Chapter 4
4
Rurik
M alik stalked out of that clubhouse looking like he wanted to murder me, and fuck if that didn’t get my dick hard. I’d never made him come to heel in front of his club brothers before, but it had to happen today. He needed a reminder of who was in charge, and I also didn’t have time to stand around and argue with him, even if I would’ve liked to just to watch him get all fired up and out of control.
Malik was a force to be reckoned with, and if I could teach him to control that rage, harness it, and use it properly, he’d be un-fucking-stoppable.
That was what I wanted to make him: a beautiful machine that only bowed to me .
And I always got what I wanted.
“Ready?” I asked as he neared me. He scowled, his lips twisting into a sneer. One of my men opened his door, and his scowl only deepened. But instead of arguing, no doubt wanting to tell Denis that he could open his own door, he just tossed his bag onto the floorboard and slid inside onto the plush leather seat.
Denis frowned. “Mr. Carter, I can take your bag?—”
“Touch my shit, and I’ll break all ten of your fucking fingers,” Malik growled.
Denis inclined his head respectfully. “Understood, sir.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Malik muttered. Reaching out, he grabbed the door and slammed it shut, yanking the handle out of Denis’s hand.
I patted Denis’s shoulder as I walked around him to get in on the other side, where Abram was waiting to open my door for me. “He’s an acquired taste,” I told him quietly. “And he’s quite furious with me. I apologize for his behavior.”
Denis nodded. “It is no problem, Mr. Tarasov.”
It was a problem because my men had done nothing to Malik. They were only doing their jobs. I’d make it clear to Malik that treating my men with anything but respect would not be tolerated. Unless my men fucked up, they did not get yelled at or cussed at. Loyalty was earned, not given. It was a lesson Malik needed to learn—and quickly.
Abram inclined his head to me as he opened the back driver’s side door, and I slid inside. Once the door was shut, I turned to Malik. He was stewing, practically vibrating with rage.
“Malik,” I said calmly. When he didn’t turn to look at me, I drew in a deep, calming breath. He was surely working my nerves, but when it came to him, I had endless patience. If he was hoping I would snap and stoop to his level, he was sorely mistaken.
Reaching out, I gripped his jaw and dug my fingers into his cheek. He fought me for a second when I tried to turn his head, but finally, he gave in, narrowing his eyes at me once we were face-to-face.
“When I call your name, you give me your attention,” I warned him. If his lips weren’t puckered from me squeezing his cheeks, I just knew that top lip of his would be curled up into a look of disgust. “The next time you treat my men with disrespect when they’ve done nothing to earn it, I’ll lay you out on your back, do you understand me? And not in the fun, kinky way.”
“Fuck you and your men,” he snarled when I released his jaw.
I arched a brow at him. “I suggest you get over yourself, Malik. You’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future, which means you’re stuck with my men, too. Learning to get along with us will make our time together go by much smoother. But if you want to be difficult…” I let the threat hang in the air.
“This won’t last that long,” Malik snapped. “You’ll be lucky if I stick around for a day.”
I smirked, highly amused. “You really think you can escape me, Shadow?” I leaned in close to him. When he tried to press himself closer to the door in an effort to create distance between us, I gripped the front of his shirt and twisted it in my fist, bringing him so close, our noses brushed. “I will chase you to the ends of the fucking earth if you ever try to escape me. I own you.”
“ Nobody owns me,” Malik snarled.
“Wrong,” I breathed. “I’m the reason you’re a free man. I’m the reason you stay out of prison. I’m the reason your parole officer never comes around to check on you.” He clenched his jaw because he knew I was right. “Don’t ever think you have the upper hand with me, Malik. Because if I truly wanted, it would only take one single phone call to tear your world to pieces.”
With that, I let him go. He remained silent, his arms crossing over his chest. He stared out the window as we slowly eased off the gravel lot and onto the highway.
Malik didn’t know I’d never do any of that. But his lack of knowledge of just how much of a hold he had over me was what would keep him in line. And it was what would help me mold him into the unstoppable force I knew he could be.
He might hate me now, but before long, he’d be bowing down to me, murmuring, “Thank you,” before I stuffed his throat with my cock and showed him the power in submitting only to me .
“You should call your mom,” I told him once we’d been riding in silence for a while. The only person Malik never lashed out and truly, one-hundred percent respected was his mother. He loved her to pieces, and I knew he’d burn this whole world to the ground to protect her.
His love for her was one of his best qualities. When Malik loved someone, he loved deeply and wholly. He was never one foot in, one foot out. He might have been a man with an explosive temper that never let anyone close, but he loved just as fiercely.
I was hoping, one day, I’d be on the receiving end of that love, too.
“Why?” Malik grunted, still not looking at me.
“So she doesn’t go to the clubhouse looking for you,” I said. “You know she likes to do surprise pop-in visits.” Just because Malik was an adult didn’t mean his mother let up. Besides, I knew she also popped in to do his laundry and cook all the guys food. It made her feel like she was still needed in Malik’s life, even if he and the guys were more than capable of taking care of themselves.
Malik sighed, but instead of arguing with me like I’d been prepared for him to do, he simply tugged his phone out of his pocket.
Good boy , I thought, turning away to give him the illusion of privacy.
One day, I’d be able to say those words out loud to him. But today wasn’t that day. There was only so far I could push, and I knew Malik was damn near at his limit with me.