Chapter 10
SLADE
Aphone buzzing wakes me up from the empty dream I had.
I look at my surroundings and see I’m in a bed, cuddled up next to someone.
My arms are wrapped around Isabella who is sleeping silently.
Her back is to me and I have one arm around her waist and the other under her head, my hand holding hers.
She is sleeping so beautifully.
How can someone sleep while looking like an angel at the same time?
She’s lying next to me as if I’m not a monster and I won’t tarnish her dreams or soul.
I move my arm from around her waist and my fingers graze her skin making her shiver. I scoot away from her just so she can lay down on her back and I can have a clear view of her face.
Her lips are parted and she is breathing steadily.
I use one of my fingers to trace her features on her face slowly, while also trying not to wake her up.
I’m surprised I even slept.
I was going to leave once she fell asleep but after cuddling up next to her, feeling her warm body against mine, I knocked out.
I don’t fucking cuddle.
I don’t do women or anyone in fact.
I keep my walls up high so that I don’t get fucked up in the end but why is this girl making it so easy for me to let her in?
She is slowly creeping closer to my walls with an explosive to break them all down in one go.
I could have gone another day without sleeping but my body felt relaxed and I couldn’t help but fall with her into a deep sleep.
My phone buzzing again makes me groan and look away from her.
I grab my phone from her side table and see that my older brother, Ryker, is calling.
I roll my eyes and answer. “What?”
“Don’t give me that tone, brat,” he spits out. “You’ve been dodging me and Landon’s calls for the past week. We thought you died or went on a killing spree.”
“Not yet unfortunately. What do you want?”
“Why do you make it sound like you're busy? Did you just wake up or something?” Ryker asks.
My brother Ryker is the sanest out of all of us.
My dad treated him like gold because he is the oldest.
Everyone loves Ryker because he is the good brother who will do anything to protect his family. I always wondered why our dad didn’t just give the Pakhan title to Ryker in his will. But instead of doing things the easy way he wanted me and my two brothers to have a friendly competition.
We each have to complete a task in order for us to get the title. Whoever does it the best wins.
My dad always loved putting the three of us in a competition.
He enjoyed having a fucking show.
“Why haven’t you been answering?” Ryker asks.
My eyes go to Isabella, wanting immediately to just hang up on the motherfucker and go back to bed with her.
It’s hard not to kiss her while staring at her.
She’s just too tempting.
“Is it a girl?” Ryker says, and I can hear him smiling.
“I’m going to hang up on you.”
“Wait, wait, wait. I didn’t call to tease you.” He laughs. “I’m calling you about a kill and also a possible problem.”
A possible problem.
The fuck is that supposed to mean.
“Hold on.” I rest the phone on the side table and glance at Isabella, admiring her before taking the blanket off me and fixing it on her. She snuggles into the pillow and sighs, still sleeping. I grab my phone and leave her room, closing the door. “What do you want?”
“I have someone I need you to kill for me. He is in New York now. Make it quick. Make it clean. I’ll send you the information right now,” Ryker says as I step into my room, locking the door behind me.
“As for the problem. I just sent you a picture of someone who was walking suspiciously around your apartment building. Your second in command told me about him, but because you haven’t been answering your phone, he forwarded me the details and told me to tell you about him.
” I put Ryker on speaker while watching the video he sent me.
It’s a video of a guy in a black hood, standing outside my apartment building.
He seems suspicious as fuck, looking at everyone as if they could be a potential target.
There’s a moment where he glances up at the building and scopes out the place.
“Any idea who this guy could be?” I ask.
“No. We don’t have a clear view of his face with the hood up so Niko said he’s working on trying to trace him.”
I lick my bottom lip and nod, thinking.
“Maybe you know this guy or he could be one of your targets’ family members and he knows you?”
I doubt it.
I’m very careful with my work and who I kill and how I trace my steps.
To the public, Slade Rykov doesn’t live in New York.
He lives in Russia and never shows his face anywhere in New York.
The only time he takes off his mask is in his warehouse building.
I have Niko, my second in command, get all my groceries. I stay in the house if I want to have a drink. I have a little bar cart for myself to make drinks. I don’t go out. I don’t have friends or invite people over.
The only reason I’m in New York is because of work.
“No, I hide myself so it’s impossible.”
“Don’t be reckless, Slade. You need to be careful. You don’t know who this guy is.” Ryker lectures.
My dear big brother, always the one to lecture and make sure the family stays safe.
He would be a good Pakhan but one thing he lacks is detachment.
He is responsible and keeps his ducks in order, but his weakness is his family.
And family is the easiest thing to use against a person.
“Starshiy brat, trust me I’ll be fine. I’m the last person you need to worry about.
Make sure to check on Landon. He was the one who was crashing out over a bitch he hasn’t talked to in six years.
” I’m not wrong, Landon has been stalking his ex ever since they broke up.
He doesn’t get the hint. “You have bigger things to worry about don’t you, Ryker?
Pretty sure it has to do with a certain Italian. Mmm?”
He says nothing and I take that as my cue to hang up.
Him and the rest of my family have no clue.
They have no clue what I’m capable of doing or how the biggest worry I have is killing everyone in sight.
Just like how Isabella should only be scared of one thing.
And it’s the person who is sleeping in the room down the hallway from her.