26. Wren
WREN
Viktor and his brothers and cousins weren’t joking around when they said they would provide protection for Brayden.
Adrik had been annoyed about it, but he relented.
They would use the eye-for-an-eye principle both ways. And I didn’t see a problem with that. It was the simplest code of honor as far as I was concerned.
Unfortunately, they were almost too late.
Nikolai and Lev were on their way to speak to him about relocating when they got word from a Bratva spy in the area that a car crash had happened earlier that day.
It was only two days after I had snuck up on Brayden and spoken with him.
It was only almost forty-eight hours of going through all the correspondence and evidence that he’d been collecting all this time.
So much of it matched what we’d been finding through the hacked access that Trojan gave us into their programs and databases. But more, too.
It turned out that two days was enough for Smithson or someone else to suspect Brayden was acting off.
They hired someone to run him off the road, and they’d almost succeeded in killing him.
The fact that he was an agent at all got him security at the hospital, but it wasn’t such tight security that Nikolai and Lev couldn’t get in and speak with him.
They had guards planted on the floor, too, posing as nurses.
“I didn’t do or say anything,” Brayden told Nikolai, who conferred with the rest of us. “But I think he knew that something was off. I was looking at places to rent in Columbus, back in Ohio where I grew up, and I think that he realized I was getting ready to quit and leave.”
He looked like a kid then, according to both of the Volkovs. Hurt, bandaged, barely surviving the accident.
They took over, though, relocating him to another hospital where Smithson wouldn’t be able to find him.
“I’m glad that they managed to get him away,” Elena said as we left lunch.
I smiled at her, glad as well.
This was another first, and I was having too much fun to let even this almost bad news about Brayden get me down.
Mila walked with us, quiet and observant. One day, I hoped to know why she was so cautious no matter where she was.
Elena had insisted that she needed to get out of the house for even an hour or so. To have “girl time”. Carina was too busy, but Mila and I were there to accompany her. Guards trailed us, but I was carrying anyway. I had a hunch Mila was too.
“And I’m glad we could have girl time,” she said as we headed back to the SUV I’d chosen as “mine”.
“I’ve never had it before,” I admitted with a shrug.
My closest friends were my classmates at the academy and most of them were men, men I didn’t want to necessarily spend extra time with.
I hadn’t had a chance to befriend anyone at the office here either, since my first day was apparently supposed to also be my last.
“Me neither,” Mila admitted plainly.
“Yeah. I third that.” Elena shrugged. “This can be the start of a new tradition.”
I smiled at her, charmed by her innocence and willingness to look for the goodness in life.
“Excuse me. Miss?”
We turned as three as our server rushed after us. It wasn’t a long walk between the café and where we’d parked, but it was a crowded lot and the construction crew nearby had equipment and trucks all over, looming higher than the cars.
“Someone called and left a message for your table just now.” He furrowed his brow at the scrap of paper. “The hostess jotted it down.”
I took it and read it.
Looks like you’re settling into your new job nicely, Agent Green.
Is this your first working lunch date?
Or your last?
My blood froze. Jerking my head up, I scanned the surroundings. I tugged Elena behind me, and Mila snapped into action. She flanked her too.
“Oh, my God. Seriously, what’s with you two—”
“Damen.” I called out the name of one of the guards with us, and my tone told him enough.
He rushed forward, and Mila reacted too. She pushed both me and Elena back toward the café. “There’s a light under the car…”
We both tugged Elena backward and the guards rushed forward to barricade us. They had just gotten into place between us and the car when the explosion hit. The car burst, catching flames immediately. Heat spread out with the combustion, and we ran to safety, aiming for the café.
“Get in.” Another Bratva guard pulled up, and I wasn’t surprised that Viktor, Adrik, and Lev had ordered more backup than what we saw.
“Go, go.” I pushed for Elena and Mila to get in, following the rear.
Once we were seated, the SUV sped away from the pandemonium in the parking lot.
“Was…” Elena swallowed hard. “Was anyone hurt, do you think?”
Mila patted her knee. “We weren’t.”
“But…” Elena winced.
I took my phone out to text Viktor the update. “If they were, it was not your fault. Or ours.” I glanced up at her to catch her cringing and nodding.
I still had the scrap of paper, and as I rocked with the momentum of the car speeding us away from the Strip, I reread it again.
Looks like you’re settling into your new job nicely, Agent Green.
Is this your first working lunch date?
Or your last?
“Those fuckers,” I muttered.
“What does it say?” Elena asked. She held her hand out for the paper and I hated how her fingers trembled as I handed it over.
Mila leaned over to read with her. “From your coworkers?”
I frowned. “Former coworkers,” I corrected. “And they were hardly even my coworkers at all. I worked for that department one day.”
Seething and frustrated for the rest of the day while the Volkovs did damage control, I gave up on trying to be productive at the computer.
It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. All I’d ever done was want to make the world a safer, better place.
I wanted to do good, yet just because I was the new person on the task force to join the Vegas branch, Smithson and his cronies had tried to use me as a substitute for a hit intended for him.
Just because I’d been kidnapped by Viktor and the truth of corruption had been revealed to me, they had to try even harder to get me killed.
The hit that first night, when the bullet missed me.
The car that tried to run into me on the sidewalk.
The bomb that had gone off.
I growled as I rolled over on the bed where I’d dropped down to try to relax after I left Mila and Elena back at the mansion. The whole day was shot, and I vowed to work extra hard tomorrow to make up the difference.
I stared up at the ceiling, counting down the time until Viktor would be home. He’d gone with Lev to inspect the damage at the parking lot, still trying to smooth things over with the cops and the business owners around there.
Your dangerous world is the only place I’m going to ever truly be safe, isn’t it?
I sighed, wishing I could vent all this anger and have the clear mind to double down on helping the Volkovs find a way to end Smithson.
Before he ended me.
“Red?” Viktor strode into the room, untying the knot of his tie.
“Finally.”
He had only entered the room before I got up and crawled on my knees to the end of the bed. When he approached, still working on his tie, I framed his face and pulled him to me so I could kiss him.
A sexy growl met my greeting, but after he kissed me back harder, he raised his brows at me. “You told me that you weren’t freaked out about the bomb.”
“I wasn’t. I’m not. But I’m mad and frustrated and I just…” I hurried to get his shirt unbuttoned. I just needed to vent. “I just need you.”
He took over, shrugging his shirt off as he kissed me again. While I clung to him, sucking on his lips and savoring the heat of his tongue alongside mine, I groped for the waistband of his pants. It wasn’t a slow or lazy welcome home. It was a hot, frantic, rushed effort to get us both naked.
Once he was naked, his huge, hard, tatted body bare for me to touch, lick, and admire, he crawled up onto the bed. His fingers traced over my nipples. His cock jutted out and bumped along my side. And his mouth left a trail of wet kisses as he moved behind me.
“You need this?” he asked roughly as he pushed my shoulder blades down and tapped his dick against my pussy.
I moaned, arching back against him. Spreading my knees out wide, I thrust my ass toward him, so eager for him to fill me, stretch me, and fuck me hard.
“I need you, Viktor.”
He didn’t keep me waiting. In one hard, steady thrust, he slammed his thick cock into me.
I was wet enough from the rush of stripping with him.
Any time we kissed and I felt his body, I was aroused and ready for all he could give me.
The slick suctioning sound of him ramming into me and withdrawing rapidly pushed me toward an orgasm before I could stop and realize how far he’d taken me out of my head and rendered me thoughtless. Free of worries and grumbling ideas.
“Take it, Red. Take it all.” He pulled me back up, still fucking into me as he held me against his chest. Sweat slicked between us, making me sticky and glued to him. “Take it, Red.” He went faster, pounding into me and making my whole body jerk and jolt.
He took my hands that I’d placed on the back of his head. Moving them to my breasts, he squeezed them with me, cupping them and thumbing my nipples. It was his order for me to pleasure myself like that, and I did, moaning and panting with how close I was to exploding for him.
By the time he lowered his hand to my clit and rubbed circles around it, I was about to burst.
“Take it, Red. Take every drop of my cum,” he growled. “Come right now. Take it and come.”
Before I could disappoint him, I let it go and caved to the pressure. I snapped, crying out and squeezing my breasts for an extra pinch of pain-pleasure. He followed right behind me, gripping my hip as he leaned back to thrust up even higher. With a roar, he jerked deep inside me.
“Every drop,” he taunted as I leaned over and tried to catch my breath.
He pulled out, chuckling lightly at how I collapsed on the bed. But he didn’t retreat. He pushed his fingers into my cunt, shoving his cum right back in before it could all drip out.
As I lay there, I furrowed my brow and considered a critical question I was a little late to let in my mind.
I was… late.
With all the times I’d taken him, all the times we’d had sex…
I’m late.
Scrambling to think back to when I had my last cycle, I couldn’t shake off the implication of his shoving his cum back into me. Like he thought it belonged there. Like it could take root there.
Oh, my God.
I blinked as he lay next to me and caught his breath, holding me close.
What if I’m already pregnant?
I saw Elena with Luka, Carina with Isabel. But they were fully part of the family. Wives.
What would this mean for my staying in this Mafia family?