by SR Jones
I lower my voice and lean in closer. “I know why you did this. Why you gave me Violet. You figure this binds us. But know this, Sergei. My rules still stand; I won’t do anything for you that I wouldn’t have before.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I simply don’t want you doing those things for any of the other bosses here in the U.K. You and me, we’re a partnership that works well, and I want to solidify it.” He takes a sip of his drink and then looks at me, his eyes almost sad. “My son, he is useless, and I won’t lie to you; I’m hoping one day you’ll join me and become my second.”
His words shock me. I knew he wanted me to see myself as a family member and become closer to him and his organization. But to be his second? I’ve always planned to walk away from this life once I’ve finally killed every last fucker who messed with my family. To stay in it would be a betrayal of them. There’s something tempting about the offer, though. The fact that I could go after rival families and organizations full throttle and take out those who harmed my family by any means necessary.
Fuck it, I could bring down vengeance like no one has ever seen on the crime families on my shit list with the kind of power I would have because I wouldn’t be second forever. Once Sergei shuffles off this mortal coil, I would be the boss. I could clean up the Allyov business, turn it more and more legit, and at the same time use all the means I would have at my disposal to bring Kyrylo Voloshin and his whole fucking empire burning to the ground.
Shit.
The longer I am in this world, the more it drags me under.
I glance up and see Violet coming over with Justina and Gregory’s bit on the side, Lucy. My dick stirs at the sight of her. She’s a fucking goddess tonight, and I’ve tried my hardest to keep my reaction to her under check because I know for a fact now Justina is playing a game. She’s picked up on my desire for Violet, and she’s stoking it. Not sure why. Maybe she thinks it will save the girl if I make her mine. Justina has no clue it’s the last thing someone like Violet needs. I like to play, and I like to fuck, hard. Violet probably has fantasies about being laid down on a blanket in a meadow and made love to gently. Not my thing at all. I can do such shit and enjoy it, but in general, my tastes run darker.
Sweet Jesus, but she’s gorgeous though. Her hair is waving down around her shoulders, a cloudy halo of light framing her petite features. Her eyes are big in her face, defined as they are by makeup. Her glossy lips are full and tempting. The dress she’s wearing is simple compared to all the other girls. A black sheath that ends above her knee for God’s sake. Compared to the scraps of fabric, bright colors, sequins and skin-tight clothing on display, she shouldn’t look so good, but she does. It’s as if the simplicity only highlights her beauty. The stark lines only serve to accentuate her curves and her graceful limbs. She’s petite but she’s got something of a dancer about her, only with a much heavier bust than most classical dancers possess.
Her allure might be down to my developing case of blue balls for her, but it’s not; I’ve noticed how many other men watch her and stare at her. Little, sweet Violet is like fucking catnip to men, when in many ways she shouldn’t be.
As the trio near us, a man puts his hand on Violet’s arm and says something. A shocking surge of possession roars through me, burning my gut. I want to punch the fucker in the face. Violet smiles at him, shakes her head, and carries on toward us. I was going to leave her talking to the girls, but instead, I catch her eye and flick my fingers at her to come over to me.
I tell myself this is part of the act, but I know it’s more. I want to touch her. Want her near me.
She sides past a couple of the guys and begins to sit next to me, but I don’t want her next to me; I want her on me. Pulling her toward me, I manhandle her onto my lap and wrap my arms firmly around her small waist.
Startled deep blue eyes turn to me, and her mouth parts as if she’s going to speak. I don’t want her to speak, so I shut her up. I do this by kissing her, full on the mouth in front of Allyov and all the other men sat around this table.
It’s more than fooling Allyov; it’s me claiming her, marking her as mine. Letting her know who the fuck she belongs to, even though she doesn’t.
Even though I have no right.
I do it anyway.
She doesn’t push me away, but she stiffens in my arms. Then she goes soft, and her mouth parts a little. I don’t push in and give her tongue, not in front of all these goons staring at us, but I do give one swipe of her delicious flesh before pulling away.
“You’re getting noticed,” I tell her, voice low. This conversation is for us only, not for show.
“My, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.” She bats her eyes at me, and it makes me smile.
“Maybe I am.”
“It’s nice someone has noticed the effort I went to,” she chides.
“I noticed.”
“You didn’t show it.”
“I don’t show a lot of things; pays to keep your cards close to your chest in my line of work.”
She bites her lip. “I suppose both of us like to keep things private and keep certain things to ourselves.”
Oh, what secrets are you keeping to yourself, little Violet, and how can I pry them free?
For a while it’s nice. She sits on my lap, warm and tempting, smelling like heaven, sipping at her drink. Then another drink appears for her. Something in a glass with passion fruit slices and a tiny shot glass by the side. She sips from the main glass and her eyes widen in appreciation at the first sip as she looks to Justina.
“Porn star martini,” Justina tells her. “Enjoy. And in a while, you’re dancing. Can’t keep her to yourself all night, Andrius.” She seems to recall where she is then, and in whose company. “Well, you can, but think about how nice it will be to watch her shake her booty.”
She winks at me, studiously avoiding looking at Gregory or Allyov.
“That one needs keeping under control,” a high-up ranking officer in Allyov’s organization says.
I fix him with my stare, not looking away until he finally looks my way. He swallows and looks down first. Yeah, you piece of shit, I don’t care how high up you are, disrespect me or mine and you make trouble for yourself.
Another good reason to take Allyov up on his offer. Guys like this can be weeded out as the dead wood some of them certainly are.
Violet keeps sipping at her drink as we converse in Russian. Allyov is telling me about what he wants me to do to the barman. He doesn’t want him killed, which would be my play to be fucking frank. He wants him made an example of. The guy is pretty, and it’s obvious looking at him he spends a lot of time on trying to keep himself that way. I’d bet good money his hair isn’t all naturally that color, he works out, maybe uses a sunbed. He’s also a giant flirt, giving lots of the female customers dimpled grins and cheeky winks.
“Make him less pretty.” Allyov swallows down a slug of his vodka.
I lean in. “I’m fine with whatever you want, but this guy, he isn’t one of us. He isn’t part of the organization. Not someone who is so deep in he won’t go to the police if we rough him up because he knows to do so is a death sentence. This piece of shit, he’s a barman who got ideas above his station. Giving him a slap and leaving him to breathe afterwards risks him doing something out of the rules of our world. He might go to the police.”
“Our job tonight is to also impress upon the young man how foolish such a decision would be,” Allyov says.
I nod, but I’m not overly happy about this, and if the fucker thinks it is a good idea to talk, it puts me in a dangerous position. Not that I won’t be alibied to the hilt. Everyone in this circle will say I was with them all night. Never left the club floor, not even to take a piss. But it would put me on the police radar, which I don’t fucking want.
If it were up to me, if I were in charge, I’d take the piece of shit somewhere and dispose of him. Once more, the idea of taking over worms its way into my brain. If I w
ere in charge.
“Can we take Violet to dance?” Justina is back, her hair flatter now around her face as she’s sweaty from dancing.
“Go, if you want to.” I give Violet a nudge, and she shakes her head.
“I can’t dance; I suck at it.”
Now, I’m curious and want to see her try.
“Come on,” Justina wheedles. “I’ll show you.”
Violet sighs and gets up. “Ugh, I’m going to look so stupid.”
She follows Justina out onto the dance floor as a new song starts. Something with the same monotonous base; I don’t know what, this isn’t my sort of music. I like rock, bluegrass, anything but this repetitive shit.
Justina and Lucy are wiggling their bodies on the dance floor, in time to the beat and sexy. Moving in that age-old way that says, look at me, guys. Not that Justina wants guys to look at her, but girls, maybe. She has a girlfriend she sees sometimes, and so far as I’m aware, has never been unfaithful to her, but she likes to flirt.
A small group of men is gathered around the two girls, watching them, eyeing them up. Violet joins them, and I watch as she begins to dance.
Holy fuck, she didn’t lie. She can’t dance. She moves her limbs around as if she’s a newborn foal learning how to walk. She does this weird thing with her arms too, where every so often she throws them up in the air a little, but not to the beat, but to a random, crazy timer only she understands.
I start to smile. I don’t know why but something about her being so spectacularly bad at this makes me want to hug her.
After another song, she seems ready to give up and come back to sit on my lap, which is fine by me. She begins to walk off, and Justina shakes her head grabbing her. They talk for a moment and Justina grins, motioning for Violet to stay before she walks off. She heads for the DJ booth, beckons him to lean over to her, and shouts something in his ear. He shakes his head at first, but then she repeats it and points our way. He frowns and nods. Justina sways her way back to Violet, and they continue to dance, Violet looking bored now.
The song ends, and I wait for another monotonous beat to start up, but instead, a piano plays, and there’s singing in the background. Fucking hell, it’s Abba.
“What the fuck?” one of the men at the table says.
Violet stops at the very first piano chord and turns glistening eyes to Justina who nods and claps her hands together. Violet starts to laugh and as the song begins with lyrics even I know off by heart, she does that spinning thing she did in my hallway, only faster.
Then she dances. She really dances, and while her moves aren’t practiced to this song, one she clearly loves, they are exuberant, and happy, and sexy as fuck. Now, her arm movements are in time to the song, and she’s not doing the sexy hip swing all the other girls do: she’s spinning around, and then swaying, and then putting her arms in the air, but the unselfconscious joy of it all makes my dick so hard it hurts.
It also gives me the twinge I keep getting around her. In my chest. The one telling me this girl is dangerous to me because she reaches places others don’t.
Justina and Lucy join Violet in her arm raised swaying dance now, all of them totally lost in enjoying the song and not noticing everyone else noticing them.
The men around them draw nearer, and yet they don’t make a move, and it’s because nothing about the trio of women is saying: guys, come get us. They are enjoying the fuck out of the music for themselves and no one else.
All too soon the song ends, and something else comes on, something with a sexy beat this time. I recognize it, a hit from a few years back. Violet must know this one too, because she’s still dancing, still enjoying herself. A guy comes up to her and touches her upper arm, one of their circling fan club. He says something to her, and she shakes her head, but he leans in again and says something else. She smiles, shakes her head, but he isn’t giving up.
Justina pushes him away and says something, which from over here I can see looks kind of abrasive if body language is anything to go by.
The guy shoves her back and puts his hand back around Violet’s upper arm, gripping harder this time. Oh, no fucking way.
I’m up and moving before I think.
I cut through the crowds who part for me easily, and I reach the little shit with his hands all over my girl.
“She doesn’t want to dance with you,” I tell him, raising my voice to be heard over the music.
“What the fuck has it got to do with you?” he yells as he turns around. When he sees me, he swallows, looks to his friends who are already backing off and raises his hands. “Whatever. I’m out of here.”
Then the little fuck can’t help himself. He turns around as the song fades and says loud enough for people around him to hear, “If she fucks as badly as she dances, you’re welcome to her.”
I smile at him as my arm snakes out and grabs him by the back of the neck. I haul him off the dance floor, him protesting and his stupid friends following, all shouting stuff at me. When I reach the edge of the dancefloor, the bouncers are already there.
“Take this piece of crap and his friends and escort them out, will you, gentlemen? Before I do something I’ll fucking regret.” I push him so hard he goes down onto his knees.
He turns to me, eyes blazing with anger, but one of the bouncers already has him in a firm grip, and he and his friends are hauled outside. I have no need to hit them myself; I know I could wipe the floor with them in two seconds flat. I simply want them gone so they can’t hassle anyone else.
I need a piss, so I head out of the noise-filled room and down the plush corridor toward the toilets.
Footsteps behind me have me turning around to see Violet following me. I pause, wondering if she’s heading to the toilet too, or wants to talk to me.
“Andrius,” a low, husky voice purrs in my ear. “What a surprise.”
I turn to see Nina, one of my fuck buddies. Shit.
Talk about bad timing and awful fucking coincidences. I’ve never seen her here before.
“I didn’t know you came here,” I tell her.
“Ditto. If I had, I’d have come more often. You haven’t called in ages.” She pouts at me.
I need to cut this off because Violet is only a few steps away.
“Why don’t we cut and run now? Go home and have a nice horizontal dance session. I bought a new riding crop; we can give it a workout.”
She’s not shouting, but in the quiet corridor her words carry enough for me to know Violet, who is now next to us, must have heard.
“What?” I turn to Violet and say the word with more force than I meant.
I don’t need this shit. I want to deal with Nina, let her down gently, take a piss, and then get to whatever Allyov needs from me.
She’s staring at Nina with big hurt eyes. Nina isn’t stupid and understands straightaway Violet is with me. She does, however, make a simple mistake. She knows I have another fuck buddy; I don’t lie to the women I get involved with. Life is much simpler when you’re upfront with people. Nina assumes Violet is fuck buddy number two, Vicky.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize this was a night out with Vicky,” Nina says. She smiles at Violet. “Bit awkward that we’ve never met. Still, we know all about one another … so if you’re ever up for sharing.” She looks at me with heavy-lidded desire then back to Violet. “I’m an open-minded woman.”
She winks at Violet, leans into me, kisses me once on the mouth then turns and sashays out with a “Call me when it’s my turn,” over her shoulder.
Oh, hell. I turn to explain to Violet, but she’s already walking into the ladies’ toilets. I don’t hesitate to follow her in there. She’s had more than a few drinks, and I don’t need her making a scene or causing anyone in our party to think we’re not at the fucking like bunnies stage, or Allyov will get suspicious as hell.
A few startled gasps from the women doing their makeup at the mirror come my way as I shoulder my way in.
“You can’t be in here,
get out,” Violet says.
“I need to explain.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “No, you don’t. You have your own life, and it’s cool. This is nothing more than—”
Before she can say anything else, anything that could get both of us in a whole heap of trouble if it gets back to Allyov, I interrupt. “You’re mine now, Violet. Get used to it. We’ll discuss this later, but don’t go making a scene.”
She flushes but nods once. Satisfied she’s understood what I mean, I leave and let her do her thing.
Back at the table, Allyov watches me as I sit and take a slug of my drink, wishing I could have more than one.
“What’s wrong?”
I sigh and decide I may as well tell some of the truth. After all, if I’d simply told the man I had a couple of fuck buddies, he’d have never got it into his head to take Violet for me. I thought I was protecting Vicky and Nina in case anyone ever wanted to get to me; instead, I simply put Violet in danger in their place.
“I have a friend … with benefits. I don’t normally see her when I’m out.” I shrug and force a smile. “She happened to be here, and Violet didn’t like it.”
“Violet is yours to do with as you wish; she needs to know her place,” Allyov says.
I shrug again. “Of course, but I enjoy her being jealous.”
The skeevy barman catches my eye, laughing and flirting with a woman who leans over the bar, her top draping, and the fucker drops an ice cube down her cleavage.
I look to Allyov whose eyes are narrowed on the scene. “Shall we go and teach our pretty-boy over there a lesson?”
“Fucking gladly.”
We get up and walk over to the bar. I snag Justina on the way and tell her to go look for Violet. I walk up behind Allyov to hear him ask the barman to follow us. He says we need to discuss work matters. Yeah, right.