by Nicole Banks
It was Dom’s admission about the body in Tres that had her mind spinning. After forcing Bruno to sell it to her, she had the Unhinged Brother’s tech guy come in and swap out all the security codes and change the camera angles and the locks. She purposely put things in place to make sure Bruno didn’t try to come in one night and burn the building to the ground out of spite.
“Otto check the security footage, yet?” Not like it mattered. If this was in fact Bruno and Boris—not that she had much doubt—there were only two ways they could have gotten into Tres: a little breaking and entering, but the alarms would have gone off and they hadn’t, or someone in Tres had access to codes and keys they weren’t supposed to and were handing them out.
Even after she cleaned house, someone still got in who worked for either Bruno or Boris, and that pissed her off. “We need to head to Tres.” She looked at her watch, knowing that by the time they got to Tres, the doors to the club would be open and customers would be trickling in. She’d have to wait till they closed to have Otto and Gia call a meeting, but it would give people who weren’t scheduled to work tonight enough time to make whatever arrangements they needed to make sure they were in attendance.
Sofia was going to make sure the snake they had inside Tres understood exactly what it meant to go against her, and when she found out exactly who it was, they were going to wish for death.
OTTO WAS IN HIS OFFICE, looking down at the packed club. One couldn’t tell they’d just disposed of a body mere hours ago the way the bass of the music vibrated around them. Smoke had left just before the club opened, and Sofia was well on her way with Dom to have a meeting with the employees of Tres.
They had all sat around his and Gia’s desk and watched the security footage. As Otto originally thought, they couldn’t actually see the two people who had brought in an already dead Desiree. They used the one blind spot they had in one of the cameras, which no one outside of the Council should have been aware of, to gain entrance into Tres, and once they were in, neither he nor Gia could make out who was behind the black ski masks.
They made sure to keep their faces turned away from any of the cameras in the club. They wore black gloves and long black shirts to cover up any markings they might have had on their skin that would identify them. It wasn’t so much that they needed proof of the attacks, the message was clear enough, but Otto liked having concrete evidence. That way, when they connected the dots to there would be no mistakes.
Gia’s voice filtered in the air around him, pulling his attention away from the stage for a minute. She was on the phone with their younger sister, Natalya. After the body was found at Smoke and Mirrors and with Nico and Bebo getting ready to move their product into Brooklyn, she had to be moved yet again. She was staying at some family’s house in the Bronx, and going by Gia’s laughter, it didn’t seem like Natalya minded the interruption too much.
His younger sister was still young enough to think this life was cool, even though he was constantly putting her in danger. In her defense, this was all she knew. Otto hoped with her going away for college she’d see there was better out there and maybe even hate him and Gia enough to get as far away from them as possible. But the further Otto pushed, the more Natalya seemed to hang on. He hoped once things settled down she’d be eager to go back to college and finish her degree. She was too smart to stay in his world and he didn’t want her getting strapped to it the same way he and Gia had.
The lights in the club dimmed, signaling the rotation of the girls hitting the stage. Otto quickly pulled his gaze back to the crowd below him. The first strings of the “Drunk in Love” remix started to filter through the air. He held his breath, waiting for Ivy to take the stage like he knew she would. She was going on with two other girls, but they didn’t matter to Otto. As soon as she entered a room, she was all he could see.
He saw her take the center pole, and everything else seemed to disappear from his mind. The upcoming war, the dead bodies, and the fact that Ivy might be his demise quickly evaporated into thin air. His vision tunneled—only seeing and feeling the woman who was buried so deep underneath his skin she left little bite marks across his flesh, making sure when she left she didn’t leave him unscathed.
He pressed his hands to the glass, like it would somehow give him better access to her. His whole body was hard. He was held in the same trance she’d put him under when he first saw her dance. This time it felt worse for him though, since he had the taste of her on his lips and knew how she felt in his arms while he was nestled in between her thighs. He wanted to crawl inside of her and leave her just as fucked up as she had him.
He scrubbed a hand down his face when he felt his sister come stand by him. Was he crazy? He had to be insane to feel what he was feeling toward a woman he hardly knew, and yet it wasn’t enough to get him to look away and put some distance between them. If anything, it just drew him closer into her web. He was curious, wondering why she had this effect on him and if she felt this craziness too.
“You want to talk about her?” He heard the amusement in his sister’s tone just as the song ended and morphed into another one with a little more bass.
He shook his head, hoping she would drop it, but going by the heavy sigh that followed her question, he knew she was going to badger him until she got something out of him. The only problem with that was he didn’t know what to say when it came to his poison Ivy.
“I think we should, O. I haven’t seen you obsessed over a woman—anything really.”
“I’m not obsessing,” he murmured but still hadn’t taken his eyes off of Ivy. The pull to watch and be painfully aware of her was too strong to ignore.
“I’d believe that more if you could take your eyes off of her when she’s around.” Gia chuckled. “I’ve never seen you like this, not even with that cunt of an ex.”
That had Otto’s full attention. He never heard Gia express herself when it came to the women he fucked and the few he occasionally brought around. He kept his private life private for a reason, and the only reason he ever brought his ex around was because he thought he loved her and foolishly wanted her to be a part of his family.
Otto had let his heart lead him astray with his ex, and when his eyes glanced down toward the stage to see Ivy spin around on that pole, he wondered if he was about to make the same mistake with her.
Why had his logic and rationale been completely snuffed out when a pair of pretty eyes crossed his path?
Ivy is more than a pair of pretty eyes, and you know it.
“Do you know anything about her?” Gia’s question silenced the nagging voice in his head, thankfully.
Gia had come to stand next to him, her gaze on the club below them. He didn’t have to look at her to know she was watching Ivy now too. He knew his sister was trying to figure out what the appeal was and why Ivy had this hold on him. Otto would love to hear her theories, but none would probably fit.
“You ever meet somebody and even before they open their mouth it’s–”
“Like you’ve known them all your life,” Gia finished for him. “You don’t know what it really is, but you just click and logically it doesn’t make sense.” She glanced at him and then back down to Ivy. “But it feels like they’re supposed to be in your life.”
Otto looked at his sister and was surprised at how easily she’d been able to put into words what he’d been feeling since he met Ivy. He didn’t understand it himself, and there was still a part of him that warned him to be wary of her. He couldn’t tell if it was just his cynical self rearing its ugly head or if there was a real reason he needed to keep her at a distance.
“When did you become an expert?” Otto teased.
Gia scoffed and he watched her cheeks turn red, and just like that he realized Gia hadn’t been putting a voice to him and Ivy, she’d been putting a voice to her and Smoke.
He cursed. “Smoke? Really? Come on, Gia.”
Gia shook her head and pushed off the glass to go back toward the office desk
. “You shouldn’t throw stones. You don’t know shit about Ivy. At least me and Smoke talk.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “And besides nothing is happening. He’s here to help Sofia, and as soon as she no longer needs the Unhinged Brothers, they go home.”
“And you stay here,” Otto whispered as his sister took a seat at the desk. She busied herself with papers he’d already organized and gone through.
He pushed off the glass and headed toward her. He felt both relief and a little sad at his sister’s predicament. He didn’t care too much for Smoke. The asshole enjoyed being a prick, it was like some default setting, and his sister could do a lot better. But he also knew how much it sucked when you couldn’t help who you liked, no matter what they did to you.
He leaned his hands on the desk. “You want to talk about it?”
She didn’t even bother to look up from the papers. “You want to talk about Ivy some more?”
Checkmate.
“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Gia smirked when Otto kept his mouth shut.
“What are you looking for? I’ve been over those papers already.” Otto shifted the conversation toward work, knowing neither one of them were willing to speak on things they themselves weren’t sure about yet. He and Gia were a few years apart, but they had always been eerily similar in the way they processed things. Always in their head even if they were wearing their heart on their sleeves.
“Smooth change in the subject, bro. I’m looking for the papers on the new hire. We hired two other girls aside from Ivy, and only one of them showed. I can’t find the records on the third girl to call her in.” She stopped her search and looked at him. “You didn’t toss anything out, right?”
Otto shook his head. “No, we came up here and watched the security tapes, and when you went downstairs, I went through the papers to organize them.”
Gia cursed. She shot up from her desk and headed over to one of the filing cabinets. She rummaged through the contents and slammed the file shut when she didn’t find what she was looking for. “We’re idiots.” She turned around. “We were so busy worrying about the dead body, we never checked to see if anything was out of place up here. The personal files on both new girls are missing, along with the files on Des, Mary, Ivy, and another girl. Someone was in this office before they dropped the body on that stage.”
Boris pulled his cock out of his lifeless pet. There was blood everywhere, and she had passed out well before he was finished fucking her. The defiance that remained in her drove him madder with the need to break her. The harder he went, the stronger the defiance became. No matter how many times she screamed for him, he hadn’t been able to break her. His beautiful pet wished for a death that would be here soon enough, but not before he had his time with her.
It was such a shame she was going to be wasted in this war. Bruno had a purpose for her, and as much as Boris would hate to see this pet go, this was Bruno’s plan and his way to fix the mistake he made. Boris could, of course, just flex his power and tell him to get a new incentive—he really wanted to keep her for himself—but people needed to be hurt, and this little pet was part of Bruno’s grand finale.
Boris leaned in, grabbing her face. “Oh, the fun we could have if only we had forever.” He licked her lips, his cock already growing hard with the prospect of taking her again, but his cell phone rang, pulling his attention.
He picked it up. “They moved the bodies quickly. There hasn’t been any cops at the locations. Tres, Wolf’s, and Smoke seem to be up and running like nothing happened.”
Boris nodded, even though he knew the other person couldn’t see him. The dead bodies had been Bruno’s idea, and he went along with it because he actually liked the idea. It was something he himself would have done to issue the first blow.
“What do you want me to do with these new guys?”
Boris heard the tail end of the question, his mind already thinking of all the ways he was going to make Sofia bleed. “What was that?”
“There’s these Hispanic guys asking if we know where to score some sand storms.”
Sand storms had been Boris’s supply of heroin he sold on the streets of his section of Brooklyn. He cut it was talcum powder so he could sell more of it at a lesser expense to him. It was watered down shit, and his buyers had been too stupid or high to realize they weren’t getting the good shit. Without any real competition, it didn’t matter to Boris.
“You’ve seen these men before?” Boris asked, wondering why this was being brought to him.
“No. They said they just moved into the neighborhood.”
“Keep an eye on them and don’t sell to them yet.” It wasn’t unusual for people to approach his men about sand storms, but there weren’t many Hispanics in his neck of the woods. He wouldn’t put it past Sofia to have someone scoop out his products and try and push into his territory.
He knew that meeting with the families was just a matter of formality. He didn’t give a shit about Sofia Barbati nor he would allow her to sit in power. He wanted her eliminated, and after meeting her, he knew she was just another woman who could easily be subdued.
This was a man’s world, and once this war was over, he was going to reign supreme with Sofia Barbati on her fucking knees where she belonged.
IVY SAT ON THE BARSTOOL feeling exhausted and rundown. This day and this job couldn’t be over quick enough for her.
Today was the first day since they allowed her to talk to her sister that she didn’t have access to her. It was strange not hearing Eve’s voice for their scheduled calls. Their fifteen-minute talks had been the only normalcy they were allowed to have. It made Ivy’s days a little easier. It was what she held onto on the rough days when she hurt so bad she thought she was dying.
Ivy’s heart ached, already missing her sister. She wondered if Bruno or whoever had her now even bothered to tell Eve what was going on. Probably not. They were no more than property, and the only reason Ivy was able to have certain privileges was due to her value. She just hated that Eve might think Ivy abandoned her or something worse happened, and if it was the latter, she wasn’t sure how strong Eve’s will to hold on would be. They kept each other going when they both probably would have tried to call it quits ages ago.
Ivy rubbed at her chest, hoping to ease the ache her worry for her sister caused. She was feeling anxious and had a nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. That feeling had been chasing her the entire night, making it difficult to concentrate on pretty much anything, and yet again she danced like shit on that stage.
She was sure whatever meeting they called for the dancers after closing time had to do with Ivy and her bad performance. They were probably going to make some general statement about employee performances and give her a warning after everyone left. The only time in Tres she’d been on point with her dancing was when she knew Otto was watching her.
Mary plopped down next to her on a bar stool with a smile and nudged her shoulder. “You okay? You look a little tired.” Ivy nodded, tired didn’t even begin to describe what she felt. “You want to talk about it?”
Mary placed a warm hand on her arm and Ivy looked up at the woman. She had a motherly vibe about her and the kindest eyes. It made her want to wrap her arms around Mary and let her take all her worries away. This was the second time Mary had been nice to her, and it made her feel like the years she spent having to hide her emotions and tears suddenly had the freedom to flow freely. She blinked a few times trying her hardest to hold back her tears and not fall on this woman’s shoulder crying.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Was she so starved for human decency and kindness that when she experienced just a glimpse of it, it was like a battering ram against the iron wall she had to keep up for survival?
Ivy let out a breath doing her best to ignore the kindness that vibrated off of Mary. She went to say something when she felt Otto walk onto the main floor.
She felt a tug in her low belly and almost like a whisp
er of his voice calling her name. Her gaze shifted toward him, and her heart galloped in her chest as she took him in. His beard amplified his rugged look. She remembered how it felt against her skin and her core ached, mourning the loss of something she never had.
He strolled through the main floor stopping by his sister first. They talked in hush tones, while the bouncers cleared out the stragglers who hadn’t been ready to go home yet. Otto looked both at ease and alert as he discreetly scanned the room.
Their gazes quickly connected, and Ivy let out a gasp. Her lips tingled, remembering the kiss they shared the night before. She shifted in her seat as her body warmed, remembering the feel of him against her when he held her up against the door.
This was the very definition of insane.
She only met Otto a day ago, but her body seemed to remember him from a lifetime past. It was weird for her too, considering what she had endured at the hands of men she never wanted touching her. It was as if Otto was the balm to the cuts and bruises that ran deeper than her skin. His hungry gaze and touch were welcome. If it was anyone else, it would just be another on her list she hoped she’d be able to remove from her memory.
She was drawn to Otto in a way she wouldn’t be able to explain if she was asked, but in her mind, past all the bullshit of her life and Bruno, her and Otto made perfect sense.
“Oh, honey.” Mary chuckled. “I hope he’s not the reason you look weighed down. Otto is all class and business first. He is not going to give you the time of day.”
Ivy blushed under the knowing stare of Mary. She felt embarrassed that she’d been caught ogling their boss and by the fact that he had already crossed that line with her.
“Don’t invite me in, Ivy.” His words from last night rang loud in her mind. He told her not to invite him in, but it wasn’t because he was trying to keep the lines between them clear. He was trying to stop them from blurring any further. Ivy wondered if she didn’t have the shackles on her feet what would have happened if she had invited him in.