6. Laszlo
Afew nights later, I leaned back in the leather seat of my Aston Martin, taking advantage of Bodrov’s chronic lateness.
Scrolling through my screen, I checked dozens of investments, and to my pleasure, the lines all went up.
That was the beauty of pyramid schemes. If someone didn’t know better, it would look like their investments were thriving.
At the Bratok level, that was enough to convince them that I was a financial god and Bodrov kept pumping money into my stock picks.
Once I got my promotion, I’d have to fool brighter people, though. Men who didn’t think the internet was still a new invention, and that cryptocurrency was a guaranteed winner. That was where my scam crypto coin, CullCoin, came in.
And that line went up sharpest of all.
Aside from Bodrov’s reluctance to send my name up the ranks, my infiltration was going smoothly.
All except one beautiful complication that I was dragging my feet on resolving. I glanced at the flashing gold lights of the Gilt and Gloam’s sign, and wondered if she was in there. If she was waiting for me, and if it was with trepidation or hope.
I didn’t need to wait for Bodrov to arrive to find at least part of that out. Flicking open one of my security feeds, I had eyes on the inside of the club.
The camera I planted was above the entrance, and it gave me a good view of the main bar. A few customers milled about, a waitress bringing drinks, laughing at some guy’s joke.
And then… there she was. In the corner, helping the redhead—Roxy—with a tag on the back of her dress.
Evelyn was otherworldly in her beauty, and even on the security feed, her radiance showed. She was wearing a new dress, and I smiled at her choice of how to spend some of the money I gave her. It seemed that baby pink was her favourite colour.
It had been pleasant, shopping for a house for her in Idaho. Like I had slipped into the skin of a normal person, with normal hobbies and wants. I saw a life that was stolen from me, and indulged in the fantasy.
I pictured her moving into her new two-story house in downtown Wallace, surrounded by mountains. The ground level would be where she created jewellery and sold it. She’d meet someone, settle down, live happily ever after.
It couldn’t be with me, but knowing I’d provide her with that future was enough.
It had to be enough.
Then I saw a customer look at her, and I nearly snapped the phone in half.
I tossed the phone into the passenger seat, but I couldn’t resist the temptation. Was he talking to her? Was he making her laugh?
I picked the phone back up, and I hated how relieved I was when I saw Evelyn wasn’t talking to the man anymore. She was at the bar, waiting for a drink. Prosecco, I bet. That was what Roxy told me she drank when I asked.
When I told her to keep her eyes on Belle.
When I gave her a roll of bills, and made her promise me she’d keep Belle safe.
What was wrong with me? All my life, there’d only been room for one girl, and that was Lilien. No one had gotten under my skin before. No one had infected my dreams, waking me up in cold sweats, filled with regret that she wasn’t beside me.
Her purity and passion offered a window into everything that was stolen from me, but I could see her pain running beneath the surface. Instead of feeling jaded and nihilistic about it, I wanted to take that all away.
The sensation was like bugs crawling under my skin, agitating me.
I had to get them out.
That was why I had to get rid of her.
I shielded my eyes as Jimmy’s lifted truck barrelled down the road towards me. He parked on the wrong side of the road, facing my car, his brights blinding.
He jumped down, and Rurik, one of Bodrov’s loyal soldiers, exited the passenger side. I slipped down in my seat so they couldn’t see me, and the tinting on my windows helped. My window was open a crack, and their voices carried towards me.
“I can’t believe they sent us back to that trap house. It’s been almost a month, there’s nothin’ left. Fucking Nikolas. I told him he was gonna die in filth,” Jimmy bitched, and Rurik shrugged his massive shoulders.
“They’re just covering his tracks.”
“His tracks? Fuck, half the runaways in Arkham would’ve loved to piss on his corpse. Man got lucky with a heart attack.”
Rurik nodded, brushing his hand through his short military buzz-cut. “Best we can hope for, right?”
Jimmy laughed, that manic cackle more like a hyena than a man. “Well maybe that’s the best you can hope for, but I got an imagination. I’m not going out in some rotted out house, my cock all fucked up from the floor as I crawled to get some fuckin’ heart pills. Pathetic.”
“At least his dick was still wet,” Rurik snarked back, half distracted by his cell phone. “Bodrov’s almost here.”
My guts twisted. I wanted to see Evelyn, feel her against me, smell her sweet scent and hear her tell me all about her dreams. I glanced at myself in the rear-view mirror.
I got a trim earlier in the day and had them style it in an artfully messy way, framing my face.
My suit was the softest one I owned so it wouldn’t irritate her sensitive skin, and I’d gotten rid of the opal ring she determined was poorly made.
What did she see when she looked at me? A wicked killer, a threat. When she first spotted me in the club, she’d stiffened like a fawn, and I was afraid she’d bolt. It was a risk confronting her around the others, but I couldn’t do anything out of the ordinary.
For decades I felt like nothing more than a rotted-out husk, and she was the first sprig of new growth pushing out from the detritus.
But tonight was the night I’d have to tell her that she had to leave Arkham forever.
I didn’t have the luxury to indulge in pleasant fantasies of the life I could have had, because that life was never mine. All that mattered to me was finding out what happened to Lilien, and reaping vengeance on the Bratva for her death.
Being around her was a distraction. My thoughts were foggy with memories of her dimples, the way she was pensive when she touched my knee and how I wanted her to touch me more. I didn’t disassociate when she got too close. Even her second-hand clothes that didn’t fit her right beguiled me.
She was a beautiful woman with a radiant smile, a pure soul, and a stubborn heart. Ever since I first saw her, something had changed in me, and I didn’t like it. My world was a dark pit that sucked the light and goodness from everything.
There was no room for someone like her in my life.
I needed her gone.
I’d spied on her through the camera, but it couldn’t prepare me for how phenomenal she looked.
Her blonde hair was spun gold, swaying against the back of her legs.
The pink dress showed off her slender torso and the swell of her hips.
She still wore little makeup, though her lips looked glossy, and I wondered if she splurged with my money.
Did she treat herself?
Would she have bought a rock tumbler already?
My hand extended, waiting for hers without a word, and I was pleased that she graciously accepted. She was such a delicate thing, I was afraid my harsh words last time would have broken her.
Instead, she looked pleased to see me, and despite the surprising warmth in my chest, I worried for her safety.
Her sanity.
“You pick her again? Strange man,” scoffed Bodrov. Obligatory chuckles from his brigade followed. They laughed to show they knew their place as his underlings and it was pathetic.
I was defiant. They would learn not to laugh at me.
“I want her. If that’s a problem for you, then it’s a problem you should keep to yourself.”
“Ohh,” came a round of booming voices. I refused to be cowed, and they gave me begrudging respect for it. It was a narrow tightrope to walk, to infiltrate the Bratva. To become one of them.
My tattooed hand spanned Evelyn’s waist and hip, my tall body protective.
I didn’t like how Jimmy talked about her, looked at her.
There was an obsession there, a hatred, twisted with lust. It would be a problem, if I let it fester.
Until she left the state, I’d have to make it clear that she was off-limits.
When she joined me in the booth, I pulled her into my lap. Her round ass pressed to my thigh, and for the first time in a long while, there was a spark of life to my cock. My mouth parted with a sigh, and she tilted her head, looking at me with confusion.
“Comfortable?” I asked, and she nodded, though there was a heat to her cheeks I hadn’t seen before. The other men crowded in around us, drinks ordered and delivered. Could she sense what she was doing to me?
The feel of her body near mine was intoxicating, and I was grateful for all the heavy layers of clothing I wore, masking my erection. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had gotten me hard. But now was not the time. It would never be the time. Not with her.
Her arm was wrapped around my neck, fingers playing with the seam of my coat.
“Do the comments from the guys bother you?” I asked, my thumb stroking her cheek despite myself.
“I’m glad you didn’t flinch. The skittish lamb must be culled, for the strength of the flock,” she mused.
I arched my brow. “You are a strange girl.” That was an understatement. Where the hell was she running from for her to know about bombs, had no government history, and didn’t recognize how damn beautiful she was?
A religious community. There was one out by Dunwich. I’d have to look into it more.
She went to say something, but maybe she remembered my chastisement last time I’d called her that.
I smiled, easing the tension. “I like strange.”
Her lips twitched, her gaze flicking to mine as she assessed my honesty. She seemed satisfied, but changed the subject. “Do you like working in finance? Was that your dream?”
I snorted.
She was funny, too.
“I’m very good at my job, and it’s a road to my dreams, but it isn’t my dream, no.”