“The stupid bitch. She figured she’d need someone to feed her fixes, that’s why! She only kept me because I would be an asset to her in a way you never could be.” He grinned at me and I began to worry. “Kirill Volkov found me. And finally, I had a family, Anastasia.”
All heads turned when the door opened, and a man walked in. He was huge, towering so high he had to duck under the doorframe when he entered.
“This,” Liam went to stand near the man. “is Yulian Markoff.”
I shrugged. If I was supposed to know who he was then Liam would be disappointed in me yet again.
“Yulian,” Liam went on to say, “Is the head of the Russian Mafia, Anastasia. My family.”
The room whooshed at me. Terror slid into every fibre of me, and I slumped back in defeat. There was no way Harrison would survive against these bastards. The Bratva was notorious for being merciless.
Yulian strode across the room to me, and I cried out when he yanked me upright by my hair. Why the hair all the damn time? “Family is everything to the Bratva, Anastasia,” he spoke in a thick accent, but I understood every vicious word perfectly. “Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. Like you forgot Erik!”
I winced when his grip on my hair tightened and my hair follicles shrank back at the pain.
“Every single brother that is embraced into my family become protected from the world itself. There are no limitations on the amount of provision each requires, including obtaining their revenge.”
Liam grinned happily. “So, you see, whose family outweighs whose?”
He was crazy, completely shifted into the realms of insanity.
Yulian finally released his grip on my hair and I crumbled to the floor, but he didn’t move away from me, just looked down at me as though I was something he had trodden in.
Liam sighed as if content and smirked at me. “How we’ve come full circle, dear sister.”
For a fleeting moment, I moved my eyes from him. A flash of a shadow in the hallway had me stiffening. Yulian had left the door open and, although the faint light that came from a single gloomy bulb provided little in the way of sight, I knew I’d seen it.
When Liam moved, turning towards the door, I cried out, making sure I got his full attention. “You don’t deserve a family, Liam!”
It all happened so quick I wasn’t quite sure actually how it happened.
In the time it took me to blink, Harrison had an arm around Liam’s neck, his gun pressed to his temple, and Yulian had me upright, securing my back to his front with a strong arm around me and a blade pressed against my jugular.
“Stalemate, Cole,” Yulian drawled as he pressed the knife deeper into my throat, nicking my skin. “Although, I’m impressed you managed to get past my men.”
“It’s not only you that has friends in high places, Markoff.”
Harrison cast me a hasty glance, checking I was okay, before securing his concentration back to my captor.
“Hmm,” Yulian mused. “But I’m certain this little one is somewhat important to you, no?”
I whimpered when he trailed the tip of the knife down my throat and along my collarbone, my skin partially splitting under the delicate draw of his hand. He stopped at the spaghetti straps of my dress and with a swift flick of the knife, he severed the thin ribbons of material, and my dress fell to my feet.
“My, how she’s a pretty one.” I gagged when he dragged his tongue up my cheek and pressed a wet kiss to my ear. “It would be a shame to devastate such beauty.”
Harrison took a sidestep, Liam still under the force of his gun. Yulian responded the same, moving us to the right.
“Well,” Harrison clicked his tongue and sighed. “See, there’s something neither of you is up to speed on.”
I felt Yulian stiffen, but he didn’t otherwise show any reaction to Harrison’s declaration.
“When my friend started looking into the quote you sent Lily. You know the one, ‘Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten’, he found it originated with your elder, Kirill Volkov.”
“Kirill was a huge believer in family, Cole. He was the one who instilled into every brother the importance of brotherhood kin.”
“Oh, I know that,” Harrison validated his belief with a nod as he took another step sideways, forcing Yulian to take another. We were slowly moving towards the opposite side of the room. “I know that family is everything to the Bratva,” Harrison continued. “And, well, when we hauled through the birth records of both Lily and Erik we found that your elder had deleted anything of Erik’s existence from thereon in.”
“We do that with all of our new brothers,” Yulian affirmed, moving us further around the room when Harrison took another step towards us. “Their past is no longer relevant to them. It’s the future that is important.”
“Oh, I know that as well,” Harrison professed. “But see, Kirill should have personally taken it upon himself to erase all Erik’s records, instead of delegating it to ‘The Creator’. That is what he’s called, isn’t it, The Creator?”
I didn’t get what Harrison was implying, but when he moved closer, prompting Yulian to take another step, I understood precisely what he was doing.
“Yes. He’s the brother who creates new documents and erases all previous ones. I’m unsure as to where you are headed with this, Cole. Do hurry up, I have a girl to slice up, and I’m growing impatient.”
“Oh, I’m getting there,” Harrison stated, throwing me a swift, meaningful look.
I glimpsed sideways, checking our location in the room, and nodded subtly.
“So,” Harrison cleared his throat. “To the point. Yes. See if Kirill had personally taken the time to obtain Erik’s documentation he would have taken a deep interest in Lily and Erik’s birth mother.”
Once again, I felt Yulian stiffen, and Liam frowned.
“My guy looked a little further back than the birth records, Markoff.” My heart stilled when Harrison smirked. “Around seven months before their birth, in fact. When Anna Yaroslav first sought out shelter in one of Detroit’s women’s refuges.”
Liam froze. “What are you saying, Cole?”
“Anna, to be allowed to remain in the country, had to give an account of why she feared for her life if she was deported back to Russia.” Harrison tutted and scowled almost theatrically at Yulian. “Well, your Creator should have checked those records too because Anna revealed exactly why she couldn’t return.”
“Why?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Harrison’s gaze flicked to me, and he smiled softly. “Anna Yaroslav was the secret lover of Kirill Volkov.”
“No!” Yulian shook his head. His hand trembled and the knife vibrated over my skin.
“Oh, yeah.” Harrison nodded. “When she found out she was pregnant, Anna fled Russia. She knew that her children’s lives were predestined to an existence of suffering and misery under the oppression Kirill called family. The US embassy concocted the story that Anna owed the Bratva a debt because even they knew that if Kirill were to ever find out about his children that he would wreak havoc in his mission to take back his only blood relatives. And although the embassy did their best to destroy all documentation relating to Anna’s residency, to protect her and her unborn babies, they overlooked the one that was buried deep in the refuge Anna first found shelter in.”
Harrison moved again, coaxing Yulian and me further to the right.
“Family, huh, Markoff,” Harrison scoffed. “You have your knife pressed against the throat of the blood heir to the Bratva empire!”
Yulian started breathing funny and his hand shook harder. “You’re lying!”
Liam seemed to be frozen in a shocked stupor. I had my full attention on Harrison, ready and waiting. My heart was thudding so hard I was unsure as to why no one heard it in the acute silence that had descended like smog around us.
Harrison finally snapped his eyes to me. The dark magnitude of blue in the depths of his penetrating stare convey
ed to me a story I already knew the ending to. “All clear, Lily?”
Blowing out a slow, silent breath, I locked his gaze and nodded sharply. “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”
When Harrison took his final step sideways, forcing Yulian and me to take one more step to the right, directly in front of the window, I closed my eyes, and I prayed to a God I’d never asked anything of before.
Ramming my elbow backwards, digging it into Yulian’s ribs and taking him by surprise, I dropped to the floor when his hold on me loosened.
He was down beside me within a split-second, his large, dead eyes staring at me blankly. The bullet that had flown in through the window, exploding through the back of his skull and shattering his brain, exited through his forehead and embedded itself into the wall where Harrison had been stood not moments before.
The room was instantaneously swamped with a mass of armed men, their shouts and barked directives distorted by the hum in my ears.
The violent shake started in the marrow of my bones and rapidly extended through every single muscle, dispersing throughout my bloodstream, and detonating out of me in convulsions so intense I thought I was having a seizure.
“I’ve got you,” Harrison urged as he held onto me so tightly I was jerking both of us across the floor. “I’ve got you, Lily. It’s over. It’s over, baby.”
“It’s over,” I repeated on a loop. “It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.”
It wasn’t until someone slid a syringe into my vein and took me away from my nightmare that I finally believed it.
It was over.
Forty
Harrison
“Rest,” I ordered softly, lightly pressing Lily’s head back, so it rested on the head of the bath. Steam swirled around us, and the gentle flicker of the candles I’d placed around the bathroom provided a tranquil ambience. Exactly what Lily needed.
“What happens now?” she asked without opening her eyes.
Dipping the sponge under the layer of bubbles, I collected more hot water and proceeded to dribble it over her shoulders. Insane anger bubbled in my gut when the track of Yulian’s knife down the centre of her throat glared at me.
“Nothing.”
She peeked at me through one eye. “The Bratva, Harry. They won’t leave me be now.”
“Relax,” I reiterated. “There is only you and me, and my friend, who knows who you really are.”
When Dean’s men had swarmed the house, Liam had stupidly drawn on them. He was dead before he even raised his gun. Although this meant Lily’s secret was now between only us, it still made me anxious for her future. Being involved with the Russian Mafia wasn’t anything to be taken lightly, especially if what ran through your veins made you the Bratva Queen.
“Unless you fancy dabbling in a bit of organised crime, that is,” I joked.
She opened both eyes and smirked, “Well, I figured it might be fun. You can play the cop and I’m the bad guy.”
“Hmm, role play, huh? Dirty girl!”
She grinned at me. “At least I have a genuine reason why I love vodka so much now.”
“Being Russian doesn’t give you an excuse, Lily.” I laughed at her silly reasoning. “But nice try.”
She sighed contentedly when I lightly wiped her face with a cloth. The purple bruise on her cheek would fade, but I wasn’t so sure about the scars in her soul.
“You know, it’s a good job Philly doesn’t discard her jewellery at the rate you do, or I’d never have found you.”
Biting her lip, she gave me a guilty look. “It was because of the bangle that Liam found me, but I am sorry.”
“You were proving a point,” I scowled, frustrated at her date with Mark.
“Yes, I was. You hurt me, Harry.”
I nodded and sighed. “I know. But you have to understand, I am not in a relationship with Ann. Yes, I should have told you about the pregnancy, but there was so much going on in your life that I didn’t want to add to it.”
She shrugged but finally smiled. “I know. Just no more secrets.”
“No more secrets,” I agreed.
“You know, we should do this more often.” She relaxed back once again when I lathered up the sponge and ran it across her shoulders and over her chest. “You make an excellent slave, Mr Cole.”
Gripping her chin in my fingers, I turned her head, so she was facing me. “I think you have this role reversal the wrong way around, Miss Cooper.” I frowned at the twist in my chest when I called her by her name. She was so utterly beautiful, both inside and out. I knew, in that moment, that I would protect her as long as I drew breath. I wanted to wrap her in cotton wool and protect her from this cruel world, but I knew, the stubborn woman she was, that would be impossible.
“Marry me.” It was out of my mouth before my brain even had a chance to process the thought.
We both stared wide-eyed at each other, both of us not entirely sure we’d heard the words correctly.
“What?”
Shrugging at my own doubts, I chuckled, unable to hold back the excitement. “So long as I breathe, I will shelter you from this merciless life, Lily. I’ll lift you up with every fucking hurdle you have to leap over. I’ll hold your hand through the bad times, and I’ll caress every moment of perfection this world can offer you. I want to celebrate with you, I want to cry with you, and I want to share every single minute of the time I have left with you.”
“There it is again,” she choked out, her beautiful eyes glistening in the soft light.
“What?”
“The side of you that never ceases to astound me.”
She blew out a breath and sat up, the sloshing water the only sound in the silence. I couldn’t dare to hope when she cupped her hand on my cheek. Her soft gaze adored me with the way she looked at me, and when a small smile lifted her perfect lips, I felt my soul leap. “Yes, Mr Cole.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
Crushing her mouth under mine, she gasped when I pulled her over the side of the bath, tumbling us both to the bathroom floor.
“My bloody ribs, you oaf!” she grumbled under my kiss.
“Oh, shut up, you’re a tough bird.”
“How fucking rude!” She scowled at me.
I chuckled darkly. “Oh, why, dear fiancé, you have no idea how fucking rude I can be.”
Quirking an eyebrow, she poked me in the chest. “Then you need to show me.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Mm-hmm,” she nodded slowly.
Scooping her into my arms, I carried her across the hallway to my bedroom and laid her on the bed, mindful of every single bruise that did nothing to mar her exquisite beauty.
She watched me as I removed my clothes. The way she bit her lip and her eyes blazed with greed, had me hurrying.
Gently turning her over, I pushed at her knees, so she was on all fours, and before she could fight me, I rimmed her ass with my tongue. “I think it’s about time I possessed all of you, Lily Cooper.”
“Eh?”
I stifled a laugh and didn’t explain myself further as I reached into the bedside drawer and grabbed a tube of lube.
“Oh, fuck!” she mumbled when I tickled her clit with the tip of my tongue.
She rolled her hips, manoeuvring my mouth to where she wanted. I couldn’t help but smirk at her brazenness. She’d learn.
“Harry!” She panted when I slowly dipped a finger inside her. She was so wet I couldn’t resist plunging my tongue inside to taste her, but, she jolted when, applying a liberal amount of lube to my finger, I teased her arse. “Relax, baby. I won’t hurt you.”
“Will it… will it feel good?”
“So good,” I promised.
“Okay,” she whispered as I turned her around to face me.
“Let’s do this the easy way.” Laying back, I smeared my cock with more lube and motioned for her to straddle me. Dutifully she did as I bid and rested each thigh either side of me. Locking her gaze with mine, I smiled to enco
urage her. “Whatever feels right, baby.”
She nodded, but, grabbing my cock, she positioned it perfectly against her ass.
“Slowly, Lily.”
Locking my gaze, she lowered herself onto me inch by inch. “Oh, Jesus. Fuck,” she muttered as she sank down.
I had to pierce my lip with my teeth at how tight she was. I wasn’t going to last, but I had to make this feel good for her, so sitting upright, I circled her nipple with my tongue, teasing her senses so she could focus on something other than the pain.
Gradually she started to move on me. Her features were tight, and I watched her as pleasure began to override the pain.
“Oh my God,” she growled, speeding up. She rode me harder, chasing her orgasm as her nails dug into my chest. She was hungry for pleasure, almost savage in the way she took me.
The ecstasy in her eyes had me meeting every plunge with an upward thrust, filling her and stretching her wide. I knew, as long as I lived, that this woman, and the way she looked at me right now, would be the axis of my world. She would be beside me through thick and thin and hold my hand for everything life threw at us.
“Harry!” She cried out as her climax took over every fibre of her glorious body and she convulsed around me.
Clutching her, I joined her euphoria and spilt into her, our synchronised breathing joining us together in a different way.
“Bloody hell,” she gasped. She looked at me with so much emotion that I wondered if I’d hurt her.
“You okay, Lily?” I asked, worried by the way she stared at me incredulously.
Her features relaxed, and she smiled at me with so much adoration, I swore my soul got down on its knees and worshipped her.
Running the tip of her finger down the length of my nose, she pressed her forehead to mine. She didn’t have to say anything, it was right there in her gaze, but as always, she replied, “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”
Epilogue
Lily
12 MONTHS LATER
“I think he looks like me,” Boss commented, peering thoughtfully at Jax Jnr, my three-day-old son.
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