CHAPTER 51
CHRISTIAN ‘VICIOUS’ VOLKOV.
Color my face white and give me a rainbow wig if that makes me a clown because right now?
I might be the biggest clown of all and I would still do it again.
Her blonde hair splays across my arm, her pussy hugs my thigh and it’s taking all my willpower not to reach out and fill her up again but she’s had a few hours of sleep.
More like three hours of sleep and I still want an in to her pussy.
That’s how pussy-whipped I am. That’s how addictive she is.
Visible marks of my teeth, a few hickeys line her shoulders and just because I can and she looks so perfect in her sleep, I lean in and kiss her.
She stirs but she doesn’t wake up.
Am I too much of a cynic wishing she would wake up and I would take her all the way to Sunday?
I would bend her over again, ramming into her tight warm heat till I saw stars.
And the truth we both know is, she wouldn’t refuse me.
She didn’t refuse when I took her bareback, she didn’t refuse me dominating the fuck out of her because secretly my little nurse was a submissive.
But how much of a submissive, was she?
How far would she allow me to take over?
Her eyelids shut, I take a peek at her open mouth that’s letting out snores like a bear cub and grin.
Those pink lips of hers were around my shaft yesternight, taking as much of me as she could, learning how to give a blowjob.
I couldn’t come inside her warm mouth when it was her first time and she got hella pissed at me for that.
I was happy though; happy those bastards hadn’t taken all of her and made her fear intimacy.
Watching her sleep might be my favorite thing and I could do it all day were it not for the phone that rings out loud somewhere downstairs.
The grip she has on my thigh grows stronger.
Whoever the fuck is calling grows persistent.
At the end of the day, I’m forced to tear her hands away from me, missing her scent altogether.
I go downstairs to find the ringing device somewhere near her bra and, picking both of them up, the name on the caller ID flashes bright.
Maximo.
I take my pants and my shirt, putting them on.
“Volkov-.”
“Did you find him?”
The urgency in my voice speaks for itself.
I want Rhett Kingston caught; I want him dead now more than ever.
Why? Because that fucker poses a threat to me and the blonde in my bed.
I don’t know how he operates but he’ll want her, he’ll want his child. He’ll want them because his ego can’t take it.
That’s what I counted on when I took Alexia and her baby from him but right now?
I want them on my side for different reasons.
They are mine now.
No sack of shit is ruining that.
“Yes.”
One word.
An affirmation and my trigger finger grows happy.
You are dying, you useless limp dick.
And then? It’s winner-take-all. And I’ll take both of them.
“You bring him to Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Home.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Copy.”
I should be asking why he took Rhett to my home instead of to one of my slimy warehouses but I don’t.
I don’t question his one-word replies and I should have. I really should have because Maximo DiMarco isn’t a man of many words but he sure as hell hands me a ton of advice I don’t ask for now and then.
When I hang up, my next call is to Jett and he picks up on the first ring.
“Casablanca mansion. Bring Brenda and the child, tell Brenda to bring some clothes for the nurse. Escort them to the clinic, if the nurse decides to go to work.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And Jett?”
“Yes, boss?”
“Carry a gun if shit decides to hit the fan.”
“Right away, boss.”
***
The drive back home turns my mood sour than I was hours ago.
My mood doesn’t feel any better when I spot Maximo’s car outside of my home and a rather familiar Russian brand of car lining my driveway.
Demetri fucking Sokolov.
Of all the assholes to ruin my mood today, this fucker is still in Chicago and in my house.
I storm inside my house.
This isn’t how my morning was going to go. I was going to stay in bed, buried inside my nurse’s tight heat or having my tongue lapping up all her juices and feeding my addiction for her in small tantalizing doses.
Shit hits the fan alright.
Especially when Maximo stops me before I reach my own living room.
“Where’s Rhett and what the hell is Demetri’s car doing in my estate?”
“Gotta calm down first, Volkov. You gotta hear both sides of the story.”
Before I can question what’s going on, Juana’s frame appears behind Connor her chubby cheeks padded with tears.
She’s not crying for her usual emotional telenovelas, I realize.
She’s crying for me. I know that look, I also taste it in the way Maximo holds my shoulder.
Like Judas Iscariot kissing sweet Jesus before he handed him to the sharks.
I tune out their voices, I take brisk steps towards my living room knowing for a fact nothing surprises me anymore.
The only thing that surprises me is the six foot two Russian ruffian standing in my living room like he owns the place.
Smearing his boots on my Persian rug with a smug grin like we are best buddies since he decided to extend his stay in Chicago.
“Volkov, you gotta hook me up with your interior designer because your home is quite the beauty. She’s got good taste, no?”
“What are you-.”
My voice dies down, that barrel of surprise I thought I wouldn’t expect to feel hits me like an arrow to the chest.
A lithe woman appears from behind Demetri, patting his shoulder like she’s scolding an insolent child.
Not that Demetri isn’t insolent but still. Call this a twist to my never-ending life because I take a step back watching my mother’s hair bounce off her shoulders, watching the same shade of eyes I have look at me and brim with tears.
What?
“Christian”, she calls and that acts as a catalyst for me to take another step back.
“Chris, it’s me.”
“No”, I rumble.
She’s dead. Is anyone seeing what I’m seeing? Am I still high on pussy?
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t-.”
“You faked your own death, sorellina?”
“Volkov, she can explain”, Maximo interrupts us and raucous laughter reverberates from my throat as I turn to face him.
“You knew?”
He knew Catelina was alive?
How long?
“It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
“Wasn’t your secret to tell? She’s my bloody sister! You saw me lose my mind over her, you saw me lose the only good thing fuck, Maximo!”
Anger and grief clash, betrayal feels like a knife dug deep in the crevices of my heart.
I don’t feel a thing when I raise my fist and hit Maximo square in the jaw watching him tumble to the ground like the backstabber he is.
Trust, trust is a funny thing.
The man I trusted the most, doesn’t just break my trust with the truth, he breaks my trust more when my sister, Catelina, mi sorella, the apparent walking ghost leans to the floor and tries to pick him up.
“Baby. Are—are you okay?”
What the hell did she just say?
She cries for him; she cries for him and not me!
Her fratello, the man who has been having nightmares over her apparent death, the man who wanted to jump in that casket for her.
The man who held her dead cold body. H—how is this possible?
I grip her by the arm pulling her away from Maximo, red being the only clear thing I can see in my vicinity.
“You are going to explain everything, word by word and afterwards? You are never going to see the light of day, Catelina Sofia. You are going to understand what it means to be in the dark for so long because you have nothing to live for. I raised you, Cat. I took you away from your own nightmares and gave you a life most girls your age could only dream of and this is how you repay me? Staging your own death, tormenting your own brother. Non tormentiamo la famiglia!”
I seethe.
“You-you are hurting me. I-I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to-.”
“You want to act up on someone, I’m your punching bag man. But you continue holding my fiancé like that and you and me are going to have a problem”, Demetri speaks, his words like nails on a chalkboard.
I stare at her arm and at her ring finger confused.
A mocking gleaning diamond stares right back at me.
I stare back at Maximo who’s already stood up looking at me the way Demetri is doing.
Like they are angry I’m hurting the love of their meager lives.
I might be the biggest fool right now and the fact that I missed all this presses on my brain like hot iron.
“What happened, sorellina? What happened to my sister? The one who knew getting mixed up with our father’s world would end her? What happened to my sister, Catelina? The one who loved her brother above all else?”
“I lo-love you. You are my only family, of course I-.”
“Do you? Show me, Catelina. Leave both of them and we can go back to how things were.”
“I can’t”, she whispers and none of those tears are getting to me.
“I love them. You are my brother and I love you too.”
“You made your choice. You chose them”, I let her go, letting that coat of disdain be my armor.
Juana cries by the corner. Don’t worry Juana, you weren’t the only fool getting played tonight.
“Christian please just listen–.”
“Get out! You want to be their whore, be my guest because I’m done carrying the guilt over never giving you a good life, of letting you die in the hands of those brutes.”
She clings to my arms and the scent of betrayal hovers and covers me like stark darkness.
“If you could just listen…”
“Malyshka”, Demetri steps towards her to catch her shoulders and the idea of flailing him raw like a pig over fire spikes my mind.
Him and Maximo. Both of them? With her?
“If you could let go of your anger and your quest of vengeance maybe I could explain! Maybe I could explain everything! You think I wanted this…I never wanted my brother to be miserable because of me, I never wanted to enlist the help of some woman to make you happy, I never wanted-.”
“What did you just say?”
The two bastards are by her shoulders now, protecting her like they own every inch of her.
One Russian rival and the other, the brother I wished to have.
His betrayal feels like a punch to the teeth.
“Your obsession with vengeance had you roping a woman and her child into this! You will let them go; you don’t want to see me? Fine, but you will let Alexia Green and her child walk away.”
“She knew.”
Ooh the daggers keep on coming from different directions.
The nurse knew too.
“How much did you pay her to make me happy, sister?”
“That doesn’t matter-.”
“It matters if you want your two fucking lapdogs to walk out of here alive. How much did you pay my nurse?”
“I promised her she would walk away from this unharmed and that’s what I’m doing right now.”
Unharmed? I’ll more than harm her alright.
“Get out of my house, Catelina. You and your boyfriends, get the hell out!”
Maximo lingers. His gaze stays for a second before he takes my sister, my own flesh and blood, into his arms dragging her crying mess away from my sight.
Demetri stays. To gloat. To rub it in my face. I don’t care. As soon as I process the news, he’ll be dead. Catelina will be back in her room locked and never seeing the light of day again.
“I knew you were brutal but not this kind of brutal. I should have ended you when I had the chance maybe then my malyshka wouldn’t be sobbing for a piece of shit who has a stick too far up his ass to realize what he has just gained.”
He walks away, they all do.
I’m left picking up the pieces with a sobbing Juana by the corner chanting ‘Catelina, my little girl is alive’.
Then the universe, Budha, sweet baby Jesus sends me another hit that’s bound to be the final nail to my coffin.
My phone rings.
The plan is to toss it away but the caller ID reads ‘Sunshine’.
Another traitor.
She wasn’t working with Demetri that day, was she? She met with Catelina, she snagged a good deal of making me happy, prepping me up before my not-dead sister came knocking at my doorstep.
A game well played, little nurse.
Well, played.
I take the call, her treacherous voice filters through my ears.
“Whatever happens, being with you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t care whether you are the same grumpy asshole who never smiled before and stole me from my home. You made me live more than anyone ever has. I-I lo-.”
The line goes dead.
The ticking sounds of an IED about to detonate fill my ears.
By the time I look at Juana, registering there’s a bomb in my house and we need to evacuate, the bomb goes off with a bang smoke and rubble imploding everywhere like confetti.
They say when death comes for you, there is light at the end of the tunnel, some say they see Jesus.
I don’t see a light.
I don’t see Jesus.
I see fire coming at me.
I feel fire eating away each piece of skin it can find on me and the sound of Juana’s ear-curdling screams backing the pain.