by K. J. Dahlen
Raven nodded sadly. “He would tell me that Nicky was getting old enough to go foster with a friend of his. This man liked boys about the age of nine or ten. He would teach Nicky all the pleasures he would need to learn to satisfy a real man’s pleasure.” Raven shuddered as tears formed in her eyes. “Carlos liked to lock us up in a small windowless closet for punishment when we pissed him off. The last night we were there, he tore Nicky away from me and locked him in that damn closet. He told me if I refused to do this job, he would be gone in the morning and I’d never see my brother again. I did the job and when I got back to the house, I could hear Carlos talking in the garage. That’s when I found out he was going to sell Nicky that night. He told his friends that I was going to Big Jimmy’s as well.”
The men all around her looked enraged. Nikoli had his hands curled into fists.
She took a deep breath and let it out as she spoke, “I wasn’t going to lose Nicky, not like that and not to a man that would abuse him in that way. I snuck in the house and hit Rachel, his wife over the head. She was standing guard over the closet. I got Nicky out of there and we took off. We lived on the streets for several years moving around the state. We never stayed in one place very long. We changed our names every time we moved. Then about three years ago, we came back to New Orleans. We kept out of trouble for the most part.” She turned a glare on Nicky.
Nicky chuckled. He blushed a bit and told everyone what she was talking about, “I try to stay clean but every once in a while, I take something that doesn’t belong to me. That’s how we got caught this time.” He glanced over at Yuri. “I lifted your wallet the other day. I didn’t know who you were and when I found out, Raven brought your wallet back. She said she left it in the penthouse and I thought we were safe.”
Yuri turned to her. “So you were here last night?”
Raven nodded.
“Have you been here before last night?”
Raven blushed. “Yes, I have been here a couple of times.”
“Why?” Yuri asked with an arched brow.
“Yes, Raven why?” Nicky asked teasingly. “You always yelled at me when I lifted a wallet. It’s good to know you haven’t been without blame.”
“The reasons don’t matter,” Nikoli told them. “You do not have to steal wallets anymore and you will cease breaking into someone’s home. Neither of you need to steal anymore.”
Raven shook her head. “You may have a claim on Nicky but you don’t have one on me. I don’t belong to you.”
“You’re still my sister,” Nicky reminded her.
Raven shook her head as a lone tear fell down her cheek. “But I’m really not.”
Nicky wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear, “I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I’ll love you even more tomorrow.”
Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as she hugged him back.
“You have watched over my son like no one else could,” Nikoli stated with reverence in his voice. “You have protected him against the world and for that, I will always be grateful. You may not actually be siblings, but you have grown up together and I will not tear you apart now.”
“We have yet to deal with Carlos,” Yuri reminded them all.
“Yeah, he followed us to their apartment. He rushed in to try and take the boy,” Kosta told his boss. “We took out a couple of his men but he may have followed us back to the hotel.”
“He did.” Yuri sneered. “He even came to my office and tried to tell us he wanted our place on the Council.”
Kosta gasped. “And how did that turn out?”
“He bragged he had the medallion and that he could get us kicked out of the city.” Yuri chuckled.
“What did you say to him?” Kosta knew the medallion was missing and had been missing for the last ten years.
Yuri smiled and pulled the medallion out from under his shirt. “Raven took the medallion ten years ago just before she left Carlos’s house. She returned it in front of him. Needless to say, Carlos was very angry with her.”
“The stupid man pulled a gun on her and would have shot her if Stephanou hadn’t rushed him,” Nikoli explained. “As it was he threatened her life in front of us.”
Kosta turned to Yuri. “And you let this man live?”
“I had Stephanou put him in a cell in the basement. Tomorrow, the Council will decide his fate and those he swears who will come after Raven for her betrayal.”
“If they fail to give us justice, I know of a place that will carry his carcass to the underworld.” Kosta nodded. He turned to stare at Nikoli. “What are we going to do about Andria?”
Nikoli turned to Raven. “I know she’s still your mother. I wish for justice for my Bethany and for what she did to Nicky. I will understand if you want to plead for mercy.”
Raven didn’t have to think about it. “No, she stopped being a mother to me a long time ago. Even before Nicky, she wasn’t my mother anymore. She may have given me life but she was never my mother in any true sense of the word. From the day I was born, my grandmother was the only one who loved me. Until Nicky came into my life, that is. Then it was him and me against the world.” She paused then lowered her head. “You do what you have to do to her. She deserves your rage. She should pay for what she did.”
Nikoli put his hand under her chin and brought up her face to his level. “Are you sure, child?”
Raven nodded. “I suppose I should feel something for her, she is my mother after all, but I can’t. She left us behind with no thought to our safety or wellbeing. She left us alone and she never looked back. All she ever cared about was herself. She killed your wife and stole your son and then she threw him away. She threw her own child away too. It was like her own life meant more to her than ours ever did. For that, she needs to be accountable for something in this lifetime.” She shrugged. “That may sound harsh but it is how I feel. She had the choice to walk away from everything, Nicky and I, we didn’t have a choice.”
“Very well then. So be it.” Nikoli nodded.
Raven turned to Kosta. “She’s living as Doreen Oliver. She and her new husband live in Gretna at 404 North Main Street. His name is Felix and he works as a broker here in New Orleans at the Commodities Exchange.”
Kosta got to his feet. “Thank you. I’ll bring her back here in the morning.”
After he left, Nikoli got to his feet and looked down at Nicky. “Can we go to my penthouse and talk for a while? I’m sure there are questions you need to ask, and I have many to ask you. I want to know everything that has happened in your life so far.”
Nicky got to his feet. He stared at the man for a moment then warned him, “Our life has not been an easy one. In fact, most of it sucked but we survived.”
Nikoli shrugged. “Life often is not easy and you have to do what you have to do to get by. The mere fact that you did, tells me a lot about your character.”
Nicky snorted. “Not my character, Raven’s character. After we left Carlos’s house, she fought every day to get us both through it. I was a nine year old kid and she was barely fourteen and the only skills we had were those of thieves. Not that she would let us use those skills, she was determined to give us a better life than what we had. We struggled at first but in the end, she was right. We worked hard to survive but as we got older, we got by without stealing and when we did that, our lives got easier. It wasn’t great but we got something back we never let go of. We got our self-respect back and for the first time, we could hold our heads high and look people in the eyes.” He turned and reached into his pocket. Then he held out his flatten hand to Yuri. On the tip of his fingers was a small brass key. “This fell out of your wallet but I didn’t notice it until after Raven left to bring it back. It belongs to you and I want to apologize for my actions of that day. I saw you walk past me and I saw you had something I wanted one day and I just couldn’t help myself. When I found out who you were, I couldn’t force myself to return it, so Raven had to. I can honestly say that your wallet wi
ll be the last one I take.”
Yuri accepted the key from him and shook his hand. “I thank you for the return of the key. Nikoli and I both understand how sometimes, life gets very hard and there are times when you have to wonder if you will survive it. I’m very glad you had Raven to keep you safe and whole.”
Nicky nodded. “No matter what she says, she is my sister in every way that counts. She’s been the one constant in my life so far, and I won’t forget that.”
“Nor will I,” Nikoli vowed. “But it grows late and I would like to tell you about your mother.”
Chapter Seven
When Yuri and Raven were left alone, Yuri went over to the bar and poured them both a drink. When he came back to her, he handed her a glass of red wine. Sitting down, he nursed his vodka while the silence stretched between them. “So tell me something…” he began.
Turning her head to gaze at him she asked, “What would you like to know?”
“What did you feel when your mother brought home a new baby?” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine that, not with the way she’d treated you the whole time before that day.”
Raven shrugged. “I was just a kid, barely five years old. I could say I didn’t know any better but I did. I knew she wasn’t treating me right. There was a big difference from the way she was and the way it was at my grandmother’s house. My grandma loved me, she took care of me. My mother never loved anyone but herself.”
“So when did you figure out that Nicky was Nikoli’s son?” Yuri asked with something deeper in his mind.
“I knew the moment I saw Nikoli’s face. Nicky is a younger version of him, isn’t he?” Shaking her head, she admitted reluctantly, “It’s uncanny that he should look so much like his father. I mean what are the odds?” she hesitated then added, “I read the file you had on my mother and for some reason, I knew it was all true. I guess I was hoping it wasn’t but somewhere deep inside me—I knew it was true. It was something she would do.”
“How did you come to settle here in New Orleans?” he asked as he sipped his drink.
Raven shrugged. “New Orleans is a big town. I figured it would be easy to get lost in a bigger city and with the diverse people that live here, it would be easy to be overlooked.”
“But you knew Carlos was close to the city,” he reminded her. “You knew he might see you one day, didn’t you?”
Raven paused at the tone of his words. Turning her head, she gazed into his eyes. “What are you trying so hard not to say?”
Yuri shrugged his shoulders. “I’m a little surprised that you would put yourself and your brother at risk like that. You knew Carlos was looking for you, that he’d been searching for you for a full decade. You had to know he would want you dead if he ever caught up with you again. I have to wonder why you would return here, that’s all.”
Raven set her wineglass on the coffee table in front of her and got to her feet. Yuri stood as well. She raised her hand and slapped his face. Yuri grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. “You bastard!” she cried out. Struggling to get free as his fingers tightened around her wrist.
“It seems we’ve had this conversation before,” Yuri reminded her. “Why did you come back to this city?” he demanded again. “You risked not only your life but also Nicky’s. I want to know why?” He had to subdue her struggles as she fought to break free of his hold. “When did you figure out who Nicky really was? Did you bring him back for the reward?”
Raven stopped struggling and frowned at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Ahh…” Yuri sneered. “That got your attention. The reward.”
“What reward are you talking about?” Raven demanded.
Yuri released her. “Nikoli has had a standing reward for the last twenty years for information leading him to either his son or the location of the woman who stole him. You gave him both. You are a very rich young woman now, aren’t you?”
Raven gasped and took a step back. Hurt and betrayal flashed in her eyes. “You think I came back to cash in on my brother?” she whispered in pain.
“But he isn’t really your brother, now is he?” Yuri mocked her.
“Fuck you!” she screamed at him. Her body bowed with the pain he brought to her but she wouldn’t let it break her. “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. God, I hate you so much right now.”
“It was your mother who caused all this grief and many times, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I’m sure you’ve heard that before. It is possible the two of you are working together to get every last cent you can out of Nikoli,” Yuri surmised.
Raven leaned toward him and spit in his face. “Go to hell.” She turned and started to walk away from him but didn’t get very far.
Yuri reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist. Raven screamed and struggled to get free but Yuri wouldn’t let her go. He hauled her close to him and held her tight while she fought him. She screamed and clawed at him to gain her release but he wouldn’t let her go. “Settle down wildcat.”
“Go to hell!” She countered. “Let me go.”
“Not a chance sweetheart, not a chance.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“Again with this. I think we’ve already determined that I can keep you here.” He swung her up into his arms and moved quickly through the apartment to his bedroom. He kicked the door shut with his foot and let her down. He reached behind him and turned the key in the lock. Then he slipped the key into his pocket.
Raven moved away but kept her eyes on him. She didn’t trust him in the least. “Why did you bring me in here?”
Yuri smiled. “I wanted you to know that I had to ask those questions. I had to see your reactions. I have to protect my friend Nikoli. He’s had too much grief in his life. And it’s all been by your mother’s hand.”
Raven shook her head. “But she abandoned Nicky and I too. Why would I help her get money or anything else from Nikoli? Like you said, she’s done enough damage to that poor man.” She continued to stare at him. “I’ll ask you again, why did you bring me in here?”
“I wanted to see if you tasted as sweet as you did earlier.”
She huffed and placed her arms over her chest. “Well, I guess you’ll never find that out.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Yuri whispered as he stalked her across the room.
For every step forward Yuri took, Raven took one step back. They did this until the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed. She plopped down on the bed and Yuri moved in closer to cut off her escape.
She laid a hand on his chest to push him away but when her fingers felt the heat of his body, a current went through her. She gasped slightly and his mouth came down to covers hers. She struggled but he held her in place.
His lips began a chain reaction she couldn’t stop. Liquid fire burned through her all the way to her core. Need grew within her and she couldn’t stop what she was feeling. Her mind went blank as his lips moved to her neck and down to her collarbone. He found the pulse at the base of her neck and he suckled her skin leaving behind a faint purple bruise.
Raven moaned as his hands ran up the outside of her thighs under the hem of her skirt to her hips. Her body quivered as his fingertips touched her skin. Getting ever closer to her core, he could feel the heat she had waiting for him.
Now it was Yuri’s turn to groan as he stroked the inside of her thighs. Then he was where they both wanted him to be. His fingers slipped under her lace panties and stroked her slit. He groaned again when he felt her juices coat his fingers. He grew impatient when his lips met the cloth covering her body. He wanted to taste nothing but her skin.
His hands tore at her clothing and soon, she was naked and impatient for him to return to what he was doing before. But Yuri had something more in mind. He stood to rip his own clothing off and soon, he was pulling her up high on the bed. The next thing she knew his hard body was covering hers. His hard cock pressed into her wet core.
&n
bsp; “I need you right now.” He growled. His mouth covered hers as he surged deep inside her. When he met some slight resistance, he stopped. His eyes widened in surprise but he didn’t have time to think about his discovery as Raven moved her hips upward and he couldn’t stop his response. He surged into her again and again. Panting, pressed into her core. “You’re so tight. You fit me like a glove.”
After the initial burst of pain, something else took over and she felt waves of pleasure consume her. The fluttering deep inside her grew with each stroke until she could no longer feel anything but the pleasure.
Then the overpowering feeling burst and shattered. Her body a raised up and he rode the wave of her pleasure. Her core pulsed around him, tightening almost to the point of pain. Suddenly his body shuddered in release and he roared as he poured himself inside her. His hot cum painted the inside of her as he pressed himself in deeper.
For a moment, neither of them could move. Raven stuck out her tongue and swiped at his sweaty skin. Deciding she liked the taste of him, she ran her tongue down his chest to his flat nipple.
Yuri groaned at the feelings she inspired and he felt himself growing hard again. He couldn’t believe what was happening. He’d never had this reaction before, or grown hard again, so soon after release.
He sighed, as she kept tasting him. Then his lips found her neck and he followed the vein down her neck to the base where her neck met she shoulder. He could feel her pulse pounding but what got his attention were her hard nipples pressing into his chest. Bending lower, he reached for her breasts and pulled one nipple into his mouth. Sucking her nipple, he pressed it to the roof of his mouth while his fingers found the other one and he tweaked it between his fingertips.
Yuri felt a fresh wave of juices flood his ever hardening cock and he tested it out by pulling out and pressing back in. When he felt her tighten, he pushed in deeper. His thrusts became harder and faster and when he felt her respond, he lost control. He surged inside her over and over again until he felt the blood rush to his cock and then his essence poured out into her again. At the same time, she bucked against him and orgasmed again.
