Stained with mine and theirs.
“Here.” I held it out.
She stared down at it and then swallowed slowly. “Nothing’s free.”
“Pardon?”
“You said that last night. Nothing’s free, everything has a cost, what’s my cost for this? For your kindness? For the clothes? For lunch money? I need to know, so I can process what it means I have to do. I know I’m in deep. I know this is my life now. The least you can do is just tell me. Please.” She lifted her head; her gaze was unwavering.
I had a sudden image of her dropping to her knees and was so fucking appalled I stumbled backward and turned away from her.
“Dinner,” I said smoothly. “You’re in charge of cooking dinner, every night, at six o’clock, until I tell you it’s been paid off.”
I could hear her exhale. “Okay, I can do that.”
“We’re going to be late.” I grabbed the keys off the counter and walked ahead of her, opening the door and waiting.
She took one look at the door, then her gaze flicked to me, and she held her head high and walked out.
So regal that I found myself smiling after her.
Her posture didn’t change as we moved through the near-empty club, and when we reached outside, Ax was already at her side opening the door to my black and silver Aston Martin.
She hesitated a minute and then slid into the seats while I walked around to the driver’s side and got in, roaring the engine to life.
I’d missed driving lately.
And I didn’t want to show up in a giant Escalade that screamed mafia, better to show up in a car worth three million dollars and scream wealthy.
Money was safer.
Money looked dangerous.
Money made me look more normal, and when mafia showed up it was typically in all black with guns strapped to their bodies.
I’d show up with my knife and still do more damage.
The sound of Avenged Sevenfold filled the air as I hit the accelerator and whizzed past two cops who both waved. We flew by an ambulance.
She gripped the sides of the seat as I peeled around the corner and pulled in front of the iron gate at Eagle Elite.
Why hadn’t Dante burned the place down?
The question I think all of us asked once he was done doing his duty, the question I asked myself when I was told I could leave.
The gates opened.
Trees lined the sides of campus as I sped down the lane and then took a right for the registration building.
He would be waiting for us.
It would be easy.
She would be protected here.
From everything.
My bare hands included.
The guys would look the other way. They’d be curious but they wouldn’t think I would hide her in plain sight like I was doing. According to them I still had a De Lange girl prisoner, and Alice was just someone I had an interest in.
It would be fine.
I gripped the steering wheel and wondered why I was sacrificing so much… for so little.
After all a woman was a pawn.
An object.
And yet.
This one reminded me of them.
Of the wives.
Of their strength.
And I couldn’t stop.
Just couldn’t fucking stop.
The rabbit hole had me sucked in its grasp, and I was still falling without a clue as to what was at the bottom.
I parked the car and got out then went and opened her door. She seemed confused by this as I held out my hand.
My gloves were gone, they would look ridiculous with what I was wearing, and again, it would look too conspicuous.
I wasn’t a boss here.
Here I was just another rich guy.
Not that every single staff member wouldn’t know who I was, just like the dean was probably already holding out his prayer beads and chanting.
Students walked around, some stared, others looked away like they knew it was dangerous to be too curious.
And the whole time, I clutched her warm hand.
Felt her palm pressed against mine.
Warred with the need to do something about it.
With the strange tingle in my chest that made its way down my arms and legs like I was slowly burning from the inside out.
“Walk faster,” I snapped. I couldn’t hold her hand forever, I couldn’t even hold it for a few seconds without losing touch with reality.
We finally made it to the front steps and walked up. The building was solid brick, three stories, and looked completely innocent despite all the crimes that it had been involved in.
I grinned when a staff member opened the door to us and then quickly jogged away like I was going to impale him with my knife.
And slowly as we walked down the hall, doors closed. No, they slammed like they were afraid I was going to stop and ask for directions or just stop and start shooting.
My reputation, it seemed, preceded me.
Nice.
We finally made it to the dean’s office.
The secretary, Mrs. Derullio, looked up, eyes wide. “We weren’t sure if we should be expecting you or not.”
“Do you not have a phone?” I asked just as one started ringing.
With shaking hands, she answered and nodded. “Yes, sir, yes, I’ll tell him.” She hung up. “The dean says he’s expecting you.”
I winked. “Thought so, nice sweater.” It was horrible but she didn’t need to know that. That shade of green would make anyone look sick.
“Oh, thank you.” She smiled wider.
I grinned and led six thirty-two to the door just as it opened. Bear Abandonato stood on the other side. I wasn’t really sure what his real name was. All I knew was that he had a reputation for being like a big teddy bear, hated confrontation, and wasn’t for the life, despite his height of six-foot-seven, and weight of three fifty-two pounds.
The guy was a beast.
“Come on in.” He beamed down at Alice. “I’m so happy you could join us this semester…” He looked briefly at his paper. “…Alice.” And then he frowned. “I’m sorry, it seems we don’t have a last name for you,” He grabbed a handy pen and looked up at her with hopeful eyes.
Alice stiffened.
Her hand gripped mine so tight I was ready to outwardly react.
Woman had grip strength that was for sure.
“Petrov,” I volunteered. “Alice Petrov.”
“Oh!” Bear’s smile could not, manage to get any bigger, “Didn’t know you had another sister, Mr. Petrov.”
I smiled mockingly at him. “Oh, I don’t.”
“Cousin.”
“Most of them are dead.”
“I see.” He frowned. “So, she’s… a niece?”
“No. Actually.” I beamed at Alice and very slowly lifted her hand to my lips, inside shaking with… something. “She’s my wife.”
Alice gaped and then shut her mouth. The minute my lips touched her skin, she sucked in a breath.
“Ah, in the honeymoon phase still, I see.” Bear winked.
Alice snatched her hand away and nodded. “Yes, it’s new…” She shot me a glare. “Some might even say, hardly any time has gone by that we’ve been… together.”
“Seems that way, doesn’t it?” I laughed, enjoying her obvious hatred toward me and the idea of being my wife. For some reason it gave me pleasure just as much as the touch of her skin.
“Yes.” She clenched her teeth. “It really does.”
I leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Don’t burn my dinner tonight… Alice.”
She put a hand to her chest when I said her name out loud, like it did something to her heart, like she didn’t want to hear me say it, because it conjured up a reaction.
My instincts told me it was a way to control her.
While what was left of my heart, told me it was a way to win her.
“All right, then,” Bear pulled out a folder. “Here�
��s your schedule for the semester, you should report to Econ, it’s starting in the next ten minutes, right across from here in the tan building.”
“Okay.” She took the paper and stood. “Thank you, Mr. Bear.”
“Bear, Abandonato, whatever you wanna call me.” He smiled brightly while I felt her stiffen again.
“Thanks again.” I shook his hand and then escorted her back out of the office and down the hall. Her body was tense, too tense.
When we made it outside, I grabbed her hand and jerked her down the stairs and to the side of the building. “Listen,” I barked and gripped her chin between my thumb and forefinger. “You said you wanted something to do. This is better than cleaning toilets. Finishing your education, right in front of your enemy, they won’t suspect it and you’ve already passed the test with flying colors last night.”
“Why are you telling me this?” She licked her lips. “I’m not scared.”
My eyebrows shot up. “So, you’re petrified of being in my apartments back at the club, but here, in the middle of a swarm of enemies who want nothing more than to see you dead, you feel… fantastic?”
She just shrugged.
“Clearly, I need to try harder. Buy more clothes, offer more freedom, tell you how beautiful you are, is that what you want? Compliments? Things?”
“I want a life.”
“You can’t have a life,” I said through clenched teeth. “And what you have is what I give you. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes.”
“The minute they brought you through those doors, you lost every option given to you, the only ones that are left I control. Last night you chose me, don’t make me regret asking.”
She snorted out a laugh. “That wasn’t asking! That was threatening!”
“That…” I narrowed my eyes. “…was more efficient than begging you on hands and knees…”
“Perhaps,” She lifted a shoulder. “But one would have given you much more… pleasant results.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her what she meant.
And then I realized she was smiling at me.
A dazzling, controlling smile.
Manipulation.
I leaned in and kissed the side of her neck. She went stiff in my arms, her hands shaking. “I’m the king of manipulation, of every single game you could possibly conjure up. The day I’m in front of you, on my hands and knees, will be the day I take my last fucking breath. I submit to no one.”
She leaned up on her tiptoes and brushed a similar kiss to my neck and then turned her head and pressed a soft kiss on the corner of my mouth and said. “We’ll see.”
I gripped her arm.
We both glared at one another.
“Don’t play games you can’t win, six thirty-two.”
“Don’t start what you can’t finish, Petrov.”
And then she was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Alice
I WAS COMPLETELY out of my element, my old friends had already graduated and were off to bigger and better things, and at the time I’d been so completely freaked out and isolated that even the teachers hadn’t known my full name.
I was that girl.
The one in the back.
Always in the back.
Or the one you waved at because she looked familiar but never really hung out with because she looked too lonely.
Fun.
But at least I was doing something.
And I was outside.
I smiled to myself as I made my way to Econ, partially because I was excited he was giving me what freedom I had, and partially because I felt the control between us slip, not by much, only enough for me to hear the slight intake of breath when I kissed him on the mouth.
Everything about Andrei said stand down and make sure you put at least three feet of distance between us, and every time I got close, he either physically pushed me away or yelled.
There was meaning behind everything he did, everything he wore, the way he spoke to people, the words he used. He was right in saying he was a master manipulator, and I wondered if anyone had ever been brave enough to utter the word no in his presence and actually mean it.
Yet another reason why when he claimed me as his wife, I knew I was stuck, and as long as it wasn’t real, I was fine.
I shivered. The very fact that he gave me his name enraged me, and then it filled me with a feeling I refused to acknowledge, one that told me I meant something. I was important enough for him to take an identity and place it on me, claim me as his.
I tried not to think of his kiss, his reaction, the way his lips slid across mine in a way I’d never experienced before.
I could count the tiny breaths he took between each assault, the way his muscles flexed beneath my fingertips like any second he was going to slam me against the wall harder and rip my clothes off.
The thought should terrify me.
Except it was different; his kiss was different.
Or maybe I was just glamorizing the fact that I was being held hostage, sold by a family who used me, to a new master who would end up doing the exact same thing.
The idea deflated me as I made my way into class and sat down in the very back.
Students trickled in.
Nobody looked my way.
And I wondered what made me so invisible to the people around me. When I was punished by those closest to me by being seen?
To everyone else I was a nobody.
But my own family? They punished me for things I couldn’t control.
And Andrei, seemed angry at his own reaction.
What was so special about a girl with blackish brown hair and blue eyes? What’s so special about me?
And sadly.
Even after two different classes.
I came up with absolutely nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Andrei
I DROVE LIKE hell back to the club, pissed that she saw it, the slip, for one brief second she’d shocked the hell out of me, and she knew it too.
Well played, six thirty-two, well played.
I got out of the car and made my way into the bar, waving Ax over. “Any changes with the girls today?”
He sighed and jerked his head to the right. “New batch came in around two a.m., same blacked out plates, same make and model of the car. With so many people living in this area, hell people living outside it, we still can’t place the car, but…” He shifted on his feet a bit. “We did get some intel from one of the girls…”
“What?” I crossed my arms. “Other than screaming, what did she offer?”
Ax paled a bit and then whispered, “She said she’s known your father since she was seventeen.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t flinch, even though somewhere, deep down, I knew who it was, I knew she would have bright blond hair and a pretty smile, I knew she would have icy blue eyes. I knew she would be older. I knew she would look like Andi, and I knew why.
“Tell no one,” I snapped. “And take me to her now.”
“Already have her waiting in the purple lounge by herself, Boss.”
“This is why you’re my favorite,” I muttered under my breath. “You don’t wait to get told shit.”
“Waiting gets you killed, Drei. You know this, I know this, and you’d start a war with my family if you killed me. I’m sorta fucking useful.”
I rolled my eyes. “And there’s that Abandonato arrogance.”
“One of our best traits.” He grinned. “You want the cameras on?”
I bit my lip. “Not this time.”
He gave me a funny look. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure you should go take a break.”
“You’re not gonna kill her?”
“Why would I kill someone valuable?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Drei, because you’ve lost your temper over a fucking french fry before.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was a year ago, and I was hungry.”
He sighed. “Let me call one of the guys.”
He was being rational.
Then again, he hadn’t just been kissed and played by a woman who should be dead. Who had a giant target on her back.
I exhaled through my lips. “Fine, call Phoenix.”
“I call Phoenix, Phoenix calls Tex…”
I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingertips. “Call them all but tell them I won’t wait. They have twelve minutes.”
I heard a sound behind me and went still.
“I may have already told them.” Ax grinned. “See? I’m needed.”
“Go be arrogant somewhere else where I’m not tempted to strangle you, mmkay?”
“Good talk.” He slapped me on the back just as all the Italian bosses walked in with a few of their men and captains.
My bartender looked ready to duck under the table.
It was rare to have all of them here at once.
Then again, we’d been trying to take down the ring for a decade. So, it was necessary, especially if we had information.
“How was school?” Tex asked wrapping an arm around me tight, as he pulled a toothpick out of his mouth and grinned.
“How’s the tiny dick?” I snapped right back.
Dante strolled up. “It could be there but nobody has seen it, kind of like bed bugs… you wake up with a bite, but if you can’t see them, are they really there?”
Chase smirked. “Dante comparing Tex’s dick to bed bugs, I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of my protégé.”
“Except that one time when he killed two people with one bullet.” Nixon held out his hand. “Ax called us right away figured we should do this as a team, since that’s what we are… right Andrei?” He narrowed his eyes. “A team… that shares information? Regardless of how damning?”
He knew threatening me only made me more indifferent. I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Someone not getting any?”
Sergio and Phoenix were talking about something in hushed tones before giving me equally blank stares. Where Sergio had a man bun and was wearing black slacks and a dress shirt, Phoenix was in ripped jeans and a black tank top that matched the black tattoos on his arms. His hair was a little longer than usual and he looked just as cold and callous as ever. “We all here?”
“Vic’s got the front.” Phoenix crossed his arms. “Who’s asking questions?”
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