6
S
everal seconds after Riley left, Mikael flung Ronan’s office door open and poked his head inside. “And?”
I shrugged and looked to Ronan for input since he watched her face as it was revealed who I was. We expected a dramatic reaction, but instead, she seemed baffled, perplexed as to why I had my face covered in the first place. Where I stood, there seemed to be a hint of disingenuousness that irked me, but that could be because she was eager to escape us to return to the kitchen.
“If she were Annika, why didn’t she freak out after realizing that the masked weirdo she’d been fucking was her foster brother,” Ronan stated cringing, then addressed me. “You fucked her knowing that she might be your foster sister. Let that sink in.”
I shot him a dirty look. “I’m not seeing a problem.”
A steely expression set on Mikael’s face. “There won’t be a problem from this onwards because you won’t be touching her, will you?” He was a man who wanted to get to the root of the problem quickly, and if we had the key to discovering who murdered my father, then he’d like to open her up and fish out the answer. But we had to tread delicately, or else we could screw everything up.
I argued, “You said you wanted us to continue as normal.”
Ronan chuckled, “Going by the black scowl on her face, I’d say she won’t let you touch her.”
“That won’t stop me,” I snarled stubbornly. “Are you going to keep fucking her?”
“Are your ears glued on?” Mikael hit. “I said, don’t touch her.”
“That’s contradictory to what you said previously,” I argued back. “You said act normal. Acting normal is sneaking into her room at night, climbing into her bed, and sliding between her sweet legs. Jumping her while wandering through the campus garden at night.”
Mikael screwed his face up and looked to Ronan while pointing his thumb at me. “He’s fucked. He needs therapy to learn to respect boundaries.”
Ronan sneered. “The therapist will need therapy after spending an hour with him.”
Mikael took a deep breath and then exhaled, showing his shrinking patience. “She’s the staff, Gunner. The rules have not changed. We do not fuck the staff. We need to let her relax, chill a little, let her drop her guard, then we’ll pounce. Got it?”
“That’s the plan?” Ronan asked, sounding disappointed because he wanted to continue his crusade for her body.
“Yeah,” Mikael prompted. “Act normal around her, but I don’t want you touching her because that’s the fucking rules. Become her friend and her confidant and then milk her dry.” He nodded toward Ronan’s desk. “Did you show her that pic Gunner took of the geek girl?”
“Nah,” Ronan replied, “We didn’t have a chance.”
“I’ll do it,” I offered. I had a pic of that peculiar girl who confronted me on my phone, so I’ll approach Riley and ask her. There was something off about her as she was more than just a protective friend; she seemed to have it in for me, being a Kaiser. Usually, I wouldn’t care what someone thought of me, but if she whispered into Riley’s ear every five seconds, we might have another problem on top of the already existing problem.
“Not like that, you won’t,” Mikael growled, examining my clothes. “We don’t have scruff on the fucking club floor. Grab a jacket, fuck, dude, you look like a fucking sick corner drug dealer.”
“You overdid the adjectives, bro,” I hit back as I stepped to Ronan’s cupboard, removed a black dress jacket, and pulled my sweater off.
“Yeah, well, you need special descriptives,” Mikael argued. “Go easy on her, Gunner.”
“What?” I scowled at him in confusion. “I’m going to ask her a question, that’s all. Don’t turn it into a big deal. I’m not going to kidnap her…” I cocked my eyebrows at Mikael who wore an expression like he didn’t trust me and expected nothing but trouble. If he expected trouble, then I didn’t want to disappoint. “Now there’s a thought,” I added, getting a reaction from Mikael. “Now, where would I store her?”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Mikael hissed, cracking a smile because he knew I was joking. Or was I?
Eagerly, I stalked down the hallway with my phone in hand and ran down the stairs instead of using the elevator. The stairs open onto the casino floor, where the old regulars, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Kelsey, sit at their favorite blackjack table. It’s early, but these two were often here first starting the evening off with a little gamble before heading to the dining and bar area, finish off the evening watching the dancing girls wiggle their bunny tail arses.
I slipped into the ‘staff only’ hallway, pulled by sizzling grills and tinkering plates, and peered inside the kitchen, trying to spot my girl. When I realized she wasn’t in there, I assumed she had gone to update her details with Betty, so I went to her office to find it empty. This was unsurprising since she was likely rushing about the place, organizing the staff.
The reception area where the members entered was at the end of the hall. I found Betty, but Riley was nowhere to be seen. I asked Betty if she had seen Petra, and she replied with a frown, “Don’t you mean…” I checked her notebook. “Riley Laws? Previously Petra Black.”
“Yeah, her. Have you seen her?”
“Don’t tell me you’re acquainted with the little rat as well,” she inquired curiously.
“A little,” I told her. Riley confessed her lies to Betty, but I hope Betty wasn’t unkind to her.
“Ha.” She stabbed me with a knowing look, like she wasn’t born yesterday. “It’s weird how many available girls there are around, and so many of them are prettier than Petra and more honest than her, too, since, you know, she used a fake ID. But you and Ronan go for the same girl? That’s leaning towards psychotic.”
“Don’t you mean Riley?” I corrected her, even though she used Riley’s correct name earlier.
Betty rolled her eyes. “That might take a while to get used to. Anyway, she should be in the kitchen because that’s where I pay her to be.”
“Okay, maybe I missed her,” I mumbled, not making much of it because I didn’t want to get Riley into deeper trouble with Betty. At the end of the day, we’re the ones who call the shot around here, but Betty was virtually irreplaceable and we didn’t want to piss her off so much that she left us high and dry. Besides, her opinion means a lot to Ronan and Mikael.
I retreated down the hallway and spotted that little creature whose eyes grew the size of saucers as soon as she noticed me looking at her. She was carrying a container of dirty dishes and then snuck into the kitchen before I could call her name.
I'd come after her no matter how much she tried to run from me. I was hooked on her. Completely and utterly obsessed.
I followed that sweet arse into the busy, frantic kitchen at the height of dinnertime and when she turned around and found me right on her tail, she gasped a little. “I should be angry with you,” she snarled quietly so the other staff couldn’t hear.
But she refused to look me in the face. For a fleeting moment, I saw Annika in her expression, only for Ronan’s voice in my head to remind me that I see Annika in everything, including lampposts, billboards, and petrol spills on the road—everything and everyone.
“Can I speak to you for a sec?” I asked, even though it wasn’t a question. It was a demand and an expectation that she would obey. “I’ll be quick. I want you to identify someone in a pic.”
I scrolled on my phone to find the picture of that grumpy girl with glasses who decided that because I was a Kaiser, I must be bad and stay away from Riley. The photo was taken of her in Riley’s dorm room, so I had to edit out the surroundings so she couldn’t tell.
“Her.” I held up the phone close to her face. “Who is she?”
Riley cringed. “Why do you want to know that? Am I forbidden to have friends according to you?”
“Well… it depends on who the friend is,” I assert, and her left eye twitched. I’d love to ask about that lady cop, but I knew it would fuck up Mikael’s plans of finding out first if Riley was Annika, the lying snitch and also my foster sister. “So, she’s a friend? What’s her name? Just give me a name,” I demand impatiently.
“Why?” she frowned. “What are you going to do?”
“She pounced on me accusing me of shit, then told me stay away from you,” I explained as I slipped the phone back in my jean pocket.
“Huh, she’s very astute,” she stated with her nostrils flaring, looking so fucking sexy that I had to use all my strength not to claim her sweet face in my hands and kiss her.
Still, she refused to look at me, and my patience ran low. I took the phone out of my pocket again, found the picture of the bossy girl in glasses, and held the screen in front of her eyes again. “Again, Riley, tell me her name.”
Someone dropped a saucepan into a sink, and it made a piercing clanging sound that startled her. She placed her hand against her chest to catch her breath as grills hissed and steam filled the space. The kitchen staff were receiving orders from the wait staff, and I was in the way of everyone. The only reason I got away with it was because I was the boss’s nephew.
“Riley, tell me who this is,” I repeated with a firmer tone to grab her attention, but she was so distracted by everything happening around us.
“I have work to do,” she shrilled at me, backing away, only to slam into the kitchen counter. “We’re at peak hour, and there’s a full house.”
“Riley,” I snarled, uninterested in her excuses because it was evident that she was diverting. My hand snatched at her face, gripping her cheek with my fingers to hold her head in place. “Again, Riley,” forcing her to look at the pic. “Who is this?”
She gasped, wrapping her little hand around my wrist in an attempt to stop me from squeezing so tight, even though I wanted to. Even though I had a strong urge to dig my fingers into her soft skin until tears flowed from her pretty eyes, she wasn’t behaving the way I wanted her to and that pissed me off, but what annoyed me even more was that she didn’t react to my unmasking like I expected from her.
If she were Annika, I’d expect her to freak out, unless she was so well trained at dousing her natural reactions, like the perfect little Hollywood actor. However, if she were Riley, why didn’t she look at me like a girl attracted to a boy? Instead, she avoided looking at me altogether, which was infuriating because I couldn’t stop looking at her even if I was paid a million dollars.
She swallowed, and those green eyes rolled around in her skull as we grabbed the attention of the bustling kitchen staff.
I leaned in, so my lips pressed against her ear. “Answer the fucking question, Riley.”
“You won’t hurt her?” she begged as a stray tear streamed down her right cheek. I felt a little bad, but she wasn’t behaving; therefore, she must be punished.
“If I wanted to hurt her, I would’ve done so already. It’s not hard to seek her out, then destroy her, since she lives in your dorm,” I breathed in her ear.
She dithered as those green eyes behind glasses landed on my lips, seeing me properly for the first time after I had removed my disguise. The hunger to kiss those swollen lips was almost overwhelming, but I held back.
“Again, Riley, who the fuck is she? Give me a name,” I seethed, squeezing her face, and she winced.
“Gunner?” Betty’s warning voice cut through the tension as she stepped toward us.
Ignoring Betty, I growled under my breath, “Tell me!”
She gasped as her breath hitched. “Kat,” she slurred under the pressure of my fingers.
“Kat? Kat, who?” I pushed, annoyed.
“Gunner? What are you doing?” Betty stood beside me, but I didn’t bother acknowledging her. I wasn’t going anywhere until she answered my fucking question.
“Kat, who?” I shook Riley’s face as another tear stained her cheek.
“Katerina,” she cried as something grasped my balls over my jeans, and it took me two seconds to realize that it was her spare hand. Like magic, her tears dried up, and a different side emerged. In a warning tone, she growled, “You won’t hurt her, will you? That wasn’t a question, by the way. That was a demand.” She squeezed my balls as the dull pain drew a wry smile from me. I liked this new version of Riley Laws—a scrappy fighter like Annika.
It was I who pulled away first because the pain in my balls was getting too much with every squeeze.
“Asshole,” she snarled at me before dashing to the sink to the wash the dishes.
I glanced back at her as I exited, but her back was turned, and instead, I received a dirty stare from Betty. Once out into the hallway, I adjusted my aching balls and climbed the stairs back to the offices. I met Ronan’s eyes as I strolled into his office.
“Wipe that smile off your face.” Ronan threw a pen at me.
“Katerina,” I told him as I sat down, wincing.
“You look like you’re in pain,” he stated, watching me closely.
“She tugged my ball,” I confessed, cupping my crotch.
“She what?” he asked, confused.
“She…Riley tugged my ball,” I repeated. “Quite hard.”
“For fun?” Ronan sniggered, looking a little jealous that she wasn’t yanking on his balls. The thing is…when Mikael ordered us to refrain from touching Riley, Ronan was more likely to obey, whereas I was more likely to disobey.
“No,” I sighed, as her dimpled naked body danced behind my eyes. “I think she was trying to fight back after I put the pressure on for a name.”
“Did it work?” he asked, with envy written on his face. The guy would turn green if he didn’t watch himself.
“Yeah. Katerina. I just said,” I reminded him.
“Katerina, who? You got a surname?” Good ol’ Ronan is sticking to the business side. “Is she someone we need to worry about?”
“I didn’t get a chance. Besides, I thought I would pass out with the death grip on my ball.”
Ronan stifled a smile, shaking his head. “Dude, you’ve got it bad.”
“Yeah,” I agreed as I stood to leave. That little hand squeezing my ball was enough to evoke happiness within me, and I’ll likely be in a good mood for the next hour or so, even though it still physically hurts. “You can’t fucking talk.”
“Get her surname,” Ronan yelled after me as I left to sit in the viewing room at the end of the hall and wait until her shift was over.