Bound by Blood (Fire & Vice Book 6)

by Nikita Slater

  Laney’s mouth fell open and she was about to burst into laughter when Boris looped an arm around her waist and carried her out of the kitchen and down the dark hallway. He clapped a large hand over her lips just as the giggles erupted. She was helpless to stop them though, and stood with her back against the dark paneling of Sitnikov’s hallway, shaking with laughter while Boris held her closely against his body. He chuckled quietly over top of her head while making sure they weren't overheard.

  “It would be bloodbath in there if they thought you were insulting their precious English teacher,” he explained in a whisper. “They have become quite attached to young Lucy Miller.”

  Understanding hit Laney and she nodded her head against his hand. Lucy Miller was Jane Sitnikov’s younger sister. Laney licked Boris’ hand to let him know she was back under control and he could move it.

  “Blyad,” he groaned eagerly against the top of her head, “definitely do that again.”

  Laney laughed and shoved his hand away. “Give me space to breathe, Godzilla.”

  He took a step back with a sigh of regret and watched her face closely. “Ah, you have nickname for me now? I think we are making progress in our relationship.”

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but continued to grin. “There is no relationship.”

  “You are even more beautiful when you smile, Laney kotenok.”

  “I told you not to call me that. No more nicknames!” she snapped. After a moment she asked, “Did Lucy Miller help you with your English as well. I’ve noticed you have improved. You spoke well before, but better now.”

  He nodded his head. “She started with me. Offered a language suggestion one day and seemed pleased when I took it. Then started sitting down to meals and giving more advice. Gradually some of the guys began sitting down as well until the lessons became more formal. Now Sitnikov pays for her time. It seems to be mutually beneficial. Keeps her busy while she's on Rumspinga and the guys are able to do business better.”

  A giggle escaped Laney’s mouth before she could stop it. “I’m sure the choice of reading material is extremely helpful when those guys are haunting strip clubs and making their street deals.”

  Boris grinned. “Little Women is her favourite book. No one argues with Lucy Miller or they have Jane Sitnikov to deal with.”

  Laney could read between those lines. You argue with Jane Sitnikov then you’re arguing with Vladimir Sitnikov and by extension Boris Grekov. She nodded, her lips twitching in amusement. “Far safer just to read the book and soak up the classic literature. Let me know if there’s a movie night?”

  “Da,” Boris responded quickly. “Tomorrow night, my place. Pajamas optional.”

  Laney laughed and rolled her eyes. “Can I meet Lucy Miller? I actually have a wedding invitation for her.”

  He looked surprised. “I did not know Claudia had met Lucy.”

  Laney shrugged. “They haven’t, but Claudia knew she was in town and didn’t want to exclude any member of the Sitnikov family. Besides, she is certain she will get along extremely well with this member of the family as she’s been raised with manners,” Laney said pointedly.

  Boris ignored the jab and escorted her back into the kitchen where Lucy was wrapping up her lesson. Laney had to bite her lip to stop the laughter when one of the guys began asking questions about Jo’s relationship with her youngest sister Amy. He wanted to know how one sister could be so strong and talented while the other could be so frivolous. Lucy answered his questions patiently and with zero sarcasm. Laney thought the woman was a saint.

  “Lucy, I would like to introduce you to my good friend, Laney Paul,” Boris said when the last man left the room. He took Laney’s arm and led her toward Lucy.

  Lucy looked up from where she was standing next to the kitchen table and beamed at Laney. She wore a knee length dark brown suede skirt and a white blouse. Her light brown hair was tossed back in a loose knot at the base of her neck. She reached out and shook Laney’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you, Laney,” she said softly. “I’ve heard all about you from this big guy.”

  Laney raised an eyebrow toward Boris and smiled back at Lucy. “It’s also good to meet you. I have a wedding invitation here for you. I know you haven’t met the bride or groom, but they would be very pleased if you accepted their invitation as an extension of the Sitnikov family.”

  Lucy looked both surprised and pleased as she reached out to take the envelope with her name on it. “I’ve never been to a non-Amish wedding!” she said excitedly. “I’ll get to go shopping for a dress!”

  Laney’s smile relaxed into something more indulgent as she watched the young woman’s genuine pleasure over something so simple. Though they were only a few years apart in age, Laney felt much older. She had never felt such simple joy. Life had been far too complicated and brutal for such pleasures. She wasn’t jealous though. Lucy was too sweet. She wished her joy.

  “Awesome,” Jane said sarcastically, striding into the kitchen. “Can’t wait. I assume you’ll make me go dress shopping with you?”

  “Of course!” Lucy chirped happily. “I always dreamed of going shopping with big sister.”

  Boris chuckled at the sisters’ banter. Jane turned laser-like dark eyes on him. “Oh, you’ll be coming with us, bodyguard. Wouldn’t want the precious Sitnikov ladies to get into trouble while couture shopping. In fact, I think we should invite Anastasia. I know she’s a bridesmaid and has a dress picked out already, but she can offer advice.”

  Boris groaned and covered his eyes, shaking his head. He turned to face a smirking Laney and asked grumpily. “Any more invitations, or have you finished causing mayhem?”

  She held three more up like cards in a deck. She handed over Jane and Vladimir’s invitation, as well as one other. “This one’s for your business partner, Mackenzie Hudson. Can you see that he gets it?”

  Jane nodded and glanced sideways at her sister. Lucy looked suddenly uncomfortable and busied herself clearing books and papers off the kitchen table. Laney frowned.

  Perhaps Claudia should not have extended an invitation to the man. Laney had mentioned his presence at the bodyguard’s poker game and Claudia knew of him from his association with Jane. Thus the invitation. Laney was not one to gossip, but she couldn’t wait to rush back to Claudia and tell her a little of what was happening at the Sitnikov mansion. Perhaps then Claudia might be distracted away from causing mischief in Laney’s personal life.

  “Is that all?” Boris asked, his deep voice confused and somewhat disappointed. He and Claudia had become friends over the past several months.

  Laney sighed and closed her eyes. She slapped his invitation against his chest, turned on her heel and strode toward the front door.

  “I like her!” Lucy Miller’s voice floated down the hall after her.

  “Right?!” Jane agreed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Laney stared at herself in the mirror and sighed in despair. She was unrecognizable. How had her life come to this? One moment she was a top Yakuza assassin being sent out on assignment, the next she was a… bridesmaid? And she had actual female friends, something she’d never been able to claim before coming to North America.

  The door burst open and Laney automatically reached for her gun, only to realize it was not sheathed in its usual place at her back. Instead, she had it tucked into a holster between her thighs. Not a comfortable place, but there was no way she was walking down a freaking aisle without a weapon. And the rose-coloured, satin sheath she was wearing gave her few concealment options. Three women rushed through the door. Two dressed similarly to Laney and one dressed in a stunning white creation that cost more than the groom wanted to know.

  “Holy shit, she’s actually wearing a dress!” Anya shouted. She wore a strapless, knee-length crinoline-skirted version of the rose-coloured satin dress that had Laney wondering how she ended up with a scoop-necked tight version that showed every damn curve. “You owe me fifty dollars, Addie!”


  “Seriously?” Addison said, entering the room on Claudia’s arm. She looked stunning in her own version of the dress that bared one shoulder and draped classically down her tall, curvy body, kissing every inch lovingly. Claudia definitely had an eye for fashion and figures. “I guess I underestimated how much Laney loves Claudia.”

  “I love my job. She threatened to fire me,” Laney grumbled, tugging on the skirt and hoping it didn’t look as figure-hugging as the mirror indicated.

  Claudia put Addison’s hand on the back of a chair and reached out to run her fingers through Laney’s hair, smoothing the beautiful, straight black hair over the younger woman’s shoulders. She stepped in front of Laney and hugged the smaller, deadlier woman close. Laney usually had a pretty strict no-touching policy, unless it was ass-kicking lesson time, but she figured since it was Claudia’s wedding day she could relax her professional persona a touch.

  “You look stunning,” Claudia whispered, pulling back, her green eyes sparkling with tears.

  “Your make-up will run,” Laney said in as practical a voice as she could manage, her own eyes tearing. She blinked back the unfamiliar sensation and stepped back from the taller woman.

  Having friends was so new to her that she often found herself navigating uncomfortable situations and sensations with these three women. She jerked her head around in annoyance at a clicking sound to find Anya taking pictures.

  Anya grinned unrepentantly. “Blackmail material. I doubt you want pics of you in a dress and make-up hanging around for all eternity.”

  “You have no filter, small purple-haired Russian brat!” Laney snapped, reaching under her dress, determined to once again shove a gun in Anya’s face, their usual method of communication.

  Claudia laughed throatily. “We don’t have time for this. It’s aisle time ladies, and I assure you, if you think I've been a bridezilla up till now, you’ve seen nothing yet if anything fucks up my perfect wedding day.”

  Anya stopped taking pictures and rolled her eyes. “Fine. I think I got one of her with her hand all up in her business anyway. Besides, you have the biggest hitters from the Russian and Italian mafia out there and your personal bodyguard is wearing Elie Saab with a gun strapped to the inside of her thigh. How exactly do you think your wedding day is going to go flawlessly?"

  Laney growled at the pixie-like troublemaker.

  Claudia grinned and hugged Anya. “You are a grade A pain in my ass and I still love you! Even after all that tequila at my bachelorette… and the penthouse pool full of strawberry Jell-O.”

  “It didn’t work out the way I planned. It was more like Jell-O soup,” Anya complained thoughtfully while Addison giggled in the background. “Your pool it way too big, Clods. Next time I’ll have to bring more than 300 Jell-O packets.”

  Laney wanted to laugh too, but she bit her lip. She’d never in her life done anything so outrageous or fun. She thought she was going to get fired when Daniel discovered them. He’d merely looked surprised, helped discreetly pull the naked, drunk and dyed pink women from the pool and had security take them home while he took care of his own woman. To be fair, it was Laney’s day off and Claudia told her she had a duty as a bridesmaid to attend the bachelorette party. She had discovered the next morning, during her very first hangover, exactly how much of a sacrifice that duty could be.

  “You’ve been banned from my penthouse for the foreseeable future, according to my imminent husband,” Claudia announced. “As for the less savoury elements of my wedding guests, your brother is out there, Anastasia, and he’s the scariest of the bunch. As the adored younger sister of Vladimir Sitnikov, I expect you to pull out some serious pout action on behalf of your best friend if he decides to fuck up my wedding day.”

  Anya stood up straight as her diminutive height would allow and gave Claudia a salute, “On it, bestie! Let’s get on with this bitch. There’s an open bar out there with my name on it!”

  Addison made her way over to Laney and gently took her elbow. Leaning over, she whispered in Laney’s ear, “Don’t tell her she’s part of the wedding party and subject to pictures before she gets to hit up the reception.”

  A small smile curved Laney’s lips. “I’m happy to keep her in order.”

  “If only your methods weren’t so violent.”

  “Violence makes me feel peaceful. I sleep better at night after a good ass-kicking,” Laney whispered back.

  Addison laughed and squeezed Laney’s arm affectionately. “You are as much of a brat as Anya. You just hide it better.”

  “Are we ready?” Claudia asked, adjusting her dress and turning her beautiful eyes toward her three friends. “I think I’ve left my groom sweating long enough.”

  Tyson King was an orphan and had few close friends. The only person he wanted standing at his side was Daniel Mercer. As there was only one groomsman and three bridesmaids, one of which was blind, she decided to send the three women down the aisle together, side by side.

  Addison stood tall between Laney and Anya, trusting her two smaller friends to get her to the front of the beautifully decorated ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton. They moved easily up the aisle between the chairs, confident with each other. As they neared the front, Laney felt the moment his eyes touched her. Though her feet, in strappy silver heels, continued gliding forward, in her mind, she stumbled. Recoiled.

  Boris Grekov never failed to rattle her. It infuriated her. He was her prey. Not the other way around. She should be deadly cool in his presence. Stalking him, like the predator she was raised to be. Yet he rattled her composure, made her burn up inside in a way that she had never experienced. It was very annoying. Usually Laney killed things that annoyed her. It was a good thing Boris was her target. She only awaited the green light from the Master.

  Laney swiftly brought her focus back to her current, and most difficult, task: walking in heels up an aisle with two other women. Not a direction she ever saw her life going in when she was a girl learning the difference between offensive and defensive weapons. But her mother had taught her to adapt and embrace change. To have a good heart, even if she had to hide it.

  As if sensing her discomfort, Addison ran her fingers along Laney’s forearm in a soothing manner. Laney squeezed Addison’s elbow in acknowledgement and held her carefully between herself and Anya as they approached the flowered arch at the front of the aisle. She had been careful not to look over at the chairs and had no idea where Boris was sitting, though she could still feel his eyes on her. If lust were a physical presence, she would be in it’s embrace at that very moment. She could feel the heat rolling off of him from wherever he was sitting.

  Laney blushed. She sincerely hoped it was her imagination and no one else could see how much the giant man wanted her. He made very little secret of his obsession for her. It was like his pride meant nothing in the face of his overwhelming need to possess her. Which was going to make things very awkward when she finally had to kill him.

  Laney glanced up when the guests fell silent and turned in their seats to look toward the doors of the ballroom. Everyone stood as Claudia appeared. She was truly stunning in a Vera Wang wedding dress. It kissed every inch of her tall, curvy showgirl frame from the sweetheart neckline, across her full breasts and over her hips and thighs to her satin shoes. Her parents stood beaming proudly on either side of her.

  They had flown in from Canada two days before and thrown themselves into the wedding planning, though they were clearly somewhat stunned by their soon-to-be son-in-law’s wealth. For almost a year they had believed their only child dead, a victim of the worst elements of a Las Vegas lifestyle. They’d been overjoyed to learn that Alicia, now named Claudia, had not only survived but was engaged to be married to a man that clearly worshipped the ground she walked on. It had taken a while for Claudia to explain why she needed to disappear from their lives and to convince them that she was truly happy, but her bond with her parents had finally won them over.

  The look on Claudia’s face as she reac
hed for Tyson at the front of the aisle told them everything they needed to know. Claudia and Tyson would never be separated.

  Still, Laney could feel Boris’ unwavering stare on her alone.

  ***

  “Laney!” Anya yelled breathlessly, running up behind her and shoving her headlong into the arms of a burly man before she could launch a protest with a bladed weapon. “You haven’t danced at all tonight and bridesmaids have to dance. It’s our sacred duty. Laney, meet Sergei. Sergei, meet Laney.”

  Laney looked up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen and a grinning face. One hand landed heavily on her waist and another on her wrist as though anticipating a protest. The man, clearly Russian based on his name and the tattoos littering the visible parts of his body, swept her onto the dance floor and began shuffling around the other couples with Laney held tightly in his arms. She thought about seriously maiming him and then remembered Claudia’s bridezilla threat.

  He held her closely, intimately against his gym-hardened body. He oozed sexuality. She couldn’t stand him.

  “I wanted to meet you,” he said with a heavy, guttural accent.

  Glaring at him suspiciously, she said, “I don’t know you.”

  “Do you know everyone here?” he asked.

  “Of course. I had to help vet the guest list for security. You were not on it, Sergei,” she spat out his name as though it were an insult. His grin widened and he glanced at something over her shoulder.

  “I believe Mr. King allowed my employer, Mr. Sitnikov, to bring three of his own security detail besides Boris Grekov, who is guest also. Is this not so?”

  So, he was a Russian thug.

  Laney ignored the question. Her sharp mind began to wonder why Anya would push her into dancing with this man when she felt a very large, very annoyed presence at her back. An answer to her question. The diminutive troublemaker knew that it would piss off Boris most to see Laney dancing with one of his own men. She was really going to shoot Anya this time. Maybe in the soft fleshy part of her arm so it would hurt a lot and bleed like a bitch, but she would survive. It wouldn’t do to actually murder the Sitnikov girl and piss off her cage fighter husband and mafia brother. Besides, Laney secretly liked the little brat despite her never-ending shenanigans. The grin slid from Sergei’s face and he stepped away from her, melting into the dancing crowd. Laney knew without turning exactly who stood behind her.