Chapter 2
Nikolai – Early Summer
“ O pen your mouth, let me see my cum dance on your tongue before you swallow.”
Quinn, kneeling in front of me, sticks her tongue out then swallows with a grin tugging at her lips.
I know what this is. Another completed transaction.
She gives me a release, and I give her proximity to power.
She’s been angling for the title of Mrs. Volkov since Helana’s funeral.
It was subtle at first, but then her desperation increased as the years passed and I’ve made no move to make things official.
And I never will.
“Ahh,” she opens her mouth, showing me she left nothing behind.
Standing, I tuck my dick back into my black pants, buckling my belt. I didn’t plan on getting a below-average blow job right now, but head is head. Although Quinn has spent well over five years perfecting her skill, she could use more practice.
But shit, I needed that.
By the shit eating grin on Quinn’s face, she knows I needed this release too.
This week has been grueling in planning the final act of taking down the Emilio Rocci clan once and for all.
It’s been fifteen years in the making. Emilio was killed weeks after my wife’s death.
He pleaded shamelessly for mercy and confessed that he placed the hit that ended Helana’s and our daughter’s very short lives.
He said a partner of his asked him to do it to solidify some alliance.
However, Emilio didn’t cough up who his partner was.
Not to worry, I will find them. It’s only a matter of time.
Just like a Hydra snake, you cut off one head, another will take its place. With that, his sons came out to play. They wanted to avenge their piss-poor father.
A man who had no respect for women and children.
My woman. My future children.
Emilio has— no had five sons. The last one will be dead in less than twenty four hours.
Quinn swipes the corners of her red painted lips. She decided to wear one of her skimpy numbers today, a white tight maxi dress, her breasts on full display and body drenched with the scent of desperation and deception.
“After today, we should be able to move forward.” She walks up to me, wrapping her arms around my center. There’s a glint in her eyes today, like she’s hopeful.
“Hm. I’m already moving forward. Taking down the Roccis left a statement in the underground world.” I tip my shoulders up. “Fuck with me, in any way, there will be consequences.”
She nods. “We should be thinking about our future, then.” She moves her hands up until they are caressing my chest.
Here she goes again trying to use seduction to sway me. It never works because I know what she truly wants, my power, my name. But she’ll have neither .
“We’ve been together for years now, don’t you think we should be doing some… planning of our own.”
Taking a step back from her, I readjust my black suit jacket. “Planning for what exactly?”
“Our future,” she looks at me with furrowed brows.
My muscles stiffen. “Quinn, I have no future. That died with my wife—your best friend— and our child a long time ago. Did you forget that?”
“So, what about me?” Quinn ears are turning red and quite frankly I don’t have time for her bullshit right now.
“What about you?”
“Do you really expect me—to live in a dead woman’s shadow for the rest of my life?” her voice is elevated and so is my blood pressure.
My hands move before I could really think about it.
I grip both her arms with firm certainty.
“I promised you nothing,” I seethe. “There will never be another Mrs. Nikolai Volkov. The next time you try to replace my wife again, I will cut your head smooth off your body.” I jerk her body towards me, I whisper low and stern in her ear. “Say you understand.”
She hastily nods.
“I need to hear you say the words,” I snarl.
“I-I understand.”
“You’re missing something.”
“I under—stand, Boss.”
Every now and then, Quinn has to be reminded of her place and what this relationship really is. It’s non-existent. It’s a carnal outlet. Nothing will ever blossom from this .
I release her and she crumples to the floor. Her reddened face looks shocked, confused and purely defiant. And there I see it. The calculation resetting in her eyes before she schools her expression, masking it with plastic tears.
She’s planning her next move.
Again.
Two knocks from the door ring out in the now silent room.
“Come in.” I straighten my clothes, dusting away the invisible dust off my sleeves.
“Niko, the car is ready,” Sergei says, standing with his hands behind his back in the door frame.
My cousin stands there like my fraternal twin. Where my hair is long and normally is in a low ponytail, he’s neatly trim and sleekly styled. People often mistake us as brothers and at one time I used to consider us as such.
Not anymore though. Not after he called himself playing Quinn’s keeper, driving a wedge between us. We’re family, not her.
I grab my gun from my desk and walk out the door with Sergei, never looking back at her.
“Niko,” Sergei takes the seat next to me in the car. “Do you have to treat her like that? We’ve all been friends since we were kids.”
“Sergei, if you want to play concerned, get the fuck out and go and console her.” I stretch my legs out in front of me, already annoyed. “If not, shut the fuck up and get your head in the right space. We have shit to do.”
“She deserves better.”
“Then, by all means, you fuck her. ”
With that, Sergei clenches his jaw and faces forward and my driver takes us to the airport where my private plane awaits us and we fly to Milan.
The intel I got months ago, told me Antonio Rocci will be in Milan to celebrate his daughter’s first birthday. Once I’m done here, it will be the last birthday he will ever celebrate with her.
They’re in a small bakery tucked on the corner of a lit alleyway. We wait in the car a block over, watching him help his daughter blow out her candle. He feeds her cake with his wife cheerfully right next to him.
For a moment. Just one moment. I saw my girls and I in his place. Helana wiping icing off our daughter’s face after she takes her first bite of her cake.
Natayla.
Since we didn’t know the sex of our baby yet, we came up with the names Nathan and Natayla. Helana and I bickered over countless names before we agreed on those two.
I squeeze my gun tighter at the memories.
Slowly, the guests trickle out of the bakery until it’s just Antonio and his six men. Opening the shop’s door, the bell above it chimes and all heads turn Sergei and my way.
I clap. “What a precious celebration.”
Antonio’s face pales and his men reach for their guns, but Sergei has a gun in each of his hands, pointing them at Antonio and who I assume is his second.
“Your family is quite beautiful, Toni. I can call you Toni, right?” I ask with a tight smile.
“If you touch—”
“Ah,” I cut him off, waving my own gun in the air. “Unlike you and your father, women and children are never on the playing field with me.”
“We’ve told you time and time again, we didn’t know.” He pleads but it all falls on deaf ears. If Helana can’t hear his excuses, why should I?
“What you did know was that the Arbatov District is neutral.” I tap my gun on my chin. “But it doesn’t matter. Did you enjoy today, Toni?”
His lips tighten.
I sigh. “If you didn’t, I can go fetch your wife and child to rectify—”
“No!”
Oh, there’s the fire I’ve been waiting to see. A man desperate to protect and defend his little family.
Something I was robbed of.
“Good.” I shoot right in the center of his forehead, his head explodes four seconds later.
Shots fire and bullets fly in all directions. Stretching my arms out, I close my eyes and welcome them with open arms.
Solnyshko, I’ll see you soon.
***
“Niko, I thought having two girls would be the death of me. It seems as though it’s my son that will send me to an early grave.” I hear my father’s voice through the ringing of my ears and see him through the thick haze.
My vision is blurry, but I can make out the IV bag above me that’s feeding blood into my arm. The room is white, sterile, cold and it smells of harsh cleaning agents and death .
What happened?
One moment, I’m welcoming my quick demise and now I’m in… the hospital?
I run my hand over my chest where bullet holes should be. There’s nothing but smooth skin under this hospital gown.
My father scoffs with annoyance. “There were only silver bullets in their guns, son.”
Fuck.
Vampires can only die by having their heads cut off or ingesting wolfsbane or being shot with it without being treated timely.
Otherwise, we heal quickly. Depending on how extensive the damage is, we may be knocked out for a bit, but when we wake up, we are basically good as new again.
One thing we can’t do is grow back limbs once they’re severed.
Disappointment washes over me.
I was so close to seeing Helana.
“How long have I been out?”
“Two days. Sergei barely got you on the plane. He was riddled with more bullets than you.” He runs a hand over his platinum beard. “You should be discharged any moment. The doctors were waiting for you to open your eyes before I can take you home.”
I sink my head further into the pillow.
“Thank your cousin when you get home. And apologize to your mother for being reckless. If I have to answer another call of her crying, I’ll kill you myself. Don’t let it come to that.” He warns but I can tell he was just as worried and stressed as she was.
Shortly after, Dr. Sullivan hands us my discharge papers and sends us on our way. I’m surprised they sent me to the werewolves’ hospital instead of taking me to our family’s ward at the compound.
I must have been worse for wear if they took me here.
My father wheels me out to his SUV. I could have walked but why bother if he’s willing. When we get to the passenger side, he helps me up and puts me in the front seat.
“Driver?”
It’s not like him to move about without his driver or some security since he is the Pakhan. But he was always the solo rider. The only person you can depend on at the end of the day is yourself, son. That’s what he used to tell me as a kid.
He lives by this mantra.
“No. I think we need privacy, son.”
I sigh.
What lecture am I going to receive tonight?
There have been countless lectures over the years. The only thing I can do right in his eyes is kill and maintain order in the Bratva. Anything outside of that deserves a lifelong teaching from him personally.
He gets in and notices I don’t have my seatbelt on. Reaching over, he clicks it in place. “There,” he says before he pulls out of the hospital entrance.
And the point of that is what, exactly? I’m basically indestructible.
Since he’s gotten older, he’s been doing small things like this. He’s still the deadliest man I know in the world. I’ve seen him take down armies with his shadows alone without breaking a sweat or losing sleep.
But since Helana’s death, he’s been softer towards me.
I detest it. I despise him for treating me like a wounded fawn.
I’m grieving, not weak.
The car ride is silent for a while before he clears his throat.
“Niko, I’m not going to pretend as if I know what it means to lose the love of my life. But I can say I don’t think Helana would want you to live like this.”
I turn to face the city around us, watching the lampposts as we drive by. “You’re right, you don’t know. You don’t know how it feels to watch your heart stop beating. To have it full of life one moment and dead the next. My life ended with hers.”
His fingers drum on the steering wheel. “I think you should try dating.”
“Fuck no.” I face him now, dumbfounded that he would even suggest something like this.
“You’re supposed to transition as the Pakhan in April. The key families will not side with you if you’re,” he waves a hand towards me, “like this. It doesn’t show stability.”
“And having a girlfriend will?”
“A wife will.”
“A wife?” My voice booms in the car.
“Yes,” he says firmly. “A Pakhan can’t ascend without his queen.”
He’s right, those are the Bratva laws but fuck ‘em.
“Fuck no.”
“Then I have no choice, I can’t appoint you as the next Pakhan. I’ll have to find someone else.” He pulls into our compound .
“Then just hold the role.”
“I’m too old, son. And tired.” He’s been Pakhan for close to five hundred years now.
Prior to him, his father held the role before he was killed.
Apparently, it was a massacre of sorts. My father doesn’t like discussing how he watched his father get murdered right before his eyes.
He was around two hundred years old when the Syndicate came and destroyed our family, our world.
My father and uncle had to go underground and restabilize the Bratva.
We’ve been living in the shadows ever since.
“Quinn talked about a future together the other day, I’ll just choose her.”
Is she the best option? Hell no. But I wouldn’t have to go out and look for a stranger to create a sham marriage with. I’ll have it with her. I’ve only slept with two women, Helana and Quinn. Quinn is already a betrayal strike against Helana, I can’t betray my wife with another one.
“No,” he says adamantly.
“What do you mean no? I’m not going to go out and find someone new. I know her, she’s familiar. She will do.”
Quinn and I have several similarities. Her personality could use work, but I can make it work. If not, divorce is on the table.
“No. She will not carry my family’s name nor bear my grandchildren. You have until January. If you haven’t found someone, I will.”
There’s no room for negotiating with him. His words are final.
I hear hurried footsteps outside. It’s my mother and baby sister, Viessa, coming down the stairs to the car. When I get out of the car they fuss over me. My mom sweeps the loose strands back from my face before kissing me and Viessa pats my back, looking for injuries.
“I’m fine,” I breathe out .
I feel my father’s eyes on me, I turn to face him as my mother runs her hands over my arms muttering incoherent words to herself.
“You have until January, Niko,” he says.
I hear the warning, the threat.
What am I going to do with another wife?
The better question is, where will I even find her?