Disgraced

by Natasha Knight

  He turned to Lina. “I’ll ask again, what were the specifics of your conversation with your grandfather?”

  “You don’t have to answer him, Lina. I’m calling Lewis,” I said, standing, fishing my phone out of my pocket. “Let’s go.”

  “No, Damon, it’s okay,” she said, touching my hand. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t have anything to hide.” She turned to Maxx. “My conversation with my grandfather wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d thought he’d be humbled, sorry maybe for what he’d done, but he wasn’t. He accused me of sleeping with both Markov men, and I told him this would be the last time he’d see me.”

  “Did you at any point mention your testimony?”

  She answered too quickly. “No.”

  I studied her as she kept her gaze level on his. He did the same with her, as if it were some sort of contest. He was trying to read if she was telling the truth. She wasn’t. I knew it. I knew Lina. She was once again lying to protect her grandfather.

  “Lina, I think we should wait to talk until Mr. Lewis is present. Let’s go.”

  “My grandfather’s an old man, Maxx. How would he physically overpower Alexi Markov?”

  “Like you suggested, an order could be given. Everyone has enemies, and if there’s enough money to grease the palm, well, a lot of things are possible, especially when you’re desperate.”

  “He has no money, remember? Everything was seized.” She kept her eyes locked on his.

  “Did he perhaps need to reestablish his loyalty to Sergei?”

  I saw from the level, too calm look on her face this thought had already crossed her mind.

  “What?” she asked too late. “This is insane.”

  “Is it?” Maxx countered.

  “He didn’t do it. He couldn’t have,” she said, rising.

  “I hope for his sake, that’s true,” Maxx said, standing as well.

  “What about my testimony?”

  “Stick around. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Can I get my things out of my locker,” she asked, as if she just remembered.

  Maxx called the agent standing nearby and told him to take Lina to her locker. I followed and watched as she collected her things—one well-worn notebook and some sheet music. We didn’t speak as we left, choosing to walk back to the apartment.

  Once we were a few blocks away, I turned to Lina. I wanted to call her out on lying to a federal agent. Tell her I knew. But I couldn’t. Not yet. I needed time to think this through.

  “Grandfather told me to be careful. That although Alexi may be behind bars, he’s in no way less dangerous.”

  “Your grandfather isn’t strong enough to kill Alexi Markov. And I don’t believe he has the funds to pay for it to be done.”

  “Sergei does. He and my grandfather were in business together once. Why not again?”

  I turned her to face me. “Lina, do you believe your grandfather could have arranged for Alexi’s murder?”

  She didn’t answer that. “He said something else too, just before I walked out. He said he wished things had turned out differently.”

  I studied her, didn’t miss the faraway look in her eyes as if she were thinking, turning something over again and again in her mind, trying to make sense of it.

  “I’m hungry,” she said a few moments later, blinking. “Ravenous, in fact. I could eat a horse.”

  Lina could keep secrets well, that had been proven more than once, and it worried me. She worried me. But for now, I couldn’t deny that Alexi’s death was a good thing. For her, for us. Because her grandfather was right. He would not forgive her betrayal, and he’d have far-reaching resources. But Marcus Guardia committing murder? Was it truly so far-fetched?

  “Let’s go get you that horse,” I said, leaning down to kiss her, suddenly ravenous myself.

  27

  Lina

  The next two days passed without a call from Maxx and tonight, we were going to see Jana and the band. Damon had run out to pick up a few things at the grocery store, but just as I stepped out of the shower, he approached, his expression serious.

  “What is it?”

  He held an envelope out to me. “Not sure. Someone slipped it beneath the door downstairs.”

  I took it and read my full first name, Katalina, typed neatly across the front.

  We didn’t exchange words as I opened it. The note was a printout, not handwritten.

  You wanted to keep me safe. Now I’m keeping you safe.

  That’s all it said.

  I read it twice, three times. My brain made sense of what it said, I understood, but I didn’t want to. I handed it to Damon but didn’t wait for him to read it. I walked away to get dressed. A moment later, I heard the tearing of paper. I looked up to watch as he ripped both the envelope and the note apart, walked into the bathroom, dropped the pieces into the toilet, and flushed them away.

  Our eyes met. It was a moment before I spoke. “I want to book our tickets to go home.”

  He didn’t miss a beat. “I’ll call Lewis in the morning.”

  Neither of us mentioned what had just happened.

  “Why Lewis?” I asked.

  “See if he can put some pressure on Maxx to hurry this along. Alexi’s dead. No reason for you to testify now.”

  “Thanks.”

  We stood like that for a moment, studying each other. We had a secret now. One neither of us would mention ever again.

  I turned to get dressed.

  After slipping on a tight-fitting black dress and a pair of high-heeled black pumps, I faced him again. He hadn’t moved.

  “Ready?”

  Damon’s gaze burned as it raked over me. It made me think of the last time we’d gone to the club.

  He nodded once, his expression never relaxing. We went down the stairs and out the door, hailing a taxi about half a block away. Always the gentleman, Damon opened the door for me, let me in before climbing in himself and giving the driver the address.

  The band was already playing when we arrived. It was close to midnight. The club was packed, the scent of beer and sweat and just too many people assaulted all my senses upon entering.

  “We don’t have to stay long. I just want to see Jana. Tell her I’m leaving soon.”

  “That’s fine. Want a soda?”

  Shawn the bartender walked over toward us.

  “Please.”

  He ordered, and Shawn gave me a wink, then got our drinks. Damon turned his back to the bar and sipped his beer.

  “Do you remember the last time we were here?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I also remembered how the night had ended.

  He slid his gaze over me. “You danced with those men to get my attention.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “The way you responded, I already had your attention.”

  “I asked you if you liked it. Liked men looking at you. Wanting you. You never answered.”

  “I thought you were flirting.”

  “Do you?”

  He didn’t miss a beat, his expression unchanging. Hard.

  That was the first time he’d acted more like a possessive boyfriend than a brother-in-law or a man soon to be a priest. He didn’t like men looking at me. I didn’t want to tell him I did like it. I especially liked watching him when they did. It was the look he got in his eyes. The knowledge that he wanted me. That he couldn’t stand even another man’s eyes on me.

  I shrugged a shoulder, stuck the straw in my mouth, and watched people dance.

  He took my drink and set it down next to his. With one arm wrapped around my waist, he led me to the dance floor, then through it, past the bathrooms, toward an isolated alcove.

  “This would once have been a confessional.”

  He pushed me into the tiny space and drew the dark red curtain closed.

  “Now it’s a make-out room.”

  He shoved me against the wall and smashed his mouth against mine, his fingers at the hem of my short dress.


  “Is that why you brought me in here?” I asked when he leaned away.

  He grinned, hiking my dress to my waist and drawing the crotch of my panties aside to drag his fingers through my folds.

  “No.”

  He pinched my clit between thumb and forefinger, making me bite my lip as I raised one leg up and wrapped it around his hip. Since he’d made me take that pregnancy test, he’d also made an appointment for me with an OB/GYN, and I was now on birth control pills. But he’d still been cautious, still always using a condom.

  “Then why?” I asked.

  Damon unzipped his jeans and shoved them and his briefs down far enough to free his ready cock. He hoisted me up so that I straddled him. I wrapped my legs around him and, keeping his gaze on mine, he slid me onto himself.

  “I brought you in here to fuck you.”

  He thrust as I clung to him.

  “Damon—”

  “That’s not all.”

  He kissed me feverishly, gripped the hair on the back of my head, and forced my face up.

  “I want every man in here to know you’re mine. I want my scent on you. My cum inside you.”

  I let out a moan as he pulled harder, hurting me a little, and, at the same time, making me feel so good.

  “I’m just not sure if I should come in your cunt and let it drip down your thighs as you dance, or make you kneel here and fuck your face. Come down your throat.”

  I dripped around him, more turned on by his words than I wanted to admit.

  “Or maybe I should turn you around, bend you over, and fuck your tight little ass. Make you keep my cum inside you all night.”

  I let out a small moan, curling my fingers in his hair, but then he stilled inside me, watching me closely.

  “Maybe I should fuck your ass to punish you for lying.”

  That sobered me. “I didn’t lie,” I said. “Not to you,” I amended.

  “No, but you did lie to Maxx.”

  He cupped my ass hard.

  “I knew where he was going with his questions, and no matter what, I couldn’t hang my grandfather out to dry.”

  “You can get into real trouble lying to a federal agent.”

  “I know.”

  He released my hair and cupped my jaw, gripping it hard.

  “I don’t want you to lie to me like you did him. I don’t ever want you to lie to me. Understood?”

  I nodded.

  He kissed me again, holding my face as he devoured my mouth and pulled back to drive into me, making me gasp.

  “I like you like this,” he said, thrusting again. “I like your tight little cunt squeezing my cock,” he whispered. “I like how warm and wet it is.”

  “Damon,” I gasped, “I’m close.”

  He fucked me harder, and I watched his face, his eyes going black but for the ring of blue circling his dilated pupils, getting that look they got just before he came. He rubbed the scruff of his jaw against my cheek, and I bit my lip when his breath tickled my neck, his whisper prickled my ear.

  “Come, Lina. Let me feel you come.”

  One more thrust, and I did, not caring if I was too loud, if people heard us, not caring about anything at all but Damon, his body tight to mine, his cock thickening inside me as his breath hitched and he throbbed and came. He pressed his forehead to mine, our eyes locked, his cock pulsing, releasing, emptying inside me, filling me up.

  “Fuck, Lina.”

  His voice was ragged when he slid out, closing my panties over my sex as cum dripped out of me. I set my legs down, and he adjusted my dress. I watched him draw his briefs and jeans up and closed before leaning down to kiss me, one hand cupping the back of my head.

  “I want you to feel me.”

  “Damon—”

  “Shh.”

  He kissed me again, turned to draw the curtains open, and walked me out into the crowd.

  “Feel me all night long.”

  His whispered words stayed with me as he led me to the dance floor.

  We danced for two hours, and when the bar closed, Jana, Shawn, Damon, and I sat around a table, and I told them I’d be leaving soon. I’d be going home. It felt good to say it, felt like it would really happen this time. Damon held my hand beneath the table while we talked for another hour, Jana promising to come visit me while they looked at us with questions in their eyes that neither one asked.

  By the time we grabbed a taxi and got back to Damon’s apartment, it was past three in the morning.

  “I’m exhausted,” I said as we climbed the stairs.

  Damon paused at the downstairs door, then shook his head and climbed up ahead of me to the apartment door. Keeping an arm out to hold me back, he slipped a key into the lock, turned it, and pushed it open.

  “Wait,” he said quietly to me. He stepped into the room.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  We saw the shadow at the same moment. I gasped, nearly screaming. Damon, however, only studied the form who stood at the window, which was open a crack. The man blew cigarette smoke out before flicking the butt out onto the alley below. He dropped the curtain closed and turned to face us. I heard Damon’s incredulous voice.

  “Zach?”

  Damon flipped on the lights.

  28

  Damon

  My younger brother stood beside the window. He slid the hood of his sweatshirt off and shifted his glance from me to Lina, who slipped her hand into mine, her eyes wide on him.

  The last time I’d seen Zach had been when he’d had a three-week leave two years ago. Those three weeks had been cut short. I still remembered that. He looked different now. Older than his twenty-four years. His dark hair wasn’t cut quite as short as was required by the military anymore. He wore black from head to toe, and I could see the ink of a bright new tattoo creeping up one side of his neck. From the scruff on his face, he hadn’t shaved in more than a week. His eyes had lines around them that hadn’t been there two years ago, and a scar split his right eyebrow in two.

  I waited until Zach turned his attention to me and felt a sense of relief when a cocky grin softened his features.

  “Well, well, brother. You got good taste. But I’ll be honest, you bringing home a girl is about the last thing I expected to see.”

  “Who is this?” Lina asked.

  Her worried eyes fell on me.

  “This is my kid brother, Zach.” I closed the door and took a step toward Zach, looked him over. He was built big, like Raphael and I, but he seemed to have gotten bigger, his eyes harder. “They teach you how to break into people’s houses in the military?” I asked, giving him a grin, trying to hide my worry as I drew him in for a hug.

  “Among other things,” he said, hugging me back tightly, then releasing me. He cleared his throat and looked beyond me to Lina.

  “This is Lina Guardia.” He was clearly waiting for more. Lina stepped forward and extended her hand, which he took. I noticed how his gaze shifted to her shoulder and arm, to the tattoos there. They were so natural to me now. A part of her. I forgot people’s reactions when they first saw them.

  “Nice to meet you, but you gave me a hell of a scare,” Lina said.

  I moved to the kitchen to take two beers out of the fridge. “Lina, why don’t you go have a shower.”

  “Oh, I can do that later—”

  I handed Zach a beer and set mine down on the counter. “Now’s good,” I said to her. She opened her mouth to protest, but I shook my head and went to her, took her wrists, and walked her backward toward the bathroom, very aware of Zach’s eyes following us. “I need to talk to my brother. Alone.”

  She hesitated, glanced over my shoulder once, but acquiesced.

  “Fine,” she said, then turned to walk into the bathroom.

  Once the door closed and the shower ran, I picked up my beer and took a seat on the couch.

  “Are you in trouble?” I asked, knowing he was. He had to be. No word in months, then he turns up in my apartment, standing in the dark like
some criminal, looking like he hasn’t showered in too many days.

  “Nothing I can’t handle.” He gestured to the bathroom. “Church allow girlfriends now?”

  “I’m leaving the church.” I shook my head. “I left. We’re only here until a few things get straightened out. Then I’ll take her home. She’s Sofia’s sister.”

  “Ah. That’s why she looked familiar.”

  Zach had met Sofia on that trip home two years ago.

  “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

  The sarcasm in his tone grated. Neither of my brothers had cared much for my choice to join the seminary.

  “What’s going on, Zach?”

  He drew his hoodie over his head and tossed it aside, then sat down and set his empty bottle on the coffee table. I saw that the tattoo I’d glimpsed on the side of his neck wrapped around his arm. It was a two-headed snake, mouths open, fangs bared. But more disturbing was the skin of his other arm. Bumpy and scarred. As if it had been burnt.

  “How do I say this?” he started, asking himself the question. “You might get a letter in the coming weeks telling you I’m MIA or died in action or some bullshit. Well,” he faced me. “It’s just that: bullshit. I got fucked, brother.”

  “MIA or dead?”

  “Mission went wrong. Most of my men died. Thirteen of them, to be exact.” He shook his head. “I should’ve died.”

  “How? When?”

  “About three months after I saw you. A mission the American public will never hear about.”

  “Where have you been for the last nearly two years then?”

  “Like I said, I should’ve died. The less you know the better.”

  “Are you in hiding?”

  He thought about that for a few moments before answering, then shook his head. “No, not hiding. Just got into the country a few days ago. I’m here for answers.”

  “Zach—”

  “Tell me about the girl.”

  He clearly didn’t want to talk about whatever was going on with him. It seemed everyone around me had secrets. “I ran into Lina by accident. She was supposed to be in Chicago. Turned out she’d moved to New York City and had managed to get herself a job with a Russian mobster.”