Chapter 8 Vasily
Vasily
Nina’s face pales at my question. I knew she wouldn’t like it, but I had to ask. I wait for her to tell me, and when she hesitates, I raise a brow at her and wait for the name.
“You can’t kill my dad,” she whispers.
“After everything he did, you want to protect him from me?”
“He’s my dad,” she says in explanation.
“And you’re his daughter, the one person on this whole goddamn earth that he’s supposed to protect, and instead he fed you to the fucking wolves.
” I’m pissed, and I know my voice sounds hard and that it’s scaring her, so I force myself to take a deep, steadying breath.
“Please tell me his name. I’ll find it out anyway, Nina. You know I will.”
“Promise me you won’t kill him.” She grips my shoulders, pleading with her big, dark eyes, and I can’t fucking deny her. I don’t think I could deny her anything.
“I won’t kill him, but I am going to make him regret his decision.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing that will stop his heart, zolotse, so stop worrying. I never go back on my word.”
“Richard,” she finally whispers, and I quickly add his name to the list.
My phone vibrates on the desk. Dr. Cabrini’s name flashes on the screen, but it’s in Cyrillic so Nina can’t read it.
I grab the phone and answer it. The results will let me know how long I need to make each of these deaths last. They’re going to be slow no matter what, but I don’t mind tacking on some extra time.
I say a quick hello, knowing she’ll get right to the point.
She doesn’t disappoint, and when I end the call, I turn to Nina with a smile.
“That was Dr. Cabrini. Your test results were great. You’re negative on everything.”
Nina lets out a relieved sigh. “That’s great to hear. I thought maybe they would be because it was the one thing Ruby was strict about. Nothing like a rapidly spreading case of chlamydia to put a damper on your sex business.”
“That is very true. Ruby would lose all her business overnight, and there would be some very angry housewives throughout the city. I wouldn’t even need to go through the list. I’m guessing they’d take care of it for me.”
She scrolls back through the list of men, finding the photo of Justin. “I wonder if he’s the one who examined me.”
“Someone examined you?”
“Yeah, when I first got there and realized what was happening, I passed out. Ruby gave me a shot of something while I was out of it and when I came to, she said she’d had a doctor examine me. That’s how she knew I was a virgin.”
“God, baby,” I say, feeling like a giant ass. “That happened and then you come here and I do the same goddamn thing.”
“It’s not the same,” she quickly says. “You were trying to protect me by making sure I got the tattoo. It’s not the same thing at all.”
“I’m still sorry.” I run my eyes over her, wondering if I’ll ever stop feeling so protective of her.
My arm is resting on her lap, and when she drags her fingers along my forearm it sends a small spark of pleasure all through me.
There’s something about her touch that drives me wild.
It’s unlike anything I’ve ever known. I already crave it, and I know that craving is only going to grow stronger with every minute I spend with her.
“I really like your tattoos,” she says, giving me a shy smile. Her fingers trace the wolf tattoo on my right forearm, and when she gets to her name, she stills. “This one looks newer than the others. What does it say?”
“This one is very special to me,” I tell her.
She traces the Cyrillic letters. “Is this an H?”
“No, it’s an N in Russian.”
When she realizes there are two Ns with a letter she doesn’t know between them and an A at the end, she widens her eyes and looks up at me. I smile and say, “It’s my wife’s name.”
“When did you have it done?”
“I asked Nikolai to do it after he’d finished with yours.”
“But you barely knew me then.”
“I knew enough, zolotse.”
She blushes, and I can’t resist running a finger along her flushed cheek.
How any man could hurt her is beyond me.
I’ve killed more people than I can even remember at this point, and I would never be able to hurt her.
I know I told her earlier that I’d like to kiss her hard enough to make her healing lip bleed, but to me that’s not the same thing.
I would only enjoy it if she were as desperate and feral about it as I would be.
Her pleasure and desire and raw, primal need for me is what would fuel that sort of bloodlust. I would never get off on her fear or any pain that wasn’t laced with her sexual pleasure.
The look on her face reminds me of when I’d kissed her on the balcony.
It’s a mix of desire and fear. She wants me, but she’s also scared of wanting me.
My heart breaks a little every time I see that kind of fear in her eyes.
I can’t imagine what she must’ve gone through, having her virginity ripped from her in the cruelest way.
It must’ve been so damn painful. No wonder she’s terrified of sex.
“I can’t wait until all the fear I see in your eyes is replaced with pleasure. I want to see your face lit up with ecstasy.”
She blushes deeper and averts her eyes, but not before I see the flash of want in them. That look is enough. It tells me all I need to know, so I don’t push it any more. She’ll slowly open herself up to me, and I can be as patient as she needs me to be.
“Do you want to go and get your things from your parents’ house?”
She looks up at the change in subject. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to go back there. I don’t know if I want to ever see them again.”
“I understand, but if you want your things, I can have them brought here. We can go together, or I can go alone, whichever is easiest for you.”
She thinks and absentmindedly runs her fingers over the tattoo of her name. “I’ll go with you,” she finally decides, but then she quickly cuts her eyes to mine. “You won’t leave me alone with them?”
“Never, zolotse, not even for a second.”
“Okay then. It would be nice to have my clothes and books.”
“If you’d rather not go, we can just order you some new stuff.”
“Thank you, but I’d like to have my things.
I was going to move out this summer and find an apartment.
I just wanted to wait for the semester to end first. It seemed silly to waste money on rent when my parents lived so close to campus and were rarely home anyway, but I’d had all I could take.
I was ready to leave, but then all this happened. ”
“You won’t ever have to live there again.” I pull her closer and kiss her top lip, resisting the urge to give it a good suck and spend the next several minutes memorizing and exploring every inch of her mouth. “Time for me to meet the in-laws,” I say with a grin.
She points to her dad’s name on the list. “You’re going to do it today, aren’t you?”
“I see no point in waiting.”
“No, I guess there isn’t one.”
She watches me fold the list and put it in my pocket. “Come on, baby. I’ll have Andrei and Ilya pick up some boxes and then meet us there in one of the trucks so we’ll have extra room to haul your stuff back.”
I set her down, even though I’d rather just carry her everywhere.
She’s so much shorter than me, and there’s no denying how right she feels when she’s in my arms. I kiss the top of her head and tell her to grab some shoes while I go find the guys to tell them the plans for the day.
Most of the other men left after Igor’s death, but a few are still hanging out when I go outside to find Ilya and Andrei.
None of them meet my eyes. Fear of me is still running through them, but that’s a good thing.
I know they trust and respect me, but it’s good for them to fear me every once in a while, especially when it comes to any of them laying a hand on my wife.
I’ll kill every fucking one of them for daring to touch what’s mine, and now they know it.
When I find Andrei, he’s spraying blood off the driveway. I look around at all the acres of private land around us, knowing it was worth the enormous price tag because it gives me the freedom to do things like kill a man in my own front yard without having to worry about nosy neighbors.
“Grab Ilya and get some moving boxes and then meet us at Nina’s parents’ house. I’ll text you the address.”
“Are you going to kill her dad?” he asks. “She might not like that.”
I shake my head. “No, I promised her I wouldn’t.”
“Marriage is all about compromise.”
“Tell me about it,” I say with a laugh. “I’ll still make him regret his decision, though.”
Andrei and Ilya are the only two who know the details about what Nina’s been through. They don’t know everything, but they know enough, and I know either one of them would be more than happy to hold the bastard down while I gut him.
When Nina joins us, I get the address, smiling when I see that it’s firmly on our side of the city, and text it to Andrei before leading her to the garage.
Instead of taking the Porsche, I head for one of the SUVs so we can load boxes in the back.
The drive doesn’t take long, and when we’re only a couple of minutes away, Nina starts tapping her foot and fidgeting. Reaching over, I squeeze her hand.
“Relax, baby. They can’t hurt you anymore. Soon, they’ll understand that.”
We pull into the driveway, and as soon as Nina’s out of the vehicle, I wrap my arm around her shoulders so we can walk up together.
She digs a key ring out of her pocket and unlocks the front door.
The house is like all the other boring mini mansions on this street, and I want to roll my eyes at the fakeness of it all.
I’ve met too many people like her parents.
Pompous, full of themselves, assholes who turn their noses up at everyone while hiding their own horrific sins from view. Hypocritical bastards.