Dimitri

by April Zyon

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 April Zyon

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-615-6

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Jessica Ruth

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To Rhonda, Jammi, and Tracie—you are always there to cheer me on! Thank you, you have no idea how much I need it!!

  To Jessica, my editor, I'm so happy to have you in my life. Correcting my grave errors. <3

  To my readers, I love you all. You are why I write.

  To everyone at Evernight Publishing - You're my family and I'm thankful to have you.

  DIMITRI

  East Coast Bad Boys, 1

  April Zyon

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Dimitri

  I watched the news with dispassionate care. The politicians on the television strutting about like puppets on a string, doing one thing while pulling off another. They were con men. They were worse than the loan sharks who would loan to the poor schmucks that couldn’t pay them back. At least with those bastards you knew you would get your kneecaps broken or get killed when you didn’t pay. They didn’t hide behind shiny smiles and false promises like politicians did.

  “The fuckers do have their uses,” I mused aloud. I had more than one of the assholes in my pocket. I wasn’t the only boss who had those unlucky so-called civil servants in their hands, but I was the one with the most because I owned the club that most of the sick fuckers liked to come to. No, today I simply wanted to see what the good mayor had to say. I had told him exactly what he needed to say about the continued carjackings. It wasn’t something I was involved in personally. Nonetheless, being how it was one of the assholes who thought they could come into my territory and set up shop, I was putting out a very clear message.

  I looked over at the video monitoring system where my enforcers currently held the men. I had this town wrapped up in a little bow. For them to come onto my turf and try to take over without even giving me the courtesy of knocking on my door and asking was like a giant fuck you, which was unacceptable to me.

  Standing, I turned off the television once the good deviant that we called mayor put the message out that I wanted to be put out and smiled. “Time for me to go to work and figure out just who the hell these little bastards work for and where they came from.” I had an idea. I just needed the confirmation from them. I knew that Patrick O’Casey was trying to muscle in on my side of the river again. That had been a bloody battle last time we fought and one I was looking forward to again. The little punk had taken the reins of the Irish house in the city and thought he could fill his daddy’s shoes right away, and I was just the right demented fucker to put him into place.

  Cracking my knuckles, I walked down the steps of my home and into the basement, where his men were being kept by mine. “Ivan, Dafid, I do believe that I would like to have a turn with our friend here.” I watched two of my closest friends and most trusted enforcers give me a respectful nod as they backed away from the men that hung from their wrists with rope from the ceiling.

  I looked at the two men who swung back and forth. My men hadn’t been gentle and that was appreciated. All the same, they had left the men conscious, which was exactly what I wanted. I removed my crisp white shirt and knew what the men saw. I wasn’t a vain man, but I was very aware of how I looked. I worked hard to keep up the body that served me so well, and I was damn proud of it. They would see not only the six-pack abs I worked daily on, but the numerous tattoos that littered my body. I knew they would also see the ones that would have them shitting themselves if they knew anything about Russian prisons and how they worked. I had spent time in the Gulag and had lived to build a stronger and better life, but not before I was scarred and marked by the inmates inside of those walls of hell. American prisons were like staying at a Holiday Inn, more than one of my men had said when they had to actually spend time in jail for a crime. No, Russian prisons were their own nasty and terrible beasts, and I came out their fucking king.

  “Now, you will tell me who gave the order for you to step onto my turf to steal a specific list of cars from a specific list of people?” I asked in a calm voice. At least, I thought it was a calm voice, considering how volcanically pissed off I felt inside.

  They had been ordered to steal from me and those I protected. I refused to let this slide.

  “Fuck you,” one of the cocky little bastards said while I was musing about how they had been ordered to steal from me and mine. Oh, he was going to pay for his words and pay dearly.

  “Do you know who I am?” I asked, because it was possible these idiots simply didn’t know they were in the den of The Devil himself.

  “Yeah,” the one who had the motormouth continued. “Doesn’t make a fucking difference to me. Would do it a-fucking-god-damn-gain, you fucking self-righteous prick. Not like you and yours don’t come onto our side of the river.” The idiot spat at me and onto my shoes. Shoes that I liked. I swung at his partner, not him.

  Smiling, I looked at the cocky one again. “I am Dimitri Dudikov, and I am the head of the Russian mafia here in Arlington and the East Coast. Anything that happens comes through me first, so I would say that you are a liar, and every lie you speak, your friend will pay.” The shocked look was priceless and one that I had become accustomed to. These little fucks didn’t know who they had come into the home of. They had thought it was a lower boss, not me.

  “Why him? I’m the one who insulted you.”

  “Because I’ve found the one who talks the loudest is the cockiest and seems to think he knows it all, where the one who is silent typically does know it all.” I looked at the silent one and nodded. “Ah yes, understanding is there. He knew very well just whose turf and home he was coming into, didn’t you?”

  At the silence, the man swinging beside him twisted. “Jesus, Toby, tell me you didn’t bring me into The Devil’s backyard.” Continued silence. I wasn’t really surprised. He would be the hardest one to break. I looked at three of the lower level enforcers and nodded.

  “Take our talkative friend here back home.” I could practically feel the relief flowing from him, stupid idiot. Didn’t he realize I was not a nice man? “I will let you all decide how many pieces to deliver him in. I would save the head for his boss, but that’s just me. Have fun, boys.” I knew my men would see to it. I trusted them just as they trusted me. I would die and kill for my men, and it was no different for them.

  I turned my attention to the silent one. “Ivan, will you bring me my tools, please?” I was going to get to have some fun after all. Maybe later I would even hire a few whores for everyone, because it would only be a matter of hours before I broke this man. They all broke under my hand. I was The Devil, and it was my time to play.

  Chapter Two

  Scarlett

  I was bored. If I had to go to another one of these functions, I might just carve my own eyeballs out with the little silver spoons on the pristine tablecloths. There was so much more I would rather do, like mow the lawn of the estate—with a push mower—and I was allergic to grass. Yes, anything would be better than being here with these elitist assholes, but then again, that was the life I had been born into. I guess I fit into that category as well, so I should not knock the life I was living.

>   After all, I had everything a woman could dream of. I had beautiful clothing, an amazing car to drive, doting parents, and an education many would kill for. Maybe that was the issue. The fact that I had gone away for eight years and I had gotten a taste of life away from home and the real world as the brothers termed it. I’d actually lived life inside of a dorm with other people my age. I got away from the silver spoon elitists that were now doing everything they could to gain my attention. Before I left, none of the men at this table would even look my direction.

  Assholes, one and all. I hated this attention, and I blamed Mom for it. She ditched me. She hadn’t meant to do it, but she had and now I was sitting here with my two older brothers and one younger brother along with four of their friends. All four friends had been a bit perplexed when they’d seen me. Then again, it was the first time anyone aside from Mom and Dad had seen me in eight years. When I’d gotten home, the boys had all stopped in their tracks, and one of them had even teased about having to kill their friends.

  I sighed again and looked around, lifting my champagne to my lips once more and taking another drink in the hopes that it would somehow get me out of this convoluted conversation that was being held around me. I didn’t understand it, and to be honest, I didn’t really care either. “So, Scar-baby.” I cringed. Only Joseph Hunter called me that. No, I take that back. All of my brother’s friends now were calling me some form of baby. It just varied.

  I turned my glacial blue eyes to Joseph and smiled that winning Isaacs smile, which had him smiling all the wider. “Yes, Joey?” The term I’d used for him as a child. Christ, I would call all of them by their nicknames if it would get them to squirm like Joseph just did. “And it’s Scarlett. Not Scar-baby,” I added just to remind him of my name, in case the muscle-bound idiot forgot—again.

  “Oh, come on, you know that you and I have always had a connection.” Oh, dear God, a connection? He had to be kidding. The only connection he and I ever had was when he’d tied me to a tree to keep the fatty from following the boys when they’d decided to go swimming. It had taken the nannies hours to find me, and by that time, I had been terrified. I will never step foot inside of anything with trees in it again. Not for love or money will I ever again step inside of even an overgrown garden because of this asshole.

  “If you aren’t careful, we will have another connection.” I saw the hope and predatory look in his eyes. Best to squash that quickly, so I continued, “With my knife and your so-lamented-over penis. Back off, Joey.” I ensured that he saw the flash of silver under the table. I wasn’t a wilting lily any longer. In the eight years I had been gone, I had taken self-defense classes, learned how to master blades and guns, then learned dirty fighting from an amazing teacher who was from Russia and some even dirtier moves from a man from Japan. No, I was no longer a terrified eighteen-year-old. I’d come back a woman and I would belong to myself and only myself until that moment I decided someone was worth my body and soul. That was not one of the men sitting at this table.

  I looked at my younger brother and, giving him a nod, rose to my feet, which had everyone rising to their feet. A couple slowly like Joey. Idiots, too bad that their parents’ class didn’t fully rub off on them, only their sense of entitlement. “Letty, where are you going?”

  “Just to the ladies’ room, Vince,” I told my eldest brother, the worrier. Then again, with some of the people in attendance here, he might have reason to be worried. This wasn’t my first dinner like this. However, it was the first one where the men looked at me as if I were part of the menu. I shook my head and waved off the large men that seemed to detach from the wall as if to make to follow me. “Gentlemen, thank you, but I think I can handle going to the bathroom alone.” Guards.

  “We were told to be your shadow, Ms. Vanderwall,” Monkey Suit Number One told me. I didn’t like him, mostly because he was looking at me from behind freaking sunglasses. Who the hell wore sunglasses to one of these damn parties?

  “Well, you can be the shadow of my brothers,” I told MS1, as I had dubbed him since they had never introduced themselves to me. The guards I had earlier who went out with me and Mom were amazing. I knew their names. I even knew their families, but these two men seemed to want to be as distant and as cold as possible. It was like they were trying to be big and bad, but they didn’t have to act like douchebags to be that. “I’m sure that I can make it to the bathroom and back on my own.”

  “Let the girl have five minutes.” Thank goodness Vince saw that I was about to blow my top. MS1 backed away and took up his spot holding up the wall again.

  “Thanks, Vince,” I said and walked away. I had to because all the testosterone at that table was killing me and not in a good way. I loved my brothers. Vince, Thomas, and Charles were the best of brothers, but it seemed since I had gotten home they had all changed the way they looked at me. It was almost like they no longer saw me as their little sister, but as a woman they had to protect from their friends or someone else, and I didn’t know who that someone else was, which pissed me off even more. Especially when I caught Dad and Mom conspiring with the brothers and heard them bringing up my name but then shutting up faster than I had ever seen them shut up before when they saw me.

  Oh well, not worth getting a migraine over. I walked away from the table of men and the guards before I wasn’t able to. I knew when to cut bait and run, as my granddaddy used to say, and right now was the best time to do just that. If I wanted my reprieve, if I wanted five minutes alone, I needed to take it now.

  With my head held high, I walked across the ballroom floor. I nodded here and there when someone called my name, but for the most part, I kept my eyes forward. I knew the picture that I put out to others, but frankly, I simply didn’t give a damn. These people couldn’t have cared less about me years earlier, so why should I even give them a moment of my time? To them, I might look like an ice queen, and that was fine. It would keep them from trying to make false friendships with me. I only wanted to have people in my corner who were there years earlier, like Rose Washington had been there for me. The two of us had been inseparable, and I missed her right now more than anything. Rose, like me, had gone off to college to find herself, but she hadn’t come home yet. She and I talked on the regular, though, so that was good.

  I looked at the people around me, and my eyes clashed with one man in particular. Good God, he was hands down the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life. He was also one of those men that seemed to ooze danger, but it was the sort of danger that drew me in. I wanted to know more about him. But he was the sort of dangerous I would need to steer clear of.

  My blue eyes met his chocolate brown ones, and there was the smallest of smiles that turned up the side of his lips that I was sure would make most women flutter. In fact the woman seated next to him shifted and placed her hand on his arm and gave him a squeeze. Yep, definitely a man that I needed to stay far from. If a man could look at me like that with his girlfriend or wife right there beside him and give me the come-fuck-me eyes, I wanted nothing to do with him.

  I rolled my eyes and gave him a cold shoulder, bastard. I swear men got more and more brazen as the years went on. Then again, not all men were raised like my father was. Daddy might have his indiscretions, and I’m sure he did, but they stayed behind closed doors the way they should be and not out in the open for anyone to see. Mom would cut his balls off if he were to flaunt anything he might do outside of the marriage anywhere she might get any sort of a whiff of.

  Then again, if it were me, I would be pissed as all get out if my husband cheated on me—period. End of discussion. That would be a marriage-ending event, but that was just me. I was one of those women who believed in one woman for one man and if they stepped out on me, obviously they really never wanted me to begin with.

  I made it to the bathroom still thinking about the idiocy of men and how stupid they could be. Shaking my head, I brushed the hair back from my face and looked in the mirror. I saw the same face looking
back at me that I always saw, the one that had changed from the last time I was here. I was thinner but still had the curves I’d been born with. My hair was now very long and pulled up into a tight and intricate updo that I had to admit made my face look really good. The makeup had been expertly applied by Mother’s stylist, the same woman who did my hair. It was light and looked ethereal, almost like I wasn’t wearing makeup at all. My eyes looked great, the blue seeming even brighter, and my lips. “Damn, I need more gloss.” I fished the gloss out of my bag and applied it with careful precision.

  Once that was all done, I pulled at the wisps of hair that framed my face, then moved away from the sink. Taking a deep breath, I plastered the cold façade onto my face once more and walked out into the ballroom.

  Chapter Three

  Dimitri

  She was stunning. The woman that cut across the ballroom like the wind on a cold winter morning in Russia was beyond beautiful and had my attention the moment that I walked into the ballroom with Susan Malloy on my arm. Susan was one of many women I took out when I had to come to one of these functions—one of the suitable women I could take out and not the typical whores that I would fuck and leave. The woman in the ballroom was a goddess, with her blonde hair that looked to be very thick and her blue eyes that met mine without any sort of fear in them. She was perfect. She was what I had been looking for all my life, and she was here among the most elite of them all. Who was she?

  When her gaze turned cold, I couldn’t figure out why. I wondered for a moment what I had done. Then I realized how heavily Susan was leaning into me, how she was looking up at me with adoring eyes. Well, that was just not going to fucking work for me. Susan and I had an arrangement. I would bring her to these functions, and the bitch would benefit from my protection and money. She would also benefit from my enforcers’ fuckings as well. She enjoyed being taken by them. She needed to be reminded of that arrangement, obviously. I watched as the ice queen that I was going to make mine disappeared into the ladies’ room, then turned my anger to Susan. “Just what the fuck were you doing placing your hands on me like you were? You know that you are not to touch me as you just did.”