by Amaya Black
In front of us were pups. Not just any pups, but pure-bred Russian wolves. The mama wolf belonged to John and I had sired Fedor to them.
“They’re all so beautiful,” Simone eased forward.
John tried to stop her, but it was too late. Simone was already down on her knees. In the dirt, she had forgotten she was wearing a beautiful fancy dress that I couldn’t wait to finally peel from her body.
“Careful, Miss,…”
“Are they from Fedor’s line?”
“He’s the father,” I said getting down in the dirt beside her.
The pups took an instant liking to her. One snow-white one, in particular, stood back and admired the view. Simone tracked him with her eyes and finally, he ventured closer until he was completely in her lap. When he was satisfied and comfortable, he stretched out and yawned in her lap and instantly fell asleep.
“Guess he chose you,” I shrugged feeling a lazy feeling in my chest.
Simone gently rubbed the pup, a small smile on her face.
“You get two from this litter,” John spoke and pointed to the white pup in Simone’s lap. “Have you spotted another? That one seems to have determined he’s leaving with you.”
I nodded to another one playfully yipping at the other. She was black with a small white patch down the middle of her face. It looked like a lightning bolt had kissed his fur. John gave me a pat on the back.
“Fedor and Bliss made beautiful pups,” he stated.
Simone stood cradling the pup who hadn’t stirred since he’d met her. “What are you going to do with the others.”
John scratched his head. “They’re going to go to homes where protection is needed.”
“Have you picked a name yet?”
Simone turned to me smiling.
“Think so,” she replied.
“Wanna tell me?”
“I was thinking Sirius,” with a gentleness only women seemed to own, she stroked the tiny beast's fur. It seemed to mew at her touch.
Damn, she would make a great mother, the thought roared inside of my head.
While I settled everything up with John and his family, Simone walked back to the car with Sirius and I brought the other pup along. She stared back at me with caramel-colored eyes and I decided to call her Stormy.
Stormy and Sirius.
I chuckled to myself as I placed Stormy next to Sirius. They snuggled into each other on leather seats, realizing that they were leaving their litter.
“I wasn’t expecting this night to go like this,” Simone stated.
“Really…it went exactly how I thought it would.”
“Even the hot sexy blow job…?”
“Oh, that for sure was exactly what I thought would happen tonight.”
She looked over and gave me a smirk as we headed back towards the city. This wasn’t all I had planned for tonight. There was so much more I planned on doing to her body. Glancing at the clock, I realized I still had plenty of hours left on Valentine’s Day to do all sorts of things to her body.
Chapter 26- Simone
The smell of smoke had been in the air. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All my hopes and dreams were literally going up in smoke. A hoarse screamed had peeled from my throat at the sight.
Tainted Ink was up in flames and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I
My baby.
The love of my life….
It was on fire.
Firefighters had set up a perimeter and had warned me to stay back. Brandon had to hold me back to keep me from running in. I watched as flames fan and swirled higher and higher; the red blaze was licking over every square inch turned the brick outside black.
“I don’t understand what happened,” I looked to the crew.
They all seemed to offer sympathetic looks. Miguel, who had been avoiding me for a few days even stepped closer to offer me comfort which I took.
“I’m sorry boss,” he offered and wrapped his arms around me.
“It’s okay, thank you for being here,” I leaned into the friendly warmth of his body.
The day had gone to shit.
We watched for what seemed like hours; the firefighter dousing out the vicious heat with cannons of water. Eventually, it all seemed to come under control. When it was all said and done, Tainted Ink was no longer. Everything was gone.
“What happened?” I whispered to myself.
My eyes adjusted eventually and a firefighter headed over.
“Ma’am, were you the owner?”
“I was.”
He nodded, already scribbling on the paper. “I’m the Fire Marshall. Names Dean Smith. We can’t say for sure, but ma’am this looks like arson.”
“Wha…who would want to set my building on fire?”
He coked an eyebrow. “Well ma’am that’s what we’d like to know. “
“You think I did it? For what, insurance money?”
“Not my words, ma’am,” he spoke and made another note. “Where’s a number you can be reached at.”
By the time we were through speaking, I was shaking with absolute rage. Tears began to slide down my face as each one of the gang hugged me. I told them I would give them a call. Tainted Ink wasn’t dead, we just needed a new home. I would begin searching immediately.
Miguel was the only one to hang back with me.
“Let’s get something to eat.”
He suggested this in a friendly manner and I decided to take him up on the offer.
“I can drive both of us.”
“No, after we eat I’m going to have to visit the real estate office,” I told him.
“Okay, how about the Panera around the corner?”
I nodded and headed for my car parked across the street. Giving the skeleton of Tainted Ink one last sorrow-filled glance, I got in and headed for my destination. Even though it was pretty much around the corner, Miguel took a few moments. In that time, I called Lucien and told him what I was doing, minus the Miguel part. I knew that he would flip his shit.
“Okay, visit the real estate office, Simone, and straight home.”
“Oh, it’s home now?”
He growled on the other end. “Just get back here. This feels weird to me.”
I mocked him and said I’d be “home” in a bit.
Miguel was suddenly standing by my car door and it startled me.
“Sorry,” he said. “I tried waving to you.”
I chuckled. “You’re fine. Before we go in, I just wanted to say thank you. I know we haven’t really been talking like usual.”
He grinned.
“It's okay.”
Entering through the entrance, we both headed straight for the counter and placed our orders before finding a seat. We both smelled like smoke and it was making me sad.
“I can’t believe that this happened.” I spun the little buzzer on the table feeling weirdly down. I wasn’t the type that got depressed easily.
“I know. Maybe we can rebuild.”
“Well like I said, I ‘m going to stop by the realtor's office, see if we can find a new spot quickly.”
“Who do you think could have done this…if it was arson?”
I didn’t want to say it out loud.
I didn’t want to throw the blame where I knew it should be. So I kept my thoughts to myself and offered Miguel a shrug.
“I’m not sure, but I’m worried about Mallory, Rina, Ax, and AJ…”
Miguel casually raised an eyebrow. “What about me?”
“And you too, silly. But you’re here with me, they’re off probably applying to new shops. I have to call in the insurance. No telling if this is a covered thing. I can’t remember what I signed up for.”
“Hey.” Miguel took my hands in his to keep me from fidgeting. “We’ll figure it out.”
The buzzer went off but he held onto my hands for a second too long. Finally, he let go and I knew I needed to tell him when I sat back down, that I was seeing someone. We needed to discuss what had happened on V
alentine’s Day too.
I waited until we had both gathered our food and was in the middle of applying hand sanitized.
“I need to tell you something,” I started.
“Me too,” Miguel said but stopped. “You first.”
“So…Valentine's Day.”
“Super awkward, right?”
“A little…but the thing is I was just getting out of something, with someone…”
Miguel looked tense and placed his fork down, and started listening. He gave me a reassuring smile, the white of his teeth flashing.
“I had no idea,” he nodded.
“Yeah, and it was a whole complicated mess. And anyway, we just recently started seeing each other again.”
“Is it the guy from the night club…the one who took you home that night?”
Frowning, I tried to remember.
Slowly, it came to me. The night that Miguel had mentioned; the night when Lucien had carried me home and placed me in his bed for the first time.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“I thought that was your uncle?”
His eyebrow raised again. A nervous awkward fucking laugh filled the air. Nervously I tucked a loose hair behind my ear. “No. I lied about that part…Lucien is someone I never planned on…”
“Fucking?” Miguel asked pointedly.
“We shouldn’t be discussing this, honestly,” I said. “I just wanted to let you know why I didn’t return your feelings.”
His face contorted; I could tell he was fighting to stay in control of his emotions. He leaned forward and his eyes seemed to go dark. “Tell me what he has that I don’t have, Simone. Honestly, tell me. I want to know.”
The mood had completely changed.
Oh, girl, he’s about to lose his mind, I thought.
“Miguel…I…we’re friends. Please, let's not mess this up.”
His face relaxed but he stood up abruptly. “I have to go now.”
“Ah..wait..”
He was already gone, his food left uneaten. Part of me wanted to run after him. I had hurt his feelings but another part of me knew he needed space. I gathered up our uneaten food and tossed it.
Walking out of the Panera, I reached for my phone and dialed a number.
“Are you with our father? We all need to have a little chat!”
I knew Albie had to be behind this shit with my shop. My blood had started to boil at the thought of him setting the fire while my father watching on gleefully.
Chapter 27- Lucien
The pinks and purples of the flowers I held in my hands almost seemed to glow. I stared at them long and hard before I lay them down near the base of my mother’s headstone. It was a towering angel, marked with her name, date of birth, and date of death. We’d had to wait weeks for it to be finished and placed here. The best Italian marble had been imported and carved by a local artist. I could see each perfect groove with fine detail. The flowers cast a color shadow up against the white and I stared long and hard. I’d had her buried by my uncle, her brother in law. They had hated each other but there had been mutual respect.
Looking around the cemetery, I noticed a few people moving around but they were too far away to hear anything I had to say.
“How do I tell her mama?” I asked quietly.
Naturally, my mother said nothing.
I could hear a child shouting and running along nearby while a parent gave chase.
Taking a deep breath, a shudder went through me.
“She’s the daughter of the enemy, mama. I’ve tried to deny it for so long but she is. Her father took everything from us…took away Papa.”
Scrubbing a hand over my face, I wondered why in the hell I was saying this all out loud. I should have told Simone long before now.
Her father had killed my father and then ran. He had been ousted from the crumbling Bratva that my father had run and then fled to America. After years of trying to track him down, I finally had. The only thing that I hadn’t counted on…was Simone.
I’d known about his piece of shit son. The one with a gambling problem. That had been my plan at first.
To lure that fucking idiot in, let him run up his tab, and then I was going to put a bullet between his eyes.
Then she had come out of left field.
Even now, just the thought of Simone and her skin, inked with intricate patterns I could spend years worshipping and discovering…she made my palms sweat and my heart flutter.
My heart was not a thing that had ever fluttered in my entire existence.
Women had never been more than what I allowed them to be.
I fucked women and then I tossed them to the side.
Simone was living with me. She was a goddess that let me worship at her temple while I took her over and over again on the brand new crème colored satin sheets my fucking housekeeper had talked me into.
Simone scared the shit out of me.
The need to kill her father was still there like an itch I need to scratch badly. And yet, there was no way I could kill that man knowing that she shared his DNA.
Then there was Albie, still a fucking pest.
He had been the one supplying the drugs in my club. He was the reason the police had started to sniff. He was the reason my own brother had overdosed.
Could I let those infractions pass, because of Simone? Albie was a damn fungus on Simone’s life and everyone knew it.
“Son of a bitch!” I growled and stormed away.
I needed to tell her.
To tell her about all of it.
Chapter 28- Simone
I found myself zooming around curves, as my Acura handled like a dream. This car had been the first purchase I'd made once leaving the Thieve's Guild. Midnight grey with a leather interior, she had to be mine.
Stopping at a stop sign, I waited until a car passed before turning down a dark road. It had started raining just slightly and the only sound was the splash of water spinning from beneath the tires. The road seemed almost foreign to me; years had passed since I’d been to my father’s house. Max had conducted most of the meetings so I never had to see the old man.
Finally, his dilapidated old two-story house appeared before me. The white paint was peeling from the shutters, from the house itself. This could have been considered a tragedy. All the money that he'd stolen, he was living like a disgraced pauper.
The door parted and light spilled out.
There were no guards out, like when I’d been a kid.
It was Albie and I could see him squinting to make out who it was.
When I got out of the car, trying to dodge the muddy puddles in the shitty driveway, he looked surprised.
“Simone?”
“Know anyone else who’d come this way?”
He shrugged and then stepped out fully onto the porch. He lit a cigarette and tried to offer me one.
“Don’t you know those things will kill you?”
“So will fucking a boss in the Bratva,” he pulled and the end glowed cherry in color.
“That’s fucking rich coming for your ass,” I leaned against a pillar.
God this place needed all the paint you could find. A cockroach scurried by my foot and I almost stepped on it. Making a face, I turned back to my brother who was waiting on my explanation for the sudden drop in.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Simone.”
“You know.”
He smirked before puffing on the cigarette again. I wanted to slap it out of his hand. How dare he stand here as if he didn’t know.
“I haven’t the faintest idea and honestly after getting my ass whooped by your boyfriend…I’ve been kind of over bothering you.”
“What are you talking about?”
He chuckled. “So he didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
I watched Albie rub the bridge of his nose. “He fucking flat out refused the money I was bringing him to cover my debt. We fought. He won…end of story.”
“No
, he didn’t tell me that,” I frowned.
My brother smirked and finished off his cigarette; the white smoke curled in the air before disappearing.
“I just want to know why you burned my fucking shop down,” I said, my anger ready to boil to the surface. “I’ve never asked you or dad for anything. You two fucking did this as what…? Some sort of payback.”
Albie’s motions stopped mid-stride from disposing of the cigarette in the dish. “What are you talking about?”
“My shop just burned down…and I thought…”
From his eyes, I could see hurt in his eyes.
“Fuck, I’ve been a shitty brother to you, Simone. But I would never…”
“What about the old man?”
Albie straightened himself up. “Follow me.”
He opened the front door and I hesitated to follow him in. Maybe I was scared of a ghost flying out or a trap door opening beneath my feet. He looked over his shoulder and waited.
Rolling my eyes, I took a tentative step inside and looked around. The inside didn’t match the outside. It was clean and portraits were hanging, probably worth thousands, maybe millions.
Sauntering over, I recognized one.
Years ago, in high school, there had been an art show that my high school had thrown for sophomores. I had painted a woman doing dishes while a little girl had done homework at the kitchen table. Bright reds and yellows had filled the canvas of the project that I had titled, “Only Sunshine.” Tears pulled behind my eyes but I blinked them away.
My father was still a bastard.
One purchase of a high school painting wasn’t going to change that detail about him.
“He had someone show up anonymously to purchase but he didn’t want you or Lisa to know,” Albie touched my shoulder and I sighed at the mention of my mother’s name. It’d been a long time since I heard someone else reference her to me.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?”
He smirked down on me. “No. It’s something else.”
Following once again behind him we went over to the double doors and he opened it. There was a steady hum, and wires and tubes were going everywhere. There was what looked like a hospital bed and laying it was my father. He had an oxygen mask covering his face.