Chapter 23: Chapter 23

Charleigh

Vadik closes up his trousers and brings me a towel from his bar cart. I wipe my hands and everything he got all over me and catch him staring like he’s never seen a woman.

What a strange man. So gruff and cold, and yet craving connection like a lost child. It’s maddening. And kind of tragic.

“Hi,” I say, and we both laugh.

He breaks his awkward stare and points toward the corner of his office. “There’s a bathroom over there.”

I kick off the panties around my ankle and ease down my skirt—at least as far as I can, since it’s so damn short. It’s funny, just a few days ago I wanted to die of embarrassment to be dressed so immodestly, and now I don’t even notice anymore. As if I’ve been wearing clothes like this all my life.

In all the excitement, my shoes came off, so I pad across Vadik’s plush carpeting in my stockinged feet to the bathroom, moving silently. Maybe I should just go back to my own room and get cleaned up, but I want to at least be somewhat presentable before I leave his office. I guess it will come as no surprise to anyone, given the nature of the club and my role here, but I still default toward being somewhat private. I imagine at some point, I won’t care about that anymore, just like I don’t care that I’m walking around half-naked. Who knows.

I shut myself into Vadik’s bathroom and grab a thick towel, the same kind someone keeps replacing in my own bathroom, and splash water on my face. I finger-comb my hair and pull my panties back on after cleaning up down there. Keeping the water running at a trickle, I put down the toilet lid and take a seat to catch my breath and clear my head.

How I feel close to someone who is about to ruin my life is beyond me. It’s fucked up on so many levels. And yet when we were coming together, we were connected. Like really connected. I could feel his orgasm, and I swear he could feel mine.

Elbows on my knees, I put my head in my hands and force a couple deep breaths. The confusion and conflicting thoughts bouncing around my mind are horrendous, and the grief I want to give myself for being intimate with such a man—his brothers included—is crushing.

If I come out of this alive, will I end up hating myself?

And wouldn’t that be the worst thing of all? To lose my self-respect? To loathe nobody more than myself?

I shake the thoughts away. I just have to get through today.

Over the sound of the trickling faucet, I hear Vadik’s office door fly open, and I immediately identify the loud voice that follows as that of Kir.

“Looks like someone had fun. Did Cinderella run away and leave her glass slippers behind?” Kir asks, laughing.

Dammit, I left my shoes by the sofa.

Vadik responds evenly. Like always. “Fuck off, man. What do you want?”

“Hey, Niko needs some reinforcements. Let’s go.”

“Why? What’s going on?” Vadik asks.

“Not sure, but I think he has a lead on the cargo and wants to confront Dimitri with some backup.”

With my ear pressed to the door, I hear some clicking, which I can only imagine is the loading of a pistol.

“Hey,” I say, bursting out of the bathroom.

I run to the sofa and put my shoes back on.

“We’re heading out, Charleigh,” Kir says, Vadik following him to the door.

“I know,” I say, tagging right behind them.

I have no plan. I just want to see what I’m involved in. And up against. As long as they’ll let me.

Vadik and Kir stop in their tracks, first looking at me and then each other as if each is waiting for the other to tell me to go back to my room.

Neither says a thing.

* * *

Charleigh

I follow Vadik and Kir out the building and we climb into the back of a big, dark SUV with a driver up front. I look back at the warehouse and spot Dominika looking out the window, watching me leave with the guys as the driver floors it and hits the road.

This is going to chap her ass, for sure. And the best part is, she knows she can’t say a thing.

“Do you think Niko’s in over his head?” Kir asks his brother as if I’m not even there.

They are totally ignoring me, which is just fine.

I can’t believe they let me tag along, and figure if I don’t draw attention to myself and keep quiet, they’ll forget I’m here. I have questions, but file them away for later.

Vadik takes a deep breath. “He may be in too deep. You know, he’s new to some of this shit. He hasn’t been at it as long as you and me. Papa protected him for a long time. Niko will catch up, but Dimitri can be formidable when he has his shit together. The fucker is determined unlike anything I’ve ever seen. He won’t stop until he’s dead.”

A cold shiver runs over me the way Vadik speaks so casually of death. Just another day at the office for the Alekseev brothers, I guess.

“Do we know for sure Dimitri’s people intercepted the shipment?”

Vadik looks out the window as we pull into a parking lot not unlike the one at the club—sprawling, overdue for maintenance with large cracks and potholes, and all the cars parked at one end, closest to a run-down warehouse like theirs.

“Who else could it be?” Vadik asks. “It’s not the authorities, we’ve already had our contact check on that. And other than them, who would be stupid enough to mess with our shit? The Pakhan is not going to be happy. There’s been a lot of pressure to keep the peace in order to maintain our low profiles. Dimitri is getting close to fucking all that up.”

Why haven’t they gone to the Pakhan to resolve this issue, then? Isn’t that what he’s for?

I have so many questions. But now is not the time. I follow Vadik’s and Kir’s gaze to a handful of men gathered around a truck. While I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, voices are loud and there is a lot of hand gesturing. And in the middle of it are Niko and Dimitri.

Dimitri. Will he help me out of my situation?

The SUV stops and Kir and Vadik start to climb out. Before the door closes after them, Vadik turns to me. “Stay in there, Charleigh. No reason for you to leave the car.”

The door slams and the locks click into place right away. I turn to look at the driver, and he nods back at me, confirming he’s taking his orders from the brothers and no one else.

Including me.

It takes only a moment for things to get so heated among the men that the driver leaves the SUV, I suppose to provide reinforcement. When he does, the doors unlock. And they don’t re-lock. I remember Vadik’s words, that I have no business getting out of the car. But that doesn’t mean I can’t listen. I open my window a couple inches since the key is still in the ignition, but I can’t fully make out what they’re saying.

Until I hear my name mentioned. Yeah, I definitely hear my name.

Vadik, in clear view, has his hands spread out like he’s trying to reason with someone. His brothers are frowning, concentrating, anticipating, and Dimitri wears his usual mocking sneer. They are all so engrossed, they’ll never notice me exit the far side of the SUV, the side they can’t see, where I can crouch down behind a tire and listen better.

I even contemplate escaping for a moment, but picture the hell that would rain down on my father and, by default, Evie. I’m not so concerned about Pops, not anymore, but Evie’s a different story. She has her life ahead of her, and while she’s messing things up right and left, I have to believe it’s just a phase she’ll find her way out of.

She needs me for that.

But first things first.

I open the car door slowly and carefully slip out, staying low. Then, I move to the end of the car where I can crouch beside the wheel, and try to make sense of the conversation I overhear.

“I don’t know why your men blame me for everything that goes wrong in your business. Maybe you should have learned from your father’s success. He never had these issues you boys do,” Dimitri says, taunting, poking, pushing.

Does he have no idea how dangerous his behavior is? Or does he just not care? It’s like he has a death wish.

I hear a sharp intake of air, and while I can’t see, I know it’s one of the brothers trying not to lose his shit on this creep. “Don’t bring my father into this, you fucker. In fact, don’t ever mention him again with that dirty mouth of yours.”

These guys aren’t kidding when they say they hate Dimitri.

But I guess that’s how you are if someone killed your parents and got away with it.

* * *

Charleigh

That’s when I feel a sharp tug on the ponytail I fixed my hair into after messing around with Vadik. The pain is so sudden and sharp, I emit a small scream in spite of all attempts to remain silent. I am yanked to my full height so fast I can’t get my feet under me. I’m essentially hanging by my hair, scrambling to grab anything within reach.

But there is nothing for me to grasp as my attacker drags me away from the car. My scalp screams in pain as it and my hair support my body weight, and I wonder how long it will take before it begins to rip out of my head. They’ve done this before, I can tell. This person who’s grabbed me is well aware their torture is crippling. I swing my arms frantically but only flail. Hell, even if I had a weapon, I’m not sure I could think clearly enough to use it. But, of course, if I had a weapon, this might not be happening.

“Well, well,” Dimitri booms from where he stands with the brothers.

I’d know that voice anywhere.

My attacker drags me from the hidden side of the SUV to where the rest of the men are. Dimitri and his sidekicks laugh, while the Alekseevs, each of the three, go from wearing angry, tight expressions to murderous rage.

Is that because of a sense of protection or responsibility they feel for me, or just that Dimitri thinks he’s bested them?

“What the fuck—” Niko says.

“She must have been waiting in the SUV, boss,” my handler calls to Dimitri. “I caught her listening.”

The man hauls me in the direction of the guys, and because I still don’t have my feet solidly under me, I’m tripping and stumbling like a drunk person.

“Let me go,” I scream, continuing to flail, more out of reflex than any hope it will help.

I picture my hair coming out in chunks, my thrashing and screaming making the pain worse, and yet I don’t surrender.

I can’t expect anyone to help me. I have to look out for myself.

Then, all at once, the agony ceases. The tugging, the suffering, and especially my screaming come to a complete halt, not because the pain is over, but because the breath is knocked out of me. I’ve been dropped onto the hard asphalt below, which I crash into like a deadweight, scraping the shit out of one of my shoulders. While my scalp still burns, the worst of it has subsided. I am now lying in a crumpled pile of my own limbs, my face pressing into the gritty, rocky parking lot surface.

Blinking, I look up and the first face I see is Dimitri’s, his eyes narrowing like a serpent’s about to dig its fangs into its prey. Should I reach for him? Can I add fuel to this already-burning fire.

But Niko is at my side, hoisting me up and giving me time to catch my both my breath and my balance.

When I am finally steady on my feet, he still doesn’t let me go. The urge to burrow into him, to slide under one of his arms and pull it the rest of the way around my shoulder, is strong, but so is the itch to grab the pistol from the waistband of his trousers and make all of them suffer.

But I do neither. One, I don’t show my need for comfort because I don’t want Dimitri to know he can get to me, and two, I don’t shoot anyone because I know I’ll end up dead too.

“And there she is, the lovely Charleigh. Tell me, darling,” Dimitri croons, “how is your papa? And your little sister, Evie?”

Niko’s grip tightens around me. He knows how I will react to such a comment. And, obviously, so does Dimitri.

I force my expression to stay neutral, but a burning that begins in my stomach makes its way to my throat, grinding on my insides like sharp pieces of glass. I couldn’t speak if I wanted to. I can barely breathe as it is.

The bastards.

“You’re okay now,” Niko whispers in my ear, and the urge to throw my arms around him has never been stronger.

“I’ll tell you what, gentlemen,” Dimitri says expansively. “I’ll overlook your accusation that I have something to do with your little shipment problem, if I may have this this lovely lady here at my disposal.”

My voice returns. “I… I am being auctioned next weekend,” I blurt, hoping this might deflate some of the tension in the air.

I should have stayed in the car. Actually, I should have stayed at the club.

Dimitri grins, showing off a gold tooth in the side of his mouth. “That’s right,” he says, tapping his temple. “Next weekend is the auction. How fun that will be.”

My stomach flips again at the thought of his hands on me. I am not sure which is worse—him or Alexei.

They’re equally repulsive in their own ways. But I force a little smile for him, anyway. I need allies and there’s no telling where they’ll come from.

Vadik takes a step toward Dimitri. “You will never have the chance to bid on this girl. Never.”

Screeching tires distract us all, and when everyone turns toward the source, I have to fight the impulse to run. First there’s nowhere to go, and second, I have no doubt all these men are armed, and I probably won’t get ten feet away without a bullet in my back.

A car stops next to the SUV, and two men in dark suits and sunglasses hop out and survey the scene. Then, one of them leans back into the car and says something quietly, I am pretty sure in Russian, to someone inside. A third man steps out, buttons his jacket, and nods in our direction.

I look at Niko. “Who is he?” I whisper.

Niko straightens his back. “The Pakhan.”