39. Aleksandr
CHAPTER 39
Aleksandr
I ’m in the bathroom washing my hands since a little blood got inside my gloves. I look up in the mirror and notice some has also splattered across my face. I begin to wipe that away as well.
When I walk out, one of the hanging lights is still swinging. River and Will have a buzz about them as they casually sit on the bar chairs. The bartender—the only person we left alive—is shakily pouring them each a whisky.
Eleven men in total were here tonight. The guy chasing Cinita might’ve thought of himself as more important than what he was, and he apparently had no regard for his drug dealings on our turf.
Either we would’ve dealt with him or Crue Monti, who runs the Italian Mafia here in New York, would have. I’d be sure to let him know he’s lacking in his vigilante duties to have let this slip under the radar. But part of me is certain they weren’t conducting business here until Cinita fled back to New York.
“Would you like a celebratory drink?” River asks. “Also, cleanup should be here in a few minutes.”
“I thought you’d be more the drinking-the-blood-of-your enemies type of guy,” Will says. “But I guess they say don’t meet your heroes.”
River sighs. “You really want to get shot in the other shoulder?”
“You’ll be paying for it if I fucking do,” Will retorts.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out. Anya .
I answer and am startled by the loud music that floods into my ear.
“Anya.”
River’s eyebrows perk up, and he almost looks like some kind of lost puppy because she called me instead of him.
“Umm, Lena’s really drunk. And dancing on a table,” she says. “Clay tried to get her down, but she threw her drink in his face. ”
“It’s three a.m. Anya, speak fucking English.”
Even though I hardly ever fucking sleep, I’m dead tired as I begin to come down from my adrenaline high.
Through the bar’s filthy front window, I see a van pull up, and I know it’s the cleanup crew, here to get rid of the bodies.
“Lena is dancing on a table. I think she’ll regret it in the morning, but she won’t listen to me.”
The thought of that woman swaying her hips in front of anyone has my teeth grinding.
“Where are you?” I ask. She rattles off the address, and I hang up.
“Sounds like trouble,” River says.
“My little bird has decided to dance in front of others,” I grit.
Will laughs. “Oh yeah, I see it now. The blood-hungry monster. I doubt your singer has any idea what she’s even signed up for.”
River gives him a pointed look. “Coming from the man who’s never had a relationship.”
Will shrugs and downs the rest of his drink. “Not all of us get married and become pussy whipped.”
The moment the cleaners step into the bar, I’m heading toward the door, the other two following me. It feels weird to have people around me, especially while killing. I usually do it on my own. I prefer it that way.
But considering River will most likely want to pick up Anya, I can’t tell him not to join. And Will? Well, it’s not appropriate to put a bullet in his brain since he led me here. But if he keeps chatting, I might think better of it.
“River, mate, you have blood on your shirt. I told you to wear black tonight,” Will scolds.
River peers down at it, unfazed. “No one is going to notice in a dark club.”
I unlock the car, and before Will’s properly closed the back door, I hit the gas. He curses when he hits his elbow on the door, and I feel a slight sense of satisfaction.
When we arrive at what Anya described as a bar but looks more like a fucking club to me, my temple pulses. I was in a reasonably good mood.
When I arrive at the door, the bouncer lets us straight through. I find Lena leaning over to take a drink from a guy as she gives him her sweetest smile.
Fuck, that smile makes my cock hard. And it’s about to get the other guy’s teeth broken .
I pull the guy’s shoulder back and, before he’s aware of what’s coming, hit him. He’s knocked down to the floor.
Anya whistles from behind Lena but says nothing. She’s dead sober, and Lena is as messy as a beautiful fucking dream. She’s staring at me, her mouth open in shock.
“Alek! He was just giving me a drink!”
“I did warn her,” Anya says, and I have the sense that she didn’t intervene because she saw me walking through the crowd.
People stand around us, stunned by what just happened, and the bouncer comes to remove the guy because none of them would be daring enough to touch me.
“You don’t accept drinks from other men,” I growl at Lena.
Her eyebrows furrow, and she pouts. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“When you’re not behaving, I do.”
She crosses her arms over her chest, and those fucking tits drive me berserk. “You don’t own me.”
A ruthless chuckle escapes me. “Oh, but I do, sunshine. You don’t accept drinks from other men. Do we have a clear understanding?”
River’s hands snake around Anya’s waist. “I didn’t expect to see you in a place like this,” he says to her.
“It smells, and the patrons are filthy,” she says, apparently disgusted with the place. “But she insisted. Now, take me home.”
“Aren’t you two a bore, leaving as soon as you arrive,” Will interjects.
I ignore him, only focused on my very drunk singer. “Did you have fun celebrating?”
She pouts again as she wobbly steps forward and grabs my shirt. “Well, it’s better now that you finally showed up, Aleksandr.”
I reach up for her, and my hands go to her waist. Even drunk, she calls me by my given name. Not Alek.
I like it.
She’s so drunk that I expected her to be more upset about me hitting the guy, but it’s as if she’s already forgotten.
“What the fuck has she been drinking tonight?” I ask Anya as they walk past.
“It went along the lines of the song she kept singing as each one went down. One margarita. Two margarita—”
Lena cuts her off with her hands in the air excitedly. “Three margaritas.”
Anya gives me a scathing look. “I prefer when she’s on stage and sings. I cannot unhear that awful song now.”
I try to hide the smirk at Anya’s disapproval.
Lena looks up at me, and I smell the alcohol on her breath as she gazes at me with a smile. “Do you like my new dress?” she asks.
“I prefer how you look with it off,” I grit. She chuckles. “Yes, you look beautiful, sunshine. We’re leaving now.” I grab her hand and begin to lead her through the crowd as she complains.
“I was having fun,” she whines as I walk her out the back door, where there are fewer people. She leans on me as we go, and she clutches to the back of my shirt. I hope I don’t have too much blood on me.
“You smell good.” I look down to see her grinning up at me. I don’t know if I should tell her or not, but I think it’s best to leave it. Surely, it’s my cologne she can smell.
I spot my car up ahead, but before we make it, she comes to a halt. I turn and face her, noticing she looks pale.
“I feel sick.”
I manage to move back in time and pull her hair back just as she bends over in that fucking dress and throws up near a dumpster.
“How did that song go, sunshine? One margarita, two margarita?”
“Shut u—” She hurls again, and I can’t help but smirk.
It’s strange. I never thought I’d be in a place like this. Or Anya either, for that matter. But I suppose we were both making exceptions in how we might cater to Lena in our world. I’m willing to bend backward for her if she’d so much as ask for it.
“Hey, man, get her out of here,” a bouncer calls out from the back entrance. Clearly, he’s not familiar with who the fuck I am. When I don’t reply, he comes closer.
Lena throws up again, her hands going to her stomach.
“Man, fuck off with her. Fucking women never know how to handle their shit,” he sneers.
I hold her with one hand as I reach beneath my jacket with the other and pull out my gun. I aim it at his head, and his hands instantly go up.
“How about you give me that towel in your pocket and keep your fucking opinions to yourself?” I say, tilting my head to the side as I hold her hair, the sound of her hurling echoing through the back alleyway.
“Of course. Fuck, man, calm down.” He steps forward with one hand still up and hands me the towel hanging from his pocket with the other.
I wave the gun from him to the door.
“Now, fuck off.” He nods and runs inside the club.
I lean over Lena. “Feeling better?” I ask. I wipe around her mouth with the towel.
“Oh my g-god, is that a g-gun?” she stutters in a whisper. I put it back in my pants and nod my head.
“It is. Now, if you would be a champ and get in the car, I need to take you home.”
“Who were you going to use a gun on?” she asks, clearly having missed the past few minutes due to hurling.
“You’re going to feel this tomorrow, sweetheart.”
She groans but looks up at me through thick eyelashes. “Have you missed me?” she asks. Her hands go to my chest, and she leans into me. Her head rests over my heart.
I’m not at all fazed by the vomit because, frankly, I currently have someone else’s blood on me. I wonder how she’d handle that knowledge.
I can’t deny enjoying this side of Lena; all her resistance pushed to the side. Pure vulnerability with flushed cheeks. And it’s exactly why I don’t want anyone else seeing her in this state.
“Yes, now get in the car.” She smiles as I lead her to the car and open the passenger door. I notice River and Anya getting into the back seat of her car. Clay is their driver. Will most likely stayed in the club. Besides when he takes payment for the job, hopefully this will be the last time I’ll see him.
“Can we drive through McDonald’s?” Lena begs.
“McDonald’s?”
“Yeah. I want a cheeseburger meal and chicken nuggets,” she says as she pushes out her bottom lip.
“Sweetheart, that surely can’t be good for you.”
She looks at me, stunned, as if I’d just offended her entire existence. “But if it’ll soak up some of those margaritas, we can make an exception.”
Then she beams with excitement, and she proceeds to sing. “One margarita, two margarita. Six chicken nuggets and a burger in my belly.”
I’m certain that’s not how the song goes, but I don’t tell her otherwise.
It’s shocking how much she begged for the food but only had one bite of the burger and two nuggets before passing out on the drive to my house. When we get there, I lift her from her seat, the McDonald’s paper bag in hand, and carry her inside.
The only light comes from the lamp in the living room, and the moment I arrive, Vance excuses himself.
Lena stirs but doesn’t wake as I put her in my bed. Where she belongs. As soon as I remove her heels and pull the covers over her, she curls herself into a ball and lets out a contented sigh. I’m not entirely sure what to do with the bag of food, so I put it on the bedside table, then watch her as she sleeps. I remove my gloves and brush my fingers through her hair.
She is breathtaking, even passed out drunk.