I need to kill him. But I’m out of bullets. His dark eyes stare back at me unmoving, threatening me. Like they did that night that he took me. After they’d all had their turn. After he’d killed my father. When I thought he’d end my life, instead he took me. He took Viagra so he could make sure he got everything he wanted from me. He tortured me. He trained me to be nothing but a toy for him. He used me to broker deals. He made sure I felt like a whore. Like I was nothing but a slave to him. Like I owed him for not taking my life.
Those eyes stare back at me. I point the gun, but nothing happens. Click. Click. Click. I hear screaming and bullets flying around me. Men run past me in a blur. Click. Click.
I can’t let him live. I drop to the ground. My knees slam hard into his chest as I smash the butt of the gun against his face. I do it as hard as I can. The gun stings my hand as the metal crunches bone. I raise my arm higher and slam it into his face again. And again. Hot blood splashes against my chest. I do it again, and instead of crunching bone I’m met with the sick sounds of soft flesh.
I look down at what I’ve done. I’m breathing heavily. My hand is covered in blood, still gripping the gun. My face and chest are splattered with blood. I look for his eyes in the mess beneath me. I gasp and hardly take in the sight before strong arms grip me from behind and pull me into him.
“Don’t look,” a voice whispers in my ear. Kane. The gun falls from my hand and I turn in his grasp.
“Kane.” I hold onto him. My fingers dig into his back. Kane. He’ll save me. He’ll fix this. Shock and horror grip my heart, stilling it and freezing my blood. “I’m sorry.” I pull away from him and look him in the eyes. My bottom lip trembles as I apologize again. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shhh. It’s alright. It’s alright.”
“Am I still your good girl?” I ask. He looks at me with a pained expression. I’m still good. I can be his good girl. It was only once. I’m still good. I can still be good. I need him to forgive me. I need to be his good girl. If I’m not, then I’m nothing. Images of Vadik’s eyes and his yellow teeth flash before my eyes. I hear his voice taunting me in my head. “You’re nothing but mine.” I bury my head in Kane’s chest and shake my head, willing the images to go away.
No. I’m not his. I’m not his. I’m Kane’s. I’m Kane’s good girl. I’m his good girl. I’m still good. “Please,” I whisper into his hard chest. Tears sting at the back of my eyes, threatening to fall, but not coming. “Am I still your good girl?” My voice cracks, and my throat dries with a harsh scratch on each word.
“Shh. You’re still my good girl.” His hand comes down on my back and runs soothing strokes over my tense body.
Everything’s alright. I lean into his embrace and breathe in deep. I take comfort in his warmth. I’m Kane’s now. The thought soothes a sick part of me. A darkness within me wanes, but it’s still there.
Kane
“You’re alright, baby.” I kiss her hair and look around the room. I can’t fucking believe she’s the one who fired first. She put herself in danger. She put the rest of us in danger. To be fair though, we all knew. Every fucking one of us was wearing Kevlar. They weren’t. Cocky fuckers.
Dead bodies are still lying on the ground. Two have been removed. Their blood left streaks across the floor as they were dragged out of the room. Valettis. It fucking hurts my chest. Two lost. But that’s two too many. The cleanup crew sprays something on the ground. They’re almost done cleaning up the evidence they don’t want found.
One’s a young boy, maybe in his early 20s. He wasn’t here when this shit started. He’s not one of the group that flew in here when bullets started flying. Vince was smart. The numbers were stacked in his favor, but they were hidden.
I need to take her out of here. I walk us to the back quickly and spot an open door with soft voices coming from beyond the jamb. At this distance I can only make out incoherent murmurs. I know it’s the women, though. The shipment. I walk to the open doorway and take a look inside.
Nine women are lying on their sides in the middle of the room. They’re strung out on something so fucked, they couldn’t even sit in the chairs. They’re normal women. Wearing I’m guessing whatever clothes they were taken in. The entire room smells like piss. Most have scratches or bruises somewhere on their bodies.
One woman is leaning against the wall. Her eyes are vacant and her body is swaying. Two men are beside her. One is holding her up, while the other is kneeling on the floor. The one kneeling digs through a small black bag. When he looks up at her, I recognize him as Anthony. He stands up, opens her eyes, and flashes a small light into them.
Fuck. That poor woman. All of them.
I force myself to look away. They’re safe now. But they wouldn’t have been. I wish I could’ve done something more. I wish I’d done something sooner, before any of this shit happened. Maybe this sick feeling is why my uncle turned to the feds. Regret consumes me. I know I’d be dead if I had acted earlier, though. And then where would those women be? I hold Ava tighter and keep walking.
Vince is straight ahead. I have to ask to make sure. “You call them yet?”
“Not yet.” We're just waiting on Anthony to give the okay to leave them so we’re gone when the LEOs get here.
“They need to remain in the room.” His eyes dart to Ava. “Just so they'll be easily found.” My grip on her tightens.
“I understand.” I say it simply, but my tone is hard.
“We’re all set, boss. She’s gonna make it,” Anthony announces from behind me. He walks past me to Vince. As he stands at his boss’s side, he also looks at Ava and then at me.
I won’t fucking do it. She needs me. I won’t leave her with the Valettis. And they aren’t taking me away from her either. I struggle to come up with an excuse. I know she’s not okay. The way she looked after she fucking mutilated Vadik. I know she’s not alright. But I can help her. I need to be there for her. I know they won’t let her go when she knows as much as she does. She’s a mafia princess. She should be respected and she knows the rules to keep her mouth shut. But I don’t know if they’ll live up to the unspoken rules. I’m not letting her go. Not with them. Not with anyone.
Vince stares at me as he answers Anthony. “Alright, time to call 'em.” He finally looks at Anthony and says, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
The two of them walk past me and Vince glances over his shoulder. “You’ll hear from me later tonight.”
I nod my head and stay right there, holding onto my girl. The thought warms my chest. That’s exactly who she is. My girl.
I hear the men yell as Vince turns the corner and tells them to get the fuck out. I take that as my cue and walk her out of the back. I quicken my steps to get to my car as fast as fucking possible and get her in the passenger side. The other cars are in front of me, but the Valettis aren't there yet. I look to my right and there’s no one there. As I walk around the car to my side I look to my right, still no one.
And then I open my door and slide in, my heart beating wildly in my chest. I feel like a fucking thief. I need to get her out of here. I put the car in reverse and look in the rear view mirror.
Vince looks at my car, and I swear he makes eye contact with me. But then he turns around and walks to a black Range Rover in the back.
I know he saw us.
I don’t know what he’s going to do about it.
But I don’t fucking care. She’s mine.
Ava
“I’m sorry, baby,” Kane says, as the blade slips out and blood runs down my arm. I wince at the sight, and seethe through my teeth. I turn away as he uses the tweezers to get the tracker out before wrapping a towel around my arm. It doesn’t hurt right now because of the drugs I'm on, but I know it’s going to catch up with me later. Fear grips me, but then I remember. They’re all dead. No one is going to know it’s out of me. Even if they do, they don’t have the backing to come for me. All of them are fucked with the data Tony found and sent to the police.
I look back at my arm as the towel grazes my hand. He takes the towel away and I’m surprised to find only a small and neat cut where the tracker used to be. He’s quick to put a small bandage over it. His hand travels the length of my arm and stops at my wrist where a small barcode is tattooed. Instinctively, I itch to touch the scar on my shoulder. These are two marks that will forever stay with me, and they’ll never let me forget.
He stands with the bloodied tracker wrapped in the towel and walks to the front door. He grabs the hammer that's sitting on the stairway banister before going outside. I close my eyes and listen as he smashes the tracker to nothing.
I wait in the silence for him to tell me what to do. There’s no plan; I’m not certain he’ll keep me. If he doesn’t want me, I’ll have nowhere to go. I grew up in the States, before we moved back to Russia, but I have no family here. I have no family at all anymore.
My chest feels hollow and rings with pain. If Kane doesn’t want me, I have no one. I have nothing. I hear Vadik’s vicious words in my head as he sneers, “You are nothing.”
I shake my head and close my eyes tightly, denying it. I can’t be nothing. I cross my arms and grab my shoulders, needing to be held. I don’t want to be nothing.
“Ava, baby, what’s wrong?” I open my eyes and see Kane. His arms open and wrap around me, bringing me into his chest.
I’m not nothing. I’m his.
I hold onto him and bury my head in his chest. I need to hear him say it. I need that, but I don’t dare ask. I’m too afraid to hear the answer.
“It’s all going to be alright. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I’m sorry I even brought you along.” My eyes open at his words, but he can’t see that. I’m not sorry I was there. I’m fucking happy I killed them. But he wouldn’t be happy with that.
What kind of person am I that I revel in the fact that I’m the one who killed him?
“Ava, I’m going to ask you this once. Do you want to stay with me?” I pull away from him, eager to answer. But before I can, he puts a finger over my lips to shush me.
“Just hear me out first.” I nod my head as his finger leaves my lips. I don’t care what he has to say though. My answer is already decided.
“I have enough money to take us wherever we need to go. I was smart about shit, and we can get by for a long fucking time. But I don’t have anything else lined up. I don’t know where we’ll go.” His eyes look past me, and his face turns stern. “Before we leave, I have to have a chat with Vince, too.” He swallows hard before looking back at me.
He cups my chin in his hand, and tilts my head to face him. He leans in with his nose brushing mine, and plants a small kiss on my lips. “But this is real for me. What we shared. I’ve never felt that before, and I want it, Ava. More than anything else.”
His words melt my heart. A warmth floods through me. Security, desire, and something else. Something I’m afraid to admit.
“I want it too, Kane. Please.” I look up at him through my thick lashes and see a sexy-as-fuck grin growing on his face.
“I’m all yours then. I’ll take care of us, baby.”
“Yes, Kane,” I say diligently. He backs away slightly, and I have to force my expression to remain as he likes it.
“You okay, Ava?” he asks, with a slightly worried tone in his voice.
No, I’m not. I know I’m not okay. But he won’t want this fucked-up version of me.
I press my lips together to keep the automatic response of “Yes, Kane” from coming through. He doesn’t like that. Or he at least doesn’t want it right now. So I nod my head instead and offer him a sweet smile.
He smirks at me and leans in for another kiss before saying, “Good girl.”
It soothes the broken part of me. That’s all I need right now. I just need to keep being his good girl.
Kane
My nerves are getting the best of me. I like Vince. I like the other fuckers sitting in the room--Tommy, Anthony, and Dom. But I know he’s pissed at me. I directly disobeyed him again. He’s fucking pissed. I just got here. And Dom brought me back here without saying a word. We’re in the same office as before. I’m sure they aren’t planning on getting rid of me here, though. Mostly because there’s a nice carpet beneath my feet and not a plastic tarp.
“What are you doing, Kane?” Vince finally asks. His fists are clenched and laying on the table. Pretty sure this isn’t going to come to blows, but if it does, I’m gonna be pissed. He’s the Don, and he has every right to beat the shit out of me. I’m not going to be able to fight back. That’d be a serious infraction. But I won’t fucking like it. Technically I could fight back, but I don’t want to be an enemy of the Valettis. That, and there are three other men in the room that could hold me down. Maybe it’s a compliment that so many men are present.
“I have feelings for her, Vince. She needs me. I’m not going to lose her.” I push the words out. I don’t know if he’ll understand, but he’s going to have to get used to it.
She’s mine. And it’s staying that way.
“And how are you going to take care of her? You’ve got a target on your back, and no family behind you.” He narrows his eyes and leans forward before adding, “What are you going to do about that?”
Is this fucker serious? Is he really questioning my ability to take care of Ava? That motherfucker. I bite my tongue and try real fucking hard not to turn my hands into white-knuckled fists. But I fail miserably.
I watch as his eyes travel to my fists and he smirks. “You don’t like that, do you?”
“No, I don’t fucking like what you’re implying.”
“The fact that she’d be better off without you.” He leans back and shrugs as he says, “All of our women would be better off without us. We know it. They know it.” He points a finger at me. “You know it, too.”
A tightening pain spreads through my chest. I know she would be better off without me. But I’m a fucking bastard, and she said yes. That’s all I need to keep her. I stare back at him with the air between us crackling.
“I’m not letting her go,” I bite out, making sure he knows we’re going to have problems if he tries to take her from me.
“That’s fine.” His eyebrows raise. “But that’s not what I asked. What are you going to do, Kane? Where are you going to go?”
I try to relax some. I take a moment to think of an answer. I could go anywhere, and do anything. But I’m fucking good at being in the mob. I’m damn good at what I do. That, and Vince is right; there’s a huge fucking target on my back. Now I’ve taken out two families that were big names. It’s not good to be too well-known.
People tend to disappear when they reach a certain level of visibility. They’re a threat, they’re also a competitor. I don’t need every fucking guy out there thinking he can prove something by getting the best of me. And that’s a very real possibility at this point.
“I’m asking you what your plan is, because I need someone I can trust, and I'm not sure if that person is you.” The last line comes out hard. His anger is coming back in full force.
“What can I do for you?” For the first time in a long time, hope starts to creep up on me. If I can get into Vince’s good graces, things may turn out to be just fine. People don’t fuck with the Valettis. It’d be a dream come true to get in tight with them. Maybe I could become a made man if I can prove my loyalty to them. My blood spikes with doubt. Ava. I doubt Vince would make me a made man for constantly going rogue.
But I can fucking try.
“Tommy’s being watched. He’s out on bail.”
My eyes dart to Tommy in the corner of the room. I thought the stale air and tension in the room were solely because of me. I hadn
’t picked up on the different emotions. Vince and Anthony are pissed. Dom looks anxious as fuck. But Tommy, he just looks defeated.
“What do they have on you?” I ask him.
“My prints at the scene, on one of the women’s shoes...” He pauses and looks at the ceiling before continuing. “And one of them said she recognized me.” Fuck. That’s so fucking bad. But they were all drugged up, so I can’t imagine it’s going to stick.
“So the women, and all of Petrov’s dead men.” His voice is flat.
“They’re pinning all that on you?” Holy fuck! Tommy is screwed.
“The evidence is minimal, which is why he’s out.” Vince cuts in. “Well that, and we have the judge in our pocket.” Even with a judge on their side, those charges aren’t going to be easy to beat.
“They want him to talk more than anything. Those fuckers will pin anything they can on us to fuck us over.” Vince is getting worked up again, so I stop him and get back to the conversation at hand.
“So what do you need, boss?” I ask him, leaning forward in my chair.
He gives me a small, crooked smile. “I’m gonna need for you to take over Tommy’s route in the meantime. I believe you would be a good fit.”
Pride fills my chest and I nod slowly, although I’m eager to take this opportunity.
“I’m happy to help however I can.”
“Good,” Vince says, smacking his hand on the desk.
“I won’t disappoint you guys,” I say, looking at each of them.
“I know you won’t.” Vince smirks. “That’s why I asked you.”
I smile back at him and get ready to take down all the information I’m gonna need from Tommy. But before I can open my mouth Vince adds, “You’re not off the hook just yet, though. We’re watching your girl.”
“Watching?”
“Just to make sure you’re the kind of man I think you are. We don’t tolerate certain things like other families do.”
Those Boys Are Trouble Page 44
