Chapter 5
Chapter Five
AINSLEY
E ver since Mikhail kissed me four days ago, he’s been avoiding me. Even on Christmas, he barely acknowledged my presence. I sat on our patio, staring at the water in the pool, and sulked. I know he’s punishing me for escaping, but he doesn’t have to.
“Would you like to go to your sister’s today?” Mikhail’s gruff voice comes from behind me as I dress for the day. I turn and look at him already dressed in a suit. “I’m going to the office.”
“Lyric?” I want to see Lennon too, but I haven’t gotten to see Lyric yet.
“Yes. She got married last night,” he says as he walks away.
I stand there in shock. I knew it was going to happen, but she didn’t even invite me. Is she mad at me too?
I finish dressing and wait until I hear him leave before heading downstairs. I grab a quick bite to eat and do some more research on the laptop Mikhail gave me.
“I’m ready,” I tell Damir, who’s waiting by the front door.
He walks me up the road to Belyaev’s house. It’s larger than Mikhail’s and faces Vegas in the distance. I walk up to the door and ring the bell.
I’m about to press the button again when she opens the door. I take her in and can’t hold back the bitterness and hurt from my voice.
“You married him.” I push past her into the house.
“I had to in order to protect myself,” she says softly, and it pisses me off more. There is hurt in her voice but no remorse. No sign she even considered I might have wanted to be there.
“You got married to protect yourself.” I scoff. “You, the hopeless romantic. You love him, don’t you?” I get right in her face and grab her shoulders, giving them a shake.
“I had to.”
I watch as tears roll down her face, and I can’t stay angry any longer. I pull her into my arms and let her get it out. I know why she’s so upset. Her being a hopeless romantic and him just marrying her for her safety hurts. She wanted bells, doves, flowers—the whole works.
“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.” I give her the truth, then pull back to look her in the eyes.
If it hadn’t been for my hunger to go after the underworld bosses, punishing them for the careless way they produced and neglected their children, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Lyric could have had her fairytale ending.
“I read the short article today about Jimmy. Our father is now listed as dead instead of missing.”
“He was bad. He killed people.” My sister doesn’t miss a beat.
“But did he deserve to die?” I ask.
“You don’t know?” She raises an eyebrow.
I’m confused. She knows something, and I want in the loop too. Mikhail doesn’t tell me very much, if anything at all.
“Know what?” I move past her to look around her home.
“Mikhail told you he killed him?”
I stop and turn to look at her. “He did. He said Dmitri didn’t do it, but he did.” That’s all he’s shared. He hasn’t told me why he did it.
“And that’s all?”
“What else is there?” I move back to where she’s standing.
“Come with me,” she says.
She leads me upstairs to an office. One wall is lined with monitors displaying the inner security and main management floor of the Lucky Dice Casino. Aleksei is walking around, working.
“Maybe he loves you too,” I offer.
“Does Mikhail love you?” she asks.
I almost scoff but don’t. She needs me to be honest and serious right now.
“I don’t know. We just started. He’s taking one for the team.”
“How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
My gaze drifts to one of the computers she’s working on. There are two women on the screen. I stare at one of them.
“Wow! That woman looks almost like your husband,” I say, changing the subject.
I sit in her chair, and she nods at me.
Lyric leans over me and shrinks the window. The next one that pops up is of a man in a suit. He’s standing outside the casino everyone in town knows is owned by the Italians. They also have a betting room across town and a restaurant. He’s a member of the Barone family, which is more successful than the Bratva.
“Who is that man?” I point at the screen.
“His name is Giovanni Costa. He hired Jimmy to kill Aleksei’s father,” she tells me.
I stare at him for a moment longer before turning to look up at her.
“What?”
“Jimmy was trying to earn money and make a name for himself. So he marketed himself as a man who could take care of problems. Some he handled on his own; most, he contracted out.”
“Our father was a contract killer?” I ask dumbfounded, and she nods. “Who else?”
“I can’t tell you that part. It isn’t my story to share.”
Something deep inside clicks, and I’m sure it has something to do with Mikhail.
“So, Barone hired Jimmy to kill Aleksei’s father?”
“According to everything I’ve found, it wasn’t Barone. He didn’t know. I’m fairly certain if Barone had known, then Costa would be taking a cement bath.”
“I find it hard to believe Barone didn’t know when they are in the same organization.”
“Yes, there is that, but Lena is Barone’s sister. He put her in hiding right after Bogdan was killed.” She continues telling me the story.
“How did you find this all out? Did Alek ask you to do this?”
She stares at the wall of screens, her husband at the center of them all. Lyric stays silent for a moment, and my heart breaks for her. She does love him, and he’s breaking her. I need to help her. I can’t just sit here and let him make a fool of her.
“No, he didn’t ask. I did it as a gift to him. I wanted to help him find out who killed his father. I didn’t expect to find Lena or Daria,” she finally says, her voice soft.
“So, you hacked the Italians after we were told we couldn’t do that anymore.” I stand up and start pacing.
I need to protect her. I’ll pay the penance for her. It’s about time I sacrificed for her without expecting something in return, like I’ve done in the past.
“We need to get you out of here. They will come, and it will start a war.”
“I didn’t hack Barone. I hacked into Jimmy’s files. I had most of them, but I found others. I then followed the money. It wasn’t easy to find Lena, but I kept at it. You know me.” She shrugs.
“We still need to get you out of here. What if Barone doesn’t ask questions first?”
She steps in front of me. “I didn’t do anything with Barone. I only looked at Costa. I knew it was someone who was upset about Lena and Bogdan being in a relationship. I put two and two together and figured it was her ex. I was right.”
“But?” I can tell she’s not telling me everything.
“I need to go see them. I need to confirm it’s real in person. I can’t stay here, but I don’t know how I’m going to do that without Aleksei finding out.”
Oh, I can help. I’m allowed to leave the community as long as I have guards. I smile wide.
“I’m going out this afternoon. Come with me.”
“How?”
“I’ll tell Mikhail I need sisterly time. Then when we’re out, we can lose our babysitters and get gone like we used to do.”
The thought crosses my mind of how Mikhail paid the price the last time I slipped past my guards. But this time, it’s for family. I’ll face the consequences.
“Okay.”
It only takes me about thirty minutes to get everything arranged. I send a message to a friend to help with my plan, and Lyric messages Aleksei.
I have Damir take us to the outdoor mall. It will be the easiest location for us to ditch them. I lean forward and grip his shoulder, hoping he forgives me for what I’m about to do.
We hop out of the car and head toward a shop. I don’t buy anything, but I pretend we’re searching for something specific. We move from store to store until we reach the one we’ll use for our escape.
I told Lyric I’m going with her, but I’m not. I have to stay behind and head them off, give her the chance to get away clean. Aleksei needs to understand that my sister isn’t some consolation prize, she’s someone’s everything. She deserves that.
I grab a couple of outfits off a rack and approach the salesgirl. “Could you help a girl out?” I say, keeping my voice low. “See that guy?” I nod toward Damir waiting outside the store. “He and his friends are stalking me. He’s my ex,” I tell her. “He used to beat me. Can you help us get away from them?”
The girl glances toward the windows, then back at us. She nods. Then leads us to the dressing rooms and subtly points out the back door.
We drop the clothes in the dressing room and rush out the back. My friend is waiting for us in the alley. I open the car door and push Lyric inside.
“I still have friends,” I say.
Lyric looks between me and him.
I look up and see the back door opening.
“Go! They’re coming.” I slam the car door shut and watch as they speed off.
Damir bursts into the alley and is on me in seconds. Lyric looks back at me, and I wave, hoping she knows I love her.
“What have you done?” he barks.
“I saved my sister.” I lift my chin defiantly.
He grasps my arm and leads me back to the car. I go willingly, ready to face whatever comes my way.
I stare out the window and notice we aren’t heading toward the house. I’m not surprised when we pull up behind the Russian Cardroom.
Damir has a firm grip on my arm, like he expects me to make a run for it. We head upstairs to Mikhail’s office, and I stand there, waiting for him to yell at me. But instead, Mikhail stalks toward us.
“Let her go,” he growls at Damir, who immediately releases his grip. “Leave,” he orders him, then places a hand on my back, pushing me toward the desk.
“What did you do, little bunny?” he asks in that deep, commanding Dom voice of his.
I shiver. He presses me to the desk, my face resting against the cool wood.
* * *
Mikhail
“I helped my sister,” she answers, her voice full of sass.
“Oh, bunny, this isn’t the time to test my patience. I’ve been ready to slam my cock into your folds for days, and now you want to be a brat.”
“Do your worst, Mikhail. I did what I had to do.”
She’s dressed in a black, long-sleeved crochet crop top and tight, button-fly blue jeans. Knee-high, black suede heeled boots complete the look.
I press my hand against her heart-shaped ass and pull back. I smack her cheek, knowing the denim material will dull the contact. But she still moans and squirms against the desk.
My phone rings, and I pull it from my pocket.
“Don’t let them hear your moans, bunny,” I warn her before setting it on the desk.
I smack her again, then slide my finger across the screen to accept the call.
“Bring me Ainsley,” Aleksei barks into the phone.
“We are at the office. I have her here,” I tell him before hanging up. I’ve only got a few minutes before he shows up demanding her blood for whatever she’s done. All I know is she helped Lyric escape.
“Why, bunny?” I ask as I slide a hand up her shirt and take one of her pierced nipples between my fingers. I pinch it, knowing she loves the edge of pain as much as I do.
A text message pops up on my phone. I look down to read it.
Unknown: She was taken to MacDonald Highlands.
My soldier tracked the car to the Italian’s stronghold. I don’t know why Ainsley would send her sister into danger. She wouldn’t, so I don’t understand.
“Why is your sister being taken to the Italians?”
“What?” Ainsley’s deep chocolate eyes meet mine, wide with panic.
I flip her around and lay her across the desk with me between her legs. I wrap a hand around her throat.
“Why, Ainsley? This is your death if you don’t answer me correctly.”
“I didn’t know he was going to take her there,” she says. “I swear.” I see the fear in her eyes and know she’s telling the truth.
My doors burst open, and Aleksei is standing there. I know he wants blood. He, like me, used vengeance to lead his life for a long time, and now his wife has been taken. I know he cares for her, so this isn’t going to be good. I wanted to question Ainsley first and find out the truth before I told him what I learned.
“Where is my wife?” he yells as he focuses on her.
I look down and see Ainsley is crying. I’m pissed he interrupted us.
“Ainsley, I’m not playing around. Where is my wife?” His bark is so loud she flinches, and I want to pound him for scaring my woman.
Realization hits me that I referred to her as my woman. I take her in. Her beauty has always called to me, but her spunk and determination turn me on too.
“I swear, I didn’t know. He was supposed to take her out of town to a friend of mine’s place. They were going to hide her away,” she confesses.
“Why would my wife want to get away from me? We just got married.”
“And you went to work. You also just married her because you had to. You’re taking one for the team,” she spits at him.
I hear the bitterness in her voice and realize how much my words have hurt her.
“I never said that,” Aleksei says, confused.
“You all pretty much did. You only married or got involved with us to protect us,” she says, pushing away from me. I let her go. “You too.” She stands up and moves across the room. “Where is my sister?” she now demands.
“Your friend took her to Giovanni Costa.”
“Damn son of a bitch. He was always a bit of a flake. How did Costa know Ric was researching him? She just found out about the hit and your family.”
“My family?” Aleksei says.
I wrap an arm around Ainsley’s waist as she moves back to my side. I sit behind my desk, pulling her onto my lap and caging her in, while I work on my computer. I need her close to me. I’m hoping she’ll understand that when I said I was “taking one for the team,” I was upset and didn’t want my brats to know I was really into her.
I pull up the GPS locator for the necklace Aleksei was supposed to give Lyric. I need to get mine on Ainsley so I can track her if necessary.
“Did you put the necklace on her?” I ask Aleksei. I look up when he doesn’t respond. “Aleksei?” I raise my voice.
“What?” he snaps.
I glance at my screen. “I have her!”
I stand up and set Ainsley back in my chair. I’m going to help him get his wife back.
As I walk to the door, I look at Damir, who is standing right outside my office. “Watch her. She’s not to leave this building. Take her to my condo,” I order him and the other soldiers.
“No, I want to go.” Ainsley jumps up. “I caused this. Please, Mikhail,” she begs.
I pause. She’s safest with me, and I know she won’t relax until she’s sure her sister is okay.
“Fine.” I hold out my hand, and she places her small, soft one in mine.
“Let’s go.” Andrei stands in the doorway with more soldiers behind him. “Dmitri isn’t coming. I’ve ordered him to stay with his wife.”
We head down to the alley, where the SUV waits. After settling Ainsley in the back with Andrei, I slide into the driver’s seat, and Alek climbs into the passenger side.
“What’s this about a family?” he finally asks Ainsley.
She scoffs. “Now you want to know? Lyric found your father’s girlfriend and her daughter. She looks a lot like you.” She pauses for a moment. “My sister loved you so much, she married you knowing you didn’t love her. I had to get her away before you really broke her. I thought she would be safe.” She leans her head against the window, worry evident all over her body.
“I won’t tell you my feelings as your sister gets to know them first. Where did she think your friend was taking her? She wasn’t running from me?” Aleksei keeps questioning her.
Ainsley sits up straight and turns to look at him.
“No, she wasn’t running. She thought we were going to Laughlin. You should’ve told her before about your feelings.”
I turn into the storage unit facility where her tracker is coming from. Aleksei looks around, confused, not understanding why we aren’t going to Giovanni’s house. She was brought here after leaving his place. We all know what goes on in these units, and we need permission before entering. Andrei makes the call to Barone to inform him of our plan.
I pull around to the unit where Lyric’s tracker is pinging. Aleksei jumps out of the vehicle.
“Stay here,” I order Ainsley, and she nods, not fighting me. When I get out, Damir is standing at my door. “Don’t let her out of this vehicle.” He nods, and I lead the way behind Aleksei.
When I hear the gunshots, I take off running. I burst into the unit to find Lyric sitting on the floor, bleeding and crying. Aleksei is holding a bat, beating Giovanni with it over and over, yelling as he does.
“Take her out,” Andrei orders me, and I carefully lift her in my arms.
She yells for Aleksei, and he stops. He takes her from me and holds her, his body trembling.
I turn my back, giving them privacy while I make a call. I arrange to have this mess cleaned up as a favor to Barone.
When Barone shows up, Andrei tells him he needs to give up on Ainsley too. I agree to marry her within the next week and offer him my services. Using my computer skills for the Italians and offering the Irish a place at the table for a couple of big poker games is nothing compared to what Pakhan Vladimir asked of me.
Hours later, we’re finally home. Ainsley walks away from me and heads upstairs. It’s going to take a lot to convince her that I care for her. That I only keep pushing her away because of my fear of her being killed like my parents… or raped like my mother.