19. Lev
LEV
Instead of taking Mila with me to Adrik’s house to report on what we saw—and didn’t see—I stopped by my house to drop her off.
“I’ll be back soon. I’m going to share what happened with Adrik.”
She paused with her hand on the doorhandle. “You…” She cleared her throat, furrowing her brow. “You don’t have to update me like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then I guess I fucking want to, huh? Go on. Clean up.”
The hint of a blush hit her cheeks with the light turning on in the car as she opened the door. She hesitated, though, as if she dared to speak again.
“Look, if it’s not clear already, I fully intend to keep you glued to my side.
” Thinking back to how she’d literally been glued to me with our juices and cum mixing together between us, I held in a growl of triumph and wiped the start of a smug smile off my face before she could see it.
“But there’s no question about the fact that you do smell like sex and—”
“All right. All right!”
I chuckled after she exited the car and headed to the safehouse that had always seemed more like a watered-down guesthouse adjacent to mine. Watching her enter the house, I wondered when I’d make good on what I’d just told her. To keep her glued to me at all times, especially at night.
In my bed.
Take this one step at a time.
I backed up and headed to my cousin’s house, but of course my head was full of thoughts about her.
My “assistant”. I supposed that would work for a title until I could sate this curiosity about her. I was stuck on her, on solving her and knowing how she could be so strong and defiant and… fucking perfect.
I shook my head as I drove, locked in this state of awe at how she’d changed the trajectory of this night.
We hadn’t seen Gregori or Yusef Antonov.
We witnessed some activity and we gathered the insinuation that they were involved to the point they’d place snipers for security at that rendezvous location we’d learned of on that route.
But if it hadn’t been for her, while I was distracted, I wouldn’t have noticed the risk of our being spotted as we hid.
And if it hadn’t been for her, I would’ve been stuck in that trap of dreading the chance of spotting the man who’d once been my father.
I grimaced, uneasy about my past coming to stir trouble in my present again. I had never forgiven Gregori for what he’d done to our family, and I wasn’t in any mood to reconcile now.
As if he would even want to repent for his sins.
Instead, he’s eager to strike at us all over again.
Fueled with old—and new—rage, I parked and went inside to find my cousin. It was late, but not so late that I wouldn’t be able to reach him. I’d already texted him on my way that I was coming, and he’d been expecting a report, anyway.
I found him seated in the study, a seldom used room on the other side of the mansion from where his office was.
“Well?” He greeted me with that simple question.
I shook my head. “We didn’t see them, but there was activity. A deal being made.” I sat, giving him the recorders that Mila and I used. They were state-of-the-art tech, devices that acted as a scope and video recorder, and I didn’t wait to upload the content wirelessly to the tablets he had.
We watched it together, but he glanced at me with a frown. “Didn’t you already review this?”
I shook my head.
“You didn’t even want to stop on the drive and see what you had?”
I had stopped, but it wasn’t to preview the dead ends we’d captured on video. “No. I thought it best to bring it to you.”
He furrowed his brow and resumed watching. The feed showed the dockside buildings, the rain, the men down below. Then the rush that Mila and I endured crawling and running out of there. The bounce and fast blurring motion of the cameras as we sprinted to the car ended once we got in the car.
Thank fuck I had the foresight to end the recording then.
Otherwise, my cousin would’ve had an awkwardly personal porno to watch.
I mentally cringed at the idea of any man seeing Mila like that.
But now that the idea entered my mind, I wondered what it’d be like to make a little keepsake like a video of the next time—
“What changed?” Adrik asked. “What made you retreat?”
“Mila.”
He raised his brows.
“Mila noticed the snipers across the street and we ran.” We discussed a little more about the fact that Gregori or Yusef had arranged that much security at that location.
It had to mean they were aware of being in danger this near the Volkov empire and the family estate.
Adrik would send the footage to the IT team so they could use facial recognition and other tools to see who had been meeting down there on that route since it wasn’t Gregori or Yusef.
I left him with the report and headed home.
When I showered before going to bed, I thought ahead to what else I could do with Mila.
Not only to pursue this connection borne of desire and curiosity, but also in terms of trying to lock down a location on Gregori or Yusef.
They were the top two of the network, and it seemed prudent to take them down before the entire organization could try to attack us any further.
In the morning, I waited for Mila to show up, as expected.
I already had a list of tasks I’d like to begin checking off, primarily interviewing and investigating the leads my cousins and Alexei and I had been thinking of.
The Konstantin family. The Cartels again.
Some others in the city. Viktor seemed convinced that an up-and-coming politician, Rico Johnson, was a shady character who might be included in the group of people Gregori could be bribing for a favor.
“Am I going to train today?” she asked once she’d finished her breakfast. She’d dressed for a day in the gym.
“No. You’re going to go change and accompany me.”
“Change?” She raised her brows.
“Yes. Change into something more suitable for being in the city and stopping in to chat with some individuals.”
She hesitated to get up.
“Didn’t you hear me last night?” I smirked as I stood. “Or did you fuck me so hard that your brains were rattled?”
She pulled her lips in and pressed her teeth on them. No reply, at least not in words. The look of shyness on her face was answer enough that I was getting to her.
“I told you that you’ll be glued to my side. If we’re going to play along with the idea that you’re my ‘assistant’ and keep things vague, then go change and look like my assistant.”
She didn’t argue, but when she showed up in a skirt and blouse, looking “fancier” than the sexy-gritty appearance she’d had so far, I wondered how long I’d last before needing to fuck her.
Fortunately, and unfortunately, there weren’t any opportune moments to bend her over a surface and fuck her. She came with me as I checked into who could have a lead about Gregori or Yusef. I took her everywhere. But work came first. We got some leads and were taken down some wild goose hunts, too.
Even though the sexual tension simmered between us and never faded, I lacked the place or time to have my way with her. Often, Alexei or one of my cousins accompanied us, as we were all equally invested in ending the threat of Gregori.
They also began an annoying habit of giving me hell about dragging her around with me.
“Maybe if you want anyone to actually fucking pay attention and tell us useful shit,” Maksim said after we met with some runners who’d defected from a Cartel that Yusef had practically taken over and ruined with the following infighting, “you could let Mila stay back. If you keep taking her with you everywhere, men are going to notice her and be distracted.”
“They just need to know where to look,” I replied as we walked from my house after another long day of meeting with people.
It’d been three days since I’d fucked her and I felt like I was going out of my mind with refraining.
We had been that busy, though. Too busy to forge ahead on this newfound lust that we couldn’t silence.
Maksim huffed. “I don’t think it was worth it to fucking knock out that boss just for glancing at her like that.”
“He didn’t just glance at her,” I argued. That asshole looked like he was going to snatch her away. If word got out that she was supposed to be seen as a slave, then any one of those fuckers could get an idea to offer to buy her from me.
Which was not happening.
“What, are you going to come out and claim her or something? Call her yours for real?” He raised his brows at me, expecting a real answer. “Because calling her your assistant leaves that open for interpretation…”
“She’s mine.”
“Your what?” he pressed.
“You know, nobody gave Adrik shit about Elena like this.”
“Elena also wasn’t ‘purchased’ as a contracted slave from a Cartel,” he argued. “She was given to him in a similar form of ownership. A payment for a debt of wrongdoing.”
I nodded, unable to deny that.
“Elena didn’t have the freedom to leave the Bratva if she had wanted to.
I’m assuming the same for Mila, since you do have a contract that explains how she got here.
” He held his hand up in a motion of surrender as he reached his car.
“Look, just consider clarifying some details with her. Or yourself. Because if someone’s looking at her the wrong way and you act like a possessive asshole before punishing them…
things are going to look a little inconsistent. ”
I frowned at him, hating that he was hitting the nail on the head about this.
About her.
And about me.
“That contract explains how Mila came to be here,” I replied evenly. “But with how skilled she is and could really be an asset to the family, that contract doesn’t mean much anymore. Not to me.”
“If she means that much to you…”
I gritted my teeth at the pressure to admit she mattered to me. Of course, she fucking did. But she still wouldn’t fully submit. She still held back and wouldn’t open up to me fully.
“I said that contract doesn’t mean much anymore,” I said through clenched teeth, hating to have to defend myself and my decisions.
“Fine. The contract doesn’t matter. You don’t have to convince me of that.
You don’t have to convince Adrik or anyone else that Mila’s more than just someone who was a contractual runner.
She proved that herself when she wanted to protect Elena and Carina that one day.
Her instinct to protect them without any explicit order to act as security says more than anything. ”
I agreed. All of my cousins and even Alexei had changed their view of her from that day forward. But it hadn’t shocked me. Mila had a good heart under the tough exterior. I just wanted her to trust me with it.
“However, like I was saying. If she means that much to you…” He shrugged. “Rip up the contract and forget it existed.” He opened the door to his car and glanced at me before getting in. “Forget that she came here as a slave you bought and move on to being grateful she’s in your life.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets, fuming—but not at him. “I’m unwilling to risk anyone interfering with what I consider my responsibility. Including her.”
He paused, frowning. “Are you worried that if that contract doesn’t stand between you, she would leave?”
I clenched my jaw so tightly, my molars could crack.
Once more, he’d zeroed in on the variable I couldn’t control, the link I couldn’t predict.
Without answering him, hating how much that one question could make me feel so out of control and powerless, I strode toward the house and tried to rein in my anger.
And fear.
Until Mila could open up to me and fully submit—in body and heart—I would worry about precisely that.