Nikolai
“You okay, Niko?”
I don’t even look at Rush as I reload my gun. We’re back from a job. Someone thought it smart to skim off the top of a shipment. They won’t be doing anything for me again, or breathing. Jo-Jo Slick is no more.
Queenstown won’t miss him. He wasn’t liked or trusted. No, he was a necessary evil. If I hadn’t needed this shipment, I wouldn’t have worked with him, but I did, and he tried to fuck me over and got caught. I left one person alive, the one who alerted Tony to Jo-Jo’s scheme, and she’s in charge of that operation now.
Basically, I am so not in the mood.
“Jo-Jo deserved it.”
For a moment, he doesn’t answer.
“Nikolai,” he mutters. “You didn’t have to-”
My cousin shuts up when I look at him. “Yes, I did.”
Four days and counting my Rose has been gone. Four days, and that fucking little GPS hasn’t much moved. I holster the gun, loosen my tie, and head for my office.
“You know more drinking ain’t gonna do you any good, dude.”
Gritting my teeth against his words and his attitude, I think about getting a drink. It didn’t work the past few nights, and it’s not going to work now. To my chagrin, it won’t help.
“Mind your fucking business, Rush.”
“You don’t scare me,” he sneers as I slide him a look. “Much.”
He follows me into the office and helps himself to a drink before I can get to it. He’s a little pale, and his hand shakes as he downs it. We work in blood and death and violence, but tonight, I worked without control, to a level I don’t think he’s seen.
“I’m not sure why you’re shocked, Rush. You know me.”
“Yeah, and it worries me.” He flops down in an armchair as I strip off my jacket and pull out my phone.
Not one word from Derek. I don’t need one, but I expected crowing, bragging, something. Nothing isn’t like him.
Maybe-I hope-he’s prepping to move to his hidey-hole, but every time I check the GPS, it stays put. I know exactly what that means. “He’s got her locked up like she’s in solitary.”
“Did you think he’d roll out the red carpet for her? She’s alive because she’s his fucking daughter, but you also fucked her. You made sure he knew that. So-”
“Questioning my methods?” I ask quietly, leaning against my desk. “Because I’ve got to say, it’s a bold choice.”
Rush shakes his head. “Niko, I was there when they took her. I know what you went through.”
I breathe out, tapping my fingers on the edge of the desk. “We’re playing the game.” If it’s harder than I thought it would be, if Rose being gone hurts in a way I don’t get, then that’s the price. “We’re in to win.”
“He thinks he’s won.”
“I know what he’s thinking. It’s part of the plan, and it fucking sucks. Right now, I’m dealing low, underground. We set up our ducks and we’re working under the radar. He thinks I’m licking wounds. He thinks I’m nursing hurts, humiliated in my loss. To win the war, I need to lose some battles, especially on the surface.”
Rush flickers his gaze down at his glass and swirls it. “The coldness, Niko. The complete and utter lack of anything tonight, that’s what got me. You were beyond brutal, and you did it like you were just dismantling a motor or something.”
“Fuck, Rush. Put down all your self-help books and pop psychology. I’m pissed off, and Jo-Jo deserved it. He’s been skimming and playing and upping prices for years. Worse, he sells information. I warned him there would be problems if he fucked with me, and he did”
“Niko-Nikolai, are you sure you’re okay?”
“I just told you.”
He blows out a breath, then takes a swallow of the drink. “Wasn’t asking about Jo-Jo. The rose? Your Rose?”
I push a hand through my hair then fold my arms and fix him with a look. “You mean the flower you passed on through your contact? For Rose?”
“Yeah.” He pauses, holding the glass up to the lamp light like the damn whiskey holds the answers to the universe.
My chest is tight, my guts shredded. Darkness moves in my veins. “Rush, let’s get one thing fucking clear. Do I miss that tight body? Fuck yes. The things I want to do…” My pulse ticks. “Make no mistake, that rose wasn’t a romantic gesture. I need her to hold out hope. I need her thinking of me, stay vulnerable to me, aching-” I stop.
He just stares.
“Because the day’s going to come when Finnegan’s little house is going to fall, and he’ll realize he didn’t win anything but a skirmish I planned. He has her now, but she’ll be back in my hands, begging for me, soon enough. Then he’ll see.”
Rush shakes his head. “Niko, do you think there’s more? Maybe something you feel for-”
I interrupt him harshly. “I’m not in the mood for your extra familiarity tonight. This plan, modified as it is, is taking a toll. I fucking hate it. I’m well aware of the danger she’s in.”
His eyes start to light up, but I hold up a hand. “Don’t mistake my words for softness and humanity. I don’t have it, except maybe for you.” Rush chuckles and shakes his head again.
“This all depends on her getting through it, on her pining for me, on him revealing his fucking secret compound. Everything is there, all the sensitive things I need, access to all.” I flicker my gaze at him, then straighten and pull on my jacket again.
“Nikolai.” Rush’s mild humor is gone as he gets to his feet. “You can deny it all day long, but I’m worried about you. You’re not going to do something stupid, are you?”
“Me? Over a fucking girl? Over Derek Finnegan’s flesh and blood?
Never in a million years. I’m going to get some work done.” With that, I’m gone.
I stare up at the ridiculously named Hawke’s Hollow from the safety of my tinted SUV.
Maybe I lied to my cousin because this is fucking stupid, and this is over a girl.
I can’t do anything. She’s highly protected I’m sure, and I’m betting getting in might end badly. The odds right now are against me. After all, I only have one gun on me.
I didn’t come here to launch any kind of rescue. I meant it when I said she needed to fucking stay in there and do the job she doesn’t know she’s going to do.
The tracker hasn’t moved at all on my phone. Part of me wonders if he stripped her of the bracelet, but the one in the shirt is still there, presumably dumped after she changed.
Or was changed. I grit my teeth at that.
No one touches her. No one but me.
The hairpin made two very short journeys, and when I flip to both signals, they’re near each other, like they have been the whole time.
No, Rose is there. She’s wearing the bracelet, I’m sure of it, and she hasn’t moved.
A rage I don’t know how to deal with thunders inside me. Usually, I can turn anger and use it as a tool. This…I don’t know what the fuck to do with it. Have they fucking drugged my Rose? What kind of threat does that asshole of a father think she is? She weighs nothing. It’s easy to scare her, and she’s smart enough to know her battles. Being locked up is a battle she can’t win. There’s no reason she’s been in one place for way more hours than sleep would account for. Maybe that sick fuck enjoys keeping little girls drugged to the eyeballs.
I squeeze my hand in a fist and bring it down on the dash.
My man is inside, and he hasn’t reported any movement, even car-wise.
Thing is, I want to go in, guns blazing. I want to shoot Finnegan so full of holes, he resembles a colander. I want to do things to him that’ll make what I did to Jo-Jo look like mercy. I want to ride out of there with my prize in my arms, safe and back in my bed.
Fallacy.
Fucked up fantasy.
There’s no happy ending for Rose, or for me. Or justice willing, that prime piece of shit Derek.
Once he’s dead and I’m done with Rose, she can pick up the pieces of her life and I’ll rule.
There might not be happiness, but I don’t give a fuck about that.
Retribution? I’ll take it.
Soon.
The next morning, I’m sitting in my room, dressed in jeans and a long black tee, shoes off. It’s early, but the day’s already been long. Calls, orders, bookkeeping of the type I trust to only myself, but now, I’m fucking watching that GPS.
It still hasn’t moved much, except once when it zigged and zagged to one end of the tight perimeter and back again. He’s definitely drugged my Rose, that sick fuck.
My phone remains resolutely silent, not even one provocative call from Finnegan.
I frown and grab my coffee. I grimace. It’s cold, no doubt because it’s been fucking sitting there for hours. I think about calling Mia to get me a hot one, but I’m not in the mood for her silent censure.
When Rush pokes his head around my door, I’m almost glad.
“Good to see you didn’t murder anyone last night.” He pauses as he throws himself onto the sofa opposite my armchair. “That I know of.”
“Right now, I’m weighing the pros and cons of launching a full-on assault. You know, just to let off some fucking steam. Maybe take Rose. Have some fun.”
“And what? Return her?”
I shrug. I’m not thinking this at all, but as fantasies go, it’s a good one, except the returning part. That’s not happening. Any of it. Pent up frustration and misplaced lustful thoughts aren’t going to help with my real plan.
“Maybe. Maybe I’ll fucking stomp his head in and be done with it.”
“You’re not going to do that.”
“No, Rush,” I say, “I’m not. I’m just…frustrated. Something isn’t right. He’s still there and he hasn’t even fucking tried to rub this so-called win in my face. She…she barely moves.”
“Shit.” He rubs a hand over his eyes. “I like my job, Niko. This is family, and I’m there with you on getting him, but maybe we should, ya know, just get her back.”
I stare at him. There’s something in the way he says it. Slowly, I set down the coffee and lean forward. “Out with it.”
“You know that contact?”
No, I don’t know who it is, because it’s better that way. He won’t be able to get Rose out if things go south, but an eye in there, even one who works for Derek, helps. “What about them?”
He doesn’t look happy as he shifts on the sofa. “I think there’s something you need to know.”
I eye him warily. “What?”
“Derek is negotiating a marriage contract.”
I narrow my eyes as that rage from last night swarms back in, thick and fast and furious.
Rush takes one look at me and swallows. “Nikolai, for what it’s worth, I said negotiation, not wedding.”
“A marriage contract usually has a fucking wedding. It’s a dead giveaway in the term ‘marriage contract’.”
He sighs. “From what I hear, she’s been trouble.”
With that, I almost smile. Almost. That’s my Rose.
“He sees her as used goods.” He doesn’t meet my eye, and yeah, she fucking is. I used her to within an inch of her life, and she loved every goddamn moment. I haven’t used her nearly enough. “He’s trying to sell her to some weaker link, someone he can use to build his empire.”
“That’s another body on the pile. I don’t know who he is, but I hear this guy is old, loves them young, and he likes to…hurt. This is going to happen.”
My vision blurs from the absolute fury whirling inside me. Suddenly, I’m on my feet. Throwing my arm out, I sweep my computer, books, and coffee from the table, sending it all crashing to the ground.
Rush is on his feet, too. “Dude, calm the fuck down, before you do something idiotic like go in there unprepared and get us or someone innocent killed.”
“I’m not fucking stupid. Now get the fuck out. Now.”
Rush hurries out, and I march off to the walk-in closet and swiftly change to work out clothes.
He’s right. I want to do exactly that. If I do, the innocent I’ve claimed as mine might die before I’m done with her.
I take off up the stairs to the top floor where my gym is, and I get to work.
By the time I’m done working out, I’m exhausted, and it isn’t enough. Once I get to my bathroom, I turn on the shower and strip naked.
I need her.
Some fat old fuck who likes to do perverted things to girls wants to marry her, and her fucking father is going to let that happen.
I’ll be stopping it before that happens.
Hot water sluices down over me, and I close my eyes, putting a hand against the wet wall of the shower.
Fuck. Rose.
I can see her in my mind, and I’m so fucking hard, I’m aching. Not thinking, I take my cock in my hand. Rose is everywhere, and this is the first time since she’s been gone that I’ve let myself-
The floodgates of lust and need and obsession aren’t just open: they’ve been obliterated.
I start to pull at my dick, hard and rough. Christ, the velvet wet tightness of her cunt. That magic. The sounds she makes. As I jerk off, it’s not my hand anymore. It’s her sweet mouth, wrapped tight about me as I fuck her throat.
I come.
Hard.