Galli headed out leaving her to contemplate her next move. Alexi was well aware she wasn’t going to win this in two moves or less, so she needed to think about the long haul. That meant assessing her small organization, including the cops and politicians in her pocket.
It also meant forging a tighter alliance with Mojo.
Alexi tapped her fingers on her desk as she mentally laid out her next two moves. Then, the next two. She wanted everything clear in her mind before she went after anyone because Alexi was under no illusions.
She knew her next moves would change her life and maybe not for the better.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Did you get your work settled?” Tatiana asked when Alexi joined her in the apartment.
“Yeah.”
“Good,” Tatiana said. “I was thinking we could go out to dinner or have something nice and romantic right here.”
“I’d rather not go out with all that’s going on,” Alexi replied. “Why don’t we have dinner here in the club?”
“That’s fine,” Tatiana said.
Alexi made the call and reserved a table for them and requested a special dinner. Tatiana didn’t object to the lobster scampi or the salad and dessert.
“All set?” Tatiana asked.
“Yeah.” She looked at her watch. “I have just enough time to change and spend a few minutes basking in your company.”
Tatiana crooked a finger at her, and Alexi set her phone down on the coffee table and went to her. Tatiana reached up and gripped the collar of her shirt in both hands and tugged her down.
Tatiana kissed her softly and urged her closer. Alexi went, bracing her hands on either side of her on the cushions before breaking the kiss.
“You’re tense,” Tatiana commented, her brown eyes concerned.
Alexi sat down, and Tatiana made room for her before leaning against her. Alexi took her hand and laced her fingers through it.
Tatiana squeezed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Alexi dropped a kiss on her forehead.
“Alexi is short for Alexia?” Tatiana asked curiously.
“Alexandra.”
“Alexandra, what has you so tense you’re not even enjoying touching me?”
Alexi frowned. “That is something I’ll always enjoy,” she said in a contradictory tone.
“Okay, maybe you’re enjoying it, but you’re distracted.”
“I have to kill someone soon,” she said. “And the events that I’m going to set in motion just might start a wildfire.”
Tatiana studied her, and fear filled her fast, making her skin cold. She drew in a slow breath and exhaled as she rested her hands on the cushion beneath her.
“Is it necessary to do any of what you’re going to do?”
“Yes.”
Tatiana trembled because this was one of those moments she knew could deepen or shatter their burgeoning relationship. She looked down at her hands, unseeing.
“Is the person you’re going to kill my grandfather?” She forced herself to look up into Alexi’s eyes again. The blue of them was enigmatic.
“No.”
Tatiana sighed wistfully. She wished she could go back to the days when she didn’t know her grandfather was into something illegal, that her family was mob-connected.
“Someone else is gunning for your grandfather and those of his inner circle, and that includes your uncle and a cousin.”
Tatiana nodded, understanding the depth of the life her family lived, that she, too, was part of it now.
“Do you know who it is?” Tatiana asked. “I have to tell him.”
“He probably already knows,” Alexi muttered. “He’s taken from them, killed. He knows they’ll come after.”
“What did he take?” she asked in a small voice.
“Drugs worth a considerable amount of money, and no drug lord allows another to fuck with his business with impunity.”
“Then that’s the same person who tried to kill me and April?”
“Yes,” Alexi said with a little nod.
“Be careful, Alexi,” Tatiana said. She would use her magic to protect her if she could.
“Always,” she said and slipped her arm around Tatiana.
She leaned more heavily against Alexi, soaking in the feminine strength and losing herself in the scent of Alexi. This moment was perfect, and Tatiana wanted many more just like it.
****
A few hours later Tatiana sat across from Alexi in the club’s restaurant. Their table was next to a window that overlooked a dimly lit view of a garden.
Tatiana had dressed in the red dress and diamond earrings and pendant Alexi had given her, and she’d put her hair up to show off both.
She loved jewelry, but diamonds were out of her price range, along with the platinum chain that held the pendant. The pieces were simple enough for a casual night out or work.
The section they were in was empty, but the hum of conversation was steady around them.
“I had no idea the restaurant here would be this nice,” Tatiana commented as she reached for her wine glass.
“Sometimes women come here just for the food and to be able to enjoy each other’s company without intrusive onlookers.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Tatiana said.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t, and so would you.”
“I know,” Tatiana agreed. “We’ve all been there.” She took a sip of her wine. “This is good. How do you know so much about wines?”
“An old boss of mine took me to Europe with him,” Alexi said. “I learned about wines from him.”
Tatiana frowned. “What else did he teach you?”
Alexi’s expression turned somber, her azure stare saddening before going bland. “More than I care talk about, but suffice to say, he’s the reason I became the woman I am today.”
Tatiana’s chest ached and she wanted to hex the person who’d hurt Alexi so badly that she’d become this madam. However, if she’d been anything else, they might never have met. If they hadn’t, Tatiana might be dead now, thanks to those gunning for her grandfather.
“That person hurt you even worse than your foster father, didn’t he?”
“In a way,” Alexi agreed. “He was a brutal man who kidnapped girls and sold them. He addicted them to drugs and killed them when they outlived their use by date only to replace them.”
“You saw a lot, didn’t you?” Tatiana murmured, stomach clenching.
Alexi sighed. “I grew up fast and hard,” Alexi said. “I only regret losing my innocence so soon. You still have some of yours.”
“If not for you, I might be dead thanks to my grandfather.”
“Tia—”
“No.” She shook her head. She’d only just realized this but it was true. “I can’t just walk away from my family, especially my parents and April. Who would want to be with me knowing it was a risk? Only someone like you could brave wading into this mess without flinching.”
Alexi winked at her, and Tatiana’s stomach fluttered. “Your magic, why doesn’t your grandfather just use it?”
“His family isn’t magical, and I’m glad because my grandfather would be a bigger menace than he is now,” Tatiana said.
“He’d be a nightmare,” Alexi agreed darkly. “And your mother?”
“In my mother’s family, only girls inherit the magic.” She reached across the table to rub Alexi’s hand. “Mine likes you.”
“I can feel it when we make love,” Alexi murmured. “It’s strong and sexy. It feels good wrapped around me.”
Tatiana scratched her hand lightly. “Really?”
“It’s like an animal,” Alexi answered. “Aggressive, powerful, yet restrained. I feel it inside me, around me.”
“I’ve never had it act the way it does around you,” she confessed. “But your animal is the same. I can feel it watching me, and I know she wants to own me.”
“Yes, she does,” Alexi admitted. “
She’ll do anything to keep you safe, Tia. Lie, cheat, steal, and even kill because you are every fantasy we both want.”
She leaned closer to the table, a shiver running down her spine. Alexi’s stare wasn’t her own; the animal was watching her with an intensity that made Tatiana’s breath catch. She reached across the table to cup Alexi’s cheek.
Tatiana was definitely up for wherever this was going, even if it ended in heartbreak.
“I see your dare and raise you.” Her energy rippled through her.
“Bring on the magic, beautiful,” Alexi said softly. “I can handle anything you show me.”
Tatiana made it snow on them, light drops of wet, and Alexi chuckled.
“Is that the best ya got?” Alexi teased.
“In front of a crowd, it’s all I got.” She let energy run down her fingers and rise up to form a blue diamond on her finger, and Alexi smiled.
Alexi removed Tatiana’s hand from her face and kissed it as she held her gaze.
A throat cleared, and they tore their gazes from each other to fix the intruder. The waitress set their plates down.
“Call me if you need me, boss,” she said and strode away.
“More wine?” Alexi asked, and Tatiana shook her head.
“Not right now.”
They dug into their meal after a little prayer, and Tatiana moaned. The salad was a delicious mix of ripe berries, walnuts, black olives, and salad greens with a bit of tomato.
“This is great.”
“Why eat just a salad when you can have a salad?” Alexi commented.
“I will never see salads the same again,” she said. “I mean I’ve had one with apples, but this is great.”
“Are you duly impressed by my taste in salad?”
“Food and music,” Tatiana replied. “I’m looking forward to exploring so much more with you.”
“A willing sacrifice,” Alexi teased.
“Very,” she murmured with a grin.
They finished off the salad, and the pasta was set before them with crusty bread slices. The spice combination was incredible along with lobster and lemon and butter. A second wine was poured for them, and it paired excellently with the meal.
Tatiana enjoyed the feast to her senses.
When they had finished the meal, Alexi told the waitress to wait dessert and led Tatiana out for a walk in the garden. The fairy lights gave the trees and flowers a magical twist that left her speechless.
The koi pond and the flower garden provided visual and olfactory simulation that kept her attention riveted.
Alexi slipped an arm around her waist and pointed out a tree. “It’s about fifty years old, and the ivy on the trellis is over ten. Well, the roots are anyway.”
“You’re kidding.” She looked up at her. “This place is beautiful.”
“I wanted it to be similar to the rose gardens,” Alexi said.
“Nice to smell and pretty to look at. I can see why you live here. You have everything you could possibly want.”
“I used to think that,” Alexi said. “But in the last year, I’ve begun thinking something was missing.”
“Something like what?” Tatiana looked up at her.
“Love.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Maybe we’re on the path to finding it together,” Alexi said, pulling them to a stop. She held Tatiana’s gaze, searching.
“I’d like to think so.”
Alexi gave her a faint smile and lowered her head to kiss her lightly on the lips. “Are you ready for dessert?”
“Can we take it up to the apartment?”
“If you like,” Alexi answered.
“I’d like it if you stayed in and had it with me,” Tatiana commented, giving her a look from beneath her lashes.
“I plan to.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Tatiana should have been here. That would have made getting to her so much easier. Instead, he had to wait and hope she showed up. With April so heavily guarded, there was no way to send in his man to do something to her that would draw Tatiana out.
Judas pushed out a rough breath and headed from the waiting room to the elevators. He would go home and regroup. Tomorrow, he’d be able to come up with another plan.
He’d had to hire someone outside of the family to carry out today’s plan, but the money would have been worth it had Tatiana been killed. He’d keep trying until she was dead.
Her murder would have him smiling for years.
He already knew how Charles would die and implementing that plan would come in two days. April would still be here, but Charles would be back at work as unconcerned about his granddaughters as ever. They were tools to him, to be married off to the right man.
Judas pressed the call button and waited for the car to arrive. Two nurses climbed out, and he gave them a smile before stepping in. The ride down went by quickly, and Judas was stepping out and striding down the hall to the parking lot within minutes.
His phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket and glanced at it. “Hello, Charles,” he said.
“I’m just calling to tell you we need to meet in the morning,” Charles said. “I have a few things to take care of with Alexi, and I want you to be there.”
“I heard the police wanted to question you tomorrow about something.”
“They do,” Charles said. “The murder of Baynard and that agent, but I’m not expecting anything to come of it.”
“What time is the meeting?” Judas asked. He was still wondering how the police had gotten turned onto Charles.
His connection to the dealer was untraceable. Trevor had dealt with him more often than not. Trevor had been meeting with more of the lower level handlers lately, which would have eventually resulted in Trevor’s rise to a more prestigious position in the organization.
That connection was why that agent was dead. Charles’s grandson had killed her not because she’d said no but because she’d been blackmailing him.
The agent had found out somehow that Trevor was a lawyer for Breakers and had covered up something for them. Judas didn’t know what, but he wished he did.
The evidence had to be at the club, and Alexi had to have missed it somehow. That proved she wasn’t as smart as she thought.
“Nine. I’m meeting with the police at eleven,” Charles said. “Don’t be late this time.”
“I won’t,” he replied. “It’s at the cleaners or are we meeting at the warehouse?”
Charles had set up the warehouse early on after becoming a partner in the business. It was a cover for the drugs they moved for Breakers while appearing to be a house for the dry cleaners’ donations for their various clothes drives.
“Where else,” Charles replied. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Judas ended the call and slipped the phone into his pocket before striding out to his car.
Judas climbed in and sighed, leaning against the buttery leather seats. Soon, he’d be the boss here.
Something from outside caught his attention, and he turned his head to spy an arguing couple. They moved on, and Judas slipped his key into the ignition.
The flicker of movement in the back seat shocked him.
Damn it.
His mother’s spell had been so effective in keeping him in shadow that he hadn’t seen anything but his own reflection when he’d looked into the car. Judas tried to shove his hand into his pocket for the tiger crystal his mother had given him for protection but stopped when something rough came around his throat.
The cord cut into his skin but didn’t immediately restrict airflow, though it had him on edge. Judas looked into the mirror and fear sparked in his belly as his father’s words came back to him.
“Leave it, son,” his father said. “Alexi is a woman not to cross. There is far more to her than meets the eye.”
“She’s just a whore, just like Charles said.”
“Charles is an idiot, and he’s taking you down that same trail of blind self-ab
sorption. Alexi seems to be easily handled on the surface, but she’s just as powerful as Felix beneath the gloss and glitz.”
“I—”
“I don’t care if she fucked her right in front of you, walk away.”
“No one goes after what’s mine,” Alexi said coldly.
“Stop,” Judas ordered, going for authoritative. Charles said she just needed to be handled with a firm hand.
“Why go after her though?” Alexi asked. “And why for the love of your own life betray Breakers?”
“He ordered a hit on my father because my father wanted out. The Feds were making him nervous. Charles killed him. He deserves to lose everything. Even my mother agreed when I told her.”
“Your mother is an idiot to back you in this madness.”
Judas gripped the rope and it cut into him, but he struggled to get the crystal. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother.”
“She’s no saint,” Alexi whispered in his ear. “That’s why your father cheated on her.”
“Liar.” In his anger, he forgot about the crystal and tried to turn, but she grabbed his hair and jerked his head back against the seat.
“I’ll call off the hit,” he said urgently. “I just wanted to scare her back into my arms, but I don’t want her anyway. And the others have already been called off.”
Alexi tightened the cord.
“Wait. I can help you. The whore Trevor killed had something on him and probably Charles, too.”
“Thanks.” She jerked hard.
“No,” Ewan said frantically. He could feel his life slipping away.
Alexi was stronger than any woman should be, and in this moment, as he beheld the rage in her eyes, he knew his father was right.
He shoved his hand into his pocket, and the rope fell away only to be replaced by her hands. As he gripped the crystal, it was cool in his hands and started to heat as the charm came to mind, but in the next moment, his head lolled to one side.
Alexi climbed out of the backseat and left the rope on it and walked away into the night.
****
Tatiana woke the next morning to the whine of her telephone, and she groaned as she reached for it. Alexi moved on the bed next to her.
“Who is it?” Alexi asked groggily.
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