Chapter 9 #2
Adrik draws in a deep breath, rolling his broad shoulders that tug the tight black t-shirt stretched across his chest. He lounges back on his stone and metal throne, resting one ankle on the opposite knee.
“Well then, Achilles…” He gestures in a kingly way with his hand. “Speak.”
I glance at my cousin, my brow furrowing.
“Alone, Adrik.”
He flashes a toothy, predatory grin. “I don’t know if this has come up at Drakos family dinners yet, but your cousin is inner circle now with The Reckless. So…” He shrugs. “Speak. Or don’t.”
My jaw grinds as I watch Bella casually climb up onto the dais and lean her hip against the side of the throne.
Adrik smiles wolfishly. “Before you do, though, I have a question for you.”
My brow furrows. “That's not how this is going to work.”
“Then it's not going to work at all,” he shrugs. “And I’ll remind you that it's Reckless night here at The Garrison. Not golden princes of Para Bellum with silver spoons up their assholes night.”
It’s not information that’s widely out there. But I do know from my family’s resources, especially my Uncle Deimos’ spy network, that there’s a reason Adrik’s more volatile and venomous than usual since this semester started.
His mother, the supermodel River Finn, was in a car wreck this past summer, and is currently in a medically induced coma.
The hush-hush nature of it all is less to do with her own fame and more to do with the fact that her husband is Yuri Volkov, arguably one of the biggest players in the bratva world.
The Drakoses don’t have any animosity toward the Volkovs. So when this was discovered by Deimos’ network of little birds, my whole family promised that it wouldn’t get spread by us.
Adrik and I might not be friends, but I can’t imagine my own mother lying motionless in a bed with tubes and machines keeping her alive.
So I’m about to roll my eyes and brush off his comment…until I see Bella casually reach down, pluck the bottle of vodka from Adrik’s hand, and take a sip.
“I have another question first,” I growl. “Are you fucking my cousin?”
Adrik chuckles as Bella shoots me a “what the fucking fuck, you fuck” look.
“Which cousin, Achilles?” he sighs in a bored tone. “I can’t keep track of all you Drakoses and Kildares. You breed like fucking rabbits. But if you mean Lochlan, I’m sorry to disappoint you, baby boy, but I just don’t swing that way.”
I grit my teeth and slide my gaze to Bella. “I think you know who I mean,” I growl.
Bella rolls her eyes. “Are you fucking serious right now?” she snaps at me.
I don’t love the fury in her glance. But I return my gaze to Adrik. “I asked you a fucking question,” I hiss, my eyes narrowing as Adrik wraps a tattooed arm around Bella’s waist and glances up at her.
“Well, Ms. Drakos?” he grins. “Am I fucking you?”
Bella levels a withering look at me. “Not that I’m aware of,” she mutters.
Adrik turns back to me and shrugs. “Trust me, she’d be aware,” he says dryly. “Okay, my turn for Q and A.” Adrik unwinds his arm from Bella’s waist and takes a sip of vodka. “What were you doing out with Yelena De Luca the other night?”
Shit.
“Because I thought your family and hers were…prickly,” Adrik smiles coldly. “What with this new high rise going up over your grandmother’s house.”
“Great-grandmother,” I growl, glaring at him. “Why were you following me?”
Adrik shakes his head. “I wasn’t.” He glances to Bella, then winks at me.
“Okay, same fucking question, Cousin,” I growl at her.
“I wasn’t SPYING on you,” she sighs. “I was just…” She looks away. “Out for a late-night stroll.”
“So was I,” I mutter as I turn my attention back to Adrik. “Can we be done playing fucking games now?”
Adrik sighs. “Fine. I’m tired of this one anyway.”
“And I have to pee.” Bella hops down from the stone dais and stops to glare up at me. “Don’t be a dick…dick,” she mutters, poking me in the chest with her finger before she walks away.
“This is fun, Achilles.” Adrik smirks. “We should do it more often.” He pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, sticks one between his lips and lights it. “So, what’s the million-dollar question.”
“Two men were apprehended after breaking into the party at Kingsward Hall the other night.”
“That sounds like a campus safety issue, Achilles,” Adrik sighs, taking a drag of his smoke. Then his face crumples into a mock pout. “And party? I suppose my invitation must have been lost in the mail.”
“It wasn’t,” I say coldly.
Adrik chuckles and takes another puff.
“These guys we caught,” I continue. “They weren’t Knightsblood students. They were older, and they were found to be filming and photographing certain guests.”
Adrik cocks one brow. “Certain guests like your late-night jogging partner.”
I level a hard look at him.
Now we come to the crux of why I came here to talk to him tonight. When Ronan and some other Kildare guys were out disposing of the bodies from the cabin earlier, they noticed something I missed before.
“These guys had Volkov tattoos, Adrik,” I growl quietly.
He sits back in his throne again, kicking his long legs out and stroking an inked hand over his chin.
“The past tense suggests they either no longer have these tattoos or no longer have their lives. Which is it?”
“You go to school here, Adrik,” I hiss. “That makes you at least reasonably smart.” My mouth twists. “Missing anyone?”
His brow pinches. “Not that I’m aware of.”
He beckons me over, and I walk to the rubble dais and hand him my phone, opened to the pictures of the photos Ronan sent me earlier of the bodies.
After Adrik swipes through them, he shakes his head.
“I recognize them, but they didn't work for us. We absorbed a small crew, including them, about two years ago when we took over that small Bratva operation in New Jersey. But we cut most of those guys loose a year ago.” He shrugs as he hands the phone back to me. “So, no, Achilles. I wasn’t sending Volkov soldiers into your little frat party to take pictures of your girlfriend.”
Tension ripples in my jaw, but I quiet the roar inside.
Adrik feeds off your revealed emotions, like a poker player.
“Thanks for the help,” I mutter, turning to leave.
Adrik says nothing as I start to walk away. Suddenly he stops me.
“You really are one big happy, sharing family over at Para Bellum, aren’t you?”
The tension returns to my jaw. I try not to turn around, because he’s clearly baiting me again. But eventually I do, to see Adrik smiling that thin, cold, darkly predatory smile, pushing his fingers through his hair.
“Or is tradition for the new lord of Para Bellum to dip his pen into the same ink as his predecessor?”
Darkness flickers inside me.
“Excuse me?”
“Does that douchebag Kyle Santoro know you’re going on romantic evening strolls along the cliffs with his ex-girlfriend?”
My face stays neutral, but inside, a wave of pure violence crashes through me.
We hooked up. She was okay, I guess. But then she got clingy, you know?
Adrik looks quietly amused as he takes a swig from his bottle.
“My family owns Kuro, that omakase sushi place in the West Village.” He shrugs.
“I don’t remember quite how many times I heard about Nero De Luca’s daughter coming in for dates with that Santoro douchebag over the past summer.
Sounds like fishing off the company pier to me, what with their families buying the building behind your babushka’s.
” Adrik takes another drink. “But what do I know.”
He smiles at me. “Need anything else, Drakos?”
I shake my head. “No, that’s it,” I growl.
Adrik smiles magnanimously. “Well, enjoy your night. And hey, have a great football season. Go Privateers.” He winks, no longer smiling.
I don’t understand the level of rage humming through my veins as I find Bella and mumble a vague goodnight. Nor the murderous twitch in my muscles that I usually subdue so well.
It’s pure possession. Obsession.
My new fascination.
I could always destroy Kyle, or burn down whatever mental image she might still have of him, or erase whatever goddam memories she has of the motherfucker who got to what’s mine before I did.
But a direct attack on Kyle means significant monetary losses for my family.
And Kyle isn’t the real issue, anyway.
It’s the fact that Yelena, my prey, has already been caught.
Already belongs to me.
It’s time she understood exactly what that means.