Chapter 2
Y uri couldn’t stand seeing her cry. He wanted to pull her up onto his lap and—well, from there, his mind went from comforting to sexually pleasing her.
Slipping one hand between her legs to test her responsiveness, letting the other explore her breasts.
He wanted to change her fear into desire, wanted her breath quick from passion, not terror.
Maybe it was wrong to think of soothing her through sex, but Lucy wasn’t the type of girl to be cuddled or stroked. He didn’t know what kind of girl she was exactly, and that enigma fed his fascination. Everything about her did.
When he first saw her in the club, he’d been drawn to her quirky beauty—the exquisite bone structure, flawless skin, and wide brown eyes that were only highlighted by her fluffy mop of what had been pink hair at that time.
He’d been charmed by her wide smile, which always seemed so genuine, and the enthusiasm she brought to the dance crowd.
He’d assumed her joy was chemically enhanced.
No one is that genuinely happy about making people dance.
But over time he noted that she never drank. Not a drop. Bottles of water were the only liquid that ever touched her hand. Which probably meant she was rolling with the rest of the crowd—on E.
Except he’d bumped into her when she’d been on break.
Well, maybe he’d orchestrated their meeting a bit by blocking her way when she tried to come out of the DJ booth.
Her pupils had been normal, cognition perfect.
She’d been suitably wary of him, which meant she was smart enough to know trouble when she saw it. There’d been no evidence of drug use.
So that fascinated him even more.
What made a girl so happy? Her seeming joy became a conundrum that kept him up at night.
There was a purity to it, but she wasn’t innocent.
She worked in a fucking nightclub. Her friends and acquaintances were often drunk or drugged off their asses.
Her brother had a growing cocaine habit and he’d started selling on the side.
So she wasn’t pure. Not untouched. Yet still… so fucking light.
He didn’t know what to make of her. Somehow, the more he studied her, the more she broke open some chasm in his soul. He grew emptier and emptier, wanting what she had. What she knew. Who she was.
Or maybe he just wanted her.
Wanted that sexy little teasing body underneath him, white-knuckling the headboard.
Wanted those lean, muscular thighs parted around his hips, those ankles hooked behind his back, pulling him in, even as she gasped with the pain of how hard he fucked her.
He wanted to drill into her with every bit of his strength, until he infused the very essence of his being into her.
No, that wasn’t right. That was completely wrong.
He never wanted to infect her with his darkness.
“So…” Lucy sniffed after a moment, chin lifting.
Good girl. She had unbelievable resiliency, this one. She must have.
“Who’s going to make the introductions? Yuri, the Fury, right?”
She looked at him, but he didn’t want to turn. Sitting so damn close to her, breathing in her cherry vanilla scent made it hard for him not to scoop her up in his arms, open the door and bail. Which would probably kill them both.
Freddo and Tommy ignored her.
“Don’t say my name in vain,” he growled.
She choked on a laugh. Or maybe it was a sob. Somewhere in between. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. No more questions.”
She blew out her breath in a huff, and he lost his fight not to look.
Fucking gorgeous girl. He stared at the piercing on her cheekbone, debating whether the diamond was real. If it wasn’t, he was going to buy her a real one, as soon as possible. He wondered where else she was pierced.
That thought made his cock lengthen against his thigh so he had to shift in his seat to rearrange himself. Did those little tits sport diamond studs, too? What about that clit?
He nearly groaned out loud just picturing how her pussy must look. It would be a beauty, he knew that for sure. Shaking himself back to reality, Yuri dug her cell phone out of her purse and pulled up her brother’s number. Jake didn’t answer.
“We have your sister. Produce the money you owe in twenty-four hours or you’re both dead,” he left as a message. “Say something, Lucy.” He held the mouthpiece up to her face.
“Fuck you,” she snapped.
“Good.” He hung up.
Freddo pulled up in the back of Hotel DeAngelo, an upscale hotel owned by a friend of the don’s. They’d already booked a room.
Yuri and Tommy sprang their doors at the same time, but Tommy grabbed her upper arm and hauled her out in his direction, a gun pointed in her face.
Yuri gritted his teeth, wanting to snarl at Tommy, but he didn’t dare. If he showed how much this girl meant to him, he risked everything—the case, his job, and most importantly, her life.
By the way Tommy’s fingers clamped around her arm and the wince on her face, he could tell his compare was bruising her. He wanted to knock out a few teeth for that. Instead, he bunched his shoulders up, tough-guy style, and led the way in through the back door to the elevator.
Lucy’s nostrils flared with fear as Tommy jerked her into the elevator car with him and Freddo and jabbed the button.
“Not a fucking word. Not a fucking sound, you hear me? Or I blow your head off. Someone else gets on this elevator, you keep your fucking mouth shut. Got it?” Tommy instructed her.
She didn’t answer.
He jabbed her ribs with the muzzle of the gun through his jacket pocket. “I said, got it ?”
“Got it, yeah,” she huffed, but the quaver in her voice gave away her fear.
Hang in there, baby.
When they got into the suite, Tommy duct taped her to a chair, taping her wrists together, then winding a length around her torso to attach to the chair.
“You know you’re just going to have to take that off the first time she has to use the bathroom, don’t you?” Yuri asked, trying to sound casual.
Her eyes followed him and he saw her mind working, trying to figure out a way out of her dilemma.
He willed her to let it go, to trust him to handle things.
Any trouble she gave them could get her hurt, and that was the last thing he wanted.
But she lurched against the bonds, tipping the chair forward.
When Tommy shoved it back down, tears popped into her eyes, though her face appeared mutinous.
Just the sight of those tears made his blood pressure spike. “Don’t. Cry,” Yuri spat.
“Fuck you,” she repeated.
Tommy slapped her with an open hand before Yuri even had a chance to move.
“ Don’t, ” he snapped, too loudly. Get a grip, Yuri. His breath came too fast, fingers tightening into fists at his sides.
“Why not?” Tommy asked.
“Because, she has pretty face.” It was hard to make his lips open enough to speak, his mouth was so fucking tight.
“I want to keep looking at it. You put bruises on her, I have to look at ugly face.” He adopted what he hoped was a casual stroll over to her and stroked away the red spot on her cheek with his thumb.
Looking into the depths of her furious brown eyes nearly killed him.
Tommy snorted but seemed to accept that. Yuri had played the part of the crazy Russian for so long they accepted all kinds of quirks from him, mostly because they respected the level of violence he could bring.
“So where do you want me to hit her?”
He had to force himself to remove his hand from her and turn away, to speak casually. “I don’t care. Not the face.”
Freddo cocked his head, peering at Lucy. “Yeah, I guess I see what you mean. I wouldn’t have called her pretty, but it’s there.”
Jesus! Fuck, these guys are such idiots. Did they only think a girl with long hair and a skirt fit the definition of pretty?
“So that’s your type, huh?” Freddo asked. “You like the piercings and pigtails?”
Do not engage with the idiots.
“Yeah.” He returned to Lucy. “You want something to eat, baby?”
She glared at him and shook her head, which made Tommy laugh some more. “I don’t think she wants to be your baby , Russian.”
She definitely didn’t want to be Yuri’s baby.
Except for the fact that she still believed she might hold some kind of sway over him.
She’d seen the way his fists tightened and nostrils flared when Tommy hit her.
It was almost as if he’d been trying to hide how much it bothered him.
Was he playing the other two? He had promised her he’d keep her safe.
Was this his way of ensuring her safety?
Keeping close to step in when they got too physical?
How much good his real or imagined affection for her would do her in a situation like this was debatable. He might be willing to order her a hamburger from room service, but that didn’t mean he’d let her or her brother off the hook if the don said to shoot them.
She supposed she had to decide whether she was willing to work the small favor angle in hopes it led somewhere, or just give him the middle finger.
She studied the impressive figure he made, standing with his back to her, fiddling with the television.
His expensive button-down short-sleeved shirt did nothing to camouflage the latent power of his shoulders and arms. His muscled ass filled out his slacks.
His golden-blond hair didn’t soften the tough-guy look in the slightest. In fact, his Slavic good looks made the whole package even more frightening.
Next to the two guidos he was with, he definitely looked like the one who made grown men scream in terror.
But the bad boy thing, coupled with his apparent interest in her, made him more than a little attractive.