PUSHED (Capitol Corruption Series Book 1)

by Linny Lawless

  Push drove me to the MGM within twenty minutes. He followed close behind as I entered Nolan’s office first, and closed the door. Nolan was leaning back in his desk chair, his hands clasped behind his head. His legs, crossed at the ankles, were propped up on the corner of his desk. Christina stood from a chair as I marched toward her. “You were my only friend!” I shouted, slapping her hard across the face.

  Christina stumbled, bumping into Nolan’s desk and clutching her cheek, which was stained with dried mascara. Nolan chuckled. Her bottom lip trembled. “I know you will never forgive me, Nadia, but I am truly sorry.”

  “Why?”

  “I fell in love with Lucas. But I tried to break it off with him that day when we discovered you were pregnant! Then you disappeared with Push, and Lucas beat me, and kept me locked in a room in his townhome.” She began to sob. “He’s met with Gabe’s closest business partners, most of them are Russian men. He let those men hurt me too.”

  Nolan swung his feet off the desk, and stood up, “I found the little whore trying to follow me.”

  Christina looked at Nolan, “Lucas let me out of that room and is using me as bait to get to Nadia and Push. But he doesn’t know yet that they have returned to DC.”

  I stumbled back and bumped into Push’s hard chest. His warm hands covered my shoulders. “We will make her pay, Nadia. Then I can make her disappear forever - if that is what you want.” His voice was deep and menacing.

  Pain stabbed my heart, yet disgust settled in the pit of my stomach. Christina looked dejected, humiliated. I moved away from Push and walked to the big bay window outlooking the National Harbor. “Lucas will die. The corrupt enterprise and partnerships that Gabe had built all belong to me now.”

  I turned from the window as Christina collapsed into a chair, “I cannot take back what I’ve done to betray you, Nadia. But I will do anything you need me to do.”

  “Bring Lucas to me.”

  Christina rubbed the streaks of mascara and tears from her cheeks, “He has new men and he’s well-guarded.”

  “Find a way, Christina. You owe me.”

  “He’s paranoid since Tony and Jules were killed.”

  Push’s lips were set in a straight line, as one side lifted in a smirk “I enjoyed killing them.”

  I shut my eyes. A sudden flashback came to me: images of those monsters, their hands violating and brutalizing me. Their dead eyes, blood splatter, the bullets piercing their skulls in silence. Push saved my life that night.

  Christina yelped as I reached out, grabbing a fist full of her hair. “Use your whore ways to bring Lucas to me!” I let go, shoving her.

  “He plans to throw a private party for his birthday. I can find out more.”

  “After this is over, you are dead to me.”

  CHAPTER 18

  PUSH

  It was a bitter cold January night as I stood on the bank of the Potomac River in Georgetown. Nadia stood next to me, bundled up in a red wool coat, along with her grandfather, Alik. Several bright floodlights illuminated the big rig tow truck parked at the edge of the river bank as it towed a muddy black Cadillac out of the freezing water. With the resources I pulled together from key contacts within the FBI, as well as local city and county law enforcement, the puzzle pieces were swiftly coming together. The clues to Lana and Felix’s death were inside the black Cadillac.

  I got the call at 2:00AM from Justin, one of my best paid Federal agents. I hesitated to tell Nadia because of all the emotional and psychological trauma she had endured over the past few months. But my beautiful savage had suddenly become fierce and unwavering and she joined me with her eyes wide open.

  The muddy Cadillac was slowly pulled up onto the frozen river bank with a large tow wench.

  Justin and Connor, two of my best agents, had managed to keep the investigation and excavation project a secret. They walked around the Cadillac under the bright lights and opened the front doors. Water gushed out.

  Connor leaned down into the driver side and turned to us. “Skeletal remains inside! Two!”

  Nadia suddenly twisted away from me, “Let me go, Push! I have to see with my own eyes!”

  I kept a firm hold on her. “No, Nadia!” I pulled her back into my chest. She cried, tears spilling onto the lapel of my wool coat. “Let the men do their jobs.”

  Alik pulled the collar of his wool coat up to block out the night chill, his breath a frozen fog when he finally spoke, “My son and Lana were dumped in this river water all these years.” The old Russian man showed no emotion, concealing the anger and thirst for vengeance he had carried inside for years.

  Justin walked up the frozen muddy hill as Connor began the process of retrieving the skeletal remains. “Give us a week with our CSI team to get the answers you want, Push.”

  I reached out, shaking his hand, “Good work, Justin. I’ll wait for your call in seven days.”

  I led Nadia back to the car, keeping her close to me. Mac sat in the driver seat with the engine running to keep it warm inside for us. I turned back to Alik, “Come with us. My team will take good care of their bodies. Nothing for you to do here.”

  Alik watched Justin and Connor. “I need to be alone. I need a drink. Some strong Vodka.”

  Mac drove us back to the mansion. I dropped my coat onto Nadia’s blue velvet chair in the office and poured both of us a glass of bourbon. I handed one glass to her. “Here. Drink.”

  She took it, looking down at the amber liquid. “What is it?”

  “Bourbon. Drink. You need it.”

  She sipped from the glass, and coughed and heaved, “Yes, I do need this.” She hurled the glass and it shattered against the wall.

  She began to take off her clothes, “And I need you to fuck me, Push. Right here, right now.”

  She was completely naked and my eyes drank in the sight of her beautiful body, all mine to plunder, possess, and cherish. She turned away from me, leaned over and planted her hands on the mahogany desk. She spread her legs and arched her back, her round delectable ass exposed for me. I moved toward her as I unbuckled my belt. I unzipped my slacks and pulled out my cock. It was already rock solid. I grabbed her by the hips and with one hard thrust I shoved myself deep inside her.

  Nadia cried out and I grunted, fucking her fast and hard. My hand landed on her ass with a hard smack! She moaned, and I slapped her ass again. “You like that, my little savage?”

  “Yes I do! Please! It hurts and feels so good!” She breathed out.

  I leaned down, biting her shoulder, fucking her unmercifully as she whimpered and mewed. I reached down, and rubbed her soft and swollen clit with the pads of my fingers. She was so wet, making it easy for my cock to slide in and out of her. Our cries and moans reverberated against the walls of the office as we exploded together with satisfying and decadent orgasms.

  I pulled away, gathered her up into my arms and carried her to the blue velvet office chair. I sat down, planted her soft and sedated body on my lap and covered her with my coat.

  Her eyes fluttered and closed as she smiled. “Hmmm. That was exactly what I needed, Push.”

  “You don’t need to tell me because I already know. I can smell you. Sense you. I’m in tune with everything you feel.”

  I dozed off with her in my arms but awoke to see my cell phone moving across the mahogany desk, vibrating. Nolan’s name lit up the screen. She moaned as I moved reaching for the phone and answering it.

  “Yeah Nolan.”

  “It’s Alik. He’s dead.”

  I groaned “What happened?”

  “It was Lucas. He’s got a whole new entourage of fucks. One of them just delivered a bloody duffle bag here at the MGM.”

  “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

  I hung up the phone, and carried Nadia upstairs to the bedroom we slept in. I covered her with the down comforter as she stirred and opened her eyes.

  “Sleep now. I’m going to the MGM to meet with Nolan –“

  Nadia rose, grabbing my fore
arms, “What happened? Don’t go!”

  I pressed her back into the pillows, “Sleep, Nadia. Do as I say, understand?” I hated to treat her like a child, but it was the only way to keep her safe.

  I called Yuto and a few of Osamu’s men over to ensure that both Nadia and Kumiko were well-guarded. I drove my Bentley to the MGM at the break of dawn, with no regard for the speed limits on the Capital Beltway.

  I met Nolan in the lobby bar of the MGM. A petite brunette bartender handed him another drink as I sat on the bar stool beside him. There were two unrecognizable men casually dressed in suit jackets and jeans standing close by.

  I ordered a glass of neat bourbon from the bartender, then turned to Nolan. “Who are the two suits?”

  Nolan’s eyes were a bit bloodshot, telling me he had a few drinks before I arrived. “Hired me some personal protection. They’re ex special ops - making their own money in the private sector. I pay them well to keep me alive, my friend.”

  “Where is the duffle bag?”

  “It’s in the trunk of my car. Didn’t know where else to keep it.” Nolan ran a hand through his hair, making it messier than it already was. “Lucas did a job on Alik. It’s just his head and both his hands in that bag. Almost hurled my lunch. A fucking note was folded up and stuffed in his mouth that read ‘Another old man who is dead wrong’.

  I took the glass from the cocktail waitress and finished it in one swallow. I bared my teeth to the burning liquid down my throat. “I’m going to find Christina. She is giving us intel on Lucas today even if I have to beat or strangle it out of her!”

  The sun was rising when I parked in the lot of Christina’s condo complex. I stood by the front door of the building, and my timing was perfect when a middle-aged man wearing a pair of Bluetooth headphones came walking out for his morning jog. He moved, and I quickly stepped inside the door before it closed and locked behind me. I climbed the steps up to the sixth floor and knocked three times on Christina’s door. Her footsteps were faint and muffled. She wasn’t wearing shoes.

  She opened the door only a few inches, the door chain locked in place. Her brows lifted in surprise, “Go away, Push! I will call the police!”

  She screamed as I rammed my shoulder into the door, busting the chain off the hinge. It flew open, banging against the wall. My hand shot out and seized her by the throat. I squeezed and pushed her up against the wall. Both her hands grabbed at my wrist, but it was useless.

  I bared my teeth, my eyes ablaze with hunger to kill. “You will give me Lucas in two days, or I will come back and snap your neck!”

  Her mouth dropped open, gasping for air. I thumped her head against the wall again, “Understand?”

  “Yes!” She hissed.

  I let go of her throat, and she sunk to the floor, sucking in air. I shrugged my shoulders to straighten out my suit jacket and left.

  CHAPTER 19

  NADIA

  I dreamt of Alik. I stood along the high bank of the Potomac River. He waved to me from below and opened the driver side door of the muddy black Cadillac.

  “No! Don’t get in, Grandfather!” I shouted to him but I could not move my legs as he climbed into the driver seat.

  He started the engine and the wheels of the muddy Cadillac began to spin in the slippery mud, then rolled backwards into the freezing river.

  I sat in my office, staring at the golden urn that held my grandfather’s ashes. Push helped me pick out the urn made of pure gold at the crematorium. He had come home the day before to tell me that my grandfather was dead. My knees gave out and I collapsed onto the marble floor in the main foyer howling with pain, like a part of me was ripped away. Again.

  I was no longer afraid anymore and I felt so alive with the thirst for vengeance running through my veins. Gabe Russo and Lucas Peterson were vicious and soulless men, wrenching my family from me. Gabe hated my mother and he hated me too. Lucas was just as vile with his sick efforts. He tried to destroy me, and he relished at the opportunity to have the corrupt world of politics, wealth, and power in the Nation’s Capital.

  I finally realized that ever since I was a young teenager, I had a connection with Push. I was infatuated from the first night I saw him in the parlor. Even though his dark eyes were fearsome, they also had this magnetic pull on me. Yes, Push was just as corrupt and vicious as the others. He was a ruthless killer. Just knowing that he could kill me with a quick snap of my neck or a silent bullet to my skull was both thrilling and arousing at the same time. My life was in his hands, and I trusted him completely. I loved him.

  Push entered my office, looking so menacing in a tailored black suit and red tie. He stood in the doorway, adjusting the cuffs of his black shirt with a devilish grin on his handsome face. “I have a gift for you, Nadia.”

  I smiled at him, but my heart ached. “Thank you, Push. But I don’t think a gift will help take away the sadness I feel inside.”

  He was there, standing only inches away from me as I sat in my velvet blue chair. He reached down and lifted my chin. “My beautiful savage. I know there is nothing that can ease the pain and the loss you feel for your family. But I hope this gift will bring you the justice that is overdue and well-deserved.”

  He offered his hand. “Come with me. Mac will drive us.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To see your gift.”

  Push wrapped me in the Chinchilla fur and Mac drove us as powdery flakes of snow began to fall in the Washington metropolitan area that night.

  A young Japanese man, bundled in a wool coat, scarf and gloves, stood outside of The Shadows smoking a cigarette. Mac pulled the car up to the curb and as we walked up to the man, Push clasped his shoulder, “Is everything in order inside, Akio?”

  Akio exhaled his cigarette smoke and nodded, “Yes Push. Just as you requested.”

  Push nodded to Akio, took my hand and led me through the entrance door. The ceiling lights were dimmed low in the main hall of the BDSM club. In the center of the main hall, underneath one spotlight there was Lucas. His wrists and ankles were strapped with leather cuffs and bound to a Saint Andrews cross. He wore a grey suit, his shirt untucked, his tie loose. His head was slumped over, his chin resting on his chest. He was unconscious.

  I stopped, and gasped, pulling away from Push’s hand. He turned to me. “He’s not dead. Just knocked out. Now that you are here, we will wake him.”

  Bile rose from my throat and I swallowed. “I’m afraid.” I clung to Push, my breathing rapid, as panic and dread set in.

  “Breathe, Nadia. He cannot hurt you. Ever again.”

  He took my hand again and led me closer to the sleeping monster on the cross. The man Push referred to as Yuto, stood beside it. His hands were behind his back, and his eyes were focused on the two of us.

  We halted only a few feet away. Lucas was breathing, but did not stir. “You can wake him now, Yuto.”

  Yuto nodded to us, turned and pulled something out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket. It was a small white capsule. He broke it in the middle and waved it under Lucas’s nose. “Wake up, you fuck!”

  Lucas’s head shot up and his eyes opened, shaking his head. Dried blood leaked from his nose and stained his chin. He was disoriented, looking into the darkness that surrounded us. Then the realization that his wrists were bound sunk in.

  “Pig shit!” Yuto slapped him hard across the face, the sound reverberating throughout the main hall of the empty club.

  Yuto stepped away and Lucas finally realized his predicament. His eyes met mine and turned dark and ugly as he glared at me “Filthy whore! I rule this city now! You will regret this! You’re fucking dead!”

  Push moved away from me and disappeared behind the cross. Just then, everything before me became crystal clear. Yes, Lucas was a powerful man. He was malicious and vile, along with the evil men who followed him and did his bidding. This was my destiny. To be here with Push - it was meant to be. We were savages, two sharks swimming with and against the current. I
would take back everything – the corrupt empire I was born into.

  I stepped closer to the cross, as my stomach turned. I pressed my finger to my lips “Shhh… No, Lucas. This city belongs to me now. And just as today is your birthday, it is also your death day.”

  Just then, a thick wire came over his head from behind and wrapped around his throat once, twice. It was Push, pulling the wire tight. I stood there, only two feet away as Lucas’s eyes bulged with shock and his mouth dropped open. The wire was pulled even tighter, constricting and digging into the flesh of Lucas’s throat. The blood vessels in his eyes popped as he jerked and convulsed, his mouth agape, struggling for air. The wire sliced through his jugular vein and I blinked as blood spurted out from his neck, splattering across my face. I did not flinch. I kept my eyes wide open, staring into his. He jerked and twitched, his last efforts in his struggle to live, until his eyes went dark and turned lifeless. Lucas’s head slumped forward and he stopped twitching.

  I wiped the blood from my face with the sleeve of my chinchilla fur coat, feeling a bit annoyed that I would now need to get it cleaned. Push appeared from behind the cross, wearing black leather gloves. His dark eyes were monstrous and full of fiery intensity, as if he was in another world.

  Yuto appeared from the darkness, under the spotlight. Push pulled off the gloves and handed them to Yuto, “Send parts of Lucas to the men who swore their loyalty to him. Tell them that they must make a choice: To die or to swear their loyalty to Nadia.”

  Yuto took the gloves and bowed. “Yes, Push. It will be done by daybreak.”

  CHAPTER 20

  PUSH

  Nadia was quiet as Mac drove us back to the mansion. When we entered the office, I helped Nadia out of her fur coat.

  “The fur is tainted with his blood.” She whispered.

  “Then I will burn it and buy you a new one, Nadi.”

  Nolan walked in and the three of us shared a bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon champagne. We raised our glasses for a toast as Nolan spoke, “Here’s to you, Nadia. I’m looking forward to our partnership in future endeavors together. This city is just a big pussy that needs to get fucked. And we will be doing the fucking, my friends.”