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  Ethyn merely smiled his ‘eat-shit’ grin, making Alex’s sneer turn into a murderous glare.

  “And how will you handle it, Alex?” Leonid asked again, distracting his little spitfire.

  Alex looked back to him after a long moment, releasing a long, world-weary sigh.

  “Well, I won’t be doing much of anything. As much as it pains me to admit it, I can’t give Foxy what she needs right now.”

  Alex’s jaw clenched suddenly along with her fists at her sides, before her shoulders finally slumped in defeat.

  “I need to call an ugly gorilla.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Rock

  Viktor

  “Welcome back, Viktor.”

  I nodded to Kiernan who was holding open the car door. I blinked against the morning light, my blindfold having just been removed. I grunted a farewell to Leonid’s men and watched them drive off. Turning, I looked to Kiernan to find a funny look on his face.

  “What happened, Kiernan?” My tone whip-like in its force, Kiernan winced slightly and looked to the ground sheepishly.

  “Can’t get anything past you, eh D’yavol?” He sighed, looking around. Our men bustled about, though nobody approached us directly. Kiernan sighed again and leaned in close to me.

  “Ye told me to keep an eye on Emilia and I did. I was worried fer the little lady. She seems to be having a wee bit of a tough time since our arrival to this fuckin’ country.” Kiernan shifted from foot to foot for a moment, then sighed, his tone lowering even further.

  “Ye were right. She left with The Hound last night, and she took Masamune and the Usami sisters with her.” Kiernan reported, his lips barely moving as he made the report. I felt my gut clench and waited for the other shoe to drop.

  “And ye were right about the second part, too. Seems she must have gotten the same intel that you had, because she went straight to Drezna. I had me man Niall follow them. He checked out the church after everyone left and… The priest was dead. His throat was slit wide open.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment, rage swirling through me like a hard liquor. I had fucking known that Emilia was up to something. I had sensed that she was getting rid of me on purpose last night, and I knew her friend had helped get the information for her on the six men who had assaulted Silas. If she had only confided in me and trusted me a little more, I would have gladly helped her.

  Of course, her ass would have stayed at home where it belonged the whole fucking time I lent my assistance.

  I sighed, opening my eyes again. Kiernan looked at me with pity and clapped a hand to my shoulder.

  “Ya know, Viktor, I have never wanted a job less than the one you have. Keeping Emilia safe and out of harm’s way is like bottling the wind. I do not envy you, comrade.”

  With that, Kiernan went on his way, whistling a tune to himself. He hailed his five other Irishmen, who were cleaning and loading a fuck ton of rifles and pistols. I watched them for a moment, wishing more than anything I could just walk over and join them instead of walking inside.

  Yeah, and leave Emilia to her own devices? Fuck no.

  I gave a long, loud, very tired sigh and moved my feet forward. Nodding to the team of guards I had hand-picked to defend the interior of the house, I made my way inside and through the large estate. Just as I was about to ascend the first set of stairs, a mischievous voice stopped me in my tracks.

  “She’s given strict instructions not to be disturbed, D’yavol. You know what that means. We won’t be seeing Boss-lady for the rest of the day.”

  I turned with an eye roll to Meiling, who stood leaning against the doorframe of the front sitting room. Her gorgeous body was on full display, as per usual, in a revealing red dress that hugged her curves splendidly. She tilted her head at me, her smile widening.

  “You going to spank her for leaving while you were gone, D’yavol?”

  “You know very well she is my boss, too. Though extremely ill-advised, her leaving was her choice and she is still running the show. She took a security team with her this time, so I suppose small steps should be counted as a success. I will just have to advise her against leaving the grounds without me. Very strongly advise her.” I felt my teeth grinding together and ran my hand through my hair in frustration.

  “Boss-lady going to give you heart attack.” Giving off a peal of laughter, Meiling walked back into the study, and I saw Fritz sitting in a chair inside, reading a book. Upon closer look, I saw the title of the book; The Mathematical Theory of Combustion and Explosions.

  Looking up from his book, Fritz nodded as if in agreement to Meiling’s statement.

  Sighing again - I could tell I was going to be doing that a lot today - I trudged up to the second floor and decided to have my monitor team brief me on any other happenings around the estate while I had been absent. I had multiple personnel watching the monitors every hour of the day, and all cameras and microphones around the estate were recording at all times. As I talked with my staff and walked around the manor with multiple members of our team throughout the day, getting everyone prepped for the big event coming up within the next week, my mind kept straying to Emilia.

  What is going on with you, Emilia?

  • • •

  Emilia

  I sputtered a little as I almost choked on the whiskey I had just downed in one quick movement. I sat in the center of my room on the floor, clad in nothing save a pair of panties, and I lit up another cigarette as I looked out the terrace doors through bleary eyes.

  Night was falling, and I had spent the day in my room, trying to get control of my murderous rage and ever-growing frustration. I took a huge gulp of whiskey once again, cursing the training that Viktor had made me undergo that would allow for a higher alcohol tolerance. He had said if I wanted to be one of the big boys, I had to drink like one. So, he and Kiernan had made me drink every day for a month to build up my tolerance.

  At the thought of my second-in-command, my body flushed with feverish desire. The more lives I took and the further down into the darkness of the organized crime syndicate I sank, the more my darkest desires had emerged to try to consume me. After slaughtering the men at Korol’s compound on the night of our escape, my other half, the one that had awakened under the unwanted tutelage of my insane grandmother, had grown and grown into a tangible personality inside of me. I felt like I was starting to go crazy, two sides of myself warring for dominance inside of my head.

  Is crazy so terrible? Grandmama seemed just fine. My other side drawled, making my lip curl up. I took another giant gulp from the bottle I was steadily making my way through.

  I will not let you win. I silently swore to myself, taking a deep inhale from my cigarette. I snuffed it out, only half smoked and stood up, wobbling a bit on my feet. I felt frustrated energy running through my body and my entire being trembled. I was on the edge, I knew it, and I needed a good, hard fuck to help me relieve the tension. There were plenty of men in the house but aside from Masamune, I knew none of them would touch me. And a woman wasn’t what I needed for the singular purpose I was truly after. I knew if I took Masamune to bed, that would be the final nail in my coffin and I would lose myself in the need to brutally fuck.

  After Korol, I was a little broken. Faced with all of my emotions and spiraling sanity, it was time to accept that. There was a burning need inside me that had come about from Korol, and I didn’t think Masamune would make it out of being my lover unscathed because of it. If he tried to dominate me, one of us would end up injured… or worse. There was only one person whose domination I craved, and that need was driving me mad at an even more accelerated rate. I felt guilty as all hell wanting Viktor in such a punishing, dominating way, but I couldn’t deny it any longer. I had enjoyed rough sex before Korol, but after him…

  I needed someone to dominate me the same way he had and erase all memory of him from my treacherous body.

  With the thought of Zakhar came a damning tremble of awareness that had my nipples tighten
ing and sent a shiver down my body. Hating myself, hating my situation, hating everyone within a fucking thousand-mile radius, I jerked open my bedside drawer and extracted a vibrator, heading to the bathroom for a brutally cold shower. The cold shower and furious masturbation would barely scratch the edge off all the hatred, lust, disgust and fear raging inside of me, but if I didn’t do something, I was going to start breaking everything inside my fucking room.

  I stumbled to the bathroom, one thought racing through my mind as I stripped completely and stepped into the freezing water of the shower.

  I need you, Viktor.

  • • •

  Viktor

  I sat alone in the front parlor, a half-drained glass of vodka clenched in my fist. Emilia had not joined us for dinner, and according to Maya the chef, she hadn’t touched the tray of food that had been delivered to her door. The need to see her, to feel her, to talk to her was a burning ache inside of me. But instead, I sat like the coward I was, dulling my need with alcohol.

  My phone vibrated on the table beside me and I frowned at the name flashing across the screen. I picked up out of a sense of duty, though my sigh of irritation let the caller know how much they were inconveniencing me.

  “Leonid.” I said, my tone not inviting conversation.

  “Guess again, Ugly.”

  My face screwed up at the voice, my distaste clearly visible on my face.

  “Hound.” I sighed the annoying woman’s name.

  “I don’t want to talk to you either, Ugly, trust me.”

  “So, I assume you need to speak with Emilia and she is not picking up her phone?” I asked testily, though a spike of worry went through me. If Emilia was not even picking up Hound’s call, there was something seriously wrong and my body tensed as if to rise, the need to check on Emilia now spurred on by panic.

  “Calm down, Ugly. You’re the last person I want to talk to but…” Hound sighed long and loud, her voice suddenly dropping the saucy tone and becoming solemn. “I think you may be the only one that can help.”

  Confusion spread through me, though my voice was as flat as ever.

  “And what is it that you need so badly from me?”

  Silence followed my question and I lifted my face away from the phone to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. Seeing that it hadn’t, I put it to my ear again, waiting for the madwoman to tell me why she had called.

  “I don’t like your tone.” Hound finally said, and my answering bark of unamused laughter was my response.

  “It’s no secret we hold no love for each other, Hound. I don’t give a flying fuck what you like.” I was bone-tired from a full day of worrying about Emilia and dealing with the psychopath on the other end of the phone wasn’t at the tip-top of my to-do list.

  “Hm. Well, you changed my plans slightly but that’s okay. You still need to help me if you want Foxy to snap out of her funk. And only you can do it because you’re the head of her security and she’s going to need you.”

  At the mention of helping Emilia, I snapped to attention, gripping the phone tight in my fist.

  “What do you mean? Out with it, I’m out of patience.” I barked, anger at the entire situation pissing me off. I was Emilia’s right-hand man, had been by her side constantly for the past three years. Now, some girl she barely knew in her childhood and had only video-chatted with a few times a month wanted to say she knew Emilia better than me?

  Fucking bitc-

  “Fine, you fucking asshole. You need to have Silas take Foxy out to find a man. So she can bring him home and fuck his brains out.”

  I dropped the phone.

  Shock radiated through me, and on the heels of that came blinding, murderous rage.

  I grabbed the phone from my lap, leaping to my feet.

  “Is this a fucking joke?” I snarled quietly, my rage bringing my voice down to nothing but a guttural whip of sound.

  “No.” Hound spoke slow, as if addressing a complete moron. “She’s been celibate for what, three years now? Yeah, Korol fucked her up real good but she’s had three years to heal. Before facing him again she needs to take her power back. She needs to remember someone else’s touch besides his. I know you’re not very good with women’s feelings but trust me, nothing fucks up a woman worse than a horrible ex. It’s Foxy’s turn to have some fun! For fuck’s sake, you can take that giant stick out of your ass for one night! Yeah, she’s a badass crime boss but she’s still a hot, single woman, for the love of fuck.”

  Hound was shouting now, warming to her speech.

  “She’s not even thirty yet! You’ve been plowing women for the past three years- she told me so! You all have had your fun while Foxy just trains, works her amazing leader magic, and conquers like a fucking boss. Like, seriously, are all of you really that fucking selfish and incompetent that you can’t handle security for one night taking her out to have a good time-”

  “Emilia told you I’ve been… fucking women?” I interrupted, my entire body stilling. My eyes narrowed in on the telling statement, though I wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. All I knew at that moment was that a deep, dark flush was crawling up my neck and my hand shook slightly at the shame that suddenly filled me.

  Hound stuttered for a second, her rage completely abandoning her for a moment.

  “W-well, I mean… yeah, she might have mentioned it. Once. Or twice. Who cares! You’re distracting me, and I’m easily distracted, Ugly. Just do what I say, take her out, or I swear to fuck that I will break into your compound, cut your balls off and shove them into a fucking blender!”

  And with that last wildly screamed statement, Hound hung up right in my ear.

  I stood there, simply blinking for several moments before soft laughter suddenly sounded from the door to the sitting room behind me. I turned sharply, my focus having been entirely on the phone call.

  Silas, Cin, Jazz, Meiling, Fritz, Kiernan, and Masamune stood at the entrance of the parlor, and their wide, mocking smiles said they had heard every word of the entire bizarre phone conversation.

  “So,” Silas drawled, draping his lean body against the doorway, arching a perfectly groomed eyebrow. “Shall I go and get Emilia prepared for a night out while you make the arrangements, or shall I go and just sneak her out the balcony without your consent? Either way, the insane woman is right. And you know it.”

  “Yeah, D’yavol. We discussed it after you left earlier, and this is exactly what Emilia needs.” Kiernan said, though his eyes twinkled with mischief.

  Cin, Jazz, and Fritz all just grunted in agreement.

  Meiling looked me over slowly, then gave a huge smile, delighted mischief contorting her pretty face.

  “Oh yeah, D’yavol. Boss-lady been so good these past three years, I started to worry about her. She’ll be way better in front of Korol if she can… get her frustration out.” Meiling cackled.

  My left eye had started ticking as soon as the first member of the crew had opened their loud, moronic, fucking mouth. Now a muscle in my jaw was keeping perfect time with my eye, and I felt my fists clench at my sides so tight I felt my heartbeat through my fingers.

  Then Masamune drove the final nail into my coffin.

  “We would look weak and incompetent if we can’t manage one night out, D’yavol. Even Korol goes out in public, and he has a neon target painted on his back. If his team can keep him alive and we can’t even manage to take our boss out, who nobody knows is in town that I’m aware of, then what does that say about our team?”

  I stood there stoically for a long, silent moment.

  Finally, one word was ripped from my throat with all the enthusiasm of a man facing the gallows.

  “Fine.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tilt

  Emilia

  I breathed a long, loud sigh. Laying on my bed, my pussy still twitching from the long, cold shower I had just taken with my handy-dandy vibrator, I felt…. Unsatisfied.

  Big surprise, there.

  I was wallowi
ng in my slightly-tipsy pity party when a soft knock sounded at my door.

  “Emilia. I am coming in.”

  At the sound of Silas’ slightly accented voice, I didn’t even bother to throw on clothes as the door slowly opened. I looked over in disinterest as the beautiful man strode into my room, shutting the door firmly behind him. He took one long, measuring look at me, naked and unhappy on my bed, and gave a small smile.

  “Get dressed, mon ami. We’re going out.”

  My heart leapt at the words, but confusion got the better of me.

  “Going out where? Is something wrong?”

  “Non, non. We are going out dancing, ma petite fille. Viktor has cleared us to go out to a club about twenty minutes from here that is owned by a close friend of Leonid Sokolov. We are going to go out, dance, drink, and find you a man.”

  I had sat up halfway through his answer, and my jaw dropped as he finished.

  “What… the… fuck?” I breathed, though excitement curled in my belly.

  “It has been three years, Emilia. It is time our beautiful, young, entrancing captain to have some fun of her own.” He shrugged his signature Gallic shrug, going straight to my walk-in closet and flicked on the light.

  “What the hell brought this on?” I blinked several times, confusion still clouding my thoughts.

  Well, confusion and the fuck-ton of whiskey I ingested.

  Silas turned back slowly to me and let out an irritated breath.

  “You have been tense since we got back to Russia, Emilia. We can all sense it. You haven’t stopped working for over three years and it’s time that you had some fun in your life. Yes, we are coming up on the event we have all been working so hard for, but you are the only one out of our troupe that has not truly stopped working long enough to have any fun to speak of. Can you honestly say you don’t desperately need a night to forget everything and lose yourself in dancing, booze, and a good, hard fuck?”

  I slowly turned the idea over in my mind, the suggestion not really making sense still. The idea of losing myself and just being a young, single, carefree woman appealed to me so much, however, that for a moment I forgot all the reasons I shouldn’t do it and just let myself imagine it.