Chapter 12
“I have the best news for you, cousin,” Nikolai said as soon as he strolled into my office at one of the many nightclubs I owned, a shit-eating grin on his face as he plopped into the chair across from me.
“Not now,” I growled, hammering my phone against the desk. The call went straight to voicemail. Panic clawed at my chest. She could be anywhere, exposed. Drunk. Vulnerable. And if anyone touched her—
I swallowed hard, the wordless threat curling around me like smoke.
I needed to fucking find her. While I trusted Eva to take care of herself, I didn’t trust the people in this city.
I knew firsthand how dark and cruel the world could be.
Liza was not spared its wrath simply because she was a child, and a woman as beautiful as my Evangeline was too much a temptation to ignore.
My mind spun with visions of worst-case scenarios. What if someone tried to take advantage of her? Lead her to their homes and rob her of that innocent light that shone around her? What if the Vallens learned of my growing weakness for her and decided to exploit it while she was vulnerable?
Fuck.
I would put a bullet through the skull of anyone who tried to lay a single fucking finger on her.
I stood from my desk, flinging the paperwork to the side in my haste.
Sometimes, I visited my businesses to work and get things done—like tonight, when I’d been trying to look into the outdated infrastructure of the theater, all the electrical work that needed rewiring.
It helped to show my face around the place, remind anyone of who they may be crossing.
And since I thought Eva was safe at her home tonight, I figured I would accomplish some things while the taste of her juices still lingered on my tongue.
It was clear that I was going to have to add guards for her—if not guard her myself, because the thought of people watching her for hours made me see red.
“Aren’t you going to ask what my news is, Aleksandr?” Nikolai crooned, pretending to twirl his hair like a dumbass.
“No. I’m busy.”
“I think you’ll want to know it.”
“I don’t. I need to go.”
“Go where?”
“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered, shouldering past him and opening the door. “I’m going to find Eva. I won’t be back.”
“Shame you don’t want to hear my good news, then. I know exactly where she is.”
The turn I made was slow and menacing. The kind of movement that made men reconsider their life choices.
Something dark uncurled inside of me, something roaring with possessiveness.
Find Eva. Take Eva. Make her mine. I was like a dragon with a treasure, determined to hide my golden girl away from the rest of the world.
A flash of fear crossed my cousin’s face.
“What did you just say?” I asked, my voice low and cold.
Nikolai gulped. “That I know where she is.”
I crossed the room and grabbed him by the collar. Nikolai froze in my grip, but I didn’t strangle him.
Yet.
“Where the fuck is she?”
“Relax! I’ll tell you.” He held up his arms in surrender, breath already quickening. Good. It meant he wasn’t going to fuck around like he normally did. “She’s here.”
“Here?”
“At Obsidian.”
“How?” The club waitlist was at least a mile long.
It was incredibly difficult to get into Obsidian, one of my more luxurious clubs and one of the few that didn’t serve as a front to something else.
Well, if you didn’t include the many business deals made at our VIP tables, where I got a cut for my locational services.
“I spotted her outside with her friend. I brought her inside, told the guards to remember her face. Figured you’d want her here, where she’d be protected, and not at another club. That’s what I was coming to tell you: that she’s here out on the main dance floor.”
I loosened my hold, and Nikolai almost got away before I remembered something else, pulling him right back into my clenched fist. “Wait. You waited to tell me until she had three fucking drinks?”
“Technically, her friend ordered two shots each while I was still nearby, so I only waited for her to have one drink—” At my tightening grip, Nikolai sputtered and held his hands up again.
“Relax, relax! I came as soon as I could. The crowd is pretty thick tonight, and I didn’t even know if you were working.
I tried to call, but someone ignored me. ”
I glanced at my phone and cursed when I saw that he was right. Three missed calls and a text asking where I was working tonight sat plainly on my screen, all of them from before Eva started texting me. So he did try to contact me.
There would be no violence against my cousin tonight.
Shame.
“I’m going to get her,” I said, finally letting him go.
Nikolai cleared his throat. ”Aren’t you forgetting something?”
I sighed at the look on his falsely cherubic face. There was nothing angelic about Nikolai. He could act like a puppy all he wanted, but he was nothing less than a hellhound.
“Thank you,” I said through gritted teeth, then adding under my breath, “asshole.”
He opened his mouth to curse me back, but I didn’t want to hear it, already barreling down the hallway and out into the club to get my girl.
I could feel the music well before I heard it. My office was far enough to thankfully mute most of the noise. Silver and white lights flashed in tune to the raucous noise, and everywhere I looked, people ground into each other, practically fucking in front of me.
“Reaper,” a patron nodded at me. I nodded back, recognizing a man who worked for my family.
Making my way to the dance floor, I spotted my girl instantly, wearing the sexiest fucking tight dress, revealing most of her body save for the strips of fabric clinging to her.
Her tits were right there, practically begging me to lick and suck them, while her ass shook for the entire world to see.
Her brown curls cascaded down her back, and I wanted to wrap my hand around them and pull her to the nearest dark room.
Mine. The word thundered in my skull. She is mine.
Eva clutched a drink in one hand while the other roamed up her body and into the air.
Mia was next to her, dancing and chatting with another pair of girls.
I was thankful to see no men were near her, though they certainly stared.
I glared at all of them while I slowly stalked up to her, letting my presence alone serve as a threat.
Because they were intelligent and didn’t want to lose their lives to the Reaper, they all looked away.
The blonde girl—one I recognized as Eva’s friend from the ballet, Mia—paused as soon as I stepped behind her, mouth gaping while she eyed me up and down. The other two quickly followed suit, but my Eva kept on dancing, clearly unaware of the dark presence behind her.
I looped my arm around her waist, drawing her against me like a predator claiming its prey.
She stumbled but righted herself under my steady grip, body stilling as soon as she fell against me, her back to my chest. Eva shivered when my other hand went to her neck, arching her toward me.
I couldn’t resist touching her, grabbing her, making her breath quicken.
Every taste of her fed my beast, and he was starving for more of her.
“Sorry,” Mia tried to say, grabbing Eva’s arm and failing to pull her from my grasp. “She’s already got a man.”
“I know,” I purred, and another wave of shivers fell down Eva’s back at the sound of it. She angled her neck enough for me to bend over and suck on her favorite spot, the one that hadn’t yet failed to make her lips part in invitation. “I’m the man.”
Though I appreciated Mia keeping an eye out for my interests. I liked her already.
All of their jaws fell to the floor, but I didn’t care to witness the rest of their reaction, my eyes too mesmerized by Eva’s dilated pupils, her heaving chest, her flushed cheeks. She was a painting of lust, and I wanted to hide the canvas away from the rest of the world.
There was something about the way that her eyes darkened that made her strikingly familiar. Again, a bell rang in the back of my mind, urging me to pay closer attention to her.
“So pretty,” I murmured, running my thumb along her bottom lip.
“Hi,” she whispered, turning fully so she was facing me. She ran her hands along my torso, biting her lip in a way that made me want to rip it from her teeth and slam my cock inside.
“Hi, solnyshka. I heard you missed me.”
She smiled and leaned into me. “I did. You got here quickly.”
“I missed you, too.”
“How badly?” she purred, standing on her tiptoes to kiss the jaw I clenched to keep from taking her to my office. She’s drunk, I reminded myself. You can’t fuck her senselessly tonight.
But God, I wanted to.
I knew I wasn’t the picture of morality, but I wasn’t going to take her virginity while she was impaired. I was a monster, but not that much of one. Plus, there were too many eyes here. Too many people interested in what was mine.
“I’ll show you another time.”
She jutted out her lip. Fuck. My cock hardened in my pants, clearly not getting the memo that my shower was going to be cold. Eva was testing what little control I had.
“Fineeeee,” she whined. “But you owe me.”
Yes. Yes, I did.
I leaned forward, my mouth claiming hers in a heated kiss, my lips pressing every ounce of emotion I felt for her.
Lust, infatuation, and perhaps something blooming into more.
It was a clash of desire that didn’t feel satiated.
She tasted so goddamn sweet. I needed more.
I needed to lift her up and feel her against me, needed to take her over and over—
“Excuse me,” her friend said before we could take this any further, drawing Eva’s doe-eyed gaze and my glare. I looked down at my girl and found her expression dazed, her lips swollen from our savage kiss. It was a look I very much enjoyed on her.
Mia turned to Eva, brow raised. “This is Alek?”