Chapter Six
Jane woke up with arms wrapped around her, and it only took a few seconds for everything to come flooding back. The wine, the argument, the laughter. And the sex—a whole lot of sex.
She glanced to her right, and there was Alexey, asleep.
She had sex with Alexey. She couldn’t believe this had happened.
Jane didn’t move. She didn’t know if she should even breathe. She had not been a virgin last night, but it was only the second time she had sex.
“I can feel you’re awake,” he said.
This made her tense up, and he just laughed.
“Have you had many morning after’s?” Alexey asked.
“This is not funny,” she said.
“Tell me, how many have you had?” he asked.
Jane frowned. “What, morning after’s with me?”
“Yes. Have there been many?”
“This is the first,” Jane said. She didn’t like this.
“First?”
“Yes. You’re the second person I’ve had sex with,” she said, and this was a little uncomfortable to her. She was not used to sharing personal details.
“The second person?”
“And the second time I had sex.” She couldn’t believe she was in bed, completely naked with the head of a Bratva talking about her past. This was not her life. In fact, if someone had told her this would be happening, she would just laugh it off as a silly joke.
This wasn’t a silly joke. This was real.
“The second time you had sex?” he asked.
He lifted so he was over her, and she smiled up at him, not exactly sure what she should do.
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked.
He grabbed her hip and pulled her in close. “Don’t even think about it.”
“I don’t think we need to talk about this. We did a lot of bad stuff, and I think we should get rid of the wine, what do you think?” she asked. “Wine just makes things overcomplicated, doesn’t it?”
“The second time you had sex?” he asked again.
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
“Explain.”
“There is not much to explain. You’re the second guy I’ve had sex with and it’s the second time I’ve had sex.” She shrugged. It wasn’t like this was rocket science.
“Why only the second time?” he asked.
She tried to pull away and let out a groan. “Please, we do not need to do this.”
“Yeah, I think we do.”
“Do you want to talk about every single sexual experience you’ve had?” she asked, giving him a pointed look. They didn’t even need to voice the fact he’d probably had a small book’s worth of women.
“We’re not talking about me. I want to know about you.” He was not going to let this go.
“This is embarrassing more than anything else. It happened when we were both sixteen. Bad shit was happening, and we were terrified. His name was Steve, and we didn’t want to lose our virginity without our consent.
We’d seen a lot of bad stuff. Knew a lot happened.
Even if we didn’t land a great foster parent and ended up on the streets, we knew it was going to be bad.
So, we made a pact. We’d be each other’s first. At the time, it was awkward.
He was probably the closest thing I had to a friend at the time.
So, one Friday night, we agreed to have sex with each other. It was gross and awful, but we did it.”
“What happened to Steve?”
Jane turned toward him. “He died about three years later. Bad stuff happened, he ran away, and he ended up on drugs and the last I heard, he overdosed.”
Alexey put a hand to her back and rubbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“There’s not a lot we can do. I’ve just had a run of bad luck, and just look at my face. I don’t exactly turn heads.”
“You turned mine,” Alexey said.
She laughed. “Yeah, because I saved your ass. Not for anything more.” She pulled away from him, because she hated the feelings stirring inside her, threatening to grip her in a chokehold. “Can I use the bathroom?”
He kissed her shoulder. “Hurry back.”
She was not going to hurry.
Scrambling out from under the covers, she made her way to his bathroom and closed the door behind her, collapsing against it. Jane took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out.
What happened last night was just crazy. She had sex with Alexey, and he was such a sexy, good-looking man. There were so many women out there who would be fighting to be with him, and she had sex with him. It just blew her mind completely.
This was not how her life was supposed to be. She didn’t just have sex with random people.
She moved away from the door and took several steps toward the counter, where she put her hands flat on the countertop, and then stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Not for the first time, she wished she was pretty.
Not turn-heads beautiful, but maybe just pretty, where someone might look at her and actually remember her.
When she was younger, she would sit, behave, smile, and just attempt to get a parent’s attention. She was never bad. Everyone always sung her praises, but there was no desire from anyone to have her. She was never wanted.
She closed her eyes. Talking about the past with Alexey, and then the sex with Alexey, she was starting to wish for something she hadn’t wanted in a long time. She wished she was pretty. She knew Alexey would get bored with her.
Tightening her grip on the counter, she didn’t want to have these thoughts.
She thought she’d accepted that she was not a pretty girl.
It was why her ex-boss had wanted to fuck her.
His reasoning was that she should be so desperate for some cock, she would worship the ground he walked on, because he was lowering his standards for her.
She’d never randomly been asked out on a date. She’d never been in a man’s thoughts. Most people treated her like she was invisible.
Jane gasped as arms suddenly swooped around her, picking her up and putting her ass on the counter, a little away from the sink. At this point she had opened her eyes and looked down to see Alexey there.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
The burning in her throat subsided.
“You were taking too long, and seeing as you didn’t respond to my call, I figured it was time for me to come to you.” He cupped her chin, and before she could say anything, he pulled her down and kissed her.
She’d been so lost in her prayers to be pretty, she hadn’t heard him call. His kiss pushed all the negative thoughts right out of her head. They were obsolete and didn’t have a place right now.
He let go of her chin and sunk his hand into her hair, holding her tightly against him, which made her moan. With his other hand, he stroked her thigh, running it up the inside of her thigh, and then cupping her pussy. She cried out, arching against him.
He pressed two fingers inside her, and at the same time, he broke the kiss and went straight to one of her nipples. She arched up, thrusting her chest against him, and he growled, taking one nipple, sucking it deep, and then another.
He pulled her ass to the edge of the counter and moved his hand from her pussy. Within seconds, she felt the hardness of his cock, and he slid inside her. There was no hesitation as he thrust to the hilt inside her. He was so large and so long.
She looked into his blue eyes, and he stared right back at her.
It might just be in her head, but this was real, so very real, and that terrified her more than the threat against her life.
****
“You look happy,” Nikolai said.
Alexey looked at his friend.
“He does have a little spring in his step,” Igor said. “He certainly seems lighter on his feet.”
“I guess we both know who is making that happen,” Makar said.
His friends looked smug. “You want to sit around and talk about Jane?”
“Why not? It beats talking about the shit with Vincent Morello. That fucker is causing problems at three of our casinos,” Nikolai said.
“Not to mention, one of the brothels was attacked last night. Three women are dead,” Makar said.
Alexey looked at the photos of the damage from last night, and Nikolai showed him the casinos that had been trashed.
It was going to cost some money to repair.
The three casinos were currently down, which meant he was losing money—not a lot, but it was starting to piss him off.
While Jane was protected, Vincent was starting to lose his shit and was getting sloppy.
“So, do you want to talk business, or do you want to talk about your new girl toy?” Makar asked.
He didn’t want to talk about either. “Jane is not a girl toy.”
“I think our boy is falling in love,” Igor said.
He glared at all three of them. They burst out laughing.
“Dude, you can be terrifying to everyone in the outside world, but we’re your brothers. There’s no way that shit is going to scare us. We’ve had your back through thick and thin. We’ve seen you at your worst and your very best,” Nikolai said.
“Then we talk business,” Alexey said. “I think it’s time I talked with Vincent.”
“That shit is never going to happen,” Makar said.
“Anything you arrange with Vincent, you can guarantee is going to be an ambush. Right now, you need to think of a way to kill him,” Nikolai said.
“I kill him, we’ve got problems with the whole Morello mafia,” Alexey said. “That’s not a smart move.”
“Trying to have a conversation with that man is not a smart move,” Igor said. “There is only one thing that man wants, and it’s Jane. Unless you’re willing to give Jane up, then you two have nothing to talk about.”
“I’m not giving Jane up. She is not part of this discussion.” He was not even open to negotiation when it came to Jane. He would protect her. And he was not about to tell his friends that he missed her.
“Do you think it is wise to keep her locked up in your penthouse apartment for the rest of her life?” Nikolai asked.
“Only letting her out when you have enough guards spread out across a park. I don’t think that’s healthy for anyone.
People need to get out. They need to walk and get vitamins from the sun or whatever shit is imperative for their survival. ”
“It’ll make her crazy,” Igor said. “She might even attack you.”
“Okay, what is going on right now? Jane saved my life. Against all odds, she was right there when I needed her most, and you guys are, what, ready to toss her aside?” Alexey asked, feeling his anger increase.
“No,” Igor said. “We’re not willing to toss her aside. This shit with Morello, if it continues, is going to make us look weak. If we look weak, then guess what, it’s not long before the Irish attempt to hit out, or the fucking MC that are always circling like a pack of mad dogs.”
He couldn’t believe he was even thinking this right now, but he thought about getting Jane a dog. That might cheer her up when he wasn’t there. It had to be better than her attempting to knit him a sweater, because that thing was just looking ugly. It made his nose wrinkle just thinking about it.
“Whatever you do, we’re on your side,” Nikolai said.
Alexey looked down at the messy photographs. This was not good for business. Vincent was getting sloppy, but it was only a matter of time before he went a step further and started to kill civilians. The three women was one step.
Alexey was pissed. “I’ll handle this.” He got to his feet and made his way out of the café.
Just as he stepped outside, Alexey felt like something wasn’t right. He gazed across the street, and that was when he caught the glow coming off the gun. At the same time, Nikolai had started to make his way outside.
“Alexey, man—”
He didn’t get to finish as bullets started to rain down on them. Glass shattered. Car alarms filled the air. Screams and sirens seemed to go off in unison, and Alexey ran toward his man, toward Nikolai, pushing him down to the street.
It was too late. Nikolai was hit.
He heard his men starting to fire the bullets.
“Nikolai, look at me,” Alexey said.
“Fuck, this one is bad, isn’t it?” Nikolai said and grunted.
Seconds later, Makar and Igor came out, guns at the ready.
Blood pooled in Nikolai’s mouth. “We need to get him to the hospital,” Alexey said.
“Fuck!”
They all started to move together. Nikolai was alive but holding on by a thread.
Alexey didn’t have time to count the bullet holes.
They got him to a car, and it was then Alexey saw the man with a gun, running toward the park.
He shoved several women out of the way, two wheelchairs with kids were shoved, and that just pissed him off.
They were civilians, and they were children.
Now, his rage went to a whole new level.
“I’ll meet you at the hospital. Keep him alive.”
Makar and Igor didn’t argue with him as he took off running toward the park.
He didn’t stop to ask the woman if she was okay, but he followed the path, holding his gun.
Nikolai could die. The very thought of it was more than he could take.
He didn’t want his friend to die. This was a hit from Vincent, he knew that.
Working his way through the park, he caught sight of some civilians who were cowering from the sound of gunshots.
He made his way across toward the attacker, and the man was clearly distracted, attempting to reload his weapon, which was when Alexey struck. He kicked the gun out of his hands and used the back of his hand holding his own gun to smack him in the face.
“Who do you work for?” Alexey asked.
The man grunted and attempted to crawl away.
Alexey slammed his foot on the man’s back, and then he did it again.
He had his gun ready and shoved him around.
The gunman had a knife, which he attempted to slice across Alexey’s stomach.
Alexey caught the hand that held the knife, twisted it, and shoved the blade right to the hilt into the gunman.
“Give me a name.”
It didn’t matter if he got a name or not. He tightened his grip around the man’s hand and twisted the knife.
Tears fell from the man’s eyes. Alexey looked into his eyes, so that he could see what his future was going to be. Death was coming. Right now, it wasn’t going to be quick, but it was coming. He stared right at him and waited.
And then, he got his name.
“Vincent Morello.”
So now, that son of a bitch was attempting to kill him, and that put a whole new spin on things.