Chapter 48: Chapter 48

Charleigh

“Arseny? Why go after Arseny?” I ask.

What the hell? He’s a low-level punk. Why waste the manpower? And now one man is dead, chopped up and left as bait at the front gate of the compound.

Whose remains, by the way, were found by my sister.

Such. Bullshit.

As if the kid is not already traumatized enough, she gets to see a mangled, bloody hand, separated from its body.

I swear to God, I am ready to take all the cash I can muster, put Evie in a car, and drive straight to Mexico, where we’ll hide for the rest of our lives.

Living like this is not sustainable. It’s deadly. If one of the Alekseev’s rivals doesn’t get us, the stress from the fear will.

Then I think about what it would be like to never feel Vadik’s, Kir’s, or Niko’s arms around me again, and I hate myself for being weak. A few months ago, I didn’t even know these men existed. Now I don’t think I can live without them.

Last night, when I got home after the horrible drive by that took several club members’ lives, first thing I did was check on Evie. Of course. There was a guard sitting outside her door, I was happy to see, and after peeking in on her, I thanked the man and went to my own room.

But there was no sleeping. After tossing and turning for a bit, I got up and paced my room. I even considered walking the grounds, but I wasn’t feeling safe enough for that. So, I bolted over to the cottage where Niko stays, and climbed into his bed to wait for him to get home.

Through his big glass doors, there were bits and pieces of the evening’s moon flashing through the tree canopy. Something about that, along with being in Niko’s bed, soothed me. I finally dozed off and barely stirred when he came to bed at four am—or was it five?

He must have showered before he joined me, because he was still wet and smelled so good, just clean, simple soap, and even though his skin was chilled, I rolled right into his arms and went back to sleep.

Simply put, it was heavenly, especially after such a fucked-up night.

I don’t know how much time passed, but when I was gently woken, the room was full of light and Niko was next to me, his face covered in concern.

“Baby, wake up,” he said. “You’re having a nightmare.”

It took a moment to shift from seeing Dimitri stare down at me with his evil eyes, to realizing I was safe and in the arms of Niko.

“Oh, thank God,” I said, snuggling into him. “Thank you for waking me.”

He flipped me over on my side and we spooned for a while, until I felt his growing erection bumping against my behind. I turned to face him and with only a smile let him know what I wanted.

Without breaking our gaze, he rolled on top of me and, balancing on one arm, pushed my nightie to my waist. I wrapped my legs around him and placed my hands on either side of his face, tracing his heavy brow with my thumbs.

I’m learning that sometimes sex is hard, fast, dirty, and loud—and sometimes it’s not. This was one of those times.

I push Niko’s blond hair off his handsome forehead and laugh when it falls right back down. I want to kiss every inch of his face, he’s so perfect, and the love he has in his eyes is so deep it almost hurts my heart.

Because I know I feel the same way. Not that I’m telling him. Yet. I’m simply not ready.

His hard cock finds my wet entrance and slides inside in one smooth movement. I close my eyes and drop my head back onto the pillow beneath me, ready to sail away to that place where life is perfect and any worries or sadnesses are so far out of sight it’s like they don’t even exist.

Niko strokes my inner walls, pulling all the way out and then driving back inside with a steady rhythm. I open my eyes for a moment to find him watching me, measuring my response, like it’s not enough to be inside my pussy, but he also wants to be inside my head to know my thoughts and feel my feelings.

I never expected this level of intimacy from any of the Alekseev brothers, and yet here we are. I close my eyes again, because I’m not quite ready to engage at this level. I may never be. But for now, Niko’s gentle fucking is all I need, the perfect antidote to waking up from a terrifying nightmare and a delicious way to start the day.

Does it disappoint him that I don’t return his desire for connection? It’s hard to tell. He’s an intuitive man, sensitive, at least as compared to his brothers. He sees things they don’t, and that’s part of the reason he’s such a good addition to the trio.

I wonder if his rocky beginnings, trying to find a place in a family where he’s an accidental afterthought, afforded him these skills, the kind that help an outsider fit in. In some regards I see myself the same. Growing up, I was always the kid people felt sorry for because I had no mother, and was a weirdo because my father owned a pawn shop.

That must be why, when I started my bookkeeping classes and found I had an affinity for the subject, I dove in, hook, line, and sinker. I was going to change how the world saw me, and especially how I saw myself.

All that’s off the table now, but I hope with the help of the guys, I can find my footing again.

My orgasm begins with a tingling, like an electric current that makes your hair stand on end, and I grip Niko’s ass to pull him deeper inside me. He gets the message and starts to pound me, shaking the bed and the wall it’s slamming against.

We don’t care.

“Oh God, Niko,” I murmur, “I’m coming, yes, fuck me.”

Niko erupts into an explosive groan and with a few more strokes holds himself deep inside me while we come at the same time. It’s transcendent, and I’m grateful for the few moments away from reality to the beautiful place only he can take me.

***************

Charleigh

I’m still not happy about the Alekseev’s attempt on Arseny’s life. The fact that they didn’t succeed means we have to be on higher alert than ever, as if that’s possible. Their excuse is that no one is innocent in their world, and that everyone knows the risks.

War is messy, I’ve heard Vadik say more than once.

I let Evie talk me into allowing her to attend some school play that her friends are in. It’s only a couple hours long, and the guys had the security team sweep the place before it got started, and assigned them with staying there until it’s time to come home. I’m not completely comfortable with this outing. Evie knows that, the security team knows that, and the guys know that. And yet they all pretty much overruled my objections, even after all the attempts on our lives.

Knowing Dimitri’s businesses are pretty much destroyed due to the Alekseev’s bombing of his warehouses has left me sitting on pins and needles. If we don’t take the man out soon, he’ll have another chance to strike.

I am not made for this strange world I’ve fallen into.

One of the conditions under which I agreed to let Evie attend her school thing was if I could attend also. Of course, she had a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t but they really boiled down to the fact that it wouldn’t ‘look cool’ to her friends for her big sister to be there, and that she doesn’t ‘need a babysitter.’

Tough shit.

After all we’ve been through, I’d think the kid might have developed some common sense.

But no.

I stand in the back of the auditorium with an assortment of teachers and parents, and nod at the educators who were on staff when I was in high school. They are all too aware that Evie is very different from me, and that’s why I’m so hands-on with her.

The lights in the auditorium go dark, and the stage lights up. Before they did, I had a pretty clear view of Evie, but now without light, I can’t really keep an eye on her.

I’m hoping someone from the security team can.

It’s a cute performance these high schoolers are putting on, and as I relax, I’m glad Evie insisted on attending. She needs to get out of the house and be around people her age. Homeschooling is not a long-term solution, not for a girl like her who needs to socialize and spread her wings.

And just as I’m getting into the play, which is really well done, there is a scream from the front of the audience.

It could be nothing, but high alert is my new normal. I stand on my tiptoes and crane my neck and then there is more screaming, followed by the scraping of chairs, and the players onstage stop what they’re doing to watch something going on in the front rows.

The heavy auditorium doors burst open and the Alekseev security team flies in, weapons drawn.

No. Please, no. Not here.

This is my sister’s sanctuary. The only place where she feels like a normal teenager. It’s bad enough so much has been taken from me, but really? A sixteen-year-old girl? Where is the fairness in that? And when does it stop?

“Get the lights!” I shout and push my way to the front of the auditorium.

But when security sees me, they surround me and start to usher me out of the room.

I fight back. “Where is my sister? We have to get my sister first!” I scream.

“We’ve got her, Miss Gates, she’s right over here,” someone says, and Evie runs at me so hard she almost knocks me over.

With my arms around her, I survey the pandemonium in the room. Kids are trying to get out, but the ancient folding chairs they were in are falling over, causing everybody to trip. The teachers in the back are trying to get some sort of control of the room but their instructions are drowned out by all the noise. It’s when I hear gunshots outside, coming from the parking lot, that I understand why the security team has barred the doors, pushing back on the panicked teenagers.

This is awful. Ugly. And it’s all our fault.

These kids do not deserve this. Neither do the teachers, or parents, or anybody else. They are innocent.

Am I going to go through life afraid to go out because of the trouble I might bring to others? Is that a way to live?

I look up at the guard who’s pulled Evie and me into a corner of the room, blocking anyone from seeing us with his huge body. “What’s going on? How will we get out of here?” I cry.

He brings his watch to his mouth and I realize he’s wearing a wire. He’s communicating with someone, somewhere. “It will be over soon, Miss Gates. But it looks like someone was coming for your sister.”

I don’t understand how anyone outside our tight group of the Alekseevs, us, and security could even know where Evie was going tonight.

And now there’s a shootout in front of the high school. It’s like I not only have a black cloud hanging over my head, but I am also spreading it wherever I go.

***************

Charleigh

“Can I sleep with you in your bed tonight, Char?” Evie asks, a long way from the smart-ass teenager she was earlier in the evening.

I look at her standing in my bedroom doorway, her face scrubbed clean of the black shit she rings her eyes with, in her striped pajamas, carrying the teddy bear she got from our mother. I push the comforter back on the empty side of my bed and wave her in.

“Thanks, Char,” she says, smiling as she scoots under the covers with me.

I snuggle up next to her and stroke her hair, hoping it will help her sleep. As for me, I think I’ll probably lie awake all night.

All of a sudden, my bedroom door flies open. “Charleigh, have you seen—” Kir starts to say.

Evie and I both raise our heads and he backs out of the room with a wave. “Oh, there you are. Goodnight, ladies,” he says, pulling the door closed.

“Hey, Char,” Evie says.

“Yeah?”

“Those guys like you. Like, really like you.”

Damn. Guess it’s pretty obvious.

“You think?” I ask, hoping to end the conversation before it gets started.

“Oh my God, Char. Duh!”

Evie drops off to sleep while I recount the aftermath of tonight’s attack. After she and I were rushed home, Vadik came by to fill me in. Turned out one of the guys after Evie was shot dead and the other got away. The man who was killed had no identification or fingerprints, which seems par for the course in this world.

So bizarre. I mean, I don’t even want to think about how one removes their fingerprints.

Vadik told me Evie and I can’t leave the house for a while because things between the rival factions are escalating at such a rapid pace. No surprise there. I just wish the guys would let me be part of the war. Vadik nearly burst out laughing when I suggested that, but quickly reassured me as soon as I’m ready, I will be welcome to join the team.

I’ll believe that when I see it.

Next morning, after an entire night of insomnia and stewing over things, I confront the guys when they come to the kitchen for morning coffee. I don’t care who hears what I have to say.

Hands on hips, I march up to the three of them. “Are you guys putting off the inevitable again? Are you not going after Dimitri because of something the Pakhan is telling you? Are you keeping something from me?”

The guys look at each other with raised eyebrows. “Well. Good morning to you too,” Kir says, topping off his coffee. “Damn,” he mumbles under his breath.

“I heard that.”

A titter passes through the kitchen staff but when I turn to see what’s going on, not a single soul has lifted their head from their work.

Whatever.

“Hey, Char. Give the guys a break.”

I turn to see Evie, scarfing down her breakfast bagel and juice, pointing a finger at me like a scolding school teacher.

Seriously?

“Char,” she continues, “it’s partly my fault for insisting on going to the play. I should have just listened to you and sucked it up and stayed home. Look, you need to find a balance between happiness and revenge.”

Well, that just about shuts everybody up. The brothers look amused and excuse themselves to get to work, and I stand there in the kitchen having been admonished by about the most immature, impractical teenager in the world.

“Wait here,” I say to Evie, and run after the guys, who are getting in their cars.

“Hey,” I call after them. “Don’t think what my sister just said gets you off the hook. I’m not leaving you alone until this matter is resolved one way or the other. If not just for my sake and my sister’s, but what about Stacey? What about Clara?” I ask, looking directly at Kir.

A dark cloud passes over his face, and I realize I probably went too far. But I have to let the guys know I’m fucking serious, and this business of waiting is getting very old.

“I want to know what’s going on!” I scream.

Vadik approaches me with his hands up like he’s surrendering. “Charleigh, Charleigh, please calm down.”

Oh my God. Did he really just say that? Does he not know that the worst thing to tell a not-calm person is to calm down? That’s like throwing gasoline on a freaking fire.

I know he’s smarter than that.

“Why, Vadik? Why should I calm down? Personally, I can’t think of a single reason why I shouldn’t be upset and yelling at the top of my lungs.”

He’s not pleased and his reconciliation posture changes as he approaches me, finger pointing at my face. “Look. You will follow our lead. You will follow our instructions. And you will not speak to any of us that way unless you want to be indefinitely locked in your room.”

Holy hell. Would they really do that?

Best not to test them.

“I… I can’t let this go,” I say, forcing calm into my voice. “I know my sister has a point, but I can’t be happy without revenge. It’s choking me. It’s taken over every aspect of my life. I think about it all day and dream about it all night. You probably think I’m obsessed. Well, you would be right. I am.”

I look from one of them to the next, and the care in their eyes moves me to tears. That’s when I realize, finally realize, that they are listening to me, that they have been listening to me all along, and that maybe the person who hasn’t been paying attention is me.

Maybe it’s time for me to shut my mouth and really hear what they are saying, that they love me, would do anything for me, and that they have my back.