Chapter 23
ALONZO
The more I listen to this insane plan, the angrier I get. What the fuck are they thinking? They’re sending Rori to the slaughter. I don’t fucking care that she’s an assassin or whatever she wants to call herself. She’s one person, and they act like she can take down the entire place herself.
I finally lose it when they mention the fucking panthers and Rori needing to get in and slip them something to make them woozy so they’re less likely to come in and cause any problems. What the actual fuck?
“No. No fucking way.” The words burst out of me like lightning, and they all turn to stare at me. Ivano and Titus share a look, neither of them on board with this asinine plan either. “We’re coming up with something else. No fucking way am I sending my woman in to—”
“I’m not your fucking woman, and you don’t get a fucking say in what I do,” Rori snarls at me, her face flushing with her own ire.
“You damn well are. You are not fucking superwoman. You’re a bounty hunter from California. This shit, isn’t—”
“It is fucking me, Alonzo,” she yells, turning to face me fully.
“Oh shit, where’s the dog?” I vaguely hear Zakhar burst out with a loud laugh.
“I told you not to come here,” she reminds me harshly, her voice lowering slightly, but the punch of anger hasn’t diminished.
“I told you to stay the fuck back in New York or to go home. You didn’t fucking listen.
You don’t have to like what you know about me now, but that’s who I am.
I am not going to allow myself to be pushed to the background.
Not like you did to me in New York. So, unless you’re going to actually be helpful, shut the hell up. ”
“Do you even hear yourself? You’re talking about going up against a whole army of men.
The minute you take out Timur or your father, they’re going to be all over.
And this other assassin they’re bringing.
You’ll be dead after the first shot. Now you’re talking about taking down the fucking panthers and wolves they have around the estate? ”
“He really doesn’t know your past, does he?” Ilya sighs. “Jesus Christ, this is going to be a fucking mess.”
“We should probably just tie him up in the dungeon and leave him there until it’s done,” Zakhar agrees, giving me a pitying look.
Ivano and Titus share a look but say nothing. I don’t care if they think I’m being an unreasonable asshole. This is insane.
I look at Rori, but still at the cold look on her face. The same one that I saw in her room earlier. The same one that sends a chill down my spine and makes my gut uneasy. The same one that Tatiana gave me the few times I’ve been in her presence.
We stare at each other, neither of us willing to look away. I won’t let her think she can intimidate me. That her past means anything. That was then, this will be her future. I will be her future. We can deal with the past once I get her out of here.
I make a mental note to get a message out to Urso and Zeno to get the plane to us as quickly as possible. We’re only going to have one shot at this.
The tension between Rori and me grows until I finally grit out through clenched teeth, “Rori, you know this is crazy. My own family wouldn’t even attempt this without a hell of a lot more planning and men. We have neither.”
“Your mistake is thinking I need them, Alonzo,” she tells me coldly. She turns her head to Ilya. “I need to think on things, and I’ll talk to you in a couple of hours. Did you get what I asked for?”
“Yes, it should all be in your room.” He glances at me, and I skewer him with a warning glare. If he’s thinking of trying to keep me away from Rori, he’s about to have a hell of a fight on his hands.
Without another word, he pushes back from the table and heads for his desk. Everyone else is quick to leave, and I’m hot on Rori’s heels. She doesn’t try to stop me, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing or one that’s about to get my ass handed to me.
And my traitorous cock certainly likes the idea of fighting with Rori again. Damn it. I don’t need a hard-on right now.
Rori doesn’t stop until we reach her room, but when I move to follow her and Hades in, she turns, her knee driving up into my balls before I can block it. A wave of pain and nausea rushes over me, and my knees hit the floor, hand covering my aching balls.
Rori looks down at me with a cold glare.
“I will not tell you again, Alonzo. We’re done.
You had your chance, you fucked it up, and I’m not about to deal with your shit when I have more important things to worry about.
” She slams the door behind her when she rounds on her heel, and I hear the lock snick loudly.
I groan, trying to breathe through the pain. Fuck, I really need to get better at blocking her. Or wearing a fucking cup, especially if Hades is going to snap at me again.
I should probably count my lucky stars she didn’t set him on me right now to really make her point. I’m going to spank her ass red at the first opportunity. Then I’m going to fuck her until she can’t walk because it’s probably the only way to keep her ass out of trouble.
I manage to get gingerly to my knees. If she thinks she’s going to keep me out with a lock, she has another thing coming. We’re having this out tonight. First, though, I’m going to let her cool off a little bit.
I head to my room, jumping in the shower. I need to search it again for more bugs, but I don’t give a shit if they have some hidden camera and are jerking off to me in the shower. I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do about Rori.
This whole fucking situation sucks. I want to kill Tatiana for this situation, and I want to kill her again for making it nearly impossible for me to get Rori out of here safely. At least not without dealing with this entire mess first.
If this entire situation is as fucked up as it’s turning out to be, why hasn’t she come down and handled it herself?
I turn off the shower with a snap of my wrist, irritated. I need to get back to Rori to try to talk her out of this insane plane.
No one stops me when I leave my room, making my way down the hall and across to another one where they put her. I know they did that shit on purpose, probably to make sure catching me was easy if they decided to stop me, but they can kiss my ass. Nothing will keep me from her.
Reaching her door, I stop and listen, but I hear no noise on the other side. My lips pull down in a hard frown. Did she leave? Then I hear the faintest sound, and a soft whine. Hades is in there, and she won’t leave him alone. Not here. Relief fills me. Alright, time to get to work.
It takes me a minute to pick the lock, and I walk inside, braced and ready to move if she tries to take me out or sics Hades on me. Instead, I find the room empty, and the bathroom door shut. There’s movement on the other side, and I can hear Hades in there with her, pacing.
I shut the door and lock it again. I don’t need us to be disturbed. I wouldn’t put it past that Zakhar fucker to try and get in here to make a move on her. Again. I don’t care if it will start a war with the Russians, because I’ll wring his fucking neck.
Rori is mine.
I barely sit myself on the edge of her bed to wait when the door to her room opens, and I’m already up. I barely have time to register it’s Simeon Belov before I’m grabbing him, spinning him, and shoving him face-first into the wall.
He tries to kick his leg back to trip me.
Unlucky for him, that only pisses me off further.
He manages to get an elbow into my gut, making me release him, but when he tries to attack me, I tackle him, sending us both crashing into the door.
“Fucker!” Simeon hisses when I head butt him, but he follows it up with a knee to the gut and a shove that has me falling into the chair in the corner.
“Asshole,” I spit, rolling quickly to my feet, ignoring the pain. He swipes his hand under his nose, wiping away the blood dripping from it. “Next time, I’ll break it. What the fuck do you think you’re doing in here?”
“Me? What the fuck are you doing in my fiancée’s room?”
Wrong fucking thing to say. Rage and jealousy blur, and I’m on him again. This time, I grab both his hands, block the knee he aims, and spin him around, using my hand to grab him by the hair, making him yelp in surprise and pain when I slam him against the wall.
He’s shorter than me, so I lean down and hiss, “I’ve already fucking told you, asshole, she isn’t fucking marrying you. She’s mine.”
“She already told you that she didn’t want you here, so fuck you,” he bites out, his words slightly muffled from the wood he’s pressed against. “You had your chance, prick, and you blew it. I heard all about it.”
I press harder, making him grunt and struggle.
“Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t give a fuck what you heard.
Aurora O’Brien is mine. She has been mine, and she always will be.
Whatever shit I fucked up, I’ll fix. And I’m not about to sit around and watch as you use her the way your father and hers have tried to.
Get in my way, and I’ll kill you. She. Is. Mine.”
“Fuck you.”
I’m about ready to snap this fucker’s neck, consequences be damned, when I hear a low warning growl behind me, a gun press against the middle of my spine, and a second one comes up and press against Simeon’s temple.
We freeze, and I can hear Simeon’s breathing start to hitch.
“Alonzo, let him go. Now.” The order is sharp, and even though I want to shake my head, tell her that I’m not doing shit with this prick, she digs her gun a little harder into my back, and I force myself to release him.
The gun falls away, but I don’t trust her not to shoot me just to make a point, so I side step her, quickly turning around as she drops her gun from Simeon’s temple and calls off Hades.
I stare at the woman in front of us, and my heart stops. But not in a good way, or in the way that they describe in those stupid books the women were talking about.
The woman in front of me is a stranger. She’s become someone—something—else. What the fuck did she do?
The only recognizable part of her is the green of her eyes, but they’re flat, devoid of any of the emotion I’m accustomed to seeing. I take her in, feeling a mixture of desire and confusion.
Gone is her bleached blonde hair, replaced by a short black pixie cut that makes her face look far sharper.
Her makeup is completely removed, including the bright red of her lips, the natural pink now the only color allowed to show.
She’s changed into a dark black top that fits her so tightly she looks almost flat, like she’s banded her breasts to make her look more manly, and covers every inch of skin except her hands.
She’s wearing an equally black set of pants that hug every inch of her legs and hips, and on her feet are black combat boots that add another inch to her height.
She puts the guns in two holsters, one at her back and the other at her side, just under her left breast, and I absently notice that her nails are no longer painted a bold color but back to bare and cut short.
I struggle to grasp what I’m seeing, while battling the knowledge that this is the woman who was in my bed only a few weeks ago, soft and warm, screaming my name and driving me insane.
Gone is Aurora O’Brien, the woman I’ve fallen head over heels for, and in her place stands a woman I barely recognize. Rayea Antonova is back.