Chapter Twenty-Four
Niamh
“So, how did you and Ivan meet?” I asked.
This was kind of a dangerous question, because I was worried he’d start to ask me more questions. I’d been honest with how we’d met. I just hadn’t filled in all the blanks of our story.
I was curious about Peter.
“My father was part of the Bratva before Ivan turned up. Before Ivan, the Bratva wasn’t exactly thriving. They followed their rules and kept old traditions alive. When it came to my father, though, he had his own set of rules to live by. Ivan found me when I was young. He hadn’t even begun to take over the Bratva at this time. He snuck onto my father’s land, told me what was happening. Told me the truth of my brothers and sisters, who they were, and where they were coming from.”
Peter stopped and reached into the water to take hold of my hands. We’d been lying in the hot water for a short time, and I rested against Peter. His legs were on either side of me, and I had been resting my hands on his thighs.
“So Ivan didn’t miraculously take over the Bratva from his father?”
“No, we had to take our time. Little by little, he took land and then pushed out the competition. He built a name for himself, made everyone afraid of him, and when the time came, he told me that to swear my loyalty to him, I had to kill my father and everyone associated with the games he played.”
I tilted my head to look back to him. “Was that hard to do? Kill your father?”
He shook his head. “No, it was one of the easiest kills I ever made. Taking him out, along with the men and women who’d earned money from watching us all suffer. That had been easy.”
I settled back into the water, imagining all kinds of horrendous things. It was difficult to even think about. Men and women taking joy in kids being terrified, doing whatever they could to survive. “I couldn’t imagine going through that.”
“I know. Some of the kids, when they arrived, looked like they had been saved, but me and the others knew the truth, and the nightmare had only just begun.”
“How can someone do that?”
“Because there are a lot of sick fucks in this world, babe.”
I stopped and smiled. “Babe?” He’d never called me that, and I wasn’t going to lie, I did kind of like it.
He cupped my cheek and tilted my head toward him. “You’re my babe.”
His thumb danced across my bottom lip and I felt that spiraling need for him again. I’d given up on hating this man. From what he’d told me, he had already experienced a lot of hate in his life, and I wasn’t going to add to it. Reaching up, I pulled him down, and then his lips were on mine, and everything felt all right in the world, it felt safe.
Slowly, I turned around and then moved to straddle his lap. His cock was already rock-hard, and I sunk my fingers into his hair, as I deepened the kiss. This time, I slid my tongue into his mouth and met mine with his, and he tasted like coffee and whiskey.
He gripped the back of my neck, which I loved, but then he slowly began to slide down. The tips of his fingers created a dance of sensation down the length of my back, until he got to my ass, which he gripped hard.
My mouth opened and I tilted my head back, unable to think of anything, but to feel the pleasure of what he was doing to me. It felt so good and I didn’t want him to stop.
I needed him inside me, so I reached down, wrapped my fingers around his long length, and then settled between his thighs. I whimpered as I put the tip of his cock at my core, and I was the one that guided him inside my body, taking him hard and deep.
Peter broke the kiss first, and growled, “Fuck!”
I didn’t have the words to join him, but he pulsed inside me. The pleasure already heightened and now even more so. Returning my grip to his shoulders, I opened my eyes and stared into his sharp blue ones. These were the eyes of the man I loved. There was no one else I wanted in the world.
He stopped gripping my ass, and instead returned to my hips. He helped me set up a pace, and I rode his long, thick, hard cock, feeling him thicken and grow with every passing second. I didn’t want to stop fucking him.
But all too soon, Peter stopped and held me in place. “I want you to come all over my cock. Touch yourself, Niamh.”
He’d asked me to do this before, and as I kept looking into his eyes, I reached between us. When he first asked me to do this, back in Pickle Quest, I’d been so embarrassed to touch myself, but he’d helped me break down so many walls that now I didn’t mind. In fact, I stroked my clit and watched him as I did so.
With him inside me, I felt almost too full. I loved it when he did this.
“That’s it, baby, touch that sweet clit, make yourself come all over my cock. I want to feel it.”
Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I tried to contain my screams.
He let me go long enough to cup my cheek, and for his thumb to pull my lip out from between my teeth.
“You make those sounds, I want to hear them. Now, let me hear them.”
I cried out, his name spilling from my lips less than a second later.
He took possession of my mouth, and then his hands were on my hips as my orgasm rushed through me, and he began to fuck me, using me for his own pleasure, and I loved it. I didn’t want it to stop.
In that moment, I knew we weren’t using protection, and I hoped he got me pregnant.
****
Peter
Today was my birthday, and the day had started out as any other day. Waking up, making love to my wife, which wasn’t like any other birthday. This was the first birthday I’d gotten that privilege to do so. Then, it had been a shower, again, one taken with Niamh, which had felt like a birthday gift. After that, coffee, breakfast, and out for the day, where I had to take care of a meddling cop, deal with a few payment inconsistencies, do some actual work of checking over the books. All the while aware of Ivan, The Butcher, and The Beast in my territory with Finn Jr., because they still hadn’t handled him.
All I’d wanted was to come home. Niamh had texted me, asking me how long I was going to be. I loved her impatience, and as I arrived at my building, my patience was tested at a whole new level as I saw her guards waiting outside the penthouse. This pissed me off. I felt my hand twitch for my gun.
As I stepped up to the first man, about to wipe that fucking smile off his face, the door to the penthouse opened and Niamh stuck her head out.
“You’re home, that’s great. Please don’t be upset with any of them, I was the one who told them to wait outside until you arrived home.”
Now, I was frowning. I wasn’t used to this conspiring, not unless someone was about to kill me.
She held the door open a little wider for me to step through. I was still pissed that the guards had left her alone. While Ivan was playing his little games with Finn Byrne, I wanted her always protected. He’d already taken her from me, and I wasn’t going to allow that to happen again.
Stepping through the door, I heard soft music playing. Niamh took my jacket, and then grabbed my hands.
“Now, don’t be afraid, okay?” Niamh said.
I didn’t fight her as she all but dragged me toward the sitting room, and that was when I was shocked. Across the full-screen television read a banner that said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETER.
On the coffee table was a load of party snacks, and Niamh let me go long enough to put a hat on her head and blow on one of those toys that opened up, making a noise.
“Happy Birthday,” she said, throwing her hands in the air.
“You did me a birthday party.”
“Yes, and I didn’t invite anyone, not because I didn’t want to, but you don’t strike me as someone who is happy to have a lot of people around you for yourself.”
I reached for her, pulling her in close. “This is perfect,” I said. I’d never celebrated my birthday.
Until Ivan entered my world, I didn’t even know what my birthday was, or when it was. We found all the details on my birth certificate.
After discovering what my father did, how he took unwanted kids to exploit them, I had thought I might be like any other orphaned kid, but the only difference for me was I was good at surviving, which was why he declared me his son.
No, I was Orlov’s son. It’s why I kept his name. This was my reminder of who he was, and not to be that way.
Niamh smiled. “Well, Bill, Ryan, and Smith, it was their turn to guard me, so I got them to help with the streamers and balloons. I was tempted to go with helium balloons, but they were all out of them, so I bought a packet and we blew them up all afternoon.”
“You’d been planning this?”
“Ever since I found out when your birthday was. I know it’s not a lot, and I know you could get some party organizer to do something on a bigger scale, but this is what I could do.”
I cupped her cheeks and stared into her brown eyes. “This is amazing.”
She smiled and it lit up her whole face, and I knew in that moment I couldn’t let her go. I was just about to tell her I loved her when suddenly my cell phone began to buzz.
I gritted my teeth. Any other call I’d have ignored, but this was Ivan, and I couldn’t. He was in my territory, and I couldn’t allow anything to happen to him, because if I did, the other Brigadiers would kill me.
“I’ve got to take this.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be waiting,” Niamh said.
I didn’t want her to be waiting.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Happy Birthday to you too. It’s done.”
“What’s done?” I asked.
“What I needed from Finn Byrne, and now you have less than an hour to come and take care of the problem.”
I looked at Niamh. I wanted to be the one to kill Finn Byrne with my own two hands, to also make sure the deed was done. But this was my birthday, Niamh had made me a party.
“Where?”
Ivan gave me the location and I told him I’d be there in twenty minutes. I ended the call and looked toward Niamh.
“It’s okay, you’ll be back as soon as you can?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Niamh walked toward me, ran her hands up my chest, and stepped in close. “Then go.”
I didn’t want to go, but I vowed when I was given the chance, I was going to take care of Finn Byrne. I banded an arm around her waist, pulled her in close, and slammed my lips down on hers. I was coming back to her.
Leaving our penthouse suite, I made my way downstairs to the underground parking lot, and in that moment, I suddenly realized the moment I killed Finn Byrne, Niamh got to make a choic e— one that meant she stayed with me, or the other choice, where she left me and got her freedom.
****
Ivan
Everything had fallen into place, just as I knew it would. Ending the call, I turned toward Finn Byrne who was tied to a chair. He’d attempted to run. He tried to get hold of his last contact, only to have the man screaming and begging for mercy. This was courtesy of The Beast. I’d gotten him to do that final kill.
It had all been leading up to this very moment with Peter’s birthday. This was my gift to him.
“What the fuck do you want with me?” Finn asked. “I’ve done nothing to you.”
“That’s not entirely accurate. Butcher, are you ready?”
I had set up this warehouse to have the maximum effect and as the light came on, he would see Finn Jr. Every now and then, The Butcher had been paying Finn Jr., a visit, finding out all the things that little prick had been up to. It would seem Finn Jr., was just like his dad, only worse. Where Finn Byrne manipulated, lied, cheated, and stole, Junior simply took and took and took. He’d left a trail of broken men and women. Junior didn’t mind raping both men and women. In fact, he got a kick out of the men being held down while he overpowered them. Same with the women, and then he’d taunt them. The cops wouldn’t arrest him because of who Daddy Dearest was.
I’d taken care of that as well.
There were quite a few of Junior’s victims that hadn’t been able to handle what was happening. They had taken their own lives. The remaining ones, well, they had left, running, hiding, doing whatever they could not to be seen.
Then, of course, there were the ones that tried to fight, and those had ended up dead.
The Butcher didn’t particularly like Junior. She’d been wanting to kill him for quite some time, and when I told her my plan, she was all for it.
Junior had been stripped down, and was now completely naked. It looked like he’d already pissed and shit himself.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Finn asked. “You leave my son alone.”
“Wish I could, but you see, he hunted in my territory, and there must be a price for that. Also, he has to die today,” I said.
“Leave him alone. Let him go. He’s just a young kid, and he made mistakes.”
The Butcher held out her knife, and I just knew what she was going for first, and yes, we didn’t hear the sounds. I’d gotten the room soundproofed so all Finn could do was see his son struggling. He tried to fight the binds that held him to the chair, but nothing was going to let him go.
For effect, The Butcher pried open Junior’s mouth and shoved his cock inside it. She really did love her work.
Now, I turned toward Finn Byrne. I’d been waiting for this moment for a long time. He shook in his chair, and I looked at the man who had taken everything from me, and the bastard didn’t even know what it was.
“You know, I lied to your daughter,” I said.
This caught Finn’s attention. I waited, allowing his gaze to drift to the torture of his son.
“I told her my wife had died of cancer.” This caught Finn’s attention. No one knew Ivan Volkov was a married man. I had been happily married as well. Even now, Finn thought he was going to be able to escape, but that wasn’t going to happen. None of them were. “But that is not entirely true. You see, my wife was diagnosed with cancer, but we had caught it early, and she was on the way back from the hospital. She’d already called me with the news that the doctor had confirmed she was cancer-free. She’d have to go through all the unnecessary checks.”
“What the fuck does this have to do with me? I didn’t cause fucking cancer.”
“You’re right. You didn’t, but what you did have control of was a bullet.” I pulled out my cell phone, and I had kept the information all these years, and I played the tape. My wife, Kaitlyn, had stopped at a gas station. She had a craving for chocolate candy, and as she’d gotten out of her car, Finn Byrne and Junior drove up, and they opened fire.
It turned out they had an issue with a rising crime lord in the local area that went by O’Neil. Finn wasn’t happy with a takeover bid, and the fact O’Neil had some kind of shipment of girls. That day, they had killed O’Neil, and in doing so, they had hit the gas station where my wife had been innocently getting a candy bar.
“You see that woman right there, she’s my wife. When Niamh’s mother was at the hospital getting her stomach pumped, I was there losing mine, who had just beat fucking cancer.” I reached out and grabbed the man’s throat. I tightened my grip, watching him choke, struggling to breathe, and he couldn’t fight it. All he could do was take what I was forcing him to take.
He was close to passing out, and I let him go. Getting to my feet, I pocketed my cell phone, and then I moved toward The Butcher’s tools that she had left for me to play with.
“Now, I am a man of my word, and I promised Peter he could end you, and seeing as I’ve been playing with you for the past few months, it is only fair, but I’ve got to make sure you can’t talk.” I held up a pair of what looked like medieval pliers. “Perfect.”
“You’re just like your father,” Finn said.
I looked at him. “Do you really think I give a fuck about being compared to him? I know I’m not like him, because I have all of this, and he had nothing. I should warn you that he also took from me, hurt me, and I made sure I made him pay for it. I’m good like that.” I didn’t have to get my revenge right away. I had learned that plotting, planning, and being prepared was all I needed to get what I wanted.
Finn fought me, but after landing a blow to his head with my fist, it weakened him enough for me to get his tongue in the pliers, and I pulled it out of his mouth, and with a simple swipe of the blade, I removed his tongue. I dropped the tongue onto the floor, and then I moved behind him and watched. The Butcher had been working on Finn Jr.
After what happened to Kaitlyn, and when Cara taunted me with her, I had no choice but to kill my best friend. I didn’t know how Cara had learned of Kaitlyn. I’d kept her identity a secret. Not even Slavik knew of her. No one had. Only Niamh, me, and now Finn Byrne, but he wasn’t going to survive the night.
The Butcher dealt the killing blow just as Peter Orlov walked through the door.
I always kept my promises, and that day in the hospital, I’d known who Finn Byrne was.
“And your empire,” I said, whispering in Finn Byrne’s ear. “Will be sold up, given away to good causes.” I knew what Niamh would do, of that I had no doubt. She was a rare gem, and those I kept safe, because I had failed my own rare gem.