21. Eoghan
Chapter twenty-one
Eoghan
“ B ro, that’s fucking cheating, and you damn well know it,” I holler at Nikolai, who’s currently kicking my ass at the video game on Gemma’s TV screen.
“Jesus, you're a sore loser,” Nikolai comments from his spot on the couch opposite where I’m sitting in one of Gemma’s chairs.
“Am I going to have to turn the TV off again?” Gemma says, walking up to me with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Sorry, Mom. ” I grab her around her waist and pull her onto my lap, nuzzling my face in her neck.
“That’s just fucking weird, Eoghan,” she chastises, and Nikolai laughs.
We’ve been home for a little over a week from the doctor, and we’re staying at Gemma’s. Everyone is still on edge because Viktor hasn’t been caught, but Gemma refused to hide away when I told her it would be safer at my brother’s or my penthouse until we found him. She refused to listen, saying there was no way in hell he was going to dictate where she lived or what she did. She did concede to keeping a guard in front of her apartment building. Not that I would have given her any sort of choice on the matter.
Gemma needs to feel in control of her life again after she felt like she had none when she was in that basement with those other girls. Finn is less than thrilled with us not being more protected here, but I reinstalled the app I had on my phone that’s connected to a camera, so I have a full view of anyone who comes to her door.
We’ve been trying to act like life is normal, and for the most part, it is, but there’s a low-lying tension that won’t go away until we catch Viktor. Nikolai has been in contact with everyone who’s loyal to him in their organization, which, at this point, isn’t many. He’s going to have a hell of a bloody time when he emerges from this apartment as the new head of the New York Bratva, but that’s not going to happen until Viktor is put to ground. Too many people are still loyal to his father, including some of Nikolai’s own men apparently, and without a clear new boss, they aren’t switching alliances. Nikolai was prepared for that, which is why the endgame was to always kill Viktor. There’s no other path to power for him.
Gemma hasn’t gone to work since Nikolai has been here, either. She told her boss her mother passed, which was true, but she didn’t go into details. Not that she could have or should have. The first few days were a little awkward between Gemma and Nikolai, neither of them knowing how to act. She was playing nursemaid, which doesn’t come naturally to her, and he felt like he was imposing. The two of them still need to find their groove as brother and sister, but it’s getting better. There have been a few mornings in the last week that I’ve come out from the bedroom and the both of them were sitting on the couch with cups of coffee in their hands, talking and getting to know each other. What breaks my heart is that they’ve been bonding over having fucked-up parents. Gemma has told him a few things about her childhood that had my blood pressure spiking, and Nikolai would look at her with sadness and understanding in his eyes. Fucking guts me.
“Has your mom tried to contact you?” Gemma asks Nikolai.
The first night he was here, she tried to call, worried that she hadn’t heard from her husband or her son, asking where he was. He declined to answer. Later, he told us he figured out a long time ago that his mother would often get information from him and go back to his father with it, resulting in a punishment from Viktor.
“No. She’s probably been in contact with him already. If she calls again, it will only be to find out where I am to tip him off, which she isn’t likely to do. I have a feeling my mother knows her tricks no longer work on me.”
“Do you think your father will do something to her?” Gemma doesn’t seem particularly concerned, just curious.
“Doubtful. I know for a fact she’s put safeguards in place. If he takes her out, he goes down with her. My father hasn’t always been completely honest with his business partners, and my mother knew where to look. Trust me, if anything happens to her, we won’t be the only ones looking for Viktor.”
“Maybe it would be easier to have a little birdie whisper in his business partners’ ears than deal with it ourselves,” I say.
Nikolai shakes his head. “I thought about that. If we do that, it gives them a chance to destabilize our organization, then gives them the opportunity to come in and take over. I’d rather handle it myself. My father’s men will only respond to strength and brute force. If they think I can’t handle it, they’ll never fall in line.”
He makes a good point.
One of the reasons I agreed to stay at Gemma’s was to give Viktor the impression we weren’t as protected as we would be in my brother’s fortified penthouse like I originally wanted. He’s more likely to try to pull something here where he thinks he has a shot at getting away with it. But the waiting and anticipation is fucking killing me.
We haven’t left the apartment since picking up Nikolai from Dr. Lasher’s house—or should I say meeting a decked-the-fuck-out ambulance there, courtesy of Liam. Nikolai was still in rough shape, so it helped Gemma’s nerves when Kingston and Liam showed up at the doc’s in that elaborate ride. The point of staying here is so Viktor has to come to us. I’m not sure if he knows Nikolai is here with us, but Gemma is a big enough target to draw him out. Do I love the idea of using my woman as bait? Fuck no . But that’s why I also have three of my guys staying in the empty apartment next door.
“It’s about time for me to go to bed,” Gemma says, lifting herself from my lap. When she walks into the bedroom, Nikolai is spearing me with the hardened gaze he’s known for in some of the less-than-savory circles we both traverse. It’s uncanny how much it resembles Gemma’s, given they didn’t grow up together. Obviously, when she does it, it makes my heart beat faster. All Nikolai’s does is make me laugh.
“Don’t give me that shit, Petrov. My brother is Finn Monaghan, and I share a bed with your sister. I’m immune to the intimidating powers of that particular look.”
“What are your intentions with my sister since you brought her up?”
I never realized before this moment how happy I was when I thought Gemma was an only child.
“Your sister is the one steering this ship. Why don’t you ask her?”
“She told me about her promotion.”
Yeah, that’s not something we’ve talked about much. Or at all. Having Nikolai here hasn’t given us much opportunity, and honestly, I’m being a fucking chickenshit. The offer is amazing, and I would be an asshole to ask her to pass it up and stay here with me. I can’t exactly run our bars and money laundering or the fight nights from California. We’ve been living in limbo, busying ourselves with working from the confines of her apartment so Viktor has less of a chance of catching us alone then falling into bed with each other every night.
“If she takes it, would you let her go?” Nikolai prods.
A huff of laughter escapes me. “What gives you the impression I let Gemma do anything? It’s like you haven’t met her.”
I would support her decision. It would fucking kill me if she left, but I would never stand in her way. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.
“If I had what you two have, I wouldn’t so easily let something like that go.”
“Okay, Nikolai, I’ve had about all the relationship advice from you I can take. It would break my heart if she chose California. Of course it would. But there’s nothing I can do to stop her if that’s what she decides.”
“If you can’t think of something that would keep her here, maybe you don’t deserve her.”
Anger boils to the surface, and knocking him the fuck out like I wanted to do the first time he was in her apartment is starting to sound like a damn fine idea. “Oh, fuck off with that bullshit. What do you suggest I do, chain her to me so she can’t get on a plane? I don’t have control over her, nor would I want it. One of the things I love most about that woman is her fiercely independent spirit. I’m not going to try to take that away.”
“It’s not about taking her independence. It’s about giving her what she truly wants. What she’s been searching for her entire life. It’s about giving her a reason to stay.”
“Since you seem to know her so fucking well after knowing her for two goddamn weeks, why don’t you tell me what that is?” I’m trying to keep my voice down since the woman we’re speaking about is in the other room.
He gives me a knowing look that absolutely does nothing but serve to piss me the hell off even more. “Well, like you said, I haven’t known her that long. Sounds like it’s something you’d have a better chance at figuring out.”
He rises from the couch and dips his chin. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Nikolai goes to his room and shuts the door, leaving me to face all the thoughts I’d been too scared to think about. I love that woman more than the air in my lungs, but what can I promise her more than a life of living with a criminal and potentially being caught in the crosshairs once again?
When I make it into our bedroom, Gemma is lying on her side, facing me with her eyes closed. Her face is illuminated by the soft glow of the lamp on her nightstand. In the last few weeks, the only time I see her relaxed is when she’s either asleep or I’ve just made her scream my name. Otherwise, tension, no matter how hard she tries to hide it, creases the lines on her face. Once this is over, she’ll finally be free. Maybe starting over is what’s best for her. Maybe getting away from Boston and this life will finally give her the peace she deserves after everything she’s had to deal with in the thirty years she’s been on this planet. No one could fault her for wanting a fresh start on the West Coast. Beats the shit she’s had to put up with on this one.
Her eyes flutter open, and a soft, sleepy smile stretches across her lips.
She raises a hand to me, and I take it in my palm, kissing the top.
“Come to bed,” she whispers in a tired voice.
I let go of her hand, reach for the collar of my shirt and pull it over my head before dropping it to the ground. My jeans are next, followed by my black boxer briefs. I’m already half-hard from the hungry look on Gemma’s face and the way her makeup- free cheeks blush a bit while she appreciates my naked form. She lifts the satiny sheet from her body, and her pajamas are nothing more than a loose tank top so thin I can easily make out her hard nipples through the white fabric. Who needs sexy lingerie when I have a woman that looks this fucking tempting in an old tank?
I lean in and kiss Gemma, letting my tongue slide into her mouth as I push her onto her back with the weight of my body. When her thighs wrap around my middle, I grind my hard cock into her center, not sliding inside of her but putting pressure on her clit as our tongues play. Her nails score up my back, and a deep groan vibrates within my chest while my fingers tangle in her blonde strands.
I break the kiss but keep my mouth mere millimeters from hers so we’re sharing the same air, breathing each other in and out.
“Fuck, you’re so wet for me already,” I whisper as I continue to glide myself over her drenched pussy, hitting her clit with the head of my cock over and over. “Could I make you come like this? With nothing but my cock on your little clit?”
Her whimper is the only answer she gives.
“Or do you want me to fill your pussy? Feel me sliding so deep inside you with every stroke. Would you like that? Make you come around my cock so hard that you soak these fucking sheets?”
“God, yes. Please,” she groans.
“Shh. You have to be quiet.” My lips find hers again and she opens. God, her mouth tastes like the sweetest heaven. I can’t imagine ever craving someone’s taste the way I constantly crave hers.
I lift my hips and thrust inside her, sheathing myself in her tight heat. Her moan vibrates into my mouth, and I swallow that one down and all the others that follow as I slowly move in and out, going deeper and deeper with each thrust. It doesn’t take long before I’m teetering on the edge of release. She feels too damn good with nothing between us. It’s taking every ounce of control I possess to not spill inside her right fucking now. When her walls begin to ripple with her impending orgasm, I rip my mouth away and press my sweat-slicked forehead against hers.
“Fucking strangle me, baby. I need to get there. Fuck, blondie, I can’t hold back.”
My cock jerks inside of her as pulse after pulse of pure pleasure has my vision going hazy around the edges. Gemma cries out, her pussy tightening like a silken fucking vise grip as I seat myself deep inside her, her rippling walls pulling every last drop from me.
I’m lying on top of her, probably crushing her into the mattress, but I can’t find it in myself to care, needing to be as close to her as I can possibly get. Always needing her. The words I love you and don’t leave me and go to California are on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t allow them to fall from my lips. We need to have a rational conversation about it, and after what has to be one of the most intense orgasms of my life, now isn’t that time. I don’t want her to think I’d ever manipulate her with orgasms and hollow I love yous just to keep her here. I was serious when I told her brother she was steering this ship. No matter how much I want to beg on my hands and knees that she chooses me, it has to be a choice she makes on her own. I want to make sure if she chooses me, there’re no regrets. I never want her looking back, thinking she was backed into a corner or any such nonsense.
“I hear the wheels turning,” she whispers as her fingers glide up and down my back, causing goose bumps to erupt in their wake.
Kissing her lips softly once more, I pull out of her and groan at the loss of contact. “Blondie, I think you fucked my wheels right off.” She giggles at my half joke, half lie and doesn’t press it further. Even if I tried to talk to her about it right now, everything is too jumbled in my head to make sense.
I roll onto my back and pull Gemma so she’s lying over my chest. “Light on or off?”
“On, please.”
It breaks my heart a little that she still needs that light on, even with me and Nikolai here, but I stay silent and wonder if there will come a day when she feels safe in Boston again.
We’ve been asleep for a few hours when the chirping of my phone rouses me from my light slumber, and it takes another second for me to realize it’s the sound I have set to the app for the camera pointed at Gemma’s front door.
Someone’s outside.
I grab my phone and sit up, pulling up the app. I see a man wearing a baseball cap dressed in what looks to be some sort of maintenance uniform. Grabbing my jeans from the floor, I slide them on and shove my feet into the boots next to the bed before opening the nightstand drawer to retrieve my 9mm.
“Gemma, wake up.” She turns over and sits up, immediately standing to lean around me as I watch the video feed of the person ducked in front of her door trying to pick her lock. We have a chain, but that’ll be easily taken care of by the pair of bolt cutters I see sitting next to the man.
Gemma flips herself to the other side of the bed and opens the drawer on her nightstand, grabbing the revolver she’s had stashed in there since Viktor showed up.
“Get dressed and stay in the bedroom.”
I dart from her room and run across the hall, throwing Nikolai’s door open. He jerks upright with a gun already in hand.
“We’ve got company.”
I walk out to the living room, Nikolai right behind me, and watch the person on the other side of the door open it a crack before the bolt cutters come into view. Nikolai and I aim toward the door and hear the snap of the chain before it opens farther. My eyes meet Viktor’s for a split second before he charges at me, knife in hand and rage on his pale face. My training in the gym means I’m quick on my feet, and I sidestep him at the last second, sending him tumbling over the coffee table. The knife is still in his hand as he flips onto his back with his arms at his sides. Before he can make a move, my foot stomps on his wrist, causing the knife to fall from his grasp as I feel the satisfactory pop of his bones beneath my foot. Nikolai walks up behind me, both of us with our guns trained on Viktor. His father’s glare darts between us. He knows there’s no way in hell he’s getting out of this one.
“Who’s with you?” Nikolai asks.
Viktor stays silent.
Nikolai shakes his head and pulls a suppressor from his pocket, attaching it to the barrel of his gun. Once he’s finished, he points it at Viktor’s thigh and shoots.
One quick howl of pain is all Viktor allows himself before he clamps his mouth shut.
“I’ll let him fill you with lead all fucking night, Viktor,” I say. “Answer the man’s question.”
His eyes are ablaze with hatred when he stares at me. “No one,” he grits out from his clenched jaw. “They’re my children. My mess to clean up.”
I turn to Nikolai. “Do you think he’s lying?” My booted foot digs into his wrist that much harder.
“No. He’s thought himself untouchable for years. There’s no doubt in my mind he thought this was going to be a quick in and out.”
“You ungrateful little shit. You had everything handed to you, and this is how you repay me? I gave you everything! ”
Nikolai points his gun at Viktor’s other leg and fires. This time, his bleeding father cries out in pain over and over.
“Wrong. You took everything. Now I’m going to return the favor.”
Just then, Gemma comes out of the bedroom with her gun pointed at her father on the floor. She takes in the scene and walks right over to Viktor, kicking him in the side of the head like it’s a fucking soccer ball, knocking him out cold.
“Get this piece of shit out of my apartment,” she commands, staring at his unconscious, bleeding body with disgust curling her kiss-swollen lips.
“I know just the place.” I grab my phone from my pocket to dial my brother.
“Yeah?” he answers on the second ring.
“I’m going to be making use of your kill room. Thought you might want in on the fun.”
“I’ll be right there.”