Lace and Sin (Sinners Series Book 1)

by Aneta Quinn

  “Holy shit” he says surprised, “I thought they’d be out cold.”

  “Uhh” is all I manage, and risk patting the dog gently behind his ear. He turns his head into my hand, and seems to be enjoying this gentle touch and show of companionship.

  “I think these dogs are just mistreated” I say.

  “Right, well…we aint got time to be playing nice with the dogs right now, love” he says with a grin. We close the doors to keep the dogs in, and eventually they settle down and pass out. We walk back through into the garage, and Jimmy whistles in appreciation, “What I wouldn’t do to drive these cars again” he says.

  “Again?”

  “See that white Bentley? First car we ever got for him. And that F12 Berlinetta, my favourite by far” he grins wide.

  “Wouldn’t mind test driving a ZR1” I laugh, and to my surprise he winks and says, “I’m sure Carter and I can help you out with that.”

  We get to the garage door that leads us inside the manor, and no surprise, it’s locked. Just as I’m about to pull out my little tools, Jimmy is already fiddling with the lock and impressively has it unlocked and pushed open within thirty seconds.

  “My, my, aren’t we the true lock master” I joke as we slip our way inside and close the door quietly.

  “This way, sweetheart” he says, and leads me quietly up a set of stairs. I look around at the high ceilings, and giant chandeliers that hang in a mesmerizing sparkle of diamonds, no doubt all real.

  The giant span of the foyer is dimly lit by some small lamps, giving the paintings that line one wall a strange ominous vibe. It feels as though each and every single pair of eyes in the paintings are following us as we creep our way up the massive marble staircase, judging us on what we’re doing.

  We hear faint voices coming from one room, and Jimmy turns to me with his finger against his lips as we sneak our way down the long corridor. Carter is in that room right now with Mikhalov, and I find myself freeze momentarily. This is the closest I’ve ever been to him. Mikhalov is literally just on the other side of that door. Just him, Carter, and an unknown amount of guards, which makes me anxious to walk further away from that door and leave Carter behind.

  My hand slides into my front pocket and my fingers wrap around the cold metal of the gun, firmly gripping it for a small sense of ease. I push my legs to follow Jimmy as he makes his way up another set of stairs, not as grandeur as the marble ones. He leads me down another corridor, and finally we step into Mikhalov’s office where his computer is.

  Jimmy quietly closes the door behind him and walks around the room checking what’s on the other side of the other doors. One of them leads to the opposing room which is made up into a lounge area. The door on the other side though is like a minor jackpot. The little room stores a giant safe, and glass shelves with jewels the size of my fist. Apparently in that very safe are numerous documents that are worth more than all these diamonds put together – or so Jimmy says anyway, but I’ll take his word for it.

  I reach my hand out in appreciation, but before my fingers can touch the glass, Jimmy grabs my wrist gently and shakes his head, “These are tripped to another security altogether. Alek wouldn’t have disconnected this one from the outside.”

  I nod in understanding, and make my way back to the desk as he walks over to the safe. He starts fiddling with a little screen and attaches it to the keypad of the safe. I watch for a brief moment mesmerized, as the little screen comes to life and he starts to enter codes to try and gain access.

  I squat down in front of the desk and pull out the main body of the computer, then use my little pliers to pull it open. I pull the little bug out of my hair and attach it to the main wire, then shut it all back up. I slide the computer back into place, and then sit in Mikhalov’s oversized leather chair.

  The chair squeaks as I move, and I can’t help but try making the serious moment a little less grim, “It was the chair.”

  “You’re an idiot, Kay” Jimmy murmurs with a grin, eyes never leaving the safe.

  I smirk at the use of the nickname Carter uses, and then sit there quietly with my arms crossed observing the room. Bookshelves stacked to the brim with leather bound books that no doubt have never been read. The giant mahogany desk, just like at the realtors office, which has me picturing Carter picking me up to put me on the desk. Carter twisting his fingers through my hair as he kisses up my neck, sliding his tongue in my mouth because he can’t help himself.

  I pull out my phone and check the time, realising we’ve been here for over half an hour. Carter is supposed to let us know when he’s out safely, and neither of us has heard a word from him yet. I fidget in the leather chair as my nerves go into overload, wanting to go down to that very room we heard them in, to bust through the doors and take out anyone who even thinks of laying a finger on Carter.

  It’s then I realise how much I’ve come to actually care for him, how much he actually means to me.

  “Fuck” Jimmy swears softly, obviously not having much luck with the safe.

  “Jimmy we gotta go” I whisper anxiously to him, because something feels wrong.

  He swears again when he still hasn’t opened it, and I freeze when I hear footsteps and voices coming down the hallway.

  “Jimmy we really have to go, someone’s coming!”

  He rips the wires of the little screen away from the key pad and shoves it in his back pocket, then grabs my hand and practically runs to the other side of the room, shoving us through the door into the lounge room. We breathe deeply, our chests rising and falling rapidly with our uneasiness.

  “I told you already, there’s nothing in this world that will get me to help you again” Carter says as he steps through the door into the office, Mikhalov leading the way. I freeze, and crack the door open just a fraction so we can see them better.

  “I would have thought after all this time, you would see how much I have given you” Abram says with a thick Russian accent, and I can’t help by shiver as a chill runs up my spine.

  Looking through this crack in the door to the murderer in the other room, automatically takes me back to when I was eleven. Watching as he slaughtered my family right before my eyes. I was too young to know what to do, too helpless to know how to save them, but not now.

  I unclench my fist and slide my hand into my pocket. I wrap my fingers around the cool steel of the gun, and slowly pull it out - hands trembling. The door is luckily off towards the back so I have a perfect aim at Mikhalov, and a view of Carter’s face. He looks so angry, yet so vulnerable right now.

  Can I do this? Can I murder someone for what he’s done to me, for what he’s done to Carter?

  My hand moves out of its own accord, and I nudge the door open a little wider with the gun. My hand starts to tremble a little more. Is it fear that has me shaking? Is it because I’m not in fact a killer?

  “Now is not the time sweetheart” Jimmy whispers in my ear softly, “too many guards would be on your ass before you could even say a big fat fuck you to Mikhalov.”

  My hand doesn’t waver, just continues shaking with my pent up anger.

  “I know you might not care about you, but what about Carter?” he says quietly, realising I care about Carter way more than I might have led on.

  An angry tear slips from my eye as Jimmy gently wraps his hand over mine holding the gun, his other hand wrapping around my waist as he pulls me gently against him.

  “It’s alright Kay” he says, as he slips the gun out of my grip, and tucks it into the waistband of his jeans.

  Carter and Mikhalov are still talking, getting a little more heated with their argument. I find myself almost wilting against Jimmy with exhaustion as we listen, his hand rubbing up and down my arm soothingly.

  “You know why you’re still alive, even after all the fuck ups we’ve had?” Mikhalov questions, “After Tommy tried to ruin me?” he laughs maliciously as if it’s crazy that anyone even tried.

  I see a faint smile pulling at Carter’
s lips, almost like he knows exactly what Mikhalov is talking about.

  “No idea Abram, but I’m done. I told you I was done the second you killed my dad” Carter says through clenched teeth. Mikhalov chuckles lightly, and shakes his head as though that’s not the answer he’s looking for, like he won’t stop until he gets the right one.

  “And that is where you are wrong boy” he grins, and I know I’m not going to like what I hear by the look on his smug, evil face.

  “I never killed your father, Carter. He is alive and well” he keeps grinning wider, like he has some inside joke he’s about to reveal.

  “I watched my father go with my own fucking eyes. I watched you smother him until he had no breath left in him!” he almost yells. Holy shit, he never told me that, he said he had no proof. Mikhalov looks momentarily taken aback by that information, but he composes himself and keeps going.

  “Your father is here” Mikhalov says, now sounding serious, no smile on his face.

  “Where?”

  “Here in this very room in fact” he answers, and I see when those few little words make sense to Carter, because his eyes go wide as he takes a step back in shock.

  “That’s fucking bullshit” he says as he paces closer to the desk, and I hear the soft intake of breath from Jimmy. Me on the other hand? I’m silent, speechless, completely fucking destroyed at that one colossal piece of information.

  Abram Mikhalov…is Carter’s real dad.

  Chapter 18

  Carter

  This can’t be the truth. No fucking way.

  I slam my fist on the horn as a car tries to merge into my lane, and I swerve around him instinctively. I don’t pay attention to where I’m heading. I don’t focus on the street lights as they turn from green, to amber, to red. I press my foot down harder on the accelerator, speeding through the busy lanes of traffic.

  This changes nothing. He is no father to me after everything he’s done. No matter whose blood runs through my veins, I will always know who took me in, who raised me, who loved me as their own even if in the end I wasn’t theirs.

  I saw Kayla through the crack of the door, ready to finally get her vengeance. I didn’t care if she did it right there, in fact I kind of wished she did, so I wouldn’t have heard the shit Mikhalov was trying to feed me.

  My hands grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles are white, because what I’m angry about most is how Kayla will see me now. Will she still want me knowing who I am? Will this change anything?

  What I find myself realising though is that she won’t be safe with me. He’d use her just to get me working as a pawn in his game again.

  “Fuck” I run a hand through my hair in agitation.

  I drive mindlessly until I’ve calmed myself down, and I find myself out in the suburbs, driving around pointlessly through the urban housed area. My phone rings for the hundredth time, vibrating loudly in the centre console. So I finally pull over and answer.

  “Yeah Jimmy?” I answer defeated, exhausted, literally lost for words - anticipating the words that will eventually slip through the speakers, when he tells me that Kayla ran, that she doesn’t want a thing to do with me.

  “You alright Carter? Kayla’s worried as hell about you. Where’d you go?”

  “She is?” I ask, tiny ounce of hope in my voice.

  “You’re insane. The lass is pacing a hole through the floor above me and kicking the shit out of some boxing bag, and here you are missing in action, because you think she won’t wanna talk to you because of what you found out….I’m right, aren’t I?”

  I say nothing knowing my silence is agreement enough.

  “You realise this don’t change a thing. He killed Tommy – the man I still classify as your dad, the man who raised you to be who you are, and you’re a hell of a guy you know that?”

  I try to play off his compliment and my absence, “Are you flirting with me, Jimmy?”

  “You’re fucking nuts you know that. Get your ass over here so we can figure this shit out. I tried to calm her down and told her you just needed some time to comprehend what that fuckwit told you.”

  “Thanks man, I don’t know what I’d do without you” I admit as I pull the car away from the curb, and start to make my way back to Kayla’s place.

  ***

  “I don’t want to sound pesky, but….you’re leaving?” Kayla asks from her position on the couch, her legs pulled up against her chest as she rests her chin on her knees.

  “I don’t want him to use you against me…I know he’s going to be watching me over the next week or so, and I don’t want him to see you with me.”

  Jimmy smirks as he adds his two cents to the conversation, “Yeah, Carter’s so smitten, anyone would see you’re more than just someone he’s fucking” he chuckles.

  Kayla’s eyes automatically look to me, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips, but she says nothing in response.

  “So where are you gonna take off then?” Alek asks.

  “Well, considering it’s Christmas in two days we’re gonna fly over to the UK to see my mum” Jimmy says, “Which we kind of planned to do anyway after Jimmy’s dad…”

  He doesn’t finish his sentence; instead everyone turns to look at me as if he just committed some heinous blasphemy that I should hate him for. I shrug and try to smile a little.

  Alek and Jimmy spend the next few hours changing our original flights over, and I have to admit I'm pretty stoked that essentially the only family I have left has fit right in with the only other person Kayla is close to. Jimmy and Alek talk strategically about what to do over the next few weeks, while I go in search of Kayla. She ducked out of the room earlier without a word, and I think I heard her in the shower. I thought she'd come back out into the living room but there’s still no sign of her.

  I cautiously step down the hallway and find her bedroom door wide open, so I take a hesitant step inside her room. She's laying half on the bed with her bare, smooth legs hanging over the edge. I take in her cute little pyjama shorts and band shirt that looks like it's seen better days, and still think she looks pretty fucking beautiful.

  Her feet are moving back and forth against the soft rug, her dark painted toes sliding through the long shaggy parts anxiously. I walk around to the other side of the bed and lay back in the exact same position as her, except in reverse so our heads are side by side.

  I turn my head to look at her and give her a tiny kiss on the forehead, smelling her hair in the process that's spread out around her – still damp and smelling strongly of honey, or something as equally sweet. God I’m such a creep, but she always smells delicious though and I find I can’t help myself.

  "You know I'm coming back, right?"

  She does a little hesitant half smile and nods, "I hope so."

  "Just...wait for me okay? Don't run.”

  "I won't" she says as she leans up on her elbows, and pulls herself up a little so she's completely on the bed now. I lean up on my elbows too which puts us face to face, so I lean over and kiss her on the lips this time.

  "Is it sad to admit I'm going to miss you...no matter how long you're gone? I was actually looking forward to Christmas with you. I've never been excited for Christmas before" she admits blushing a little, and I grin at this new side of her I've never seen. It’s this shy; almost kid like version of her that's admitting she has a crush on someone. It's pretty fucking sweet.

  "Don't worry, I'll still call you" I say, knowing I'm going to need that probably more than she's admitting right now. I don't think I could go too long not hearing that goddamn laugh of hers.

  Chapter 19

  Kayla

  The first day he's officially gone I don't hear one single thing from anyone. But then again there is about five hour’s difference, and a rough seven or so in flying time.

  I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder and stupidly getting suspicious of everyone, even the little old lady at the supermarket who asked me what the time was. Luckily I didn'
t sucker punch her out of fear when she first moved towards me, that would have been awkward, embarrassing and not to mention utterly wrong.

  By night time that first day I'd done several different workout routines upstairs, and beat the shit out of poor Alek when trying to practice and vent with some Taekwondo. I had a hot shower which did jack shit to soothe my nerves, and then finally collapsed in bed at about midnight.

  I pull my phone out to find a couple missed calls and a text message from a random number.

  Unknown: Night Kay x

  I automatically know it's Carter so I add his name in my phone. He must have paid for a prepaid sim card to use internationally.

  Me: I miss you...