Dane

by AC Arthur

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Dane replied.

  He was feeling much more relaxed than normal.

  “Is this about the FBI lady?” Suri asked and motioned to the bartender to bring her a drink. “I told you the other day it was about a woman.”

  “Not everything is about a woman,” Dane said.

  He wondered if that’s exactly what he should have been saying to Suri. The reality was he didn’t have anything against anyone’s career choice or their sexual preference. If Suri was a lesbian, more power to her. If Zera was an FBI agent, more power to her, too. He just really wanted the surprises to stop. For tonight at least.

  “But this is about a woman,” Suri said. “For you and for me.”

  Dane had been resting his arms on the bar top, his hands cupping his glass. But at Suri’s words, he turned his head to look at her.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m assuming everybody knows you’re a lesbian since you and your partner weren’t really trying to be discreet.”

  She took a sip of her drink—a mojito—and sat back on the stool before shaking her head.

  “I’m not a lesbian,” she replied.

  Dane was confused.

  “I like who I like, when I like them. That’s it,” she said with a shrug. “That’s all I care about. You should try it.”

  Again, confusion threatened to overtake Dane’s liquor and shock-riddled mind.

  “I should try what exactly?” he asked.

  Suri laughed. “You’re cute. You should try only focusing on doing what you like, regardless of any rules or pre-ordained conventions. It’s an amazing stress reliever. Even better than sex.”

  Dane almost groaned. For one, he did not want to think about his younger cousin having sex with the woman he’d just seen, or anyone else for that matter. And he definitely did not want to think about sex with Zera again. Because there would never be sex with Zera again. He picked up his glass.

  Suri reached out and put a hand to his wrist stopping him from putting the glass to his lips.

  “She kept something big from you. I get it. Lies are tough to deal with. But they can be dealt with if you want to.”

  Dane sighed. “I don’t know what I want.”

  “I think you do,” Suri told him.

  “I’m leaving in the morning.”

  She nodded. “But you’re still here tonight.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know what to say to her. She’s not who I thought she was. I don’t know who the hell she is.”

  Suri took his glass. She brought it to her lips and sipped. Then she made a choking sound, her face wrinkled in dissatisfaction as she hurriedly put the glass down on the bar.

  “She’s the one that has you so twisted up inside that you can’t tear yourself away from this nasty as hell drink,” Suri said.

  Suri picked up her glass and took a longer sip, sighing when she finished as if the mojito was successful in washing away the effects of his drink.

  “You only get one life, Dane. And only you can decide how you live it?”

  That was the truth. His mother decided how she wanted to live her life and Jaydon decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps. They’d both made choices that ultimately ended their lives. In contrast, Dane wanted to make choices that would enrich his life, because he’d been entrenched in way too much death.

  “What if I can’t deal with who she is, or whatever it is she’s doing?”

  “What if you go back to the States without even trying to deal with it?”

  Dane looked at his cousin whom he’d only known for a short time. She was young and beautiful and smarter than Dane had given her credit for.

  “The two of you look good together,” he told her. “You look happy.”

  Suri shrugged. “I am. For now. I try not to get too caught up in the future because I don’t know what that will bring. No sense wasting my precious time in the present trying to figure it out.”

  No, Dane hadn’t known Suri Donovan that long, but he liked her. He liked her a lot.

  Zera had just stepped out of the shower when she heard the knock at the door. She had no idea how long she’d stood under the spray of hot water but she’d wanted every speck of Ines’s blood off her body. Her friend was going to be okay. She was shot in the shoulder and she’d lost a lot of blood, but she was going to make a full recovery.

  No thanks to Zera.

  She walked to the door, her body still wet, the dress shirt that Dane had left in the closest sticking to her body as she’d hurriedly put it on. She only had a few buttons on the front of the shirt done when the knock became more persistent. It was almost two o’clock in the morning and she had no clue who was on the opposite side of the door. Zera paused and looked for something to use to defend herself. She grabbed the floor lamp that was next to a table a couple feet from the door, yanking the cord from the wall. That probably wasn’t smart because it made the room go instantly dark. Still, Zera approached the door. She looked through the peep hole and her breath caught.

  Her damp fingers undid the chain and slipped a bit on the doorknob before she could yank it open.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  Dane stood with his hands on either side of the doorjamb, leaning in slightly. At her question he lifted his head and their gazes locked.

  “I want to know what you’re doing. And if it’s legal, I want to help you get it done so you don’t have to be here on your own anymore.”

  Zera didn’t know what to say.

  Dane did not look like himself. He’d dropped his arms from the doorjamb to stand in front of her with his legs partially spread, palms flattening first against his jean-clad thighs and then going up to run down the back of his head. His shoulders were slightly slumped and his eyes tinged with red.

  “Are you drunk?” she asked.

  He sighed heavily and shook his head. Then he shrugged. “I had a couple of drinks, but I’m fine. I didn’t drive, I took a taxi. But I needed to see you tonight.”

  “You’re leaving in the morning,” she said because she’d been unable to think of hardly anything else since leaving the hospital. “You said you were going back to the States in the morning.”

  He nodded this time and then took a step back. “Can I please come in?”

  Zera stepped out of the way so that he could come inside. She closed and locked the door behind him.

  “You won’t need this,” Dane said and took the lamp out of her hand.

  She’d forgotten that she was holding it. Dane was the last person she expected to see tonight. A part of her wanted to be excited that he was here, but another part wasn’t sure this was a good sign.

  He moved further into the room, going to that window she’d seen him stand at numerous times throughout this past week. Suddenly, Zera felt extremely cool. She looked down to see that she was scarcely dressed and hurriedly buttoned the remaining buttons on the shirt while his back was turned to her. Still feeling a bit off, she sat in one of the chairs across from the couch and waited. Dane apparently had something more to say.

  “I should have asked the question that night at the party,” he said. “I walked away and didn’t ask you what happened. I don’t want to do that this time.”

  Zera crossed her legs. It gave her something to do when she had no idea what to do or to say.

  “You came to the hospital and asked questions,” she told him.

  “Not the right ones,” he said and turned to face her. “I should have asked what happened to your cousin and why you felt you had to leave your job to come and look for her on your own?”

  She touched the edges of the shirt and licked her lips before speaking. “A friend of mine from home who works for the State Security Agency called me while I was at work one day. He said they had taken Hiari and that my mother and my grandmother were devastated. I knew I had to do something because nobody else would.”

  “Why do you think nobody else would look for your cousin?”r />
  “Because she’s a black girl,” Zera immediately replied. “She’s a black, Kenyan girl who was just fourteen, coming home from school. She loved going to school and learning new things. She couldn’t wait to finish with her studies at home because she planned to go to America for college, just like me.”

  The last was said quietly as Zera remembered how many times, Hiari had said she wanted to be just like her. They were still fresh in her mind as if Hiari had just leaned over and whispered them in her ear.

  “I was in a position to help,” she continued. “So I did.”

  “But you didn’t tell your job. Instead you took a leave of absence.”

  “The kidnapping did not happen on U.S. soil, so it was out of the FBI’s jurisdiction. Yes, there are international task forces assigned to such atrocities, but our people never see the help that is reportedly offered. Not in Africa and hardly in the U.S. itself. Besides that, it was my duty. Hiari is my blood. What good was all my education and training if I could not return my cousin to my mother and my grandmother who raised her?”

  He looked as if he were trying to understand. Actually, he looked as if he may be pitying her. The thought did not sit well with Zera.

  “If you have come out of some sense of obligation, there is no need. I am a big girl, I can handle the end of an affair, Dane.”

  “The way you handled yourself with Emmet.”

  Somehow she knew that they were definitely not finished with the subject of Emmet.

  “I told you he was part of the job. My friend gave me a name of a person who had been reportedly orchestrating the kidnappings in the regions of Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya. He was Debare Adebayo. I tracked Debare’s movements here to Paris. When I arrived here I learned Debare was just a soldier working for a much bigger organization. Emmet was next up the ladder. And one day when I was doing surveillance on Debare, I ran right into Emmet. I knew that he liked me instantly and I decided to use that.”

  “But you never slept with him because of his condition?”

  “No. I never slept with him,” she replied.

  “Would you have slept with him if it meant obtaining the information you needed to get your cousin back?” Dane asked.

  Again, Zera felt some type of way about Dane’s tone and the things that he was saying. She knew he needed answers and a part of her conceded to the fact that she probably owed him some sort of explanation. She did not, however intend to be criticized or judged for her actions. Not by him or anyone else.

  Zera dropped her hands from the hem of the shirt and let them rest in her lap. She squared her shoulders as she met Dane’s gaze.

  “Her name is Hiari Serah Maina. You can say it,” she told him. “And when you say her name know that she was more like a little sister to me. Her parents were killed in a senseless confrontation when she was only seven years old. She came to live with my mother and my grandmother when I returned home from school I spent time with Hiari. We both cried when I decided to stay in the U.S. to work, but we talked on the phone almost every day. I wanted the world for her. Every hurdle that I had to jump to get where I was, I wanted out of the way for her to have a smoother path.”

  Zera stopped. She took a deep breath because those foolish tears were once again threatening to make an appearance.

  “So when you ask me if I would have had sex with Emmet if it meant finding Hiari, the answer is yes,” she continued. “There is nothing I would not do to bring her and the other girls that were selfishly taken back to their families. Absolutely nothing.”

  Dane did not speak, but crossed the room to stand in front of her. Zera looked up at him. He knelt down before her slowly and reached out to take her hands.

  “I’ll help you find Hiari. Whatever resources you need they are at your disposal.”

  She gasped and one pesky tear slid down her cheek.

  Dane reached up, using his finger to brush that tear away. His hand cupped her cheek as he leaned into her. Zera moved too, until her forehead touched his. She closed her eyes and felt extreme relief and comfort, in a way she could never have imagined.

  “I just want her back,” she whispered after a few quiet moments.

  Dane nodded. “We’ll get her back,” he told her.

  Zera opened her eyes then. “Why are you doing this? You can walk away. I won’t blame you. I know that this is not your fight.”

  “It should be all of our fight,” Dane said as he pulled back to look at her. “No one person should ever believe they have to do the job of millions. Hiari’s and the lives of every girl who has been kidnapped are important. And they should be found, or at the very least every stone that is to be uncovered should be until either they are found or the perpetrators are stopped once and for all.”

  Damn.

  She was in love with him.

  Just like that, she knew it and she feared it.

  “Thank you,” she said and gave him a tentative smile. “Thank you very much for your offer.”

  Dane shook his head. “Don’t turn me down,” he said quickly. “And don’t turn me away.”

  His hands found hers again and this time he lifted them to his lips, kissing each of her fingers. “I think I like sleeping in a bed with you, better than I like sleeping alone.”

  Zera couldn’t help it, she chuckled.

  “That’s funny?”

  She continued to laugh even though the look on his face was deadly serious. “A little. Here you are big, bad, sophisticated Dane Donovan and you do not like sleeping alone.”

  He shrugged. “So my secret’s out. Are you going to sell my story to the tabloids now?”

  Zera sobered. “Never,” she told him. “I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you, Dane.”

  He kissed her fingers again, and then the inside of her wrists where her pulse quickened. He wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in to pick her up from the chair. When he was standing and she was in his arms, Dane kissed her lips. Softly at first and then with the signature hunger that always rose fiercely and naturally between them. He carried her to the bedroom where he lay her down on the bed and slowly removed the shirt she’d been wearing.

  “My shirt looks good on you,” he told her as he stood in the dark room and removed his clothes.

  Then he was on the bed with her, pulling her over him as he lay on his back. Zera didn’t need any guidance from this point. She reached between them, cupping his already hard shaft in her hands. She angled her hips over him and settled down, loving the feel of the wide crest of his dick pressing eagerly into her center. She rotated her hips, moving down on him slowly, adjusting to the way he so comfortably filled her.

  “You feel good inside me,” she whispered.

  He reached for her and Zera leaned forward so that their lips could meet.

  “It feels good to be inside you,” he replied and began lifting his hips to pump slowly into her. “Every. Damn. Time.”

  Misha cursed.

  He slammed his fist down so hard on the glass table in front of him it cracked, sending spider-like arms over the surface.

  “I told you to bring her to me,” he said, his voice eerily calm considering the rage that was boiling inside of him. “I gave you one fucking job and you’ve messed it up twice.”

  “Third times’ the charm,” Urod said and chuckled.

  It was a sickly sound considering he was still bleeding pretty heavily from the stab wound to his side. Misha had told Luka to bring him here directly from the club and not to offer any type of medical assistance. It served him right for letting one woman take down three of his supposedly best men.

  Misha smiled. A cold and sinister smile that Urod mistook for genuine. The idiot continued to laugh as if he was some comedic genius.

  The sound died in his throat as Luka came from behind and slid the knife cleanly and effortlessly across his neck.

  Misha watched as the body slumped and Luka pushed it to the floor. Urod was an idiot. Not only was his real name—Edoua
rd Dubois—idiotic, but so was his personality. The guy paid absolutely no attention to the plastic that had been laid out on the floor beneath the chair he’d been instructed to sit in upon his arrival at Misha’s hotel room. Vigo would be dealt with as well for sending Misha such an inept worker to be promoted. Segori Belyakov, Misha’s father, was getting older. He was also sicker than Segori would ever admit. The bratva and all of its branches which stretched from Russia to the United States and everywhere in between, would soon belong to Misha and Vigo. But his younger brother still needed a lot of work before he could rule with the iron hand that Segori had.

  “Should we get the vehicles ready to head back?” Luka asked once he’d disposed of Urod’s imbecilic body.

  Misha stood from his chair. He’d hastily put on a black silk robe when Luka had called him with news of what happened at the club. Now his place was crawling with police.

  “You got the girls out safely?” he asked Luka as he walked barefoot over the plush ivory-colored carpet.

  “Da,” Luka replied. “They’re in trucks headed to the safe house in London. Armed guards are waiting for their arrival.”

  “Good,” Misha replied.

  He was pacing now, going from one end of the lavishly decorated room, to the other, his toes wiggling in the soft carpet.

  “We’ll close the club for a day or two to let it cool off. It will be a loss, but we will make it up with a new shipment coming in next week,” Luka promised.

  Misha was confident they would make up the loss. Even if they had to change the payment agreements with some of their more high-profiled clients to do so. He continued to pace.

  “Where is she now?” he asked finally.

  “She left the hospital and went to a hotel,” Luka replied. “Abram and Evgeni are right outside the hotel waiting for your orders. But there’s someone else there watching her too. Probably police.”

  Misha nodded.

  “Probably,” Misha said. “We will have to be careful. I want her, but I do not want the attention. Tell them to stay with her for now. I have to make a call.”

  Luka left Misha alone and Misha pulled his phone from the pocket of the robe. He made a call that would decide which one of the Belyakov brothers would rule the bratva and which one would be buried beside their father.