Chapter Six
I hate Vegas. Always have. Though, I hate it a little more tonight.Vivienne McBride may be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, but she’s a shitty driver. I’ve been tracking her up and down the city streets for hours. She shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
I’m tempted to run her off the road just for the safety of the other drivers. She’s swerving in and out of every lane like she’s in a police chase. What is her deal? God, knowing my luck, she’s drunk or high. Even though she seemed sober at the club. We’ve been driving for three hours already. She could’ve taken something in that amount of time. Fuck. For all I know, she could be playing whack-a-mole with her own hallucinations right now.
Just as I decide to run her off the road, she takes an exit suddenly. I slow down and follow her, always leaving a few cars between us. My phone starts ringing as we stop at a red light. Dmitri’s name flashes on the radio screen. I press the button on the steering wheel and answer.
“What do you need?”
“Where the hell are you?”
“I’m still chasing our girl.”
“Our girl?”
I have no idea where that came from.
“You know what I mean, the girl.”
“I’m not sure I do. But okay. Has she gone anywhere?”
“Just every street in the city, but she hasn’t stopped anywhere. I think she might be high.”
“She didn’t seem the type,” Dmitri says, his tone slightly defensive.
It makes me wonder if I’m the only one who noticed how fucking sexy Vivienne is. I”d have her in my bed if she weren’t an enemy. I hope to lure her there once we find Thomas and the missing five million.
“I don’t know what else would explain her erratic driving,” I reply as I watch Vivienne’s car turn into a gas station. “She’s pulling into a seven-eleven now. Probably a drug deal.”
“A drug deal?” Dmitri asks.
“If you had seen how she drives, you’d be singing another tune. Trust me,” I say, my words trailing off as Vivienne pushes her door open. “Hold on. She’s getting out.”
I watch as someone who isn’t Vivienne climbs out of her car. “What the fuck?”
“What?” Dmitri asks.
“It’s not her. It’s that fucker from the club.”
Dmitri groans in my ear. “Of course it is.”
“I’m gonna go find out where she is.”
“Kaz, don’t. Just come back to the rental house. I’m looking into her right now. We’ll find her soon enough.”
“No,” I bark out. “I’ve been chasing this goddamn car for hours. I’m figuring this shit out now.”
“Come back to the fucking safehouse, Kaz. We can’t afford for you to draw any attention to yourself. If Declan finds out we’re here or worse, that we’re looking into his sister, we’ll be dead by sunrise, and you know it.”
“Speak for yourself,” I mutter.
But I know he’s right, and I hate it. It’s the whole reason I loathe this city. I could blame my hatred for Vegas on the fact that it chews people up and spits them back out. I could even blame the fact that it attracts the worst people. But in reality, my reasoning is much weaker than that. I hate this city because I don’t own it. I hate this place because I’m used to being the big bad wolf, but here, people don’t fear me like they do back home. They don’t stare at me like I’m the boogeyman. Here, the Volkov name is nothing to fear. It’s wrong. Unnatural.
“Kaz,” Dmitri warns.
“Fine. Let me put a tracker on the car, and I’ll leave it alone for the night.”
“Hurry up. Bring home some burgers, too. I’m starving.”
Rolling my eyes, I press the button on the dash and hang up on him just as I watch Vivienne’s goon disappear into the store. Grabbing a tracker and a bug out of my bag, I jump out of my SVU. Lucky for me, the parking lot is deserted. There’s no one around to stop me as I stick the tracker above her front wheel. Someone should tell Vivienne that her boy-toy is an idiot. He didn’t even bother locking her Porsche. Pulling the door open, I kneel. I slip the bug under the driver’s seat. It’s not the best hiding place. But Dmitri said she wasn’t a part of her brother’s business. So, unless she happens to drop one of her shopping bags in the next few days, I doubt she’ll find this bug.
Quietly, I shut the door and walk back to my vehicle. I hear the jingle of the bell just as I reach for my handle. The henchman is back. He doesn’t take his eyes off his phone enough to notice me. What does Vivienne see in this guy? He’s not much of a bodyguard.
Climbing into the car, I resist the urge to follow him as he drives out of the parking lot. I hate to do it. I’d much rather beat the truth out of him. But it is what it is. For now, I’ve got to play by the rules.
On the way to the house, I stop at a late-night diner to get some food. There’s only one car in the parking lot, and I recognize it. Did my brother send them to check up on me? I walk into the quiet diner, my eyes immediately finding Oleg and Ivan, the men Mikhail sent ahead of my brother and me.
Oleg sees me first. I don’t think he was expecting me to show up based on the way his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. If Dmitri hadn’t sent them to follow me, why else would they have been here? This diner is pretty far out of the heart of the city. It’s closer to the McBride estate, actually. Dmitri isn’t stupid enough to send these two men after Declan alone.
I bypass the counter and head straight for their booth. Ivan is just as shocked to see me as Oleg was.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” I ask as I slide into the booth next to Oleg.
He glances towards Ivan before answering me. “Just checking out a lead.”
“What lead?”
“Dmitri asked us to watch the estate in case the girl decided to go home,” Ivan answers.
“Did you see her?”
They both shake their head. I narrow my eyes at them. Something is off. But I’m not sure what. Their story is entirely plausible. The McBride estate is just a few miles away from here. They could have been there, waiting for her, and just happened to end the night here as I did. Only their story feels wrong.
“Wonder where she was,” I state, keeping my suspicions to myself. One problem at a time.
Ivan shrugs. “Not our problem now.”
The door opens, letting the brisk night air into the diner. I glance up and see Vivienne walking in. She’s still wearing the tight little dress she wore at the club. God, she looks edible right now. Her eyes find mine, and I feel my blood rush to my cock. Fuck. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a woman. I’m no choirboy; I’ve had my fair share of one-night stands, but none ever affected me like Vivienne.
“Actually,” I say, standing up. “She is your problem.”
Oleg and Ivan follow my line of sight. Vivienne has turned towards the counter. She and the waitress are laughing together. It’s like she’s not scared to be in the same building as us. Did her brother not teach her about the men in our business? Didn’t he tell her not to turn her back on men like us? Or did he just expect to always be around to protect her? Too bad he’s not here now.
“Vivienne,” I say, garnering her attention back to me. “Can we talk to you for a minute?”
I feel Oleg and Ivan step up behind me. The waitress’ eyes go wide as she watches the three of us mean looking mother fuckers surround Vivienne. She has the smarts to flee to the kitchen. At least one person in Vegas has a brain.
“Not now,” Vivienne replies. “I want to finish my pie.”
She gestures to the slice of pecan pie in front of her that I hadn’t noticed. Reaching around her, I snatch the plate away. Without saying a word, I turn and walk out of the diner. I hear Vivienne’s sharp heels follow behind me.
“What do you want, Volkov?”
“I just want to talk.”
“So fucking talk.”
“You lied to us earlier. You know where Thomas is. Tell me where he is.”
“Or what?”
I cock my head to the side. Something tells me things are about to get interesting.
“Or I’ll have Oleg and Ivan here extract it from you. Painfully.”
Vivienne glances at my guys. “That’s all?”
Oleg gets closer to Vivienne and tosses an arm around her shoulder. “You’re gonna be a fun one to play with.”
A sudden bout of jealousy swims over me. I can’t stand the way he’s touching her, but I make no move to change it. Because as much as I’d like to get that girl in my bed for a night, she’s my enemy right now.
Ivan runs a finger over her dark hair. “A pretty one, too. Much prettier than the women back home.”
Vivienne gives Ivan a sweet smile, looking every bit of the innocent, na?ve girl.
“Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself.”
My jealousy turns to rage. I pick up the metal fork on the plate and squeeze it to keep myself in check. She’s not mine. I don’t even want her to be. I’m not a forever kind of guy. But hearing her flirt back with them is killing me.
She tilts her head to look at Oleg, running a hand down his stubbled face. “You two think you could handle me?”
“Wanna find out?” Oleg asks.
I open my mouth to stop this because I can’t do it. I can’t take it. She may not be mine, but she’s damn sure not theirs either. I’m so stuck in my thoughts and jealousy that I don’t see the blade Vivienne pulls until it’s too late.
She flicks her wrist, slitting Oleg’s throat open easily, and I freeze in shock—suddenly understanding why Declan is so content to let his sister out in the world alone. Oleg’s body falls to the ground. He lands on the concrete with blood seeping from him. Ivan is as stunned as I am. Vivienne launches her blade at him next, hitting him in the side of the throat before he can even pull his gun.
I pull my gun and point it at her. “What the fuck?”
“What?”
“No one told me you were unhinged.”
“Oh, honey,” Vivienne laughs. “You have no idea.”
She walks towards me with a raised eyebrow. As if she knows I can’t pull the trigger. And she’d be right. I can’t. Not now. For the first time in my life, I can’t kill my target. I want to marry her.
Vivienne takes her plate from my hands. “Thanks for holding my pie, Volkov. See you around.”
“E-excuse me?”
It’s all I can get out. I’m way out of my element here. Vivienne is already walking past me, though, towards her car. Which I notice is the red Porsche I was chasing earlier.
She turns back towards me. Her eyes drift towards my very erect cock. It jerks beneath her heated gaze. The movement brings her out of her lustful state. She walks away, pausing at her door before getting in.
“By the way, you won’t find Thomas Taylor. Not in one piece anyway.”
With that, she leaves me with two lifeless, bleeding bodies and a hard cock. I don’t know what to call what I’m feeling. Love at first stab, I guess. But whatever the hell it is, one thing is for sure—Vivienne McBride is mine.