Nikolai I realize a beat too late that Rush has said something to me. Last night, I couldn’t sleep, so I worked into the early hours and tried to drink away the taste of her. The feel. The heat.
But…fuck.
Her filthy words, those demands, they had me hard and jerking off on three separate occasions. This morning, too. All I want is to return to the scene of last night’s crime and feed her my prick. Slam down into her throat, her cunt. Take that fucking ass of hers.
I didn’t.
I don’t.
With a sigh, I sit up from my slouch behind my desk and grab my coffee. “What was that?”
“I was saying I don’t fucking like it.”
Quickly, I replay the early morning conversation in my head. “Yeah, well, Finnegan’s a coward.”
“Niko…” Rush leans forward, hands perched on the other end of the desk. “He’s got a price on your head. He’s trying to get into our territories, get info.”
“And he hasn’t got the balls to step up and reach out to me.” I know what that worm’s doing. It’s cowardice, yes, but it’s also him trying to build a wave, to make it seem like I’m weak since I haven’t done anything else after taking back Rose.
I’ve heard the jealous lover rumor this morning. I’ve heard how I have to steal to supposedly get a girl. I’ve also heard that Finnegan’s daughter is a slut and a whore who spreads her legs for money and anyone who asks. Those people are on my list. They don’t get to say that about my Rose. Me?
I don’t give a fuck. Her? No.
“He’s playing a waiting game,” I add on.
Rush eyes me, then turns his own mug in his hands. “Should we just go for it?”
“No. We have a fucking plan and we stick to it. Icing on that plan?
Little Rose agreed.”
He recoils a little. “Niko.”
“Nikolai.” I raise a brow. “You want me to fucking send her in against her will? Lie?”
“You did last time.”
I tap my fingers on the desk, right next to where my gun’s sitting. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“I just meant-”
“I know what you meant, Rush. It’s the only way. She’s young and pretty and maybe you think you like her or something, but feelings mean shit in this game. They get you dead.” A muscle works in my jaw, and I take a swig of the coffee. The heat burns on my tongue.
“I want that fucker gone, too, but why not just go in and take what we can?”
“It’ll create a vacuum and one of his underlings will take his place. All or nothing, Rush. Rose is the key. We smoke him out. Push it along.”
He gets up and paces. “Ah, shit.” Suddenly he snaps his fingers and whirls, almost spilling the drink in his other hand. “Tomorrow night. I almost forgot about the charity ball.”
I frown. “The charity ball?”
“For St. Monica’s.”
Fuck, I hate those inflated parties. I donate a lot of money every year to their cause and make an appearance. It’s good for business, both legal and illegal, and for connections. Showing up is something I do unwillingly. It’s not the money-I really don’t give a shit about the donation-I just don’t like going. It’s a colossal waste of my time. With so much shit going on, I’d completely forgotten the event was coming up at all. Rush loves that crap.
Maybe he-
“Fuck.” I can’t miss it. I know I can’t.
“You forgot too. Ah, shit.” Rush sighs. “You aren’t allowed to shoot anyone there, do you hear me? Everyone who’s anyone will be there. We’re talking the politicians, the socialites, moneyed families, big business, sport stars, movie stars. Remember that hot actress you fucked last year? The really famous one with the big-”
I don’t really remember. I’ve fucked a lot of women.
“What if Finnegan goes? He knows you’ll be there.”
That’s a possibility… “It’s on our territory, but it’ll be full of protection, so I don’t think he’ll try anything there, out in the open.”
Rush comes up to my desk and sets down his coffee. “He might make a grab, especially if you bring her.”
“Then he blows everything up in his face,” I growl out. “He wouldn’t dare.”
“Maybe you skip it this year. Maybe you came down with something and couldn’t make it.”
I shake my head. “Too convenient. If I don’t show, I look like a coward.” Rising, I look my cousin in the eye. “He’s not going to make a play for her there, not on our territory and not with all the media attention.”
“So,” Rush says, frowning, “he might not even go.”
“There’s a chance Derek won’t appear, but someone will, someone to report back to him any information they can smuggle out of the place. We’ll have spies around, too. Bring in people to play the part.”
“What part?”
“If he wants information, we’ll give it to him, but it won’t necessarily be right.”
“Send him on a while goose chase sort of thing.”
I touch my nose to let him know he got it right this time. Then, picking up my iPad, I start making notes. When I’m done, I hand it to my cousin. “Get on that.”
With that, I leave the room, heading up to see Rose. Tomorrow night, she’s going to be my star.
Her door’s shut, not locked, but she hasn’t attempted to run, and apart from when she walked about giving the finger at every camera she found-which was most-she doesn’t really leave.
I half grin as I trace the wood of her bedroom door. I should be beyond mad at her bratfest. I should have punished her when I saw those recordings, but there was something so hot about that “fuck you” to me. I liked it.
But…yes. By now, I’d expected her to try and sweet talk someone, test every window, but she hasn’t. She wouldn’t get far anyway, and I’m sure she knows that. I have too many guards, and there’s the tracker in the bracelet she keeps on, something I think I like.
She’s gained some freedom of a sorts, and I’m being nice-nice for me at least-with the extended boundaries. Maybe she wants to stay with me after all, be with me. She has that masochistic streak of liking the humiliation and pain and pleasure I give her. She might deny it, but it’s there every time she begs, every time she tries to touch me, every time I see her try and fit me into some kind of sympathetic box that just won’t fit.
Maybe she wants to get revenge of her father and knows I’m the only one who’s going to provide that means to an end for her. Who the fuck knows? Who cares? It’s all the same in the end. We want each other. We can’t stop. We both bleed in some way in that violent and sadistic need. We want the same thing: her father wiped out.
I take a breath, turn the door’s handle, and step in, faltering when Mia’s startled gaze meets mine.
What the fuck is she doing here? It’s not around a mealtime.
Benedict Arnold.
I narrow my eyes. They’re sitting on the bed, and they’ve been talking, but seeing me, Rose’s expression becomes guarded, just like when I’d found her with Rush.
Mia’s is a very careful defiance. Not because it isn’t in her. It is. She’s stood up to me on occasion. Mia knows exactly who and what I am and what I’m capable of. She knows the monster I am. The brutal, uncaring man.
I note the new pile of books on the bed. Mia’s got balls, I’ll give her that, but this is my territory. My house. They’re to follow my rules, and I never told Mia to gift Rose with more reading material. That order was never given.
Mia’s face is cool and calm as she looks me over. I glance at the door and then at her, silently telling her to leave us, but when she takes her time getting off the bed, my gaze turns more aggressive. She puts a little more speed in her step as she leaves. Then, when the door shuts, I cross my arms and turn that look on Rose.
I wait for her to stumble through some apology, of an excuse, to drop her gaze, but she doesn’t. She just glares back. Rose rises, then turns and crosses to the window, staring at the morning light. Her back is stiff, body language electric and defiant.
“Go away, Nikolai,” she says.
I drop my arms and take her in again from the distance. Her thorns are showing, but she’s also sounding too small for her, and I don’t like it. I can take soft, I can take meek, fuck, I can take the defiance and anger and hate, but not small. Small isn’t her.
I rein in my anger. “If I walked in on some kind of coup, it’s not going to fucking work. Why was Mia here?”
She hangs her head a moment. Then her chin rises, and she turns. “She was here because I asked her to bring me some better books after breakfast.”
“So now Mia’s your little underling? Snap your pretty little fingers and she does your bidding?”
Rose’s eyes narrow. “No. She’s the only one who’s nice to me in this place. Besides your cousin, but you told him to keep away from me.”
I nod. “So what? You want to go?”
“Of course, I want to go. Do you think I like being a prisoner? Everyone shoves me around like they can use me. So yes, I want to go, but you’re not going to let me, are you?”
Fuck, I should spank her for that. She’s putting me into the same boat as Finnegan, that disgusting creep who tried to marry her off and would have destroyed her, body and soul.
“I see, Rose,” I say in a dangerous, low voice. “You can go.” She doesn’t say a word, but I hate the little flare of hope and suspicion in her eyes. “Just say the word and I’ll let you go where Daddy can scoop you up and sell you off again, to someone worse this time.” I shrug. “Hell, I’ll make the call to him myself.”
She glares, her mouth shut. Anger and hate radiate off her in waves.
“Or do you want to go back to the fat, perverted fuck who-” I stop and amend my words, just slightly. “Who’d share you with everyone, all at the same time? Maybe you want that? Had a taste of sex, so now you’re hankering for something with more than one man?” She doesn’t speak, and the anger grows hotter.
“Got Daddy’s number here. Probably have Vitale Lugo’s, too. He’ll probably want you dressed up like a little girl again. He does like them young.”
Rose gives me a look of such hateful disgust, but instead of lashing out, she turns away from me again, and something in me snaps. I stalk over to her, grabbing her by the hair. With her facing me, I pull her head back so we’re eye to eye. I’m furious, ready to spit venom everywhere, more than I have.
“Answer me, Rose. If you want your daddy, if you want that sick fuck, I’ll make that call. I’ll even strip you down, put a bow on you, and deliver you myself. Do you want that?”
She hisses out air, and her eyes are wild. She starts to fight me, clawing at the hand clamped around her hair, and my blood heats beyond the anger, something that’s depraved. I want to take her hard and prove to her what and who she really wants.
I hold her tighter, and she fights harder. I really am fucked up because I’m more than turned on. I want to mark her deep until she tells me the truth…That she wants only-
Rose wrenches free. I stare at her, and then she comes back. She hits me, punching me so hard across the face it makes my ears ring. Not slapping, like she’s done before. No, this is with an enclosed fist and strength behind it.
Oh, my Rose. You’re in it now. All the fucking way.