Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Luka
My head hurt like hell. So did my knees. I’d crouched against the cement wall all night. Every time my eyes closed, my head went bounce forward and my neck would jerk it upright again. I didn’t think I’d ever get the smell of this place out of my nose. It was in my hair, under my nails. I’d burn this jumpsuit the first chance I got.
It wasn’t like a court hearing, where you were able to change into a suit. I had to walk in there like this. Wearing this fucking thing. I groaned, but I perked up when I saw the guard walking toward the cell.
“You’re up, Novikov.” I jumped to my feet, ignoring the ache in my kneecaps. I ran my fingers through my hair and approached the cell door. I rubbed the side of my jaw, knowing how rough my beard looked after two days of not shaving.
The door clanged as he pulled it open against the heavy springs. I stepped out of the cell. I’d never go back in that pit again.
“Aren’t you going to take these off?” I asked when we reached the accused’s entrance into the hearing room.
“Nah. Those stay on.” He pointed me through the door. “You’re not free.”
That’s when I realized the photo op the cuffs brought. I didn’t know there would be cameras in the room. Baxter Barnes was sitting at the defendant’s table. He waved me over.
“What is this?” I clenched my jaw. “It’s chaos in here.”
He cleared his throat and motioned for me to sit. It was almost too loud to hear him. I leaned my head closer.
“The story got bigger overnight. There’s a reward now for his return. Information. National media picked it up.”
“Great.”
“You’ll get out today,” he assured me.
I looked over my shoulder, scanning the rows of benches for Amara. My pulse beat faster with each zig-zag up and down the faces seated behind us. I turned around. She wasn’t here. There was a moment that I let her absence disappoint me, despite how certain I was it was the right decision.
The bailiff opened the door near the dais and the judge walked in. I stood with Baxter until she was seated.
The rest was a blur. The judge asked the DA to present the reasons I shouldn’t get bail, while Baxter argued I should. Twenty minutes later it was set at four million dollars. The judge banged her gavel, and it was over.
Baxter squeezed my shoulder. “Told you, you’d be out.”
I stared at him. “Four million dollars later.”
He shrugged. It wasn’t his bill to pay. “They’ll get you processed. Go clean up. I’ll take you to lunch, so we can discuss your next strategy.”
The guard was waiting to take me back to out-processing. “I can’t do lunch, today, Baxter.”
He looked at me. “We have a defense to prepare.”
“I’ll let you get started on that. I have something else I need to do.”
“Something other than keeping your ass out of prison?”
I shrugged. If he knew Amara, he might understand why I wasn’t going to be able to make the lunch meeting.
* * *
I jogged down the steps of the courthouse. I had dressed into the same clothes the cops picked me up in yesterday. I made sure my watch was secure. I had my sunglasses, wallet, and phone. I hit Amara’s number.
Just as it rang, the door opened to a black SUV parked in front. I saw one long leg and then the other. My chest seized and I picked up my pace. I had to stop myself from a full sprint. I would have knocked down five reporters who jumped in front of me.
“Mr. Novikov, do you know where Enzo Barone is?”
“Have you heard from his family?”
“What evidence do the police have that you can dispute?”
“Were you surprised the bail was set so high since you’re from New Orleans?”
I dodged the questions. I smiled and ran around to the other side of Amara’s vehicle. I didn’t give a damn that Ciro was the one standing guard. I ducked in the backseat, and he took off.
Amara unbuckled from her seat, maneuvered into mine, and crawled into my lap. “You’re okay. You’re out,” she whispered, pressing her face into my neck. She smelled amazing.
“Is this a good idea.” I knew the press was ready for a photo of anything they could get their hands on.
“Very tinted windows. Practically opaque,” she replied. “How are you?”
She wrapped her hands around my neck. Our eyes met.
“Need a shower, but I’m out.” I grimaced. She leaned back to observe me. She took complete inventory of me.
“This is new.” She ran her index finger along my jawline. Ciro swerved and I gripped Amara’s waist.
“I think I’ll shower and shave.”
She bit her lip. “We’re headed to my compound. I thought you could use a break from the spotlight.”
“You don’t think the cabin is the best place for that?”
She huffed. “No more cabin for either of us. The media has created a new layer of security for us. They have proven useful for once. With vans and cars parked out front no one is going to try to kidnap me.”
“I can live with that. I agree with the assessment.” I was exhausted. My muscles were heavy from the lack of sleep and the awkward positions I had to sit in the cell. “But the cabin wasn’t all bad.” I smirked.
Amara laughed and buried her head in my shoulder again. “I’m so glad I’m taking you home.”
“Me too, kotyonok. Me too.”
* * *
I left Amara in her office when we made it back to her house. I almost felt too tired to climb the stairs to her second-floor apartments. I lugged my body to her room, walked straight to the shower, and turned it all the way to hot.
I stepped out of the pants and unbuttoned the shirt. I stood under the stream of water, pressing my hands into the wall. The water pounded against my back and ran down my chest. I could feel the grime sliding off my body and being sucked into the drain. I reached for the soap and lathered my chest, arms, shoulders, and stomach. I worked the soap until I had a thick layer of bubbles covering every inch of me.
I didn’t hear the door open, but I knew she was behind me.
She pressed her breasts into my back. Her hands linked around my waist. Her entire body felt like silk as she maneuvered herself around my torso to face me. He skin slid over mine as it was meant to lock into position.
“Hi.” I smiled.
“How’s the shower?” she asked.
“I already feel better.”
“Good.” Her eyes darted seductively to my cock. It pulsed under her stare. “I’m sorry you had to stay there last night.” It was as if she didn’t want to mention the word jail. I couldn’t make it sound or seem better for her.
“I’m fine,” I answered. If only she knew what kind of torture I’d been through in France in Bratva training, she would realize one night in a holding cell couldn’t come close to breaking me.
She began to lower to her knees. I reached for the shower panel on the wall, switching the function to steam and mist. She grinned, licking her lips.
“I need to make sure you are completely fine,” she purred.
She touched her mouth to my cock, tasting the tip, playful at first and then thirsty for it. She sucked up and down, while raking her tongue against my dick. The combination almost made my knees buckle. I slapped the wall. She worked my cock faster. The steam rose around us. The cool mist kept the heat level from becoming combustible inside the shower. With the amount of friction her mouth created, I knew there was little time before I was spent.
Being with her again was everything I needed and wanted. She knew exactly how to make me forget we had ever been apart.
My hips rocked. My breath hitched deep in my chest.
“Amara,” I growled, taking the back of her head. “Be a good girl now and let me go deeper.”
She moaned, lost in her power. Lost in what I gave her. Lost in what we could give each other.
Our eyes met as I unleashed myself in her mouth, pumping with trembling thrusts. She groaned, swallowing everything I gave her.
“Oh shit.” She kissed the tip, and I sank to the shower floor next to her.
“Better?” she teased.
I rested my head against the wall. “Yeah.” I reached for her. “I want you too, you know.”
“Do you? You seem tired. I wanted to give you something. Something memorable. I was prepared for you to sleep through it.”
I let out a loud laugh that echoed off the tile. “How could I sleep through that?”
“Utter exhaustion,” she answered.
“Never that exhausted.”
She rubbed the side of my face. I took her palm and kissed it. Followed by her arm, and her shoulder. I reached overhead, yanking a fluffy white spa towel off the shower hook. Her eyes lit with green glowing embers when I licked her tits, lowering her to the floor. I kissed her navel, taking my time to rub the scuff against her soft skin.
She inhaled sharply when I spread her legs, brushing my cheek inside her thigh.
“So rough,” she murmured. “I think I like this.”
I looked in her eyes, before I dove between her legs.
“But do you like this?” I taunted.
I unleashed the hunger I had for her. The love. The passion. The desire I had for her body. I dipped a finger inside her while I lapped at her clit. Amara’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Her hips danced. She ground her thighs against my face. It was a quick orgasm. Already on the surface. Not the kind she could hide.
I blamed being separated. Spending the night apart. Facing the darkness alone.
I pushed my tongue inside her, twisting it with scorching strokes until she came hard in my mouth. She screamed, breaking into a million pieces.
I kissed her heat, and her thigh. We stared at each other, taking it in. We were together.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” she whispered, giving me a lazy smile. God, she was gorgeous. Sexy.
“We have work to do, today, don’t we?” I asked with reluctance. I didn’t want to move. I wasn’t sure if I could.
She nodded. “But you don’t have to start right away. Why don’t you get some sleep?”
She sat up next to me. Our fingers interlaced.
“And leave you with this fucking crisis? I don’t think so.”
“Please don’t leave me again.”
“I’m not. I won’t.” I cupped the side of her jaw. “I swear.” I crushed her mouth with a kiss. I wanted her again. And again. Amara crawled into my lap. I wasn’t sure if it was a tear or water from the mist, that had rolled down her cheek.
My hands gripped her back. Maybe today wasn’t the day we needed to leave the shower. Our tongues tangled. Her breathing become erratic. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I won’t.”
I swore I wouldn’t leave her again. Her hips began to sway against my waist. My cock pulsed. I bit at her lip, I dug into her skin. I wanted to lick every inch of her.
“I won’t go anywhere.”
She sighed. “And if we don’t have control over that?”
“We will.” I hiked her knee to my side. I was hard again. So fucking hard for her.
Our heads whipped around when we heard a heavy fist pound on the bathroom door.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“What is it?” Amara called with venom in her words.
“Katya Petrov is downstairs. With a suitcase,” Ciro shouted through the door. “You need to get down there.”
We looked at each other. I helped Amara to her feet. I kissed her forehead and reached for the wall panel. We needed the water again.
“We’ll be right down,” Amara replied.
I assumed Ciro left. I pulled Amara into my arms. “I’ll go find out what’s going on with my sister.”
“We need to go together,” she countered. “From now on, it’s together. All of this, the beautiful and the ugly, we do it together.”
I pushed her up against the wall. My cock pressed into her stomach. Our lips were blistered by the time I finished kissing her and we walked out of the shower.