CHAPTER TWO
Rush
Age 16
I take another fucking swig of cheap bourbon bought with a fake ID.
Music pounds around us as Cal offers me another line. I cut more white powder into it on the mirror, and then I crush and chop it finely before using the sweet fifty to snort it up.
The coke hits like a buzzing hammer to my senses, and the world flares bright and fast and wild. I do the other nostril, then rub some of the bitter power residue around my gums for the numbing effect.
Nothing’s ever gonna touch that first high, but it’s worth the chase. Like this, the surge of confidence burns into clarity. I eye Felicity, the one with straight, purple-edged, white-blonde hair and the biggest tits I’ve ever seen.
They’re the only live tits I’ve seen, but they are unarguably the biggest and the best. She’s drinking, rolling on MDMA, and those big black-pupil eyes are giving me blow job vibes.
Maybe more, if I’m lucky.
“Yo, Rush.” Cal holds his hand out for the mirror. I pass it to him. “C’mon, man, that’s a lot of coke you just hoovered up.”
Christ, does Cal whine. I look at him. “I bought it.”
“You could steal it.”
I wanna say no one steals a thing from Nikolai unless they want to be dead, but that might ruin my macho image, so I don’t. I sneak another look at Felicity who’s almost falling out of her top. She wants it.
“Hey, do you think she’ll suck my junk if I ask?” I look from Cal to Emilio. “I wanna hit that bad.”
“Those sluts are gonna drop it all for us tonight,” Cal says with a whoop.
The girls, two others with Felicity, are the ‘it girls’ in school, and they’re always asking for invites over. Fucking Nikolai won’t let me have friends over in the mansion, so this is the next best thing: a party in the back. House is off limits; as fucked up as I am, even I know not to go there. Even if Nikolai’s away.
Emilio hands me the joint, and I take it, dragging the Purple Party strain of fine, strong bud into my lungs. “I could sell this.”
Felicity slinks up to me. “Rush…”
“The guesthouse is free,” I say as I leer at her.
She leans in, stops, then moves past me like she’s seen a better specimen. Fuck that. I’m the guy the girls want, no one else.
I turn and drop the joint.
Felicity is batting eyelashes at fucking Nikolai .
He gives her a push. “I don’t fucking touch jailbait, and I don’t allow it to touch me.” Then, he simply looks at me, ignoring her.
“Fuuuck,” I groan. “Guys, you should go.”
“No, guys, you should fucking stay.” Nikolai grins. It’s cold, murderous, and he puts his hands on his hips, doing nothing to cover up his gun. “So, Rush, did you steal the drugs?”
“No.”
“So you bought from a competitor?”
“No.” I frown, trying to get my brain to work. “You’re not the boss of me. You’re not my dad.”
He smirks. “I’m the fucking boss of everyone who steps foot in here, especially you.”
I glare at him, high as the sky. “Fuck you. I’m the boss and you know it. Fuck you to hell and back.”
Nikolai doesn’t hit me.
No, it’s worse. Much worse.
He laughs, and then he just flicks his hand. “You’re the boss? Then carry on. I’ll get my stuff and go. Enjoy your empire, Boss Man.”
Then Nikolai turns and walks away.
Oh fuck. Oh, holy fuck. Breathing is hard. I suck at the air, but it doesn’t seem to get the memo, and no one’s saying a word.
The music still plays, and now it’s anything but fun. “Shut it off. Shut it fucking off.”
“Sir?”
I turn. It’s one of the gorillas Nikolai keeps for heavy muscle needs, and the phone in his hand looks ridiculously tiny as the music ends.
“I’m Fred, at your service, Sir.”
“Fuck.”
He snorts. “That isn’t in my pay grade.”
I cut a sharp look at him, and even with the booze and drugs, I can pick up on why Nikolai has him on staff. Captain Giant isn’t stupid.
“We’re partying, so find a good song.” I gesture at the phone attached to the speaker.
I turn back to my friends, but they’re falling over themselves to get out of here, jackets and bags clutched tight as they mumble goodbyes and run to the gate.
“Cars will be waiting for them,” Fred says.
My heart lurches at the big man’s words. Only Felicity is standing there, except she’s not looking at me like she wants my dick. No, she’s looking at me like a conduit to Nikolai, and I wonder if that’s what most of the girls who push for invites, asking about him, have wanted.
I thought they were making sure he wasn’t home, but it seems like maybe all they wanted was a ride on my cousin. It’s enough to make me sick.
“Go,” I say to her. “Get the fuck out. He doesn’t want you, and now, neither do I.”
She sobs and runs, and I’m vaguely aware that I’m being a dick, but I don’t care. How dare the girl who let me touch and play and suck her titties want him over me?
I don’t know if the cars are taking them home, or someplace where their remains will never be found, but it’s time to deal with my cousin, who thinks all this is his. I storm up to the house and find him in the study.
“That’s all mine.”
He doesn’t look at me; he just slides some extra clips into a bag I didn’t see before he throws it over his shoulder.
“There are appointments tomorrow, people to deal with, the usual.” Nikolai comes up and thumps me hard on the arm. “I’m sure you can deal, big man like you.”
Then he just walks away.
F ive a.m., I’m dragged from bed to deal with things I don’t understand. “I’ve got school. I’ve got—”
“You’ll need to drop out.” Tony doesn’t look up as he peers at his computer screen. “Do you want to deal with the gun shipments or the embezzler first? Or shake down the money owed?”
I stare at him and half fall into the chair. “Just because I’m the heir doesn’t mean I’m running it.”
He barely shrugs. “Your cousin got handed his walking papers, so that’s exactly what it means. I’ll be back in five minutes.”
I sit. I don’t know what the fuck I’m meant to do. Maybe I’d do better if my mouth didn’t taste like old socks and my head didn’t pound. Screw it; nothing a few pain killers can’t fix. I get up and get ready.
How hard can this be?
N ow I know the meaning of dumpster fire.
I pull off the too-tight tie. It really isn’t my thing. Nikolai can pull off elegant businessman and brutal killer; I’m not sure the outfit even matters. I look like a punk ass kid.
Shit.
Nikolai…is gone.
Today went well, but I’m not stupid. I fucking know it was all Tony and Fred-the-Tree who set things straight, dealt with my mistakes, rolled the heads that needed rolling.
Someone taps on the door. Mia steps in, closes it, and leans against it. For a small woman, one who married Tony a few years back, she’s scary. She can cut through lies like a laser, cut a man down until he’s a third his height.
“Are you an idiot?”
“I’m the boss, Mia.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, fuck you, Rush. You’re a child. You wasted time today. You put my husband in danger and threw everything Nikolai’s done back in his face. There’s mafia and then there’s mafia , Rush, and you’re playing the bad kind. Spoilt, dirty, entitled. Arrogant. We haven’t spoiled you, or given you a reason to steal or act like you’re owed, so why?”
“Get out!” I’m close to screaming like a child, and she knows it. I can see it on her face.
“Nikolai’s here, getting his things. Unlike you, he’s made of stronger stuff. He’ll walk, and I guarantee that, one by one, people here will peel away and join him. He’ll set up, start from nothing, and take you down.”
“I’m family.”
“Not,” she says, “if you continue this destructive path.”
Mia doesn’t wait, doesn’t look back. She just steps out, leaving the door wide open in her wake.
O kay, I’m not that much of a fucking moron. I know I’m in trouble. Extinction level. Still, I’m not going to let Nikolai know that.
Like he’s going anywhere. I push my way into his room.
He doesn’t look up from the case on the bed. “I’ll be gone soon, so you’ll have your kingdom to yourself.”
My chest goes tight. “I’m not giving you money.”
“I don’t want your precious money. I’ll send for the rest of my things later. Good luck, Rush.”
I clench my hands, glaring at him. “You planned this.”
“No one made you take drugs or dip into the goods for sale. Or go to a competitor, and yeah, even friends are that. But no one made you. Except you.” He folds a pair of jeans. “Your decision.”
“No advice, no—”
“I think you’re a fucking shit, Rush.”
Triumph flares in me. “I knew it.”
“And what do you know? I did all this for you. You want it, so it’s yours. It’s that fucking simple.” Next goes in a sweater. “Be careful who you trust, and don’t do the drugs you—”
I roll my eyes dramatically. “Oh, God, bring on the lecture.”
“Do drugs until you drop dead or end up on the streets, for all I fucking care, Rush. I’m talking about the shit you control and sell. It’s a bad move. Empires fall over things like that. So, buy your personal shit outside of Queenstown.”
He closes the case and heads for the door, and I just stare, blinking back burning tears from my eyes. “Nikolai.”
He turns on his heel with a dangerous look on his face. “What do you want from me? You clearly think sixteen means emancipation. Take it. Don’t fuck it up.”
I swallow, remembering the screams when Tony stepped in when I couldn’t–the sickening thud of crunching bones, the blood when he came out of the back room alone with an envelope of cash.
“N-Nikolai. I don’t want this. I’m not…not you.”
They’re the wrong words. Darkness settles deep on his expression. “And thank the fucking stars. What do you want, Rush?”
“Stay.”
He looks at me, suitcase on the floor, handle up. “And what?”
“Take back your place.” I swallow. “Please.”
“If I do, you do what I say, when I say it. No fucking drugs. You don’t take from us, you don’t buy from others. If you do anything, you’re not involved in the purchase. And Rush? Saturday, I’m teaching you how to run this place. How to handle a weapon. Self-defense classes.”
“But I—”
He interrupts me. “Know? You know the bare minimum. Learn this shit and, you know, you can go on being a fucking kid.”
“C-Can I? Be a kid?”
Nikolai smiles. “As long as you can be, Rush. As long as you can be.”