“Me,” I barked. “My club, my rules, and try to keep your guns in your pants, we’re a bit more civilized.”
Tex bit out a curse. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
I shoved the metal door open.
And there she was.
Looking every bit as pretty as she had when I saw her the first time, when she forced me to watch. Two. Hours.
“Son,” Alexander Petrov wasn’t a small man. “One day you’ll do the honors, one day you’ll get to feel how tight this is, how ready this woman is for me, see her face? You see it son? Watch her, watch what I steal from her.”
She held me there for my own father, made me watch the way he made her watch. Like if she was going to be punished, so was I.
I learned how to see without seeing that day.
How to stare at something and see nothing at all.
Feel nothing at all.
She was seventeen.
And I was ten. I watched it while I was ten.
And all I remember thinking after it was done… Would he someday get angry enough to do that to me too?
I prayed that very night for God to take my soul.
And woke up completely crushed that I was still breathing.
She had cuts on her face, dirt marred the red streaks of the blood that had dried against her skin, her ice blue dress looked more like a slip than a dress making it painfully aware that she was pulled from bed. And since my father was currently a rotting corpse, that meant they either finally found her, she gave herself up, or she slept with the wrong guy.
“Elena.” I said her name like the curse it was. The curse it had been to my life.
Her head lolled forward, a tired smile crossed her face. “Is that any way to talk to someone who used to hold you tight?”
I flexed my hands into fists. “Why are you here?”
“Does it look like I volunteered?” She spat blood on the concrete floor. “Ever since your father died, I’ve been in hiding, thanks for that by the way.”
“Tragic, you should have just ended your misery and drank poison.”
Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits as she nodded to the men behind me. “Friends of yours, traitor?”
“Traitor?” I barked out a laugh. “I have over a billion dollars at my fingertips, enough manpower to take you down without doing so much as sneezing, and you call me traitor? I can see it now, Alexander Petrov’s paramour, sleeping her way through the brotherhood in order to survive. I hope they’ve been wearing a condom.”
“Enough,” she snapped. “I can’t go to the FBI, so I came here.”
“Because you think they hold me in such high esteem?”
“Don’t patronize me. I know you have pull.” She sniffled as blood dripped down her chin. “I want protection.”
“You can buy condoms at the store. We done?”
“Don’t be a smart ass. I remember when you used to kiss me with that mouth—”
I felt the tension pounding in my chest, the ache of being abandoned, the fucking need to have something human love me, touch me, and then her cold brittle hands, slapping the tears from my face, when all I wanted was their warmth.
“Only out of respect. I preferred your lips to his knife. Don’t flatter yourself.”
She glared up at me. “I know who’s bringing in the girls, but I want protection. I want you to swear you’ll give me protection. He still has men out there, men trying to run this crumbling empire, men who want nothing more than to take the remaining heir down and start up the rings again.”
“I’m sure you do.” I grinned. “But they’ll have to come through me, and since none of them have the balls to even stand in the same room, it looks like I’m safe…”
“Offer me protection, damn it!” she roared.
I could feel the restlessness behind me. The guys liked to speak with their guns. Typically, I wouldn’t tell them not to. Violence got us answers, but not out of a woman who was born into it, a woman who fed it, who encouraged a young boy to watch it.
A gun wouldn’t faze her.
Blood was almost like her natural color.
And as much as I wanted to lie and say I would offer her protection; my word was everything.
Besides, I didn’t want her near me.
I turned and gave the guys a curious look. “Did you know that the Bullet Ant gained its name because the pain is so severe it feels like you’ve been shot? A tiny miniscule bite and scientists say you’ll beg for death.” I walked to the opposite end of the room and spread the purple curtain wide.
Four glass cases stood waiting.
“Naturally, some men prefer extreme pain when they’re having sex, so I like to keep some of the best around, just in case.” I sighed and put on the leather gloves next to the case. “Twenty-four hours, that’s how long you suffer, and the best part, really the best part of the bite?” I reached into the cage and grabbed one tiny ant and held it between my thumb and forefinger. “It’s hardly noticeable and what police officer would believe you anyway? Oh, I got bit by an ant, the Russians are coming.” My voice was detached, my emotions gone. All I felt for this woman had been slapped out of me every time she told me she wished I wasn’t born.
Every time I asked her to pick me up and she said I was dirty.
Every time I froze in my room and she refused to give me an extra blanket.
My father created me.
She molded the clay.
The guys all backed up against the wall, equal parts amused and curious as I held the ant out to Elena. “Who’s dropping off the girls?”
“Give me protection.”
I sighed and stood. “You had to have known I wouldn’t just let you make demands in my club, on my turf. I’m the fucking boss of the Petrov Family, I make the demands, the decisions. You…” I leaned in and whispered in her blood-caked ear. “Are lucky I’m even speaking to you without cutting off a finger first.” I leaned back and tilted my head. “Who?”
“Protection!” she screamed.
I reared back and placed the ant on her leg.
And then I watched.
She went completely still.
“It won’t bite unless provoked.” I grinned. “Must be hard since you like to scream at things, hit them.” I examined my gloves and shrugged. “Just try not to be yourself and you should be just fine.”
“GO TO HELL!” she roared.
And then she let out an ear-piercing scream so loud that I was suddenly thankful the room was noise proof.
“It BIT ME!”
“I warned you.” I smiled at the guys. “I’ll let you know how things progress. We’ll question her when she’s able to speak without yelling, when she learns her manners, and most of all, when she learns who runs the fucking world.”
I shoved the door open and waited for everyone to walk out, then I turned and locked it, leaning my body against it while the guys all faced me. “What?”
“The hell?” Tex roared. “You just keep those things? Like pets?”
I snorted. “Hardly. Sometimes customers use them. Don’t ask me why, I’m not into that shit, I have more painful ways if this doesn’t work, but she’s always been petrified of ants and spiders, so, if this doesn’t work, I’ll go grab Mary and see if she can do better.”
Nixon made a face. “I’m almost afraid to ask this.”
“Mary’s the grandma tarantula we keep behind the bar when we want to scare away the wrong customer so the right one walks up and spends more money than they should on alcohol.” I checked my phone. “Mary gets a lot of screams, probably the best whore we have here.”
Chase whistled. “Well, now that I’m completely creeped out by all the creepy things you have here—”
“Say creep one more time,” Dante teased.
Chase gave him the finger. “You don’t have any… tigers or shit in here do you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry did you want a tour?” I asked in a bored tone. “Or can I get back to work?”
�
�The club doesn’t open for another few hours,” Phoenix pointed out, damn it.
“I’m aware of that. I’m still busy.” I clenched my teeth. “Go.”
The guys slowly filtered out. Tex rubbed his arms like he had ants on him, and Dante grazed his finger down Tex’s neck earning a hard shove and a reach for his Glock. Nixon gave me a middle finger salute before joining them.
And then I was left with Phoenix.
“I don’t buy it.” He crossed his arms. “You and I both know you like to read in the mornings so you don’t kill anyone at night.”
I swore violently. “That was private information.”
“Nothing’s private between us, you ass. Now tell me what you’re going to go do. Better yet—” He put his hand on my shoulder pissing me off more. “Show me.”
“Make me.”
“I’m not afraid of ants. Furthermore, I’d fight to the death before you got near those or Mary. So help me God, let me in or I’m just going to keep fighting until you have no choice but to surrender, and we both know that word isn’t in our vocabulary. Don’t make my wife a widow. What shit are you working on?”
“Why can’t you just leave it?” I roared stepping up against him until we were chest to chest. “Why?”
“Because I made a promise to a man we both respect and won’t ever admit out loud that we love. That’s why.”
I blew out a tense breath and snapped. “Follow me.”
I went back outside to my car.
And I drove it all the way to Eagle Elite and parked it on the far end of campus, where I knew she would be walking out to her next and final class.
Phoenix looked confused and then he did a double take, from me to the grass and buildings, back to me. “Holy shit has this turned into a sting operation?”
I pulled out my binoculars. “Hilarious.”
There she was. Walking by herself. A guy tried to come up beside her, she walked faster.
“You have binoculars.” Phoenix pointed out.
“I’m making sure she’s safe. I’m keeping my promise.”
“You could keep your promise by sending Ax, you know.”
“Ax isn’t me. I’m better than Ax, I’m better than every single one of you except Chase because he has more rage.”
Phoenix gave me a murderous stare. “Oh, I think I could conjure up some rage, don’t forget who you’re talking to.”
“Same goes for you.”
“Shit, you’re young,” he muttered like he didn’t want me to hear him. “I always forget that.”
“Because…” I lifted them back up when she stopped walking. “I look so old?”
“No because you were forced to grow up too fast.”
Pain filled my chest.
I ignored it.
I shoved it away just as a guy wrapped an arm around Alice’s body and pulled her against him.
She put her hands against his chest.
I was already out of the car.
“Don’t kill him!” Phoenix shouted after me.
“No promises,” I yelled right back as I jogged across the lawn and then slowly walked up to his side.
I tapped him on the shoulder.
The minute he turned, I clocked him in the jaw so hard he’d need to call his dentist to replace at least three teeth and if I was really lucky, four.
“Son of a bitch!” He roared from the ground. His looks screamed all-American football, sandy brown hair, a few misplaced freckles, athletic and dimples.
Fuck me.
The kid probably had a nanny growing up, wanted to go to Harvard because his dad went to Harvard but got sent here because it’s harder to get into.
He probably wore white briefs, peed sitting down, and had a pet parrot.
“What the heck was that for?” Grass stained his black slacks as he tried to stand. We were naturally gaining an audience, but all I could seem to focus on was the fact that he was wearing white tube socks.
White. Tube. Socks.
With black shoes and black pants.
“Let me guess, you dress yourself?” I joked.
“So, you punched me?” He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. “Ish thah a tooth?”
“Andrei.” Alice grabbed my arm and pulled me to her side. “What are you doing to my new lab partner?”
I smirked down at her. “Saying hello.”
“And a handshake was too easy?” Her eyes were bright, her cheeks pink like she’d been out in the sun too long, and something about her expression made me want to pull her against me, to see if her skin still felt warm from the sunlight, to see if she would hug me back.
One minute in Elena’s presence and I questioned things.
She was a menace to my sanity.
“I don’t shake hands.” I turned on my heel as Jackass of the Year got to his feet and swayed a bit. “These are the rules tiny dick. She’s mine. Touch her and I cut off the finger that committed the offense, breathe too close and I’ll take a piece of your tongue, and if I ever hear a word against her, I’ll make sure you can’t get a job until you’re forty. Do we have an understanding?”
“Wh-ho are you? Her father?”
“Do I look old enough to be her father?”
His mouth dropped open, then shut, he shook his head wildly.
“She’s mine,” I barked. “Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes.”
“Sir,” I prompted.
“Sir, yes, sir.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please stop saluting me, you’re embarrassing yourself. Now go.”
He stumbled away. A few of his friends helped him grab his bag and a discarded book, and the remaining students gaped like they’d never seen violence before.
“Why are you here?” Alice said through clenched teeth.
“What?” I tucked her hair behind her ears with both hands. “Not happy to see your husband?”
“You are not…” She leaned in; her eyes furious. “My husband.”
“You have my last name. You’re mine.”
“I didn’t sign anything.”
“That’s cute… your innocence that is.”
“I haven’t been innocent in a long time, and you know it.” She heaved, her chest rising up and down like it hurt to admit.
Shit.
Without thinking, I reached for her hips and pulled her hard against me, then lowered my mouth to hers. I kissed her softly, I explored her with my tongue, and she let me, she opened up like she hadn’t experienced hurt before or pain.
And she let me take what was mine.
I pulled away searching her eyes. “Innocent. Trust the man who owns a club like the one I do. That kiss… is innocent. Don’t believe anything other than that.”
Her eyes darted back down to my mouth. “Okay.”
“And don’t let guys grab you.”
“You’re grabbing me.”
“I’m different.”
“You’re awfully protective for a keeper.”
I smirked at that. “Yeah, well, I don’t like people touching my things.”
“Things.” She deflated, “Right.”
I knew I ruined what seemed to be a moment for her, and admittedly for me, and she detached herself from me, putting distance between us. “I’m going to be late for class.”
“I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“Great, I finally get the father I never had, and he’s the most overprotective human on the planet. Fun!”
I glared. “Call me your father again, and you’ll finally understand what it means to be spanked.”
Her cheeks flushed as she ducked her head and started walking in the opposite direction.
When I finally made it back to the car it was to see, with utter horror that Phoenix had his phone up like he was filming the entire thing.
“Please tell me you didn’t record that.”
“I didn’t record it.” His lips twisted into an amused smile. “I went live.”
I grabbed the knife f
rom my boot and threw it at the nearest tree, only to hear him say. “That too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Alice
DAMN, ANDREI MADE such a ridiculous scene that nobody would talk to me for the rest of the day, and poor Mitchell my new lab partner tried to quit! One day in! I needed a partner to pass things!
Now I was alone.
And while I appreciated the over protectiveness, while it made me warm inside for a nanosecond, now I was just pissed.
I’d always wanted someone to watch out for me. Someone to care for me. I mean wasn’t that what brothers were for? Fathers? To be the guy that threatens all your boyfriends with a gun? Or gives you a curfew? I never had any of that, and admittedly it felt good to have someone care.
What didn’t feel good was being socially ostracized because he was worried about a guy who still lived at home and played Fortnite until one a.m.
My last class wasn’t very exciting. It was a four hundred level business comm class that I wanted to yawn my way through, but I was still thankful, thankful that I was doing something, not being trapped in my room waiting for the worst and not being trapped in my own closet battling my own feelings against the monster who owned a club that raped women.
It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a rapist.
He supported it.
I checked the clock and grabbed my things as the professor dismissed us. Nobody made eye contact with me as I weaved my way through students and finally exited the building.
My breathing stuttered when I saw Andrei leaning against the side of the building closest to me, his V neck so low that I saw a swirl of tattoos, his golden blond hair was combed messily to the side, his jeans were tight against his legs, tucked lazily into his jeans, his maroon shirt was thin enough that I could see the tight corded muscles of his six pack and the bulging biceps every stupid time he texted on his phone.
It didn’t help that his aviators were low on his face, or that I could see the small diamond piercing in his nose as it twinkled toward me as if to say, come and get me.
It was irritating.
My own reaction to a man who I knew was bad.
To a man who cut out my own brother’s tongue. He was both hero and villain, and I didn’t know how to mix the two together.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one staring either.
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