I didn’t know who that was, who the owner of that voice belonged to, but years of experience and my instincts told me it wasn’t anyone good.
If I believed in God, I would have cursed him the fuck out. We couldn’t have one—just one—fucking night together without any problems? Really?
Tatiana and I locked eyes. Her gaze flicked over my left shoulder and back, and then she blinked six times.
Six assailants. Okay. Manageable.
If any of them had even the slightest bit of fighting skills, we were fucked.
I lowered her to the ground and quickly tucked my cock away. In retrospect, I suppose I should be grateful that they at least waited for us to finish before announcing their presence.
But then, that begged the question…how long had they been there? How long had six men been watching us while I had absolutely no fucking clue?
It wasn’t the time to berate myself, but I definitely would later. If anything happened to Tatiana because I was too consumed to monitor my surroundings, I would never forgive myself.
I turned around and assessed the situation with quick eyes. Six men, spread out in a wide arch in front of us. They each wore a motorcycle vest, the words “THE BROTHERHOOD” stamped across them.
Shit.
The Brotherhood was one of the MC gangs I dealt with back in Vegas. They must have a charter here in New York and, after hearing about what happened to their brothers, decided to enact their own revenge.
One of the men stepped forward. He had long, scraggly hair and a big, bushy beard. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Bern,” he said, placing a hand on his chest. “And you are Nikolai Volkov.” He looked to me for confirmation but I said nothing.
If it was Lukyan in my place, he probably would have cracked a joke and made a wise-ass comment. If it were Aleksandr, he’d just grunt. Me? I didn’t waste the time talking unless it was necessary—especially with an enemy.
And that’s definitely what these guys were. They weren’t there to have a nice, pleasant conversation. They were there to kill me.
“Nikolai.” Tatiana peeked out from behind me like a scared little dove. “I’m scared,” she whispered, her body visibly shaking.
“It’s okay, baby. It’ll all be okay,” I said, playing along. She whimpered, a tear falling from her eye. She had a vice-like grip on my arm, staring at the men in front of us with a look of absolute fear.
If I didn’t know her, didn’t know with one-hundred percent certainty that she was putting on this act to appear weak and defenceless so they would underestimate her, I would believe it myself.
“Don’t be scared, Pretty.” The man on the right with the misshapen head said. “We’re only here for him. We won’t hurt you. Why don’t you come over here to me? I’ll take you away from here. Come on.”
Everything in me rebelled at the thought of her stepping away from me. Of her going anywhere near those guys. But our chances of survival greatly improved if she was over there with them. She would be able to attack and take them completely by surprise, since all they saw was a snivelling, scared little woman. A part that Tatiana was playing exceptionally well.
“Leave her alone. She has nothing to do with this.”
“I agree,” Bern nodded. “So why not let Al here take her away? She doesn’t need to see what’s about to happen.”
Tatiana’s hands drifted down my back and grasped the gun tucked into my waistband—the same gun I’d fucked her with only moments ago.
“And what would that be?” I asked, watching the men carefully. They’d begun moving forward inch by inch, so deceptively slowly that I’m sure they thought I wouldn’t notice. But I did.
“You think that you can just come after our own and we wouldn’t retaliate?” Bern tsked. “I thought you Bratva folk were meant to be smart. But I can see you’re not, because if you were, you wouldn’t have come here all alone. Now you’re ours.” He peeked around my body to lock eyes with Tatiana. “Come on out, darling. Come on. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Her bottom lip wobbled and she stepped out tentatively from behind me. I had no idea where she’d stashed the gun. I couldn’t see it, and yet I’d felt her take it.
“I just want to go home to my mum and dad. Please. D-don’t hurt me.” Her voice quivered so much, I honestly thought she was about to burst into tears. Her acting skills were goddamn phenomenal.
“No one is going to touch you, Princess. We just want to talk to your boyfriend. That’s all.”
“Just t-talk?”
Bern smiled, all non-threatening. “Just talk. You know, man to man.” He stretched his hand out in offering. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to take my knife and cut that fucking hand off, especially when Tatiana stepped away from me to take it.
She obviously had some sort of plan to get out of this, and it was my job to be ready when she put it into effect. Tatiana was a born tactician. The way her brain worked, her ability to think ten moves ahead and come up with quick, effective strategies was something the Bratva had been dying to get their hands on. When she decided not to go through with the initiation to become a Bratva soldier, my father was beyond disappointed. He wanted to put that genius mind of hers to work.
I watched in agony as Bern led her towards Al. I had all of three seconds to regret the decision to let her walk away when she glanced over her shoulder at me.
My Tatiana was back. Her eyes held that fire, that craziness I loved so much that she’d been hiding behind all those tears. Her lips were set into a dark smirk and I saw the exact moment she planned to strike. Bern’s face dropped slightly when he took in her expression, but by then it was too late.
Tatiana moved. She pulled Bern towards her with a strength that surprised the man and he stumbled into the gun she pulled out, the barrel pressing right into his abdomen. She fired, spun and fired again, a clean shot straight through Al’s forehead.
Everything kicked into overdrive. I whipped out my guns and took two shots, both hitting their targets before I dove for Tatiana, tackling her out of the line of fire.
Bullets whizzed past us, bouncing off the brick walls and slamming into the metal dumpsters. We scrambled into a crouch and stayed low as the last two MC men fired relentlessly.
The click-click-click ringing out in the alley told me they’d run out of bullets. Tatiana and I locked eyes. She peeked over the top of the dumpster and said, “11 o’clock and 3 o’clock.”
I nodded. “I’ll take eleven. You get three. Ready? Go.”
We sprung out and charged. I fired with both guns but he ducked down, just managing to avoid the shots. Someone rammed into me from the side, taking me completely by surprise.
Fuck. There must have been someone else hiding out of sight.
I lost my hold on my guns as my back slammed into the ground. Pain shot up my spine, but I ignored it to stop the knife suddenly going right for my throat.
A man in the same motorcycle vest as the others sat on top of me, fingers curled around the hilt of the blade that he was trying desperately to jam into my skin. We wrestled for control, pushing back and forth, back and forth, the sharp edge getting dangerously close to slicing into me.
You motherfucker.
I kept one arm up to block and quickly reached down to pull out my own blade. Then, I stabbed him in the kidney, the chest and the side of the neck, all in quick succession. Blood sprayed all over me. The man gurgled, his body going slack. I threw him off me and jumped to my feet, searching for Tatiana.
She was further down the alley, the last two remaining MC members boxing her in. Her dress was torn, a trail of blood dripping down the side of her face. I saw red. A deep, dark rage took over me and I charged ahead, running for them.
How. Dare. They.
How dare they attack my Tatiana. My beautiful, radiant Tatiana. How dare they corner her. Hurt her. Make her bleed. For that, I’d make them fucking suffer.
One of the men turned around and saw me coming. He met me head on, throwing a punch. I ducked underneath it, twisting the blade in my hand into a reverse grip and slicing the inside of his bicep as I popped up behind him. He yelled out a curse and swung his arm back in a spinning back fist. I reared back, avoiding the blow and threw my knife, hitting him right between the eyes.
I didn’t stop moving to watch him fall. I spun, preparing to help Tatiana, but of course my woman didn’t need any help. She was ramming a knife repeatedly into the last MC man’s stomach with a smile on her face. A truly evil, sadistic smile that made her look even more beautiful. Something I honestly didn’t think was possible.
She was still stabbing.
Six. Seven. Eight.
Blood pooled in a circle all around her, staining her skin.
Nine. Ten. Eleven.
She started laughing maniacally.
Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen.
As much as I loved watching her completely eviscerate someone—and I did, so much so that my cock was hardening every second that went by—I knew I had to stop her. Someone definitely would have heard those gunshots, those screams of pain. We had to get out of there before the police showed up.
I approached her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Tati—”
She spun so fast I didn’t even see it coming and shoved me up against the wall, knife to my throat. She panted heavily, eyes burning like wildfire. Then she dropped the knife, grabbed my face with both hands and yanked me down into a searing hot kiss. I moaned, my arms banding around her and pulling her closer. Her tongue dove into my mouth, sliding against mine and making me shiver.
“Do you think we have time to go another round?” she asked in between kisses.
I wished to God we did. The fight seemed to have gotten her adrenaline soaring, like it did to me. But the sirens blaring in the distance told me we absolutely did not have the time.
As hard as it was for me to do, I ripped my lips from hers, clasped her hand and ran.
I trailed my finger down Tatiana’s arm slowly as I watched her sleep, completely mesmerised. Every detail, no matter how small, drew me in. Her long lashes. That cute button nose. How soft and smooth her skin was.
After we’d fled the alley, we came back to her apartment and fucked again. And again, and again.
It was as if, because we started again, we couldn’t stop. Like we were making up for lost time.
We barely made it through the front door before we were ripping each other’s clothes off. We fucked right there on the floor, then we jumped into the shower to wash all the blood off, and ended up fucking again, before finally moving to the bedroom and doing it one more time.
Tatiana had passed out shortly after, completely exhausted. Not that I could blame her. I was too, but I was too terrified to sleep. Too terrified that when I woke up, it would have all been a dream. The whole night. It was a dream I wasn’t prepared to let go of, so I stayed up all night, just watching her sleep.
We were both naked, tangled up in her blanket, her head resting on my chest. Light peeked behind her black curtains, and I knew without glancing at the clock on her bedside table that it was now morning.
I didn’t feel a single shred of regret for staying awake all night. How could I when the reward was watching the most radiant woman in the world sleep right next to me? I’d do it every single night, if it was physically possible.
Tatiana snorted, a very un-lady-like snore ripping from her before she rolled over, giving me her back. I laughed softly, picking up a lock of her silky, golden hair and rubbing it between my fingers.
And the woman was adamant she didn’t snore.
My phone vibrated on the bedside table next to me. I quickly scooped it up before the noise could wake her. Although, when I thought about it, I didn’t think anything could be heard over that snoring. It was like someone had thrown rocks into a blender and turned it on full speed.
I looked at the screen.
Mikhail.
I tsked, a sliver of irritation slicing through me. The last thing I wanted to do was get up. This was the most content I’d felt in years. I honestly contemplated ignoring it so I could stay in this perfect moment a little while longer, but I knew I couldn’t.
There could be only one reason why he was calling me.
‘Podozhd,’ Hang on, I whispered in Russian when I answered the phone.
I leant forward, placing a soft kiss on Tatiana’s shoulder before quietly slipping out of the bed. I found my pants and put them on and then left the room, shutting the door behind me.
“Alright, what’s going on?” I asked, moving further into the apartment.
“I have your in,” Mikhail said, getting right to the point. Which I appreciated, because I wanted to get back in bed before Tatiana woke up.
“Give me the details.”
“Talon owns several big, private security companies. When I called them and inquired about hiring someone for the first week of May, they told me straight away that they had no one available.”
“You think he’s using the people in his security companies to man his island?”
“Yes. I went back and dug a little deeper into their employment history. Every year, in the last week of April and the first week of May, none of their employees were available for hire. I even checked his other businesses, his maid services, his restaurants. All shut down for those two weeks. Even the calendars holding their schedules for the coming years have those dates blacked out.”
He was pulling his employees out of their normal jobs to work on the island. That meant he used the same people each time. Posing as a worker wouldn’t work, in that case.
“You said you had my in? How?”
“There’s a waitlist of people in case of emergencies. Say someone’s broken their leg and can’t work, or someone has died between this game and the last one. Well, they have a waitlist of people to call and replace them, if need be.”
“Ah,” I said, catching on. I idly walked around the apartment as I spoke. “You want to take one of the employees out of the equation and replace them with me.”
“Already done. Frederick Anderson met his untimely demise in a tragic hit-and-run incident late last night.”
I smirked.
“But not before I hacked into their server and slipped your alias into the number one spot in their security waitlist. You should be getting a call any day now to bring you in.”
“Wouldn’t people be suspicious, though? Like, the head of security? Considering they’ve never met me before.”
“No. Hiring people would be something done specifically by Talon. He’s too much of a control freak to let it be any other way. Your name being on the roster will be enough for people to think you’ve been vetted and chosen by the big boss.”
When I walked into the bedroom I used to occupy, I frowned. The bed and all of the furniture had been pushed to one side of the room. On the other side was all of Tatiana’s design equipment. Her sketchpad, pencils, scissors, fabrics, sewing tape. It was all spread out chaotically with no organisation.
My frown deepened the longer I looked around the room. I’ve seen Tatiana’s design space back home. It looked nothing like this. Tatiana was meticulously organised when it came to that kind of thing. Everything had a specific spot, and absolutely could not be put anywhere else.
I was beyond surprised to see it like this. Why was she—
“Nikolai? Are you still there?”
I cleared my throat, shaking my head. “Here. Sorry. Just zoned out for a second.”
“No problem. That was all I had to tell you anyway. Once you get the call, let me know and we’ll plan the next step.”
“Will do. Thanks Mikhail,” I said, hanging up.
I crossed my arms over my chest, staring at the room in front of me, distaste building up inside of me. I didn’t like this. Tatiana deserved a better space to work in.
I fired off a few texts to my people and turned around, intending to go back to bed. But of course, my plans never worked out the way I wanted them to.
