“Besides,” Addison said, once her giggles calmed down. “I would say Daniel and I are working on our happily ever after. I refused to marry him unless he gets some professional therapy and so far, his appointments haven’t been going well.”
“Oh. My. God,” Laney whispered, awe in her voice. “You truly are like a goddess and the holy grail all rolled into one. There is no way anyone who has ever met that man would believe he would actually seek professional help.”
Laney abandoned her packing and jumped onto the bed with Addison causing them both to bounce. “Okay, you must tell me all the details. And then never speak of this again. If Daniel Mercer knew that you had told a soul of his therapy sessions, then that life would be instantly forfeit. I will probably never sleep soundly again, just knowing this information, and yet this is the best gossip ever.”
Addison nodded seriously. Neither woman was kidding.
“Well, we created a list of possible psychologists he was willing to see. Ones with excellent reputations for both confidentiality and results. There were at least twelve names on that list and he’s managed to exhaust the entire list without actually making it to a second session with the same therapist.”
“Wow,” Laney said, though she wasn’t in the least surprised.
Addison held up a hand and ticked off her fingers as she went. “He refused to speak to the first one beyond introducing himself. When the therapist suggested he couldn’t help Daniel unless Daniel spoke at least a little, Daniel suggested the man would help him if he and his family wanted to see the next day. He waited until Daniel left before calling me and politely suggesting Daniel look elsewhere. Although to be fair, he did manage to get Daniel to speak, which is progress. The next two managed to get themselves injured, which required a whole lot of money and a few Tyson King lawyers to smooth things over.”
“How did I not hear about any of this?” Laney asked.
Addison shrugged. “I asked for Tyson’s help when the psychologists threatened to sue Daniel. Daniel doesn’t even know that Tyson knows. I highly doubt Tyson told Claudia. He’s almost as protective of his friendship with Daniel as he is of her.”
Laney murmured her understanding.
Addison continued. “The next one was actually really good. An older woman and a musician, she was very patient with him. I think she reminded him a little of me, which helped.”
“What happened?”
“She wanted to talk about his childhood,” Addison said with a sigh.
Laney made a face. “Is she still alive?”
“I think her resemblance to me saved her life, but she’s definitely not in the picture any more. And things just went downhill from there. The next one was so terrified of Daniel and whatever he divulged during their single session that he threw up on his own desk and cried. I actually think he shut down his practice and went on an extended vacation. I made Daniel transfer a bunch of money into the guy’s account and promise to apologize if he ever comes back. Daniel assures me the man won’t want to see him again. I assured Daniel that if he doesn’t apologize then he won’t be hearing the sound of wedding bells.”
“What was his reply?” Laney asked curiously, though she knew exactly what her boss would say to his woman.
Addison’s lips twitched in amusement though she tried to look annoyed. “My caveman said, and I quote ‘fucking throw you over my shoulder and marry your pain in the ass, whether you like it or not’.”
They both laughed at the imitation of Daniel’s gruff mannerisms.
Addison smiled toward Laney. “He hasn’t refused to stop trying therapy. I think he sees the value in talking to someone, especially about his childhood trauma. It’s just a matter of time before we find someone who’s sensitive and patient enough to be able to handle my homicidal, possessive man.”
Laney nodded and looked down at the quilt they were sitting on, her expression growing serious. She was glad Addison couldn’t see her. Images of her own childhood flashed through her brain before she could stop them. The blood and the beatings. The pain and the darkness. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She understood Daniel in a way others perhaps could not. The need to kill, to purge and to separate from oneself. She envied him the peace he found with Addison Sterling.
“I don’t want you to go,” Addison burst out. “I feel like you’re safe here where we can watch over you. All of us. I know you’re in trouble and I just know it’ll find you overseas where we can’t help you. I know you’ll have Boris, but he has his own trouble. I don’t know if he can keep you safe.” Anxiety laced Addison’s voice and her fingers played restlessly across the top of the quilt.
Laney’s eyes flickered over Addison and a pain tugged in her chest. She didn’t want to leave her friend. “I must go, Addison Sterling. I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have a very good reason.”
Addison nodded slowly and let out a long sigh before saying, “I know.”
Laney smiled sadly. “You may hug me now if you want.”
Addison laughed. “Wow, I’m so privileged! I didn’t even have to beg for one like Claudia.”
Reaching out blindly she met Laney halfway across the bed. They embraced each other tightly for a few moments.
“There’s someone very special I want you to meet some day,” Laney whispered, wiping her tears on Addison’s cardigan.
Addison nodded, hugging Laney close. There were tears in her voice as she replied, “I look forward to that day.”
Laney jumped and snapped back to reality as Boris’ hand came down on her shoulder. She focused on the two men in front of her and shook off the memory of her emotional goodbye with her friend. Boris was studying her face with an expression of concern. She wondered what she revealed to him. She was too like her mother in that way. Dropping her eyes, she reached for her bag, but he lifted it from her hands and began following the captain.
Laney trailed after them, staring around curiously. She wanted to explore her very first cargo transport ship and see what it was all about. Despite growing up in the heart of the Yakuza she was really quite sheltered. Except for the times when she was sent out on assignment, she spent her time at the compound training herself into lethal precision. The United States was the furthest place she’d been except for her early childhood spent in Britain. But those memories were faded now.
“This will be your cabin,” Oleg was saying to Boris, which brought Laney’s attention back to the two men. She wanted to ask where her cabin would be, but they were again speaking in rapid Russian.
Finally, Oleg finished speaking, turned on his heel and walked away. Laney opened her mouth to call after him but Boris pulled her by the arm into the room, using his strength to maneuver her easily over the threshold. He slammed the door shut behind her and locked it.
The click echoed in the small room, sounding eerily significant to her ears. She crossed her arms and glared at him. He ignored her and tossed their bags on the tidily made up bed. It was larger than a single, but smaller than a queen. Probably as wide as Boris himself. Laney forced her eyes away from the too small bed and looked around the cabin. It was nicer than she thought a cargo ship cabin would be. The room sported a couch curving around the corner wall with a small table in front of it. There was also a small desk with a tiny chair that Boris’ massive frame would most definitely not be able to make use of. There was another door in the room, which probably led to a washroom.
“Nice room,” Laney observed in a neutral voice. “Where’s mine?”
Boris turned and looked at her, a wolfish grin curving his lips. “This is it, moy kotenok.”
She nodded. “Fine. Then where’s your room?”
He approached her, backing her into the corner next to the door. A sudden rumbling made Laney jump and look around. The ship shook and shuddered under her feet. She reached out and placed her hand against the wall, her heart pounding in her chest. They were leaving the dock. Her chance to leave the ship and Boris was about to sail away. He stalked closer.
/> Laney reached under her jacket and pulled her gun. She pointed it at him. The grin didn’t slip from his lips, but it twisted, becoming slightly more feral. He continued stalking toward her.
“We have had this conversation before,” he growled, reaching for her wrist. “You will have to fucking shoot me if you want me to stop.”
Laney willed herself to put her finger on the trigger, but as the seconds passed she knew she wouldn’t do it. She closed her eyes instead and allowed him to take her wrist in his hand, slam her arm overhead and push her body back against the door. He covered her body with his much bigger one. The vibrations of the ship leaving dock shuddered through both of them.
“Look at me,” he rumbled from over her head.
Laney shook her head and kept her face tilted down. She was so much smaller than him that her head was well below his shoulder anyway. He sighed in annoyance and reached for her chin, forcing her head up until she had no choice but to look into his dark eyes.
He looked stern, closer to the Russian enforcer that held sway over an entire city than the gentle giant he sometimes took pains to let her see during the long half a year he attempted to woo her. “You knew what would happen when you agreed to come with me to Hong Kong, Laney.”
He seemed to expect some kind of answer from her. She nodded as much as she could in the hold he had on her chin.
“We share a cabin, kotenok. There will be no more discussion.” His voice was so unyielding that she had no trouble picturing him as the head of the Grekov empire he would soon claim.
At the same time as the ship stopped shuddering, indicating they were leaving the dockyard, Boris bent to claim Laney’s lips.
Before his lips could touch hers and take away all of her good sense and ability to reason, Laney used her free hand to unsheathe one of her blades and hold it to his throat.
He immediately tried to reach for her blade hand. Laney growled and pricked him to show that she was serious. A bead of blood bubbled against the tip of the blade. Boris froze. She could feel his brain switching into fight mode while his body continued to seduce hers. He wanted her very badly and he had waited a long time. He breathed heavily above her, his massive chest rising and falling against her breasts, causing sweeping breaths to shiver against the silken strands that escaped her braids. His massive erection grew even harder against her belly, as though the added danger of a blade and the blood spilled turned him on even more.
“Drop it,” he snarled. “Do not want to hurt you, little Japanese.”
She laughed coldly. “I may have known your reasons for wanting me here, Boris Grekov, but you didn’t know mine. I won’t be falling into bed with you that easily.”
“Da, you will,” he said with supreme confidence.
His words pissed her off enough that she quickly calculated exactly how much pressure it would take to stab him just enough to maim him without killing him. He began squeezing her gun hand, clearly trying to draw her attention elsewhere. She simply stared at him coldly, refusing to be distracted and unwilling to give up the gun. Finally, when he pressed his thumb into the bones between her wrist, she was forced to open her fingers and drop the gun.
Laney grunted in annoyance as the weapon clattered to the deck. Boris released her hand now that she couldn’t shoot him and reached for the wrist that held his throat hostage.
Expecting such a move, Laney quickly dropped her blade hand, slipping it between his legs and pressing it hard into the denim against his heavy ball sack. When Boris froze once more, this time in shock, Laney pressed her advantage by pulling another blade and pressing it against his throat once more.
He stared down at her, awe, passion and frustration warring in his eyes. He wanted her more than ever. And her weapons ensured she was further out of his reach than ever before. Amusement lit her features and she shrugged slightly. She’d never quite been in a situation like this before either. Boris clearly outmatched her as far as ability and strength, but his distraction for her would be his undoing. If he ever got over that, she would be screwed. Probably literally.
Finally, he seemed to come to some kind of decision. His huge shoulders and jaw relaxed. He smiled down at her and nodded slightly. “You have forced me to chase you for over seven months. I think I begin to enjoy this game of ours. Let us see if the ninja can beat the Russian bear.”
She raised an eyebrow. What was he getting at? Of course she couldn’t beat him at hand to hand combat. That’s why she was holding a blade to his throat and balls.
He continued. “I give you two minute head start. If you can evade capture, then you win. If I find you, then I keep you.”
“Why should I play along with you?” Laney asked cautiously, though she was intrigued. She did want to explore the ship and she was terrified of being forced into bed with the giant Russian enforcer. Maybe this was her opportunity to escape that fate for a little while longer. She was smart and she was fast. This could be her only chance. The ship was huge, she could make herself scarce for ten days if she really put her mind to it.
His expression grew serious, his eyes hard. “Because we both know I could disarm you right now.”
Laney’s heart thundered in her chest. He was right. “I would make you bleed though,” she whispered.
He shrugged. “Maybe. It would not be the first time I’ve been pricked and I would be buried in that little pussy before I even noticed.”
She shuddered against him, fear and lust warring within her. She could just drop the daggers and let him take over. He would do his best to make it good for her, like he’d done at the wedding reception. He was generous and he cared for her.
She stared up at him, blue eyes blazing into bronze and nodded. “I accept your two minutes.”
CHAPTER NINE
Boris had been eager to finally claim his woman. Upon their arrival, he’d intended to lock her in their shared cabin and not let her leave for the entire ten days. He would fuck her senseless so she would have no understanding of time and space beyond what he told her. He would bring her food and he would wash her in the small cubicle shower. He would care for her every need and make sure she was entirely dependant on him during their time together.
Instead he had lost her. For a full twenty-eight hours. He was not amused. He was less than not amused, he was enraged. He should be balls deep in her hot little cunt for the fifth or sixth time by now, not searching a fucking ship for his missing goddam kitten.
He didn’t understand why she wasn’t locked in his cabin. He’d been close so many times. He was a damn good hunter. It was why he’d bothered to issue the bloody challenge in the first place. Even on a ship the size of the HMS Solntse. He should have had her within the first hour.
If he’d been smart, he would have tied her to the fucking bed the moment she’d taken the first blade away from the vicinity of his manhood. Instead, he’d watched in amused patience as she’d sheathed both of her blades, dug a power bar and a toothbrush out of her duffel bag and reached for the door.
“Laney,” he’d called as she stepped into the hallway.
She’d looked back at him with those jewel-like sapphire eyes that turned his dick to stone every time and raised an eyebrow in question. “There are seven crew on this ship, including Oleg. If you wish these men to live, you will stay well away from them.”
She shrugged and turned away from him, braids swinging against her shoulders. That was the last he saw of her. He would have worried over her safety except he had reports from the cook about missing food. Which was fucking impossible because he’d been watching the galley, expecting that particular move and hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Laney. She really was a fucking ninja.
Next came a report from a somewhat bemused captain Oleg that someone had used his shower and bed while he’d been busy at work. It saved the good captain’s life that he had no idea what to think of the situation and he was a good forty-five years older than his lovely young passenger. Still, it further enraged Boris to imagine L
aney naked, enjoying the luxury of another man’s shower. Then curling up and sleeping in the warmth of another man’s bed. Like goddamned Goldilocks, making herself at home and sleeping as though she hadn’t a care in the world.
He’d stalked the lower decks, knowing she wouldn’t be there, but checking nonetheless. He checked the engine and navigation rooms knowing she wouldn’t be in either place. Too much risk of discovery. He wanted to be thorough so he could learn her method. And he was learning. Slower than he would have liked, but with enough time that he would get to spend eight and a half days punishing her for their wasted time. After that, he would find a way to get her back to Russia where he would spend a lifetime learning her as her husband. He was never letting her go.
Now the hunter knew where to find his woman. Laney would go high. She did not like to be trapped. On a place like this she would want to be free like a bird.
***
Laney sighed and grinned. She had never in her entire life felt freer. The entire Pacific Ocean stretched out in front of her in all of its pounding grey and blue glory. Even the continuous rain that had been falling on her since she’d climbed to the top of the eight shipping containers a few hours prior couldn’t stop her happy mood. She didn’t have a care in the world in that moment and it felt wonderful. The only thing that could make it better is if she knew Jin were safe.
Heavy footfalls echoed behind her, effectively answering a question she’d pondered previously. No, apparently Boris’ incredibly muscular arms would not hamper him from climbing all the way up to the top of the shipping containers to look for her when he finished searching the bottom of the ship.
“Laney,” he growled down at her, shaking his head like a dog and showering her with a spray of raindrops from his big body. Because she wasn’t wet enough having spent several hours in the rain.
She leaned back on her hands and glanced up at him so she could answer question number two. Yes, after nearly thirty hours of searching for her, he was very pissed off at being deprived of the sexual prize he thought he was getting when he first boarded the ship.
Bound by Blood (Fire & Vice Book 6) Page 8