by Amaya Black
Vicious
Knight
Amaya Black
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Wow! This book took me on such a journey. I had so many people asking for Lucien’s story. Wondering when they could get their hands on it finally. This is for yall. A special thank you to my hubby and my son and our puppers, for letting me get all the rest and time I could with this book. Thank you all!
Chapter 1- Lucien
The unmistakable smell of winter was in the air, as a firm Chicago wind came sweeping by. It surrounded me and entered my body, the chill settling in my bones. The need to get somewhere warm ran rampant through my brain but I decided to stay a little longer on the water's edge. The tangy smell of rotten garbage nearby was enough to make anyone want to leave and yet I lingered. The waters of Lake Michigan had always had a calming effect on me. Ever since I was a child, when my mother would bring me to walk around on the docks watching people working, it had been that way. That had been when she had the time and she wasn’t working herself to the bone to provide for us after leaving Russia.
Eventually, I couldn't fight the cold anymore and I knew it was time to leave. My car had been running for nearly thirty minutes and when I arrived, a cop was just about to write me a ticket. The lights of the patrol car were swirling against the inky black sky creating a blur effect. It seemed to mess with my eyes a bit until they relaxed and took in the figure standing next to my car. It was a female cop and I knew I needed to lay on the charm and lay it on thick. Anyone out in this weather was not here kicks and giggles.
“Sir,” she said as I approached; her pen paused in writing. “Did you know you were double-parked and it's after hours? You’re not supposed to be here.”
She looked tense and I knew she was probably out here alone. I offered a smile and tried to not look menacing in the headlights of my car.
I was known for looking menacing; it seemed to be part of the job description.
“Apologies officer,” I held up my leather gloved hands in defense. “I was just visiting the docks. My mother use to bring me here all the time as a child.”
She eyed me again, a smirk on her face. “And what would your mother think of you being out here in the dark at this time of night?”
Lay it on thick, I thought.
“She wouldn’t think much of it, Officer. She would be trying to fix me up with a beautiful woman like yourself…she would say Lucien…why haven’t you found a beautiful woman like this officer to marry and bear me grandchildren…”
It was almost as if lightning struck. Me and the officer were the only two people out here. It’s me and it’s her. Soon we were in the back of the blacked-out Tahoe I’d recently purchased and her pants were in the front of the vehicle, dangling from the rearview mirror. Our bodies became a blur of nothingness and sameness at the same time. For just this moment in time…we were tangled up in each other. Two people taking advantage of the dark.
My hands biting into her flesh as I bounced her up and down on my dick.
She rode me.
Hard.
This was how it was some days… I loved sex. I loved the feel of a woman beneath me, or in this case on top.
The cop had her head thrown back in ecstasy. Her blond hair was around her like a halo and my hand went up to her glossy strands to try and wind my hands through them. Eventually, I caught hold of a good chuck and gripped with all my might, as my right hand bit into the meat of her hips to hold her in place.
She cried out, and her moans sounded like pain and pleasure mixed.
I didn't care if she was climaxing.
I was and I spilled inside of her.
When it was over and done with, she slithered off to the side. From where I was sitting and adjusting my pants that were at some point around my ankles, I could see snow flurries beginning to fly around. I couldn't remember if the weather report said it was supposed to snow but it was beginning to.
“That was fucking amazing,” she says.
For me, it was an average encounter but I didn't want to be unkind.
Our heavy breathing had fogged up some of the windows. The cop drew a smiley face randomly on the fog and I became slightly irritated now because I will have to get the car detailed. It had also gotten hot inside of the SUV. The minute I could, I was going to put all four windows down. At the moment, my next thought was getting rid of her.
“Yeah, we’ll have to do it again sometime,” I fed her a line.
She buys it.
“Really?”
“Yeah, why not?”
I can see her smiling out the corner of my eye, despite that it's dark. Reaching into my wallet, I pulled out a business card and handed it to her.
“Oh wow,” she smiled at the black and white card that has my name and title on it.
General Manager and Owner.
I was the new owner of a brand new night club in Chicago. It was part of my initiation gift from Liam and Valentin Safaryan and coincidentally named Frost that was set to open on Christmas night. I was also poised to make a shit ton of money if I could keep the club and its territory in peak condition.
Speaking of my initiation.
I glanced at the clock and then told the lady cop whose name I couldn't remember, that I needed to go but I hoped to see her soon.
She got out, still smiling and adjusting her clothing and the coat she had taken off so that I could fuck her brains out. Her blonde hair was still loose around her shoulders. With it down, she looked less like a cop, less of a threat.
Internally, I couldn't believe what I'd just done.
Then, I did something I never do.
I kissed her on the cheek and told her that I hoped to see her soon, again.
We both knew it was a lie. She wouldn't see me again but sometimes it was nice to hear anyway. Then, I sped to my destination. Snow flurries had started coming down even harder and I knew I shouldn’t be going as fast as I was but I didn't care. They began to stick to the warm windshield, some melting on contact. Others, they stuck and were brushed away by the windshield wipers.
I arrived at my destination, unscathed.
The Safaryan mansion was decked out with white Christmas lights. Nova Safaryan had gone all out. In five years of working for this family, never in my life had I seen these men celebrate the holidays. Liam usually held a Christmas event for the charity he named after his mother but that was it. Then Nova had entered the picture with her siblings. I had to admit she was easy on the eyes, tall, and skin that seemed to glow with little effort. Of course, she was now pregnant with their first child so that probably helped matters as well.
There had been small changes in the men I worked for since they had met their wives. Including, Valentin who I was closet with. He was responsible for bringing me into the Bratva. Had worked on training me and promoting me. The changes had not been too visible. Just small things like they had both taken vacations. Valentin had actually just returned with his pregnant wife as well after a quick vacation in Hawaii. He had married her in a small ceremony while on the main island with his long lost daughter in tow.
It was weird to see children roaming the Safaryan mansion; it was no longer quiet as a mouse.
I turned the car off and noted the driveway was full. My associates were here to celebrate me. Ton
ight, I became something more than I’d ever been. Became apart of something larger.
Tonight, I became a Knight of the Safaryan Bratva.
Chapter 2- Simone
“He’s coming,” my brother had said and I turned around and faced him. He looked like he’d been through hell and back. Bumps and bruises covered his skin. Albert Lawrence Francis was my half brother through my father and at age thirty-six and counting, he had always seemed to depend on me, his younger sister.
After almost six months of not hearing from him, he had just stumbled into my brand new tattoo shop and startled the hell out of the clientele. An appearance from my older brother who I affectionately called Albie, usually meant trouble wasn’t too far behind. It had been that way since we were children growing up under the cruel hand of our father.
‘Albie, what the fuck is going on?” the lock fell into place on the door.
His eyes were wild with fear. I could see the whites of his eyes clear as day in bright white light shining from my desk.
“Nice place you got here,” he looked around and finally took note of my office.
“It was till you showed up…now answer the question,” I folded my arms and leaned back against the door.
All I could do watch Albie. His movements were short, stiff, and I knew he was in pain. Finally, he sat down in my plush desk chair and leaned his head back. Clearly, he was on the run from someone. However, this was Chicago and Albie didn’t exactly run with the most honest crowd. He never had. Not that I could say much with the past I had.
“Simone, I fucked up this time,” he stated and took a deep breath.
My fingers went to the bridge of my nose. Already a pain was beginning to form in the back of my head. A throbbing that seemed to be brought on only by the presence of my sibling. I knew the only way to get rid of said headache was to figure out how to solve his problem. Because let’s face it…this was now my problem.
“We can figure it out, brother,” I spoke. “But you gotta tell me what I can do…”
“You wouldn’t happen to have a hundred thousand laying around would you?”
My brother was dead ass serious.
If I’d had a gun laying around I would have shot him my fucking self.
“Albie, what the actual fuck?”
“Gambling,” he said simply. “I played poker with the wrong people…serious people. Russian mob…”
Holy shit, I thought. The Russian mob. Of all the hair-brained shit he could have done, he chose to play with some of the most dangerous people in Chicago. Who in the hell let him run up a game for that much money? The buy-in to play had to have been more than I’d made in the last few months.
He stood and began to pace the room. I watched him and counted it down.
“I don’t have that kind of money, Albie…not anymore.”
“You must have some jewels or something from thieving,” he turned to me.
Albie was biting his nails down to the quick. His fingers looked raw and angry much like the open wounds on his once handsome face.
“No,” I said simply.
“Everything that I had I’ve poured into the tattoo shop. I have employees now, Albie.”
“Can you steal it?”
The throbbing was intensifying and the selfish part of me, the part of me that was screaming for relief just wanted him to disappear for another few months.
“No Albie,” I spoke up. “I left the Thieve's Guild. I’m out of that life….I’m legit now.”
He smirked. “I knew coming here was a fucking mistake.”
Albie could turn meaner than a son of a bitch when he wasn’t getting his way. There was a vein near his temple the was pulsing in beat. He let out a holler and kicked at a filing cabinet nearby. The sound filled the air and finally I’d had enough.
“Here, these are the keys to my loft,” I shoved the keys at him that I had fished from the back pocket of the jeans that I wore. “I’ll be home once I finish up here for the night. Lay low and we’ll come up with a plan.”
He looked down at the keys and flinched. Realizing I was pressing into wounds that probably needed cleansing, I eased up.
“I’ll be there soon,” I assured him. “Go get yourself cleaned up.”
Albie’s brown eyes looked watery and he nodded. Heading to the door, he looked back over his shoulder and gave me a small smile.
“Sorry I’m always bringing shit to your door, sis,” he said.
I smirked. “No, you’re not. Albie, keep your head down and be safe.
He gave a final nod and left. Giving myself a few moments to collect my thoughts, I glanced over to the photo of me, Albie, and our father that I kept sitting on my desk. Picking it up, I traced the edges of the frame and took us in. The only reason that I kept it was because my mother had taken it. In my mind's eye, I could see her smiling and trying to coax one out of me. I’d been about twelve when my mother had snapped the photograph of the three of us. Albie’s hair had been long and my father had been smiling for once. Sitting the photograph back onto my desk, I adjusted myself and headed back out into Tainted Ink.
For months, I had been pouring my everything into the place. This place was my baby…after leaving the Thieves Guild, it was all that I had. Every penny that I had earned from all my years of stealing had gone into the foundation.
Now here comes, Albie ready to take it apart, brick by brick, I thought.
But I wouldn’t let him.
Albie had a long record of popping up unexpectedly and needing help with being bailed out. Our father had stopped, citing him as nothing but trouble since the day he’d been born. My heart seemed to bleed a little too much for him.
“Boss,” Miguel snapped me from my thoughts. “You got a client waiting for you.”
Miguel had a small teardrop tattoo under his right eye and a Texas accent. I’d recruited him from another shop in Michigan. The man did Van Gogh level work and he was pretty easy on the eyes. The female customers seemed to love him.
“Thanks, Miguel,” I replied.
A clipboard was handed over to me as I went into my room in the shop. I scanned the name and saw it was a girl, Marie. She smiled at me and we immediately launched into what she wanted. She was a cute little bubbly blonde who was snapping on chewing gum.
“So you want the name right above…”
Marie smiled, “Yes.”
“Babe…,” I stopped what I was writing on the clipboard. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. I want Ralphie in big bold letters, right above my pussy,” she popped the pink bubble gum bubble.
The urge to vomit hit the back of my throat. I had never in my life understood the need to get a tattoo of someone’s name on your body. The body was a canvas and could hold so much more than a temporary reminder that you’d let some man enter your body.
Not that I knew much about having a man enter my body, lately. I’d been celibate by choice for the last three years. In my line of work as a thief, I hadn’t wanted to form bonds. Only one night stands seemed to do the trick.
However, they left me feeling empty and my voicemail full from the men I’d ghosted. To preserve my sanity and keep my body count low, I’d backed off from men. I just simply hadn’t been interested and even now, I wasn’t.
The unmistakable snap of the black gloves covering my hands filled my ears. I’d closed the door to my suite to offer both Maria and me plenty of privacy. Sounds of One Republic filled the air as Ryan Tedder’s voice told me it was too late to apologize. Maria’s tanned body came into view as I wheeled the stool I sat on daily over to her body. There was no need to remove any hair because Maria was waxed within an inch of her life. She giggled as if reading my mind and soon the distinctive hum of my tattoo gun was going.
With one hand, I firmly held her pale skin into place. I could see the pinks and blues of the veins beneath her fragile flesh as I pressed against her body. The tattoo gun began to easily move along her skin as if it were writing on a high school
whiteboard. Little droplets of blood pooled here and there. Every once in a while I would swipe at them and resume the cursive letters. Here and there, Maria would tell me about this Ralphie leading me to believe they were both even bigger idiots than I imagined.
The customer is always right, I reminded myself.
I, of course, didn’t believe that.
The customer wasn’t always right.
Sometimes the customer was an idiot girl who had just turned eighteen and would get her just as stupid boyfriend’s name on her.
Soon the tattoo was done and I was spreading a salve across her area and sending her to the front to pay. I noted the time on the clock and started to clean up. Briefly, thoughts of Albie floated around in my mind.
A knock came on my door just as I finished straightening up and putting the inks back into their spots. Turning I found Miguel, a slight smile on his face.
“We’re all just about to head out, Boss. You want to come for a drink?”
Part of me wanted to.
Any other night of the week, I would have done it but tonight I needed to get home and figure out this whole Albie situation.
“No, not tonight.”
Miguel lingered. “Who was that earlier?”
“Huh?”
“The guy who looked like he’d went ten rounds with Mike Tyson,” Miguel replied.
I swallowed and answered about Albie’s identity.
“Boss, I know you can handle yourself but he was giving off bad vibes,” Miguel shrugged. “Listen, we’ll be at Frost.”
“Didn’t they just open a few days ago?”
Miguel nodded before leaving. I heard him and the rest of the Tainted Ink crew clear out until there were no sounds except my breathing. A drink had sounded wonderful but family duty called.
My fingers danced over the code to lock up the shop and I twisted the key to lock up the space good and tight. The neon sign outside of the shop remained on giving a slight flicker; soon it would turn itself off as it was on a nightly timer.