Empress of Poisons ARC

by Bree Porter

  Irritation zapped over Elena’s face as she saw the same things I did. “Do you want me to get you something?” She asked. “Or make something? To help with your sleeping?”

  “I’m fine, Lena.” Dani said. She tore her gaze away from Roman and stared down at her plate.

  Elena opened her mouth but I shot her a look. She scowled instantly, her expression saying a million things. None of them nice.

  Let them figure it out on their own, I warned her with my eyes.

  He’s hurting her, she responded.

  They’re both hurting.

  Elena rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything else on the topic.

  25

  Konstantin Tarkhanov

  “Come in.” I called, lifting my head from my desk.

  Elena entered, cocooned in a blanket. In her hands were large woollen socks. “Are you cold? I brought you some socks.”

  Wind and rain swarmed the estate as the winter grew worse. The skies were perpetually gray, and air unendingly cold. Both Elena and Niko were devastated about not being able to go outside. More than once, I had walked into a room and found both of them staring out the window with matching expressions of morose.

  I leaned back in my chair, beckoning her closer. “Come here.”

  “I’m not here to distract you,” she warned.

  “Humor me.”

  Elena rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide her smile as she neared. I thought she would go into my arms–like I was gesturing for her to do so–but instead she sat on the edge of my desk, almost out of arm’s reach.

  Almost.

  “Are you going to put the socks on for me?”

  She snorted. “I’ll take them back if you’re going to be a pain.”

  “And leave me freezing?”

  “You’ll live.”

  I snuck a hand up her blanket, wrapping my fingers around her calf. “You’re so warm, lyubimaya. I could sink my teeth into you.”

  “I told you I’m not here to be a distraction.”

  “Liar. You know exactly how distracting you are.”

  Elena smiled secretly. “Niko ditched me for Evva and Roksana’s watching over Danika.”

  “I’m your third choice?” I squeezed her leg. She tried to tug out of my grip but not with any intention of getting free. “That hurts.”

  “At least you’re above Roman.” She remarked.

  I didn’t respond to her words, suddenly to enraptured by her beauty to think of much else. She was perched on the side of the desk like a mermaid on a rock, head tipped back to reveal the thick mahogany strands. Her green eyes peered at me from beneath dark lashes, amusement sparkling in their irises.

  Every inch of her was perfection, every morsel of her was beautiful.

  Every piece of her was mine.

  “Don’t look at me like that.”

  “I’m not looking at you in any particular way.”

  She thinned her lips to hide her growing smile. “Now who’s the liar?”

  I slid my hand up higher and higher, brushing my fingers against the sensitive part of her. “You tell me, lyubimaya?” Before she could respond, I pulled her into my lap, banding her tightly against me.

  “Kon!” Elena snapped.

  I nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent. She didn’t resist, didn’t turn away. Instead, Elena arched her head, allowing better access to the sensitive flesh.

  Dark joy rose up in me as I realised that this part of Elena was forever and wholly mine. Her moans and gasps would only ever be heard by my ears, her skin only ever caressed by my fingers. Only I would taste her, only I would have the honour of having her by my side.

  And she would let me.

  How many years had I coveted over this woman? How many dreams had I had where she was at the center? How many desires and futures had she been a part of in my visions?

  For all that wanting, I now held her in my lap, tongue sucking on her neck. I could still hear her laughter, her witty retorts. And later, we would go and have dinner with our son, before returning to our chambers, where I would get to do sinfully dangerous things to her in the dark of night.

  “Why are you smiling?” Elena asked, breathily.

  “Am I?”

  She titled her head to see me better. “I bet I can wipe that grin right off your face.”

  My eyebrows rose. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

  In a sharp movement, she lifted her hips and rubbed against my growing erection. I arched my neck as pleasure and wanting shot through me, my muscles tightening in response. My cock tented my pants, pressing uncomfortably against my fly.

  “That’s not how you get a smile off my face, lyubimaya.” I growled.

  Elena laughed and repeated the movement. When she discovered how hard I was, her own smile grew up her face. “Still cold?”

  I chucked deeply, the sound coming from my lower stomach. “Oh, no. Not anymore.” I shifted my hips, pressing against her. She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth.

  I took her lower lip in my mouth, sucking and teasing it as she tightened her grip on my shoulders. The taste of her was enough to drive me mad. Some dark and animalistic part of me pictured taking Elena out to the woods and having her for the rest of our days. No responsibilities, no threats. Only pleasure and the trees and the feel of her flesh succumbing to mine.

  Elena didn’t resist as I slipped a hand down to her thighs, parting them over my lap. I flushed her back against my chest, cupping her breasts in my free hands.

  She groaned against my lips, her head against my shoulder.

  I squeezed the peaks through her shirt, running my thumb over the pebbled nipples. Arched against me, olive skin revealed and voice in my ear, it was impossible to believe she was a part of the same world as the rest of us. “God, you’re too beautiful for my mortal self. A creature of fantasy–right here in my arms.”

  “Maybe I’m here to trick you and you’ll be caught in my dance for an eternity.” She mused, eyes bright. “If I offer you food, don’t eat it.”

  “I know that one.”

  Elena’s surprised laugh tore from her. She cupped my cheeks, smiling against my lips. “Don’t you forget it.”

  The kiss grew deeper, our lust caustic. Elena’s fingers undid my belt buckle before fisting my rock-hard cock. She laughed as I flinched in her hand, the sound wicked and sultry.

  “You’re being cruel,” I murmured against her lips as I slid my fingers into her sweatpants. I found her dripping and aching, ready to be brought to the apex of her pleasure.

  Elena broke the kiss off, pressing her forehead against mine. Her mouth parted as she let out a trembling gasp.

  I tugged down her pants. The cold hit her and she shuddered in my arms. “Keep the blanket around you, lyubimaya.” I murmured, helping her tighten the quilt.

  “You can’t see what you’re doing.”

  “Trust me,” I rubbed her nub between my thumb and forefinger. She swore. “I don’t need to see.”

  Elena tugged down my pants, grasping my cock beneath her blanket cocoon. My groan only sent her into a laugh, until I bit her shoulder in tandem with pinching her clit and she quickly fell into a myriad of cries.

  I entered her in one smooth movement. Elena cried out, using my shoulder to hold herself up. She felt like perfection, her muscles contracting and loosening as she slowly bounced on my cock. Lust fogged my brain, my only thoughts of how she felt, her fingers digging in my shoulders, her hair falling over my–

  The door flew open. “The bitch is back!”

  Elena dropped, the movement causing my cock to penetrate her deeper. Both of us bit back our moans.

  It was Roman who had come storming into the room.

  “Out. Now.” I growled.

  Artyom followed him in, looking apologetic. “We’ve got a situation, boss.”

  The blanket covered our compromising position. To the casual onlooker, it look
ed like Elena was simply sitting on my lap.

  A few seconds later, Feodor and Dmitri entered. Both wore expressions of worry.

  “What happened?” I demanded. I wrapped an arm around Elena, doing everything in my power to try and shove down the thoughts of her pussy around my cock, her juices coating my erection. From how intently Elena was staring at my men, I knew she was trying to do the same thing.

  Artyom delivered the news. “The Feds–with the DEA–just raided the banya. We didn’t have prisoners in the tunnels, but three men have been arrested for breaking their parole violations and consorting with known criminals.”

  A muscle in my jaw twitched. “Who ran the raid?”

  “Special Agent Stephen Kavinsky.”

  The agent from outside the orchard. It seemed he wasn’t done poking the snake. He would find that when the snake bit back, his old heart might not be able to take the venom.

  Elena’s rubbed my knee in a gesture of comfort. “Why did you say she’s back?”

  “Because of these.” Olezka stepped into the room, bouquet of foxglove in his arms. The purple horn-shaped flowers were wrapped in black ribbon. “They were delivered to the banya after the raid, addressed to Elena.”

  She tensed in my arms.

  I shoved down my instincts–which were calling for me to take Elena out of the room and hide her from any and all threats. She wouldn’t be so onboard with the plan. “Bring them here.”

  Olezka laid the bouquet on the desk. Tied to the ribbon was a little note with Elena’s name written. No other markers could be found.

  But we all knew who it was from.

  Elena tapped one of the flowers and a tooth fell out. It gleamed like a pearl on my desk.

  “Fucking hell,” Roman muttered.

  I drew Elena’s hands away from it, holding them between my own. “Who delivered it?”

  “A random postman. He was just doing his job.” Olezka clarified. “Does this mean Tatiana was the one behind the raid?”

  Elena said suddenly, “This is the second little warning she’s sent me.”

  I turned to her, assessing her hard features. Problems and solutions were twisting behind her eyes. “What do you mean the second little warning?”

  “When she found Niko and I, she sent me a vase of foxglove and teeth.” Elena was looking at like the bouquet like it had personally offended her. “That’s why we ran.”

  A second flush of anger swept through me, but I shoved it down. There were other things to worry about than my boy-like fury. “I see.” My tone caused her to look at me. “Feodor, ring the lawyer. He’s got a busy night ahead of him, it seems.”

  Feodor took his phone out and stepped to the side.

  Elena adjusted her position. I gripped her tighter as the pleasure from her simple movement ricocheted through me. Don’t be cheeky, my eyes warned.

  Elena ducked her head to hide her smirk.

  “She’s coming for you, boss,” Roman said, interrupting Elena and I’s flirting. “Three years of waiting is up.”

  “She wasn’t waiting.” I replied. “She was preparing.”

  Dmitri turned to his head to hide the emotions in his eyes. Sullenness and coldness stuck to him, but I could the brief glimmer of grief in his expression.

  He needs to be watched, I told myself.

  It didn’t bring me any pleasure to treat Dmitri like an outsider. I loved him, considered him family. But Dmitri’s wife, the love of his life, was planning on taking down my Bratva–who was to say she wouldn’t offer him a position as her king? Would he take it, or would he spit in her face?

  I didn’t know, which meant Dmitri was no longer to be trusted.

  Elena met my eyes, reading my mind immediately.

  He’s family, she implored.

  I’m aware.

  In her ear, I murmured, “Family doesn’t always mean trustworthy.”

  “Then what does it mean?” She whispered back harshly.

  Technically speaking, Dmitri had yet to give me a reason not to trust him. He had stayed with us three years ago, relying on the support of his family heavily as he endured heartache and being a single parent. I recalled our conversation on the bathroom floor, him drunk and me becoming my old self again.

  Miss my wife, he had grumbled. Miss my son, miss my daughter.

  How much did he yearn for them? What would he do to make sure they were back in his arms?

  I knew what I would do if I was in his position.

  “We need to do something.” Roman was saying. “We need to get her where she sleeps, where she lives. We can’t let her keep scurrying away like the rat she is.”

  “Easier said than done, Roman,” Artyom answered. “Tatiana has proven to have contacts inside law enforcement. That could be a very big problem for us.”

  “Fuck ‘em all. A bunch of pussies.”

  “It’s a shame wars are won with insults, Roman,” Elena interrupted. “You would be our fighting champion.”

  He flashed her the finger.

  “Though Roman’s point wasn’t very eloquent, he is correct,” I said. The room fell silent beneath my words. “Tatiana’s largest advantage is that she knows everything about our security and lairs, whereas we know very little about hers. If we got into her nest...taking her down would be easy.”

  “Where would we start?”

  That was the question. Where would we start?

  I considered the facts before me. We had an arrogant but fiercely intelligent woman who was intent on committing revenge on those she deemed had wronged her. Her first step had been inserting herself into a family, from there she had silently built up her organisation and waited for the right moment to strike.

  Letizia Zetticci, a woman from the Lombardi Famiglia, had been her first statement. She had torn the women’s teeth out in her death and left her to be found by her family.

  Tatiana’s past was not as much as a mystery as she would like. Her father had been a Vory, and married Tatiana’s mother. When a younger and more beautiful woman had come along who could bare him a son, he had left young Tatiana and her mother, forcing them into a life of poverty.

  Women, men, families. They were complex topics to Tatiana, and I knew the dynamics would keep her awake at night.

  Tatiana had had a second chance at a family–but instead she had chosen to betray us, betray the people who had taken care of her, fed her, nurtured her. When she had gotten sick, we had tried to tear the world apart to provide her with a cure.

  Instead, she had destroyed her husband and son. Just in the name of revenge.

  Tatiana was not worthy of being a part of the Tarkhanov Bratva. She didn’t deserve to Dmitri’s wife or Anton’s mother. In fact, the only Tatiana was destined for a cruel and painful death by my hand.

  That would be my revenge and my justice.

  The question still remained. Where would we start?

  “I’ll do it.”

  It took a few seconds for my brain to comprehend the words. The rational part of me said: Elena didn’t say that. Elena wouldn’t be so reckless. My Elena had never made a decision without calculating all the positives and negatives first.

  She repeated herself. “I’ll do it. Join her organization, bring her down.”

  My Elena, it turned out, had lost her mind.

  “No.”

  Her eyes snapped to me. “No? That’s all you have to say? You’re not even going to hear me out?”

  Roman saved me from having to repeat myself. “Have you lost your damn mind?” He demanded. “You can’t just walk up to Tatiana and invite yourself into her family. She’ll kill you.”

  “No, she won’t.”

  “This feels...unwise, Elena.” Artyom tried a more diplomatic response. “It took Olezka years of training to be able to successfully intercept families and organizations. The training you would have to undergo–”

  “I’m a fast learner.” She still hadn’t peeled
her mossy eyes away from me. Irritation was warping her features, transforming her from a forest fairy to the wicked witch. “Tatiana offered me a job. I’ll just say I’m taking her up on it.”

  I stared at her.

  Then very softly asked, “And when did this occur?”

  My men had enough common sense to look nervous as they heard my tone. Olezka even took a step back.

  Elena didn’t back down. “At the races, after she shot Danika.” Roman flinched at the reminder. “It’s perfect, Konstantin. She won’t let any of you get close to her–but me? We would be colleagues.”

  “You took your time telling me this.”

  She pressed her lips together. “You’re about to have a pissing contest because I forgot to tell you something? Instead of actually listening to my points?”

  Feodor looked highly distressed at her tone.

  “I would never be so irrational, Elena,” I responded. “As irrational as you are being when you’re insisting on spying on Tatiana by yourself. What if something happens to you and we can’t find you? Or you need help but can’t contact us? What if she knows immediately what your little plan is and kills you on the spot? What then, Elena? How would you proceed?”

  “I would become a ghost and haunt your ass, Konstantin.” She snapped. “None of that is going to happen–and if it does, we’ll deal with it. I’m not as useless as you’re making me out to be.”

  “No, but you are as important. If anything were to happen to you–” I broke off before I could finish the sentence.

  Elena didn’t back down, but her eyes did soften slightly. “I’m the only one with a plan.”

  “We’ll find another plan.” I turned to my men. All of them were looking in different directions (ceiling, roof, floor) to avoid being dragged into our lover’s tiff. “Get me Mitsuzo and Giovanni on the phone. If Tatiana’s set her sights on me, it won’t be long before she decides she wants all of New York.”

  “That will have to wait.” Roksana danced into the room, light on her feet. Artyom turned towards her, stretching out an arm in greeting. She took his hand with a smile, but to me, she said, “Your niece is here.”