I never thought there would be a day when Rai would lie peacefully in my arms this way.
She’s too hotheaded and individualistic to succumb to my hold like this.
At one point, I realized there would be a day where she will leave me and never look back.
But that was before I decided I won’t lose her.
I wasn’t joking when I told her she’s coming with me. It was said in the heat of the moment, but it’s the truest decision I’ve ever made.
Rai is coming with me.
When this whole thing is done, she will be by my side when we go to live somewhere far away from here.
Far away from the tragedy I’ll bring to the place she loves so much. The wound in my chest is nothing compared to the one she’ll suffer once I’m done.
She’s currently changing my bandage and telling me about Mikhail’s latest screw-up. That’s what she’s been doing for the past couple of weeks. I try to focus on her words instead of the urge to flip her underneath me and fuck her.
It doesn’t matter that we just came out of the shower and I took her against the wall until she was screaming at me to stop.
I can’t stop.
Not when she looks at me with those eyes. I wish to be able to keep them safe somewhere. I wish I could hide them so they wouldn’t see the monstrosity of what I truly am or what I’m capable of. If she does see, she won’t only want me dead like the other time I disappeared on her. This time, she will shoot me with her own hands.
I would probably deserve it, but still, I won’t let it happen, even if I have to resort to methods she won’t approve of.
Once finished with the bandage, she helps me put on my shirt and buttons it. Her black-manicured nails look so feminine against the fabric, elegant and full of finesse like everything about her.
Her face appears younger, probably because she’s not completely alert like when we’re in the company of others. She’s starting to gradually let her guard down around me.
I wouldn’t say that’s a very clever choice on her part, but it’s better than having her always fight me—though she does still fight me whenever she feels the urge to. I love provoking Rai and causing her to blush or squirm before she tells me to take her against the closest available surface.
“All finished.” She smiles at her handiwork.
“I wouldn’t say it’s all finished unless you’re bouncing on my dick, Princess.”
She sucks in a harsh breath. “Do you ever stop talking like that?”
“I do.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I really do.”
“When have you ever, pervert?”
“When you’re riding me, Mrs. Hunter.”
She rolls her eyes. “You say that as if you let me.”
“I will now.” I tap my thigh.
She hesitates for a second too long before she shakes her head. “No, we’re supposed to go meet Kai, remember?”
“How could I forget?” I mutter.
We have a meeting with the Japanese fucker who looks at her in a way that bugs me. That’s an understatement. It’s not only that I dislike the way he looks at her. Whenever his name is brought up, I have the urge to finish his miserable life and start a diplomatic problem between the Yakuza and the Bratva.
However, the other fucker, Vladimir, has been urging Rai to go talk to him for a possible alliance. He knows Kai has some sort of an agreement with Rai, and I don’t like that type of agreement.
Needless to say, there was no way in hell I was going to let her go meet him on her own. So either I go or we ditch him. I prefer the second option, or better yet, I’d rather option zero where I should’ve had Flame snipe him down.
“Kai can wait,” I say.
“No, he can’t.”
“Yes, he can. In the meantime, you can ride me. Come on, you know you want to.”
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and peeks at me through her thick lashes with a seductiveness I’m sure she doesn’t know she has but still manages to exude, anyway.
She might not be a natural seductress like her twin sister, but she has these hidden tendencies that appear every now and then, and they sure as fuck work on me judging from the bulge in my trousers.
“Later, okay?”
“Why wait for later when we can do it now?”
She sighs heavily but doesn’t push away from me when I grab her by the waist.
Rai stares at me. In the beginning, I hated her eyes. I thought they were too cold, callous, and impenetrable, but now they’re anything but closed off. She’s soft, peaceful, and I might be too addicted to that side of her.
“Do you realize just how much you’ve screwed up my schedule?”
“And is that a bad thing?”
“Of course it is. I have work to do, and it’s not only about the brotherhood. I’m an executive manager in V Corp, where many people’s livelihoods depend on me. I have the directors to answer to and the employees to look after. I also have to keep an eye on Ana’s internship so she stops being too sheltered, but I forget all about that when I’m with you. Would you stop distracting me?”
“Why would I when it’s the best distraction you will ever have?”
“Kyle…” she pleads. “Let’s just go, and when we return, I will let you do whatever you want.”
My interest is piqued at that. “Whatever I want?”
“Whatever. You. Want,” she says emphatically. “But now promise you’ll be good.”
I narrow my eyes. “Good to who?”
“To Kai.”
“Why would I when he threatened to kill you on our wedding day?”
“Because we want an alliance with the Japanese. We have to practice diplomacy sometimes.”
“You’re the contact, not me. I don’t see why both of us should play nice.”
“What is your problem with Kai exactly?”
The way he looks at you. But I don’t say that because it’ll make me a pathetic fool, and I’m anything but. If anything, I’m the villain of this tale. I’m the reason her beloved brotherhood will be wiped away.
When I don’t say anything, Rai considers the subject closed and places my leather shoes by my feet. “Do you want me to help?”
“I can at least do that myself. Go before me. I will follow.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to help? It’ll be quick.”
“You’re becoming a wife way too fast, Rai.”
But I feel like it’s only because she feels guilty that I took a bullet for her great-uncle.
That’s the reason why she wouldn’t leave my side all this time. It’s gratitude. I hate that fucking word. I don’t want her to feel gratitude toward me. I want her to be with me because she needs my presence as much as I can’t breathe without hers.
But there will be a different time and place for that. One day, she will snuggle into my arms, not because she feels grateful for my ‘heroic’ acts, but because she can’t stay away from me.
After making a face, she leaves.
I make sure the door closes behind her before I put my shoes on, grab my phone, and go to the balcony. It’s rarely open due to the fear of snipers. The late boss, Nikolai, was overly cautious, and Rai takes after him in more ways than one.
I dial the number on my phone and wait a few minutes before Flame picks up.
“How are things from your side?”
“First of all, fuck you—I didn’t sign up to be within the Irish. Feigning their accent is a nightmare.”
“Stop moaning. Did Damien’s attack work?”
“Magically. They’re anxious and kind of know they’re doomed because of the Russians and the Italians joining forces to crush them.”
“As they should,” I mutter under my breath.
“I believe Rolan will either reach out to Sergei or Lazlo or both.”
My fist tightens at the sound of that name. Rolan Fitzpatrick. There’s no way in hell I would ever forget it.
“And what does he intend to do exactly?” I ask Flame.
“Ask for a truce? Or a whore? How the fuck would I know?”
“Doesn’t matter, anyway. Both Lazlo and Sergei think the Irish sniped at my wedding and came to Sergei’s special supper.”
“To give them credit, the Russians did try to catch us that night, especially that bearded guy and the one with the glasses, but we escaped in time.”
I stare down at the guards stationed near every entrance. “No matter how much the Russians think they’re strong, they don’t compare to professionally trained killing machines.”
“Speaking of those killing machines, they’re waiting for their second half of the deposit.”
“I’ll send it over as soon as they finish the entire job.”
“Just give me a name.”
There’s a pause—from my side, not his. Why the fuck am I hesitating? After all, this was the reason why I returned to the States in the first place. This is why I’ve been staying alive.
“Kyle?”
“I don’t care who you have to kill from the Russians as long as it’s an elite and not Adrian or Sergei.”
“Why not Sergei? He would’ve been my first choice.”
Adrian is off the list because he knows some of the story. My secret kills for him in the past are the reason why I got in the brotherhood in the first place. Nikolai didn’t question my background when Adrian gave him a fake one because he—and Sergei—trust him that much. Adrian wants me close because he likes having one of the best professional killers in his arsenal, and for that, we have a mutual understanding. Of course he doesn’t know that I intend to ruin the entire brotherhood, though.
Sergei, however, should’ve been game because his position allows for greater impact if he suddenly dies.
Rai’s words from the other day are what’s stopping me from finishing him.
If he does die, she’ll be thrown out of V Corp and everything she worked for. The brotherhood is a harsh world for a woman, especially a very opinionated and outspoken woman like Rai.
So, I choose not to kill her fantasies yet, even though she’ll eventually leave them behind once I whisk her out of here.
“I still need Sergei. He prefers me now, and I’ll use that to my advantage,” I say. “Choose one of the others.”
“And then?”
“And then stop asking questions and make it happen. After all, I’m paying you in fucking favors, and you know how much I hate them.”
“Fine, fine. I was just wondering if you had a plan for that blondie wife of yours.”
You don’t fucking talk about her that way. In fact, don’t bloody mention her at all.
That’s what I want to say, but if I show my weakness to Flame that way, he won’t hesitate to use it against me in the most brutal way possible. I might have him as an ally right now, but there will be a day when he will return to being my enemy.
“Rai is nothing,” I say in a casual tone. “I’ll just leave her behind.”
“Which is the smartest thing to do, because if she knows what you’re doing, she’ll murder you.”
She would.
But I’m still taking her with me. I don’t care if she kills me as long as she’s by my side.
“We’re close to the finish line, so get your head in the game, Flame.”
“Always is, punk.”
“By the end, I want both the Irish and the Russians destroyed.”
This is my vengeance.
