by Sadie Jacks
He wrinkled his nose. “Hellcat, you can want all you like. But your lips, your precious lips, are cracked and healing. I’m not going to cause you pain just to give you a kiss.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Then find something else to kiss, Foster Cason.”
He jolted right before his lids dropped into that sexy stare he wore when he told me what to do. “Fine. But this is the last time you get to tell me what to do in bed.”
I nodded. “Get puckering, bub.”
He smothered a laugh, leaned forward. He pressed his lips to the ridge of my cheekbone. “I love you, Talia Maria.”
I leaned into his kiss. “I love you, too, Foster Cason.”
Chapter 40 – Arkady
I stood watch at the monitors in my old room. Something was bothering me. Nik still hadn’t been able to find some of the files that should have been on the system. I had no idea what files in particular she was looking for, but I was more than willing to help find them.
“I’m at my terminal, Nik,” I said over the phone.
“Good. Now, open up a window and type this.” She gave me an executable command. As soon as I hit enter, I watched the screens flicker and shake. Then they went to some kind of gray screen.
I told her what had happened.
“Yes! Okay, pull up a new window.”
Following her directions, I watched as the screens all came up back. But something was different. “Do you see it?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Out loud, Weber, I can’t see you.”
I snorted. “Yes, Nikanya.” I picked up the phone. “Let me route you in. You can guide me through.”
She sent me the next line of code so she could hook into the security system feeds in the estate. “You’re golden.”
“I’m leaving my room. Where am I going?”
“Left.”
Jogging to the left, I felt the belly brace wrapped around me pinch and pull. But since it was more annoying than anything else, I bit back the whine. I would be so happy when this was done.
“Next right,” Nik called. “What are you hoping to find?”
I shook my head as I took the turn she indicated. “I don’t know. But something is bugging me. I’ve got so much information dripping around in my head, I don’t think I can point to just one thing.”
“His room is up ahead on the right. Last door.”
I nodded. “Thanks. I’ll keep you on the line while I search.”
“Good, because I wasn’t hanging up. While you’re working, want to tell me why you have a Russian first name and a German last name?”
I laughed. “You’re worse than Talia with the questions. My father was Russian, my mother German. It’s not that hard to understand.”
“What’s your dad’s first name?”
“It was Daniil Aliev.”
“Shitballs. There’s no way he’s your dad.” She sounded like she was about to punch me.
I stalled out in my search of Barrikad’s room. “Um, why would I lie about that?” Something near the far window caught my eye. Walking over to it, I saw a small, hard plastic case.
“Because we’ve been looking for some Aliev family members,” Nik said.
I shook my head. “What? Why?”
“Is your dad related to Dominik Aliev?”
As if some ghost had passed through my body, I shivered. “Yes.”
“Dominik Kiril Aliev. Lived in Saint Petersburg?”
“He still lives there. He’s my uncle.”
“Do not hang up.” Her end of the line clicked over to a heavy silence.
Rolling my eyes at the weirdness of women, I picked up the hard case. I’d seen it before. I closed my eyes, tried to picture it where it had been last.
“Okay, we’re back. You were saying?” Nik said, interrupting my mental search.
“Hold on, I think I’m onto something.” I clenched my eyes closed.
“Hurry up, Arkady!” Nik whined.
How she said my name sparked the memory. I felt all the blood drain from my face. “Nik, we need to talk to Jessa. Now.”
“I’m here, Arkady. What’s wrong?” the gentle doctor asked.
“I need you to check Talia’s toes. Now. Hurry.” I unzipped the plastic case. Saw the small vial with the gray granules.
“She has two injection sites. How did you know that?” Jessa asked.
“Something Svetlana said. That Talia had been dead for hours already. I’ve got a small vial here.” I described what was inside. “Svetlana was into poisons. Could she had laced something in Talia’s shoe?”
“I knew those shoes kept biting me!” Talia said in the background. “But I don’t feel bad or anything else.”
“Arkady, snap a picture for me. Send it through,” Nik ordered.
I did it. By the time I had the phone back up to my ear, I heard, “Thallium is the best guess.”
“If she was infected with the shoes, then maybe getting stabbed in the stomach was good. It helped dilute the poison,” Nico was saying.
I snarled at the cold tone of his voice. He should be showing a little bit more compassion for his sister in my estimation. He was cold all around. I had no idea how he’d landed a woman as nice as Dr. Jessa.
“If it’s thallium, we can get her on the right treatment at the hospital.”
“NO!” I shouted. “Barrikad owns too many doctors. If you need to do a treatment, you either need to move her or do it at the safe house.”
Jessa blew out a breath. “We can’t do it at the safe house. We’ll need to think of something else. Prussian Blue is the treatment, and it had to be done under a doctor’s supervision. And yes, before you ask, I can supervise it, but I can’t just go pick it up at a pharmacy somewhere. It should be housed in the poison control facilities in Russia. Much like our CDC.”
“Wait. What if we took me to the hospital?” Talia said. “Let him come to us.”
“No,” Foster said just as I did as well.
“Not happening, Talia Maria,” I snarled.
“None of you get a vote. It’s my life. I get to kill him. I say we do it.”
“If Talia wants to go to the hospital, it gets my vote. She needs to start the treatment as soon as possible, just in case. We can also do the blood tests there.”
“What blood tests?” I asked.
“Get back to the safe house. I can get everything else I need from here,” Nik said. “Remember to take whatever it is you found with you to the hospital, Arkady.” She hung up.
The rest of the line went dead.
I screamed at the room. They were a bunch of idiots. Every single one of them.
And Talia was at the top of the list if she thought going to a local hospital was going to be a good thing.
Women.
Chapter 41 – Talia
I sat on the hospital bed. Mentally whining at the knowledge that I’d given up a premium king size bed for a lumpy twin size. What the hell had I been thinking?
Kill Barrikad. That’s what I’d been thinking. That man was going to die by my hand. We just had to wait for him to show up.
That fucker better show up.
“Lay down, T. I need to get some blood from you, and you’re practically vibrating,” Jessa said again as she brought in the tray for the specimen collection.
“How did you get privileges here?” I asked as I pulled my feet up and stretched out on the bed.
She laughed. “Are you kidding me? This is an overworked urban hospital. They practically shoved me into a room for you. You came into a hospital with your own doctor. Why wouldn’t they say yes?”
“Um, because laws and stuff.” I pressed the button to bring the head of the bed up just a little. I hated lying flat when I was awake. Unless I was getting my world rocked. That was the single exception that I could think of.
“Well, we might or might not have some papers that suggest you are a diplomat from a certain country.” Jessa wiggled her eyebrows as she put the blood pre
ssure cuff around my arm and started pumping the ball.
I laughed. “Ah, I see Nik has been invaluable once again. How great that Chase hooked up with Ryker.”
Jessa laughed as she watched the gauge on the cuff. “Damn straight. You got two rocking ladies out of that kerfuffle.” She got her vial and needle ready. “Sharp poke.”
Once the needle was set, she looked back up at me. “How are you? Really.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I have so much still running around in my head. Some parts of it feel real, some don’t. There’s no rhyme or reason when the flashes hit me.”
“But you are having flashbacks?”
I nodded. “But they’re not scary. It’s like, yeah, crap, I’m about to be beat up again. Or dang it, not the rape scene.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Is that normal?”
Jessa exchanged one vial for another. Looked back up at me. “What’s normal? Trauma fits in generalities. What’s traumatic for one person, another will walk away from fine. And vice versa. Did you at any time think you would die?”
I thought about it. Until the very end, no. It hadn’t been a big lurking issue over my head. I’d known they needed to keep me alive for the blood debt to settle. I shook my head again. “Not really. While they were raping me, I wanted to die. Does that count?”
Her gray eyes filled with tears. “Babe.”
I smiled as my eyes got watery as well. “After they were done and had left me alone for a while. They came back.” I blinked the tears away. “Right before we called you about my kidney.”
Jessa nodded, switched out vials one last time.
“I told them they couldn’t hurt me. Not me, me. They could rape me again if they wanted, they could beat me. But they needed me alive. And if they thought they understood what a blood debt was, they were severely mistaken. That when my family came for them, even their ancestors would tremble.”
Jessa’s eyes popped wide. “You didn’t.”
I nodded. “I sure did. Fuckers. Thinking I was the weak link. That they could break me. They were severely mistaken.”
Jessa finished with the last vial. Dressed the wound. She pushed the button to lift my back and head. “YES, QUEEN!” she screamed like a banshee.
She did a little dance, hopping around like a bunny on crack. Her cackles of joy brought happiness to my heart. “Did you ever know that you’re my hero?” she sang in an off-pitch alto.
The door burst open.
Foster, Nico, and Mas rushed in. Guns drawn. They swept the room with their gazes and guns. Glared at us.
“What the fuck was that about?” Foster demanded as he put his gun away. “We’re waiting for a crazy man to come try for my woman. Keep the screaming to the bare necessities.” He stomped back out of the room, shaking his head.
Jessa clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”
Nico laughed, walked over, pulled her chin up so he could kiss her forehead. “But honestly, no more screaming unless there’s a problem.”
Jessa nodded, kissed his cheek. “Sorry. Tali was just telling me a story of her badassery and I just couldn’t hold it in.”
Nico turned to look at me, a half smile on his face. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Top notch badassery. Even Mas would be impressed.” I turned to look at my brother. “I got right in their faces and told them that hell would be a vacation once our family got a hold of theirs.”
Mas smiled. “Good, sorella.” His typical wince was gone as love shone from his face. “I hope you gave them hell.”
I nodded again. “I got to kill a few of them.” That felt like years ago. “Arkady could have killed me. But he didn’t. Said that if they were weak enough to get taken out, then he didn’t want them on his team.”
Mas tipped his head to the side, a thoughtful look in his eye. “Did he?”
I smiled, dipped my chin. “He did. He’s a very good guy. Momma even offered him a job.”
Jessa snorted. “If I remember correctly, Momma offered him a reward. Not a job.”
I thought it over. “Oh, that’s right. I offered him a job.”
“Who offered who what?” Foster said as he came back into the private room. He had a cup of ice water in his hands. He set it down on the tray next to my bed. “This is for you.”
How he even knew I was getting thirsty was a mystery, like most things about him. But now I just looked forward to learning his secrets. Not wanting to kick his ass. Although, I was sure we’d get back to that point in the future.
I picked up the cup, sucked it down. “I’m just glad the bruises on my back didn’t turn out to be anything worse.”
“Especially if you actually do have thallium poisoning,” Jessa said as she labeled the vials. She walked out the door. Nico hot on her tail.
“I’ll be waiting outside,” Mas said softly.
Foster sat down in the chair next to the bed, gathered my free hand in his. “If Barrikad doesn’t show up while you’re here, we will get him another time, Hellcat. I promise you that. He’ll be our number one most wanted.”
I nodded. “I just have a feeling he’s going to come here. He was so pissed the whole time. Thinking I’d killed his family. That Papa had killed his family.”
Foster nodded. “I’ll kill him for taking you, let alone raping and beating you. For that he would die slowly if it were left up to me.”
I smiled. “But he’s still mine.”
Foster nodded again. “I promised. You can kill him if the opportunity presents itself. I won’t risk putting you, or anyone else, in danger just to satisfy that promise though. I need you to understand that.”
I leaned towards him, my face raised.
He smiled, met me half way. Kissed my cheekbone. “That fucker is going to die for screwing up your lips. I want to kiss you properly.”
His words made me think of Arkady and what he’d said about my mouth. Heat rushed over my cheeks. “So, I feel like I should probably tell you something.”
Foster leaned back, one of his eyebrows raised.
“And, while I’m thinking about it, you really need to go back to being a blonde. The dark hair is killing me.”
He flashed his million-dollar smile. “As soon as we get back home.”
I nodded. Caught myself before I licked my lips. “Um, Arkady and I got a teensy bit frisky.”
Foster’s smile melted like snow in the sun. “What does that mean?”
“It means I got close to heaven and got shut down,” the man himself said as he walked into the room.
Foster bolted up from his chair. His gun was out and pointed at Arkady before I could blink.
“Foster, don’t. He saved me in that hellhole.”
“Which is the only reason he’s not dead yet. What did you do to her?” Foster bit out without looking away from Arkady.
Arkady looked at me, a wry smile on his face. “I can take care of myself, kitten.”
“Stop. Calling. Her. That,” Foster said. He strode forward, laid the barrel of his gun on Arkady’s head. “Tell me what I want to know.”
Arkady opened his mouth.
“I threw myself at him, Foster. I took my pants off. Let him lick me.”
Foster’s body vibrated as his arm trembled. “Is that it?”
“Y—”
“He needs to answer, Talia Maria. I’ll deal with you in a moment,” Foster snarled.
Arkady nodded. “Like I said, stopped at the gates of heaven. She was scared out of her mind and yet she pictured you while I knelt between her legs. She could have given herself a moment’s respite in my arms, and yet her body kept her safe from me. That woman loves you to a depth I’m pretty sure she doesn’t fully understand.”
Arkady pushed his head harder against the gun. He looked Foster right in the eyes, his own golden ones hard. “But treat her poorly, make her cry, I will be there to take your place.”
They stood there. A masculine pissing contest and a small part of me was secretly thrilled. The larger part o
f me was pissed.
“Foster Cason Ambright, lower that weapon right now. I’m sick and tired of having to defend Arkady to this family. He was what got me through this. He is a good man.”
Foster turned slowly, his bright blue eyes hard. “Do you want him?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. He’s more like a brother to me.”
Arkady laughed. “Way to shoot a man down, kitten.”
“Shut up, Ark. You know it’s true.”
He held his silence. Looked at me with heat in his eyes.
“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “Sorry. I didn’t know that.”
He smiled. “That’s okay. Keep acting like a spoiled brat and I’ll come to think of you like a sister. A younger, annoying, yappy sister who doesn’t do what she’s told.” He tipped his head to the side. “You know what? You are the little sister I never wanted.” He turned back to Foster. “You would not believe some of the shit she pulled. Pushing up into Barrikad’s face, practically taunting him to rape or beat her again.”
“Ark!” I screamed at him. “You asshole.”
Foster started laughing.
I glared at Arkady. “You’re such a jerk. You could have stepped in. Done something. But nooo, someone had to protect his job. Douche.”
“Hey! I let you kill three of my men. You’re the one who didn’t know how to keep your mouth shut. And your limbs to yourself.”
Foster’s laughter shot up a notch.
“Shut up, Foster!” I yelled at him. “You know, shoot him. Shoot him in the face. I don’t care anymore.”
Arkady rolled his eyes. “Like I said. Spoiled brat.”
Nico and Jessa came back in, eyes wide. “What the fuck is going on in here?” Nico demanded.
Out the door, I could see Mas leaning against the wall, laughing in his quiet way. Asshole.
“Arkady is telling Foster about what a brat I am.”
Foster howled louder.
Nico chuckled. “Yeah. And?”
I shrieked. “Domenico!”
“What? You are a brat. A stone-cold bitch, but a brat, too. We love those two qualities.” He came over, pulled me into a hug. “You wouldn’t have survived if you weren’t both of those things, sorella. Never doubt that you are loved, valued, and that we find you worthy.”