“I’d prefer if we spoke privately in the car.”
“I’d prefer if you fucked off. If you think I’m getting in the car with some stranger after the week I’ve had, you seriously need your head checked.”
His face darkens. “I’m not a stranger, Ava. Nikolai’s my friend, and unfortunately, I know more about you than you’ll ever—”
“It’s fine, Dagger.”
I know that voice.
The guy dips his chin, cutting a heated glare toward me before circling the limo and disappearing in the driver’s seat. When I’m standing alone, the voice calls out again, this time all trace of patience gone.
“Get in the damn car, Ava.”
I don’t think. If I think, I’ll run, and I have no doubt within thirty seconds I’ll be forced into the limo anyway. Pulling Niko’s jacket around me, I cross to the side of the road and climb in the backseat. The man sitting across from me is also impeccably dressed, but older and definitely wiser. He exudes power. A man who wants for nothing and takes everything.
I dip my chin. “Arthur.”
“I take it everything went as planned?”
“It did. Thanks for the gun, by the way. X is definitely efficient.”
“You know, it’s too bad I don’t employ women. You have a set of balls as big as any of my men.” He swirls a short glass of amber liquid in his hand before taking a sip.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Don’t. Most of the Cavalieri wouldn’t dare call me unprompted, much less to ask me for favors. You’re lucky you’re still breathing.” He says the word favors as if it’s offensive.
It probably is.
I shrug. “I had nothing to lose. Ethan was going to kill me anyway. If I was going to die, what did it matter whose hand held the gun?”
“See, that’s the kind of mentality it takes to work for me,” he says matter-of-factly.
I stare at him, waiting for the punchline, and when he doesn’t say anything, I let out a nervous laugh. “Are you offering me a job, Arthur?”
“Depends,” he says, lifting a graying eyebrow. “Would you accept?”
“While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I’ll have to decline. The Tabella Della Morte was Niko’s world, not mine.”
“It’s a good thing I wasn’t offering, then.” He takes another slow drink as the car slows to a stop. “I’ll assume you’ll still be upholding your end of the deal.”
I dip my chin. “All Cavalieri names have been wiped from the FBI database.”
A non-negotiable parting gift I required from Dunning to ensure he has some skin in the game. You don’t grow up as the daughter of a Russian mob boss and not learn a thing or two.
“Well, it seems you’re one of the few who have my number now,” he says, a glint in his eye. Dagger opens my door, and as I start to move, Arthur firmly grasps my elbow. “Use it wisely, Miss Chernova.”
I smile, his words igniting the first spark of life inside me since I left Florida. “Right back at you, Calthorpe.”
Without another word, I drag myself out of the limo, and walk toward a sleek jet a few feet in front of me. Arthur never said the words, but he didn’t have to. I know the private plane is for me, and I know it’s headed back to Miami-Opa Locka. He never expected me to take him up on his offer. I suppose it was his way of letting me know that regardless of all that has happened, he respects me.
And Arthur Calthorpe respects no one.
Yet again, I’m shielding my body from the wind as I make my way across the tarmac toward the airstairs attached to the plane. My hands shake as I hold onto the railing and climb toward freedom.
The sound of planes taking off in the distance roars in my ears as I cross the threshold into the cabin. Taking a deep breath, I push my windblown hair out of my face and tuck it behind my ears. As far as private jets go, Arthur Calthorpe spared no expense. The inside looks like something out of a magazine—more extravagant than most people’s homes.
The flooring is a plush black and gray square pattern, and to my left is a long hallway with an oversized white leather couch on one side and two reclining white chairs on the other. Two tables, three mini-bars, and a huge flat screen television complete the setup. My entire apartment could fit inside the damn thing.
I let out a low whistle. “Well, fuck me.”
“Tempting, but I’d prefer to wait until we’re in the air first.”
The voice to the left of me is gravelly and rough. A voice that both feels like a punch in the gut and a kickstart to the heart all at the same time. Gripping the jacket even tighter, I slowly turn to face him.
In one single glance, my world stops, starts, tilts, spins, then rights itself. He’s sitting in a white chair, his inked fingers gripping the armrests, and his eyes holding mine without remorse.
My pulse races at the sight of the midnight black hair that dips over one aluminum gray eye, and a heavier beard hiding even more of the scar I know every detail behind. My stomach flips as I stare at the lips that devastate me with kisses one minute, then acid words the next.
He’s rough. He’s jaded. He’s deceptively charming.
He’s alive, and he’s all mine.
“Niko.” His name is barely out of my mouth before I’m on him, straddling his lap, my hands cradling his face as I pour everything I have left into a heated kiss. His lips taste like home and I’m not ashamed to demand more, rubbing against his growing erection until he groans. Our tongues clash in a war of dominance, and I continue grinding on him until he places a hand on my lower back, stilling my movement.
“Forty-one thousand feet,” he says, his voice rough as he pulls me back a little. Letting out a ragged breath, he lets go of my ass to adjust himself. “Enjoy the calm now, because when we’re at forty-one thousand feet, the only thing you’ll be doing until Miami is riding my cock.”
“Is that right?”
“Damn right it is. And none of this panties to the side shit.” He pulls the jacket off my shoulders and slides the straps of my tank top down. “All this is coming off, Ava. I want to see my name when I’m inside you.”
I shudder, his forceful words sending a rush of warmth between my legs. With the image freshly painted in my mind, I blow out a slow breath and nod, sliding my hands from his face, down to his neck, and finally coming to rest on his shoulders.
Niko sucks in a sharp breath. “Fuck!”
My eyes snap open at the pain in his voice. It’s only then that I see the sling around his arm and his shoulder wrapped in tons of gauze and surgical tape. “Oh God!” I say, gingerly grazing my fingertips around the edges. “I forgot about…oh God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. We shouldn’t…”
Niko grabs me around the waist with his good arm before I can move. “Yes, you should have, and hell yes, we should. And we will. My shoulder may be hurt, but there’s not a damn thing wrong with my cock. It works just fine, thanks.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Still, I’m sorry for shooting you.”
“Yeah, well, a little warning might have been nice.”
“I said, go left. It’s not my fault your reaction time is shit.”
“I know, I know, when everyone looks right—”
“You go left,” I finish for him, patting his chest. “Your words, big man. Own them.”
“So are you ever going to explain to me how in the hell you managed to convince Arthur Calthorpe to get involved in all this, and then talked the FBI out of prosecuting all three of us?”
“Depends. How long is the flight?”
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with a tall, high-society asshole? One who has a thing for knives too?”
I wink. “I don’t know anyone named Dagger.”
“Right.” A smile breaks out across Niko’s face. An honest to God smile. Something I haven’t seen since I was sixteen years old. “So, what do you say we get out of here?”
I nod and climb off his lap. Buckling his seatbelt for him, I quickly climb i
nto the chair beside him and buckle my own as the pilot enters the cabin from the cockpit.
“We’re ready to go when you are, Mr. Gaheris. We just need to know a final destination in order to get clearance.”
Niko nods then turns, flashing me a wicked grin. “Where to, Miss Chernova?”
I tilt my chin, considering his question. I think about the borders of Florida. I think about winter coats and coastlines. I think about tourists and Rose with her cornfed Iowa innocence. But when it comes down to it, the only place I think to go is the one that saved me.
Biting my lip, I glance up at him and grin. “Kansas City. I hear they have one hell of a shuffle.”
Epilogue
Niko
Miami, Florida
One Year Later
Whoever said the more things change, the more things stay the same nailed that shit dead on. Stepping off an airplane onto Florida soil in December is still like getting punched in the dick by Satan.
X waits a respectable distance away, holding a set of keys in his hands. “Welcome home, Mr. Gaheris. Your car is waiting for you.”
I stare at him behind my reflective sunglasses. He’s decked out in his usual blue banker suit with his brown hair slicked back. Always blue and never a hair out of place. I wouldn’t be surprised if Xavier has a poster of Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street hanging up that he gives double finger guns to every morning.
He lifts an eyebrow. “Is something funny, sir?”
“You’re really dedicated to that look, aren’t you, X?”
“Yes, sir. It’s important to portray an image of consistency. Every great man has a signature style.”
I open my mouth to make a smartass comment when he cocks that damn eyebrow even higher and scans his eyes from my black leather jacket down to my black jeans, looking away with a small smirk.
I don’t know whether to laugh or put my foot up his ass.
Well played.
I rush down the rest of the airsteps and steal the keys out of his hand. “Everybody gets one, X. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
X doesn’t respond. He knows better. For the last year he’s met me in the same place, holding the same keys, with the same greeting.
“Welcome home, Mr. Gaheris. Your car is waiting for you.”
Home. I haven’t had one of those since I was seventeen years old. Even then, it was filled with violence and hate. The only thing that kept me tied to that place was one woman who needed me to protect her from a monster. When I left, I found myself once again tied to a place where another woman needed me to protect her from her own monster. For eight years after that, home was a weapon, a job, and a vendetta.
Holding a gun in my hand will always feel normal, and the men I call family are still violent killers. However, I no longer have a vendetta. Instead, I have a real home, and someone who has waited three weeks for me to return.
Turning the ignition on the Audi, I hit the gas and peal out of Miami-Opa Locka Airport.
A man should never keep a lady waiting.
Especially one with an entire Bratva at her feet.
* * *
The crimson red neon light floods the walkway as I approach the door to Seven. From outside I can hear shouting, so I don’t bother knocking. For once, the asshole bouncer isn’t on his phone. In fact, he’s wide eyed and alert, his eyes bouncing from me to the inside of the club and back.
“Hello, Mr. Gaheris.”
“What the hell is going on in there?” I try to peer around him, but all I can see are large men’s backs and a pair of pale arms flailing in the air.
“Police raid.”
“Another one?”
He shrugs. “They won’t go away until she gives them what they want. I don’t know why she doesn’t stuff their pockets so they’ll shut up. That’s what Dmitry always did.”
“You just answered your own question.” I turn toward the dark hallway, a smile breaking across my face as a long string of Russian insults immediately quiets the incessant yelling.
“Idi nahuey. Tvoya mama shlyukha na vokzale!”
“Damn, what did she say?”
“I’m pretty sure she called all their mothers train station whores,” I mutter, making my way straight to the middle of the chaos. Still, I don’t intervene. I’m content to stand by and watch my girl in her element.
She looks fierce as hell standing up on one of the tables. It’s not just the dress she’s wearing, although no woman but her can wear a long, tight silver dress showing only a hint of skin and exude more sex appeal than a stripper in a G-string. It’s her confidence. Her dominance. Her ruthless control and the fact that I know there’s a gun in a thigh holster under that dress she’s itching to pull.
She’s still yelling when Blade sidles up beside me, his arms crossed over his chest. “She’s lettin’ ’em have it tonight ’cause Rose quit.”
“She quit?”
“Yep, told her she was goin’ back to Iowa to patch things up with her mama now that the woman dumped that piece of shit boyfriend. Ava’s happy for her, but she kinda got attached to that girl. Won’t admit it though. You know how she is.”
Stubborn. Prideful. Obstinate. About to rip some balls off because of it.
“Yes, I do.”
He nods toward the herd of belligerent officers. “Think they’ll ever back off?”
“Probably not.”
“Think she will?” Blade asks. I cock my chin and raise an eyebrow. He laughs, his big body shaking under his arms. “Yeah, I didn’t think so either.”
“She trusts you with her life, you know,” I tell him. “That’s why she made you her second.” Before he can respond, I jump back in. “I trust you too, but let me make myself very clear. If you ever betray her, I’ll cut you into so many pieces, they’ll be able to bury you in a dime bag.”
I know it won’t ever come to that because he doesn’t even flinch. I’m standing beside him threatening to dismember him until he’s ground beef, and the man doesn’t break a sweat. All he can focus on is Ava and how close those men are getting to her.
Loyalty.
“Looks like they’re leaving empty handed again,” he notes, nodding toward the line of policemen grumbling to themselves as they shuffle toward the exit.
“Mudaks.” Ava climbs down from her podium, shooting intermittent glares at their backs. It isn’t until she kicks a chair underneath the table that her eyes catch mine. She hesitates, then walks slowly and seductively toward me. When we’re nose to nose, she runs a hand down the front of my open jacket, thumbing the teeth of the zipper. “Hey there, stranger.”
“Have a little company, did you?”
She pops a hand on her hip and glances behind her. “Yes, well, considering the lack of prostitutes here to jerk them off these days, they’re bored. It seems running a legitimate club forces them to fuck their wives for a change.”
Seeing her like this is everything. She’s in her element, and a force to be reckoned with. Men’s eyes lower to the floor when she enters a room now. No longer a Bratva princess, the woman standing before me is a queen. The beginning and end of the Chernov empire.
My goddess. My everything.
My wife.
I run the back of my hand across her cheek. “I’ve missed you.”
“Oh?” Her lips twitch. “Have you been gone? I haven’t noticed.”
Ava’s eyes blaze with heat as her mouth dares me to defy her in front of her men. She’s playing a dangerous game, one where the rules can change in an instant. I may be her husband, but I’m still a killer. I can only be pushed so far before a marital competition becomes a battle of wills.
And damn this woman pushes me right to the edge.
“Blade, if you’ll excuse us.” Ava squeals as I bend down and toss her over my shoulder.
“Niko!” she hisses, letting out a yelp as I slap her ass. “I’m the boss! You’re undermining me in front of my employees.”
“Then I suggest you say something bossy.�
��
Lifting her head, she twists around and glares at them. “Fuck off.”
I shrug. “Not quite what I meant, but okay.”
After walking three winding hallways and passing four doors, I find the one I want and push it open. It’s dark inside, just like I wanted it to be. Steadying her on my shoulder, I flip on the light, and smile as the room illuminates in nothing but red from the tinted lights to the red walls to the red velvet couch to the left of us. Everything is bathed the color of hate, love, and the blood that stains both our hands.
Our beginning and our end.
Ava blinks, the corners of her mouth first turning down in confusion. “You brought me to the bondage room? Why? You know we don’t allow this kind of stuff anymore…” She trails off as her eyes catch the one thing breaking the room’s singular color scheme. Slowly her frown curls into a smile. “An orange blossom.”
Not just one. Dozens of them. Filling the room like little slices of innocence trapped in the depths of immorality. I always did say they reminded me of her. Looking at it now, I can see I was right.
“How?”
“I have my ways,” I say, cupping her face in my hand. Ava leans into my touch, sliding her hand up my arm until she’s holding my wrist.
“Blade.” She hums his name triumphantly, but I don’t have to admit to anything. She knows she’s right. “I need to keep my eye on you two.”
I trace my thumb over her painted red lips. “A man never tells his secrets.”
Kissing my thumb, she gently pushes it out of the way. “Speaking of which, where have you been this time? California? Vegas? New York?”
“You know I can’t tell you that. Business and personal, remember?”
“But, Niko…”
Fuck, not this again. We’ve been over this a hundred times, and a hundred times I’ve given her the same answer. No way in hell am I going through what happened in that hangar ever again.
“It’s for your own safety, pchelka. The Cavalieri have enemies just waiting to use our weaknesses against us. The less you know, the safer you’ll be.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like not knowing where you are when you disappear for weeks at a time.” Her lips twist in that kissable pout that drives me insane. All I want to do is push her against the wall and devour it, but I have to wait.
Darkest Deeds: Cavalieri Della Morte Page 21