Blake: A Romantic Suspense (V Mafia Series Book 1)

by Karice Bolton

  Chapter Three

  Avery

  “If one more guy calls me over for a lap dance, I’m going to come unglued.” I took a sip of my water and groaned, catching my reflection in the mirror. My auburn hair was still in a messy knot with a few well-placed curls. Thankfully, my false eyelashes were still holding on. I hadn’t mastered those stinkers yet, so it was always a win when the strips stayed glued on each lid, but my uniform was a loss for the night.

  At least I loved what I did for a living.

  “They’re called diners, Avery.” Jill’s laughter filled the room and a couple of the girls looked in our direction.

  “Yeah, but they’re supposed to be ordering drinks, not strippers.” I placed my hand on my hip, completely befuddled how it was okay for Jill to look the other way with all this groping.

  “So would you rather they behaved themselves and gave a twenty-percent tip instead of say… a forty-percent tip?”

  I rolled my eyes and drew in a deep breath. “All I’m saying is that I’m a waitress, not a stripper. We work at one of the hottest restaurants and bars around. I don’t understand what’s up with some of the customers.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.” Jill’s dark brows shot up and her smile widened. Usually, Jill looked beautiful with her dark brown hair down to her waist and bright blue eyes, but right now she looked like my first-grade teacher who was a know-it-all.

  I glared at her and she chuckled.

  “That’s what I thought.” She spritzed some perfume on and patted my shoulders. “I think you’re only feeling this way because a guy spilled his martini on you.”

  “Yeah. I’m sure that’s it. Not like the old spilled drink trick hasn’t happened two other times this week,” I said sarcastically.

  I quickly traded one ivory slip dress for another. The one bonus of working at Meta was that they provided the uniforms. The downside was the dress’s color. After the first week of working here, I realized that the men had learned that the fabric became see-through when wet.

  “I’ll be right out.”

  “Promise you aren’t going to make a run for it out the back?” Jill teased.

  “Promise. I need to pay rent.”

  And I had a job to do.

  Jill gave a thumbs-up sign and left the break room. I’d been working here for the last three weeks wondering if any of the Volkovs would ever actually show up at the place.

  Meta had only been open for two months, but it already ran up the list of places to be seen in Manhattan and getting a job here was trickier than the department thought, but here I was.

  I pulled my pink lip gloss out of my purse, dabbed it on my lips, and shoved my purse back in my employee locker.

  A life like this was kind of peculiar. Beyond the double doors, an almost mystical place existed where booze flowed freely, money wasn’t a concern, and beauty was essential. Back here where the workers got ready, the walls were dingy, the lockers were already trashed from too many annoyed employees, and the mood was somber.

  Someday, working at a place like this would be a far-off memory, and it would make me appreciate my accomplishments that much more, or at least that was what I promised myself every night when I went home to the tiny apartment that wasn’t mine. The last few weeks had been downright miserable.

  Pushing the doors open leading to the bar, I took a deep breath and scanned the packed room. Crystal chandeliers hung from the fifteen-foot ceilings, exposed timbers sectioned off the dining area from the actual bar, and leather wrapped the exterior walls—where one long bench, with multiple dining tables—emphasized the overall feel of Meta. It was industrial chic with a bit too much leather and forced closeness, but it worked so what did I know?

  Thankfully, the guests who’d thrown the drink on me had left and a new group of four had just been seated.

  “Hey,” one of the servers I didn’t know called me over. “The Volkovs wanted you at their table.”

  My pulse spiked.

  “Okay, thanks,” I said, almost mechanically.

  Why me? Why on the one night they came in would they ask for me? Was my cover already blown?

  I wove my way through the bar and landed at their table.

  I’d heard tonight might be the night, but I was still shocked when I actually saw all four of them sitting at a table.

  Had they not been notorious mobsters, the sight might actually be a beautiful one.

  “Welcome to Meta. Have you been in before?” I asked, placing four black cocktail napkins on the table.

  “No, first time for all of us,” a low, sexy voice informed me.

  I brought my eyes to the man who spoke and nearly gasped.

  He was gorgeous. I quickly looked around the table and saw four incredibly good-looking men staring straight at me. Far more good-looking than the photos let on. Attractive men were a dime a dozen in a bar like this, but these brothers were beyond words. All the photos I’d studied preparing for this assignment didn’t do them justice.

  I had to snap out of it. I brought my gaze back to the guy who answered my question and smiled. I wasn’t sure why they were pretending never to have been in before, but as my eyes settled on the man with the sexy voice, butterflies collided deep in my belly.

  He was by far the most attractive guy sitting here, and he was Devin Volkov.

  Devin was the youngest brother of the batch. There was something about him that was really charming. His blue eyes were piercing, his lips were luscious, and he wore his suit nicely. So maybe there were three things that made him that way. . .

  I pushed down the nervousness that was zipping through me. I knew who they were, but in their eyes, maybe I shouldn’t. The safe thing to do was act like they were normal customers and not the owners of the bar.

  “Well, I always like to start off by offering a taste of Hardy’s “Perfection” 140 Year Cognac,” I said, knowing none of them would take me up on the offer.

  A wry grin spread across Devin’s mouth and my stomach dipped.

  All off of a smile.

  I fully understood how they earned the reputation for best bad-boy bachelors of the city.

  “And how much would a taste cost?” His brow arched, and a shot of electricity ran through me at the way he said taste.

  “Eight hundred ninety-five,” I answered, tilting my head.

  Blake, the brother sitting next to him, coughed and clutched his chest. “Maybe we should go into that business.”

  “Which business?” I asked. “Making it or selling it?”

  Blake smiled. “Both.”

  Jaxson leaned forward. “I actually have a bottle at home.”

  “No, shit?” Blake asked.

  “Yup.”

  “What’s it taste like?”

  “Don’t know. Haven’t opened it. It’s bottle number 307, and I plan on selling when the time is right.”

  “Learn something new every day about my brothers,” Devin muttered before bringing his eyes back to mine. “How about something a little less ostentatious.”

  “You’re one to talk, Devin,” Blake said, ribbing him. “Since when have you ever been understated?”

  I giggled and saw the Cartier watch peeking out from under Devin’s cuff. My guess was that most could use his watch for a down payment on a house. Understated was definitely not this guy’s mode of operating. In fact, I doubted any of the Volkovs understood what it meant to be wanting.

  When a family was as untouchable as the Volkovs, things came easy. It was a feeling I’d never known. I had to work for everything I’d gotten, which admittedly wasn’t much.

  Not yet anyway.

  “I’ll take a Jack and Coke,” Devin told me, keeping his eyes on me. The intensity in his gaze was brutally tempting and a real problem.

  “Make that all around,” Blake said, motioning the table with his finger.

  “Perfect.” I spun on my heels and made my way over to the bar to place the drink orders and recheck my mental health.


  This was my first undercover job and I wasn’t going to blow it.

  Somehow in the brief couple of minutes I’d been enjoying myself at the Volkov table, the bar filled up even more. It was standing room only and as I slid through the crowd, I felt the occasional hand slide across my body, feeling for parts of me that shouldn’t be felt for. I’d already changed my dress once and wasn’t looking forward to a repeat.

  By the time I reached the bar to place the drink order, I was ready to kill someone.

  “Four Jack and Cokes.” I ordered from Jenn, one of the bartenders on duty tonight.

  Since I started working at Meta, she and Jill were the bright spots. They’d been helping me get acclimated to the bar and the who’s who of the nightlife scene.

  “Coming up.” She grinned, reaching for the glasses. “You okay?”

  I nodded, realizing my emotions were giving me away, but at least they were finally surfacing. I’d begun to wonder if the ability to feel had completely deserted me since my dad’s death.

  Glancing back at the table I’d just left, I sighed and leaned my side against the marble countertop. An unexpected flush of warmth ran through me when I saw Devin looking in my direction. I turned around quickly and waited for the last drink from Jenn.

  I felt his eyes still on me and the warmth turned to heat.

  “Can I have a glass of ice water?”

  “Sure thing,” she filled a glass with ice and did a quick squirt of water. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah. Just trying to cool off.”

  “It is a little warm in here.”

  “Mmhmm,” I mumbled in between gulping the water down.

  I slid the empty glass across the counter, and she took it away immediately as I placed the four drinks on a tray and made my way through another wave of gropers.

  “Four Jack and Cokes,” I announced, placing the drinks on the table.

  “Thank you, love.” Devin’s voice brought me out of my funk, slightly.

  I focused on Devin, trying to decide if he was just one of the many men circulating Meta who hoped to get lucky, or maybe smoothness just rolled off his tongue and nothing was meant by it. Maybe he could manufacture this spark with anyone he chose.

  “Would you like to begin with toasted brioche with creme fraiche and caviar or caramelized onion tartlets?”

  “What do you suggest?” Jaxson asked. He was the oldest Volkov brother, the Pakhan of the organization. He was as incredibly good-looking as the others with the same striking blue eyes and dark hair.

  “I’d actually order the buffalo sliders with blue cheese crumbles, but I’m a burger type of girl, not much into caviar.” I felt Devin’s eyes on me, and a flush rolled up my cheeks.

  “Sliders it is.” Devin nodded.

  “Perfect.” I turned around to find a man stumbling through the crowd toward me. His eyes were glassy and he looked like a total scumbag. When he spotted his friends the next table over, I started to breathe again.

  Bullet dodged.

  I made my way back to the station and entered in an order of sliders before checking on my other tables. When I went back to the bar to place more drink orders with Jenn, I looked over my shoulder and caught Devin looking at me.

  “Looks like you have an admirer,” Jenn said, chuckling. “Not bad to catch the eyes of the owners.”

  “I’m sure he’s as easily distracted as all the rest of the male species,” I assured her.

  “I’m not so sure about that. He’s still looking at you.”

  An unexpected shiver ran across my skin. I was disappointed in myself with how much I liked hearing that. I had a job to do.

  An important one.

  “It would be a lot easier not to care if he wasn’t so attractive.” I grinned and shrugged.

  Jenn’s smile widened. “He’s not from a family you want to mess with. That much I know. It’s not just this bar they own.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly intrigued that maybe Jenn knew more about these men then I realized.

  “He comes from a family who. . .” She twisted her lips into a pout. “”Let’s just say their business dealings aren’t the most savory and dating any of the Volkov brothers is complicated.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, nearly leaning over the marble for the inside scoop.

  “I was briefly involved with the one sitting across from your admirer. He’s the oldest. Jaxson is his name.” She let out a wistful sigh.

  A few seconds of silence went by between us as I pretended as if this was all new information. Truth be told, it was all in the files.

  “So was it worth it?” I asked, glancing back at the table.

  Sure enough, Devin was still looking in my direction while his brothers were in deep discussion. I smiled at him and a charge ran between us before I turned back to Jenn.

  “Every single second.” She bit her lip before sliding the last drink to me. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Jax will never be the relationship type of guy. He was married once. It didn’t work out so all women are suspect in his mind. It was an uphill battle to even get two consecutive dates out of the guy.”

  “Ouch.”

  She gave a slight nod. “But like I said, I’d do it all over again.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Or I could just be a masochist.”

  I laughed and balanced the tray on my right hand.

  “And the rest of the brothers?” I asked, not wanting to let on I already knew more than I should about each of them.

  “Taken. Blake is sitting next to Devin. He’s an ex-soccer player and across from him is Drake. Drake was one of the most notorious bachelors around the city until last year.”

  “What happened last year?”

  “I guess he met the one.” She rolled her eyes and got back to pouring drinks.

  Something told me she’d hoped Jax would think she was the one.

  I wandered back through the touchy-feely crowd and dropped off the drinks at all the tables. When I was on my way back, I felt a hand clasp my butt and squeeze it through the thin fabric of my dress.

  “Please, let go,” I said, trying not to make a scene.

  “You can’t expect to shuffle around in this little outfit all night and not expect something to happen,” a man nearly snarled.

  I turned to see who would belong to such a crude statement and tried to dismiss the familiar tingle in my knuckles. The guy was a couple inches taller than me, but I could take him if it weren’t for the fact that I was supposed to be a server, not a cop, and certainly not an expert in self-defense.

  His glassy eyes were barely able to focus on mine, and that’s when it hit me. He was the dirt bag who’d been stumbling his way to his friends.

  “I’ll say it one more time. This time slowly. Let go.” By now, his fingers had dug deep into my skin, and his arm wrapped around my hip as I stayed facing him.

  “And if I don’t?” he slurred.

  “I’ll call security and you’ll be barred from coming back.” Fury was rushing through me. Every cell in my body was burning with anger. I wanted to hit him, punch him, something him, but I knew if I did, I’d be the one fired and everything the department had worked on to get me here would be ruined. I had to act calmly even though nothing in my body felt relaxed.

  “Bitch.” His eyes narrowed, but his hand stayed firmly in place.

  Right when I was about to flag down one of our bouncers, Devin appeared out of nowhere, towering over me and the guy who wouldn’t let go of my flesh.

  The fire in Devin’s blue eyes torched the guy next to me. The man’s fingers quickly left my butt, and he took a couple steps away, but it was too late.

  “Come on, man. I was only having a little fun. You know how it is.” His words were more slurred than a few seconds ago.

  “No. I don’t, but why don’t you get the hell out of here before I change my mind and beat the
shit out of you.”

  Two of the guy’s friends wandered over.

  “You got a problem?” one of them asked, staring at Devin.

  “Not in the slightest.” Devin’s brow arched, and he glanced at his brothers who were looking at us. “But your friend does.”

  “I don’t think anyone made you hall monitor.” The guy laughed at his own joke.

  Devin fisted his fingers, and I instinctively moved two steps away.

  I could feel the anger rolling off Devin, and instead of being worried, it kind of excited me to think that he cared enough to involve himself.

  “Women should never be subjected to creeps like you,” Devin said, staring at the group of men. “Apologize.”

  “Screw you,” the drunk one muttered.

  Devin’s lip curled slightly right before his fist went deep into the abdomen of the groper. Both his friends caught the guy before he landed on the floor, each one holding him up by an armpit.

  The good news was that the bar was so packed no one really saw what was going on unless they happened to look over at the precise right time. Judging by how little the crowd moved, I’d say no one saw.

  “Do you want some more?” Devin asked, cocking his head slightly. “If not, I’d suggest you get the hell out of here.”

  The two men nodded, while the third one looked like he was about to lose his dinner.

  “One more thing,” Devin said as the guys started to make their way out of the bar. “Apologize.”

  I could see the guy who needed to do the apologizing was about to really lose it so I shook my head, but he quickly managed a sorry before making it out of the bar.

  “You okay?” Devin asked, placing his hand on my shoulder.

  I nodded, realizing I hadn’t taken in a breath since Devin’s fist connected with the guy.

  “You don’t have to put up with that.”

  “I kind of do.” I bit my lip and sucked in a deep breath. “If I want to keep my job.”

  “That’s not how we run our restaurants,” his voice low and gravelly. “If management has ever given you the feeling that you can’t report something like that or get a customer booted. . .” A muscle in his jaw tensed, and his gaze stayed fastened on mine. “I’ll be having a discussion immediately with management.”