugh. “Dude, look at what I did to your place.”

  “You’re hard on furniture and fittings,” he says. “But you’re still a good kid.”

  “Fucking stop saying that,” I growl, squirming uncomfortably. I don’t like being called good. It doesn’t fit, for one, and it makes me feel weird as fuck for two.

  “You want me to yell at you and kick your ass, huh?” He smiles knowingly. “That’s what you’re used to. It’d be easier if I did what Vicious does. Throw you around, put a gun in your face…”

  “Don’t fucking analyze me, Slicky-boy.”

  “I’m not. I’m just saying you know what to do with that. You have no idea what to do when someone treats you nicely.”

  “You chained me to a fucking kitchen,” I remind him. “Let’s not go calling you nice any time soon. Oh, and you made me eat ice cream out of a bowl on the floor without my hands.”

  His smile grows wider and the spark comes back into his eyes. “I put the bowl in front of you and you ate it. I didn’t make you do anything.”

  “It was gonna melt otherwise,” I shrug.

  “Mhm.” He sits back, stretching his arm over the back of the couch.

  This man gets under my skin like no other. Yes, I ate the damn ice cream. I wasn’t going to let It melt and the truth is, I kind of liked how it felt for a moment or two there. I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t use my hands. And he was there, sort of, I don’t know, looking after me or something.

  Shit. It hits me that Slick is just as dangerous to me as Vicious is to Kitty, but in a completely different way.

  “I’m going.”

  “No you’re not,” he says, not bothering to move. “You’re going to grab a shower and get into bed.”

  “Your bed?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Right. I’m not sleeping with you, Slick.”

  “You are going to be sleeping with me. You’re not going to be doing anything other than sleeping though. I don’t have intercourse with girls who cost me three grand in repairs before the fi
rst date.”

  I snort, and he smiles.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me if you think we’re going on a date.”

  “We are. Tomorrow night.”

  “Nope.”

  “You have something better to do?””

  Something better than six foot something of hard muscled blond with a kinky twist? No. I don’t have anything better to do, but it doesn’t feel loyal to Kitty to be fucking one of Vicious’ henchmen while she’s caught up in his scam.

  “If we’d met under different circumstances, at a club, would you go to dinner with me?”

  “I mean, I guess.”

  He’s handsome. Very, very handsome. And he has a way about him I find appealing. He’s not all ego and anger like some men I could name. He’s not beating the snot out of me for fucking up his place. He makes me feel as if he might actually be able to handle me, and no man has ever been able to do that.

  “I can’t believe you’re not pissed about the kitchen and the door.”

  “What’s the point in being pissed about it? It happened. It will be fixed.”

  “But I mean, don’t you wanna, I don’t know, fuck me up or something?”

  “You think I should beat you? Hurt you? Because you broke some things?”

  “I mean yeah, probably.”

  Slick leans forward. “Is that what you want, Blaze? Do you want me to punish you?”

  Suddenly, I can’t breathe as well as I could before.

  “No,” I squeak.

  “You sure?”

  “Very.”

  He smiles softly. “Tell you what, Blaze. I’ll give you two choices. You can go and grab a shower and get ready for bed. I’ll give you a shirt to sleep in…”

  “Or…”

  “Or you can go to my bedroom, that door over there. And you can stand in the corner, and you can wait for me to come and punish you.”

  I feel my face getting all red and hot. “I didn’t mean that! I didn’t mean I wanted… I mean most guys.”

  “I’m not most guys.”

  He’s really not.

  I get up from the couch. There are two doors in front of me.

  “Bathroom on the right. Bedroom on the left,” he clarifies.

  He’s fucking with my head. Of course I’m just going to grab a shower. Of course I’m not going to ask him to punish me. Of course… why the fuck are my feet heading left? Why am I opening the bedroom door?

  He’s right behind me. I can feel his height and the heat from his body.

  “I told you that you were a good girl,” he says softly. “Good girls know when they need to be punished.”

  Slick takes me by the hand and leads me over to the bed. I should be resisting. I should be fucking him up, but I’m not. I let him draw me down over his long thighs, my body too short to reach the floor on both sides. My hands hit the carpet, but my legs dangle.

  His big hand rubs over the seat of my jeans.

  “Slick…” my voice is softer than I’m used to hearing it.

  “Mmm?”

  “Please don’t…” I take a breath. “Please don’t hurt me.”

  We both know I’m not talking about my ass.

  He rubs his palm over my butt, taps me lightly. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he promises, his voice rich and deep as he starts to give me what I guess is a spanking, but doesn’t feel like a punishment.

  His big hand swats me way too lightly to hurt, just tapping and rubbing and giving me a little bit of sting. I can feel his strength under me, around me. One of his arms wraps around my waist to snug me against his body and I know I’m caught, but it’s okay.

  The slaps fall like gentle rain and I feel myself relaxing, stretching out over his lap. He sits back a bit further on the bed and adjusts me so I’m supported by the mattress and I lie there and let him do what he wants to me. For once in my life, someone isn’t trying to hurt me.

  “I’m not going to ask you to trust Vicious,” he says. “But I am going to ask you to trust me. You could have gotten hurt tonight. You will get hurt if you keep interfering with Kitty. I know you think you’re helping, but you can’t walk the path she’s on.”

  “She’s my best friend. I have to help her.”

  “I know,” he says, patting my bottom again. “But she made some choices, baby, and those choices have consequences.”

  He just called me baby in that soft, warm voice of his and sent tingles rushing through me. Maybe I can trust him. Maybe I don’t have a choice. Maybe I’m just as much a pawn in this game as Kitty… no fuck that.

  “Lemme up!”

  I try to pull free, but Slick holds me in place without any trouble, making gentling sounds.

  “Shhh,” he murmurs. “You’re okay.”

  “I’m not okay! I know what you’re doing. You’re mindfucking me, just like Vicious is fucking Kitty, but you’re doing it differently.”

  “If everything is a game and a mindfuck, then what’s left? Do you believe in anything, Blaze? Do you believe what you’re feeling right now?”

  “No! Lemme up!”

  This time he does what I want and lets me struggle up on the bed next to him. He proceeds to sit there calmly while I rage at him.

  “You’re not going to fuck me over this way, Slick. I know what you guys do. Oh poor Blaze, nobody loves her, she’ll suck my dick for an ice cream and let me ruin her friend’s life. Well no, buddy, I fucking won’t!”

  “Are you done?”

  I cross my arms over my chest. “Yeah.”

  “Want to grab a shower and get some sleep?”

  Yes. That’s exactly what I fucking want. I’m exhausted. This day has sucked, and I don’t know what the truth is anymore. I’m just as caught up as Kitty is. I don’t know if I can save her, if I can’t even save myself.

  “I’m going home.”

  I expect him to try to stop me, but he doesn’t. He just sits there as I back toward the bedroom door.

  “Is this another way to control me?”

  One of his brows rises. “You think I’m trying to control you by letting you do what you want to do?”

  “Yes! No! I don’t know!”

  “You need to get some sleep, Blaze. You can spit fire and chew nails in the morning.”

  “I’m not going to sleep. That’s exactly what you want me to do. It’s another fucking game, isn’t it.”

  Slick just looks at me while I rant, then opens his arms. “Come here.”

  I want to go to him so badly. I want him to make this better. I need him to take all the complexities of the world and make them simple for me. My feet move at his bidding, and I soon find myself wrapped in a big, warm, tight, comforting hug.

  “It’s time for bed,” he murmurs in my ear. “Tomorrow is a new day with new battles to fight. You don’t have to battle any more today.”

  I am so tired. I am so scared, for Kitty and for myself, but I can’t fight him anymore. I just don’t have the energy. So I close my eyes and I draw his scent in with every breath. I let the little animal inside me curl up with him and give in to the seduction of his comfort.

  As this day from hell ends, Kitty and I are both in bed with men we don’t really know, and can’t really trust.

  God help us.

  VICIOUS LOVES

  1

  Blaze

  Looking out over a jump suspended one hundred and twenty feet in the air, it occurs to me that this is what real friendship is. A decent friend will meet you for drinks. A good friend will drop her date to pick you up after yours ditched you. A real friend will size up a wicked stupid jump which will absolutely kill her if she fucks it up just to tell you that your boyfriend is an asshole and he’s lying to you about everything.

  I’m standing on one balcony, looking over at the balcony I need to get to if I’m going to get to Kitty. It’s a six and a half foot jump. I can jump just shy of seven feet, so technically I can do this.

  The technicalities of the situation don’t change the sweaty pal
ms , or the call of the void. Half of me wants to collapse onto the balcony floor and cling to safety. The other half of me wants to fling myself off and fly just like people don’t.

  Taking in a deep breath, I steel myself. I’m gonna do this. I have to. Nobody else will. Vicious has Kitty isolated to the point he is her entire world. This fucking guy is like a one man cult.

  I tense my muscles, I close my eyes and I throw myself into space. A split-second later, my feet catch the railing of the next balcony and it’s lucky my arms are outstretched because without them I’d be face planting onto cold hard tile.

  Using my forward momentum to roll, I land on the far balcony safely and slip in through the French doors which Vicious never locks because he thinks being a dozen stories up is safety enough. Wrong.

  The doors lead into a lounge. I creep through, and into a bedroom where Vicious and Kitty are fast asleep. For a second, I feel like I’m intruding where I shouldn’t. They look so peaceful, curled up together, his arm draped around her waist, she curled into his body. It’s sweet, until I remember he’s a psychopath, and she’s in danger.

  “Kitty!” I whisper her name and gesture to her from the bedroom door.

  This is dangerous as hell. If he wakes up, he might very well throw me off the same balcony I just climbed in over. He is not a fan of mine, and the feeling is very much mutual.

  Kitty stirs. I hiss her name again and her eyes open, widen and then she shakes her head. She’s not happy to see me, but after a second of completely silent argument between us, she slips out from the bed. There’s a flash of flesh before she puts on a robe and comes out to see me.

  “You can’t be here,” she whispers. “Vicious has banned you from the apartment.” Her eyes are darting back and forth. She’s more scared about this than I am.

  “Vicious can ban my dick,” I say. “I have something to tell you. Something important.”

  “You have to go, Blaze!”

  “Don’t you want to know what he did? Don’t you want to know why you ended up with your brains almost scrambled?”