VICIOUS MEN: THE COMPLETE VICIOUS CITY COLLECTION

by Renard, Loki

  The look on Slick’s face is fucking priceless. I have the energy of a much healthier man as I wrap my hands around his throat and sweep his leg out from under him.

  The day he betrayed me was the day he made it certain that he’d fight for his life at my hands.

  As we hit the ground, he punches me square in the face, his fist like a hammer blow, catching me right on the jaw. Blazing pain slams through my head and down my spine, making me let out a grunt of fury. I pivot my hips, throw him to the side and jab at his midsection with my clenched fist.

  There’s no talking when you fight like this. This is two men taking out everything on each other, turning feelings to blows. Even if he hadn’t betrayed me, this has been coming a long time, tension building between us, the anger restrained in the name of an uncomfortable alliance which put us both on the wrong side of the law to the one we want to be on.

  Knuckles crack, blood flows. Slick is giving as good as he’s getting, venting everything he’s put up with over the past year of being my unwilling sidekick turning to shit because Kitty isn’t the easy target she looked to be when I was handling her. I’m pretty sure neither of the girls are falling for his bullshit. He’s been here more than he’s been anywhere else, paranoid that I might escape, trying to pump me for methods to manipulate Kitty. I know he’s not getting laid these days.

  “What the FUCK are you doing!?”

  Holy shit. Is that… Our heads both whip around as Kitty’s voice intrudes on our battle. We stop mid-punch, fists hovering in mid-air. Slick is disheveled, bleeding from the corner of his mouth. He doesn’t look so All-American now.

  It really is Kitty standing in the doorway. Her eyes are red, her skin is pale. She looks like she’s been through hell and back. I get to my feet and stagger over to her, but she pushes me away, those eyes searing into mine with pure fury.

  “How fucking dare you! What the fuck are you two doing? Don’t you fucking know what’s going on out there?”

  “It’s complicated…” Slick speaks up, drawing her ire.

  “No, it’s really not,” she turns on him. “Blaze is in this hospital too, did you know that?”

  He shakes his head, forgetting about me entirely. “What happened?”

  “Someone found her and beat the shit out of her, that’s what happened. She’s on a fucking ventilator. She could die. And you two are rolling around humping each other instead of doing what you’d fucking said you’d do, and looking after her.”

  Slick is on his feet in an instant.

  “Where is she?”

  “What? You want to go sit by her bedside? Now that you already let her get fucking hurt? She was lying in her own blood for hours, Slick. Where the fuck were you?”

  “He was looking for you,” I say.

  “No, he was looking for that stupid fucking chip,” she curses, her teeth clenched, spittle escaping her in her fury. “You abandoned her, and now she could be brain damaged or dead or…”

  I pull her into my arms as she bursts into tears.

  Slick wipes the blood from his chin with the back of his hand and staggers out of the room, presumably to go and find Blaze. We’ll kill one another later.

  14

  Kitty

  I clench my hands in Vicious’ hospital gown. “How did this get so fucked up?”

  “I’m sorry,” he says, drawing me over to sit on the bed. “There is more to this, as I’m sure you’ve gathered.”

  “There’s always more, and it’s always fucked up. I hate it. I wish I’d never…” I start crying again. He holds me.

  “Listen, I need you to do something for me,” he says. “I need to get out of here. I need some clothes. Can you find some here?”

  I nod. I feel numb inside, and seeing Vicious and Slick fighting in a fucking hospital did not help. These are the men Blaze and I relied on to keep us safe, but they’ve failed. Slick might have saved me from the Russians, but they went for Blaze instead. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that he might have chosen between her and I, and that he might have chosen the stupid chip.

  Scouting through the hospital and its surrounds, I manage to pick up a few items of clothing. I don’t really care what I’m grabbing. If Vicious doesn’t like it, he can kiss my ass.

  By the time we leave, he’s wearing a Hawaiian shirt, an I heart NY sweatshirt, sweatpants and flip flops. It is ridiculous that he manages to look good while being in this state.

  “The man who likely came for Blaze is the same man who came for us,” Vicious says. “I have every single person at my disposal looking for him. He’s not going to get far, and I promise you he will never see Russia again.”

  “It’s too late,” I say grimly. “He’s already done the damage.”

  “Oh it’s never too late for revenge,” Vicious growls, his face twisted with pure feral fury. “We’re not doctors, Kitty. We can’t save Blaze. But we can make the people who hurt us pay.”

  * * *

  He takes me back to his apartment. Usually the security is so casual you wouldn’t notice it, a few guys positioned casually around the perimeter, appearing to be normal passersby and whatnot. Now I can see twice the number, many of them standing boldly sentinel. There’s two men in the elevator who nod at Vicious as he enters, and when we hit his floor, there are three milling about.

  Vicious is flexing his power, and I’m sure what I’m seeing is only a fraction of the people he truly has deployed. Every door probably hides a small SWAT team of criminals lurking behind it.

  Maybe it’s fucked up, but I have never felt so safe, which is odd because I am sure I have never been in so much danger.

  Stepping into his apartment is like walking into a sanctum in which nobody can hurt me. I feel tension drain from my body.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” he says. “I need to wash the hospital and Slick off me. Coming?”

  I wouldn’t leave his side if he told me to. He takes me by the hand and leads me to the shower where we strip our clothes off and hide away from the cruelty of the world in clouds of steam. He has a new scar on his body where the Russian bullet hit him. I can barely stand to look at it, so instead I try to keep my gaze on the part of him I have never been able to resist: his eyes.

  The hot water of the shower claims our naked bodies, takes away the smears of blood, exposes bruises and wounds stitched. The Russians hurt him badly. I’m surprised they didn’t outright kill him.

  “Was it bad, what they did?”

  “They didn’t care about me,” he says. “They just wanted to disable me and get you. If Slick hadn’t come when he did…”

  “I’d be fillet o’ Kitty,” I say, finishing his thought. “Slick saved our lives. Why were you two fighting?”

  “He wasn’t going to bring you back to me. He was going to find another handler for you.”

  “Oh yeah, like that was ever going to work,” I roll my eyes and press my body against his. “You would not believe what they tried on me. One of them yelled at me until he was hoarse. Another one took me out for ice cream.”

  “I wonder if he learned that from Slick,” Vicious muses, caressing me gently.

  We have never done this before, never taken our time with slow intimacy. I like it.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” he says softly. “I thought I might never hold you in my arms again.”

  “I thought you’d never hold me in your arms for the first time. We used to fuck, not cuddle.”

  “True,” he admits. “I tried to keep you at arm’s length. I thought it would keep you safe, but it didn’t. It made you easier to take and harder to get back, and I will not make that mistake again.”

  His mouth descends on mine in a deep, passionate kiss which thrills every part of my body. We are both wounded, he and I, and Blaze and Slick besides. There’s not one of us who haven’t suffered in this, and I don’t know how it will be resolved.

  “Blaze…” I draw in a breath. “I’ve never seen anyone that bad.”

 
; “We’re going to find who did that. And we’re going to make sure that person never has the chance to do that again. I promise you that, Kitty.”

  His words are calm and determined. He means every single one of them, and I trust that he will follow through, but I don’t know how. He is still wounded, so am I, and Slick won’t be leaving Blaze’s side any time soon I can’t imagine.

  His kiss drives concern from my mind, and then his hands caress me into a state of sodden desire. I need him inside me. I need to forget everything which has happened to us, and become one with him.

  Vicious’ arms wrap around me, pull me up against the wall. His cock probes for my sex and slides inside me with a smooth stroke. No foreplay. I’m so fucked up on trauma and violence that all it takes is being in his presence to make me ready to take.

  Water cascades over us as he pushes inside me slowly, gazing deep into my eyes as we reconnect in a way I thought we’d never get to. His flesh inside mine, mine gripping him so tight it feels like he might never be free of me again.

  Somehow he slides out, returns again, a coming and a going, a loss, and a return. My tears join the hot flow of water and he kisses them away. He is capable of tenderness, my Vicious. There is more to him than I ever imagined, or dared to hope. It took an attack on both our lives to draw it out, but now it flowers between us, a love that does not need to have its name spoken. I feel it in the very core of me as we join with long, slow motions, gripping and grinding, knotting as though we might never be separated.

  Climax comes and goes, a dozen orgasms pumping through my body at the behest of his. Slow and then fast, he pumps his hips against mine, grinding his pubic bone, treating my clit to forceful friction, his mouth on my neck, his teeth on my shoulder, my legs wrapped around his hips. I succumb to orgasm time and time, some small and trembling, others drawing screams from my throat which make the guards knock at the door.

  “We’re okay!” Vicious shouts back.

  We’re more than okay. We’re as perfect as any two people on this fucked up, violent, hell-hole of a planet can be.

  15

  Blaze

  BBBBBRRRRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG

  I wake up to a ringing sound. It’s the sound of my own head. Am I a telephone now?

  “Hello?” I try to answer myself.

  “Shhhh…” a deep male voice soothes me, a large hand covering my own.

  I try to see who it is, but I can only look through a couple of small slivers which seem to have replaced my eyes. I feel numb all over, and I can’t move much. It’s like I’ve been wrapped up in a very tight cocoon.

  “It’s okay,” the voice says. I suddenly recognize it.

  “Slick? Where are you?”

  “I’m right here,” he says, his voice deep and sad. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when this happened to you.”

  “I am all wrapped up like a Christmas present.”

  “You’re in hospital.”

  “Hah,” I cough weakly. “I don’t have medical insurance. Hope you gave them a fake name.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Just rest.”

  I am so heavy. So sleepy.

  The little remnants of light slipping through my lids go away as I close my eyes and slip into what might be sleep.

  * * *

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.”

  I hear Slick’s voice again. My head is fucking pounding. I don’t know how long it has been since we last talked, but I feel like it has been at least a day. Sleep is wrapped around me all warm in my cocoon and I slip back down into it, dozing with the man next to me.

  * * *

  “Ow, fucking ow.”

  I wake up again, feeling more, remembering less.

  “Am I okay?”

  “You’re okay.”

  I look over and see Slick sitting next to the bed. He looks like shit, and he has blond stubble all over his face. Slick is always clean-shaven. It’s weird seeing him disheveled.

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Five days.”

  I sniff. “Have you had a shower in that time?”

  “No,” he admits.

  “Gross.”

  He smiles at me. “God, I’m so glad to hear you be a brat.”

  “Yeah?” I try to sit up but fail. I’m a fucking wreck.

  “Settle down,” he says gently. “You’ve been hurt. You need to rest. I’m so sorry we didn’t realize you were on the radar too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We should have known you were a target.”

  “Uh…”

  “The Russians did this to you, right?”

  “Only if my asshole ex is a Russian,” I cough. “He saw you leave my place the other day. He decided to take it out on me.”

  Slick’s eyes narrow with sudden anger. “So it wasn’t a Russian man?”

  “No.”

  “It was an ex.”

  He’s repeating after me as if he doesn’t know what the words mean. “Which one of us has brain damage?”

  Slick’s lips twist into a shadow of his former smirk.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Tony.”

  “Full name.”

  “Tony Hicks. What are you going to do? Go all law man on him?” I manage a smirk. “He likes prison.”

  “Don’t you worry about what I’m going to do to him.”

  Slick

  I call Vicious.

  “Didn’t expect to hear from you…” he drawls down the line.

  “Shut up,” I snap.

  “Testy,” he notes.

  “It wasn’t the Russians who came for Blaze. It was an ex-boyfriend of hers. Guy called Tony Hicks.”

  There’s a brief silence. Then a single word.

  “Gotcha.”

  I hang up, knowing it will be taken care of, and not the legal way. I beat the shit out of Vicious because I thought I was better than him and that he’d destroyed everything I’d worked for, but the truth is, Vicious is the only person I know always willing to do what needs to be done, and no matter what side of the law I’m on, he’ll be there for me if I need him. It’s enough to almost make me feel guilty about punching his face in.

  “That was a quick call,” Blaze notes. “Or am I skipping time or something? Am I a time machine and a telephone?”

  “You’re a brat,” I say sitting down on her bed. “And I think you’re going to be okay once you heal up. Don’t worry about the ex. He won’t bother you again.”

  “I’m sorry,” she says in soft tones. “I’m trash, and I dated a lot of trash before I met you.”

  “You are not trash,” I growl. “You are a brilliant, sweet, brave, girl and you don’t deserve this.”

  “Sure I do.”

  “No, you don’t,” I insist. “And it’s never going to happen to you again.”

  “Oh? And how do you know that?”

  “Because I’m going to marry you.”

  “Okay now I know I’m brain damaged,” she says. “Because I thought you just told me you were going to marry me.”

  “I am,” I say taking her hand. “If you’ll have me.”

  She looks at me, so damn sweet and so completely confused. Maybe this isn’t the best time to declare my intentions, but I won’t leave it another second. From the moment I met Blaze, I wanted her. She’s a constant surprise, and I know she’ll keep me on my toes for the rest of my life.

  “This better be real, and not some kind of thing where I’m dreaming and still bleeding on my apartment floor,” she growls.

  “It’s real. You just have to say I do.”

  “Well of course I fucking do.”

  Not the traditional response to a marriage proposal, but then again, what about Blaze is traditional?

  16

  Kitty

  “I can’t believe Blaze is getting married.” I shake my head. “I mean, really, Blaze of all people!”

  “Jealous, Kitty?”

  Vicious looks incredible in a
tuxedo. I feel myself getting wet against the silk panties pulled tight against my sex.

  He’s fully dressed. I’m only halfway there. I still don’t know what I’m going to wear. Three dresses are laid out on the bed, one red, which I think is probably too garish for a wedding, one in cream, which is far too close to white, and one in green, which I just don’t like very much.

  “Green,” he says, catching my thoughts. “But before that…”

  “What?”

  “I have something for you.” He holds up a slim egg shaped device which I do not recognize.

  “What is that?”

  He pulls a small controller out of his pocket and thumbs a dial. The slim thing in his hand starts to vibrate, and a bright smile crosses his face.

  “This is what’s going inside you,” he says. “Pull your panties down and bend over.”

  “Vicious…”

  “Do as you’re told. I want you to have this as a reminder. Today is going to be a strange day for you, and you have a tendency to act out. This will remind you to keep following the rules, regardless of the fact we are playing at normality.”

  “You think that’s what they’re doing too?” I shake my head. “Blaze can’t be married.”

  “She can be, and she will be. They may even buy a little house in the suburbs and have…” his upper lip wrinkles in disdain. “Offspring.”

  “I should be happy for her. I am happy for her.”

  “Bend over and spread your cheeks,” he orders, changing the subject.

  I feel that familiar blushing heat consuming my face. He gives the crude orders so easily.

  I do as I am told, letting my panties drop so he can insert his twisted toy. I feel his big hand warm on my bottom, and then the tip of the toy probing the sensitive lips of my sex.

  This is so fucked up. We should be getting ready to wish our friends the best for their lives together, and instead Vicious is pushing a toy into my pussy which will remain there for as long as we are out.