2. Dimitri
2
DIMITRI
The screaming and shouting have died down now. Soft sobs and low moans fill the air.
Boarding the yacht was easy, so was taking out most of Dorian’s men. Trying not to shoot the running, screaming, terrorized women as they got in the way, not so much.
Sadly, one did take a bullet, in her thigh. Seb wrapped a towel around it to stem the bleeding while they take her to the mainland to the hospital. She was one of the working girls, here by choice.
It’s not difficult to tell them apart. The girls hired and paid to be here are dressed in expensive clothes, smelling of the latest overhyped fragrance that costs a hundred dollars a spray, and wearing designer bracelets. The girls who are trafficked are in cheap clothes, their faces haunted, their eyes always on the floor. They remind me of the street dogs we saw in Afghanistan. Kicked. Abused. Treated like dirt until all they do is slink in the shadows. These women will be given help with an organization we’ve worked with before.
The priority right now is finding Mila, then we can have our fun with any of the gang who are still alive.
The yacht is huge, and the rumor is that Dorian stole it from a rival drug lord, so it’s kind of poetic that I’m going to steal it from him.
The horizon has a faint glint of pink, heralding the beginning of dawn. The water shimmers like a pond, with the gorgeous stillness you sometimes get at this time of day. It could be a beautiful scene if not for the mayhem all around me.
“Hey, boss,” Yuri shouts. “We have her. Middle deck.”
Thank fuck . I jog across the top deck of the yacht and take the stairs to the middle deck, trusting the men to take care of the traumatized women and make sure no more of Dorian’s men appear from the many hiding places and rooms.
I head down a long corridor and find Alexis by a door slightly ajar. I turn to Yuri. “Take Dean and do a sweep of the other rooms. We don’t have Dorian or his supposed girlfriend yet.”
He nods and stalks off, weapon raised. Yuri is a great attack dog. He can be intimidating and at times callous. Alexis is much more capable of offering the kind, calm figure I want walking into this room with me.
We push open the door, and I enter the room, followed by Alexis, trepidation churning in my gut.
Mila is on a bed, still dressed in the clothes she was taken in, and appears to be unharmed. She’s been crying, and her hair is a mess, but she seems good, all things considered.
I approach cautiously, slow, methodical steps, and she leaps from the bed as she sees me.
“Cousin Dimitri!” Her arms wrap around my waist, and she hugs me tight.
I’m not her cousin. Virgil, her dad, isn’t blood related to me or to Jacob, but she calls Jacob uncle, and my mother, aunty. Blood or not, in our world, she is family.
“You’re safe now,” I say as I stroke her hair. I pull back and tip her chin up gently. “Did they hurt you?”
She shakes her head. “They threatened me, but they didn’t hurt me.”
“Okay. That’s good.” She might not tell me everything she’s been through, but her mom has said she’ll get her whatever support she needs.
“I have a friend here, Josie. Can you find her?” she surprises me by asking.
A friend? “Who is she?”
Mila shrugs. “I don’t know. She was taken too. That’s all I know. She was here with me. She has blonde hair in a long bob, and she’s very young.”
I turn to Alexis. “Find one of the men and ask them to try to identify a Josie.”
He nods and rushes off down the corridor.
“Come on. We’ll get you off this boat, okay? Your parents are waiting for you.”
She nods and gives me one more quick hug. “Thank you for coming for me. I knew you would. I told Josie that these men would be in big trouble because of who my dad and uncle are.”
Shit. Now I really need to find Josie and make sure she doesn’t know too much. I also need to make sure Jacob talks to Virgil to ensure he has words with his daughter about not saying stuff like that, ever . Never mind the fact that Josie could be working with these guys for all Mila knows; blabbing her mouth that way could get Mila killed. Now isn’t the time to discuss it, however. She’s too shaken and scared to take anything in.
Alexis returns to the room, and I wrap a blanket around Mila, passing her over to him. “Can you take her onto the deck? I want you with her at all times until I find Jinx. Jinx can take you back, Mila, okay?”
She gives me a tiny smile.
Jinx is an asshole, but he’s a deadly one who’s close to Mila’s father and has a genuine soft spot for the girl. He works with Virgil more than he does Jacob or me, so he’s a regular fixture in their home.
She’ll feel safe with him.
Alexis nods.
“Don’t leave her side until Jinx is there,” I remind.
He leads her out of the room, his arm protectively around her shoulders.
“Boss, another one in here.” Yuri’s voice echoes down the corridor from upstairs. “Top deck. Room with the blue door.”
Maybe he has Josie.
I jog upstairs, past the opulent living space, and to a room four doors down and step inside. Yuri and Jinx are staring down at the bed in the middle of the room. Jinx is so named because he’s nothing but long alternating runs of good and bad luck in the card games he loves. He loses and wins back more than most people earn in a lifetime.
“Holy fuck, she’s gorgeous.” Jinx leers at the woman on the bed.
He’s such a cliché of a walking, talking asshole.
He’s a massive brute with a brain the size of a walnut, and a mouth too big for his pea brain to run properly. I clear my throat to make my presence known. They immediately straighten and turn to look over at me.
I approach the bed, and after giving Yuri a dirty look for indulging Jinx, I glance down at the bed and then look back in a classic double take. Okay, maybe I can’t be too angry at Jinx because … well, holy fuck indeed, he’s right.
I’ve never seen a woman with such a perfect body.
Long legs. Curvy hip bones, easily seen with the string of the underwear tied around them, bikini style, accentuating the delicate flesh. Tiny waist, flat stomach, and large breasts for her frame.
My brain stops being a perverted freak for a moment to take everything else in. Wide, terrified eyes. Gagged. She’s lying on her back, but her wrists have marks on them, and I spy the untied wrist restraints by her.
This definitely isn’t Josie.
She’s dark haired, so dark in fact it has a blue hue in the light of this room, and Mila described Josie as young, which I take to mean younger than Mila. This girl appears to be in her twenties. I look away, as if I haven't just undressed her already in my mind. Not that she’s wearing all that much to begin with.
Is this Dorian’s girlfriend? I mean, she’s in what appears to be the main suite, and perhaps she was playing a kinky game with him when we stormed the yacht, and her fear is from us being here?
“Mila is safe,” I say to Yuri, forcing myself to focus on logistics. I glance around me, trying not to stare at the angel on the bed and scare her more.
Holy shit, this room is awful. It’s so blindingly trashy that it distracts me for a moment. Every color of the rainbow is present one way or another.
Yuri breaks into my thoughts. “Good news, boss. I’m glad she’s safe. I suppose that means we’re done here?”
“Except for the bit where we have to party on the yacht for a while and show that we’ve taken the spoils.” I sigh, exhausted by the idea, and scrub a hand over my heavy stubble. Then again, if the spoils include the angel on the bed, it might be worth it.
“Boss, can I have this one? She’s incredible.” Jinx grabs my attention from the offensive nightmare that is this yacht’s interior design and back to the woman.
Grinding my teeth, I ignore him. I walk to the bed and flick on a light. Then, I still as I take in her features.
I look at her face for the first time, and the world stops.
The sounds of the men joking fade out. The swell of the ocean becomes nothing. The tacky décor recedes into the distance.
Everything stills and quiets as I look into the face of the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.
Her eyes are huge pools of clear ocean blue, and I could drown in them. Her body is amazing, but that isn’t what has me frozen in her spotlight; it’s her face. It captured me instantly in a chokehold like I’ve never experienced before.
Well, fuck me. Dorian might have the worst taste in décor, but he has incredible taste in women. It’s her eyes that sucker punch me. Such deep blue it’s like drowning in the ocean looking into them.
Her gaze traps me, so scared and yet strangely bold. I stare right back at her, unable to tear myself away. My breathing increases, and hers does too. Her chest rises and falls faster as if we’re somehow in sync with each other. It makes her full breasts quiver in her tiny bra.
For a long beat it’s as if there’s nothing but me and her in the entire world.
It’s as if everything has stopped but this eternal, synchronized moment between us, stretching between oceans of time and space before collapsing into the reality of the here and now.
The urge to touch her rides me so hard I ball my hands, so I don’t do it. Not to touch her sexually, but just to feel a strand of her hair or brush my knuckles over her cheek. That would be weird as fuck, though. Everything I had hated about Jacob’s plan to keep Dorian’s girlfriend as my own is suddenly appealing if this is the girl.
It might be the most immoral thought I’ve ever had, but keeping her as mine for a few weeks would be delicious .
Shuffled footsteps and a groan have me glancing back at the door. Seb has a man in his arms. A half-dead man if the way he’s slumped forward with blood dripping from his nose is anything to go by.
“Who is she ?” Yuri points to the angel on the bed as he glares at the bleeding man. “Is she your boss’ girl?”
Seb shakes the man he’s holding, but he only groans.
I’m about to tell them all to get out so I can take her gag off and ask her myself, when Yuri points at her again, brows raised. “ Who is she ?”
“She’s Dorian’s,” the man slurs. “She belongs to him. Cost him a lot. Almost a million in debts owed. She’s worth it. Untouched.”
My head swivels back to the girl. This puts a whole other spin on things. She’s not a working girl, but someone sold this beautiful woman for a million dollars.
Furthermore, Dorian paid a million dollars in debt write-offs to acquire her. That’s a fuck ton of money to waive.
I take her in again, as dispassionately as I can. I felt instant obsessive possession as soon as I saw her face, and it’s pushed to one side as I assess her as if I’m looking at a painting or a rare antique.
Is she worth a million dollars?
Insanely fuckable body, but wide, scared, innocent eyes. A cheap swimsuit, but expensive hair, which shines with the kind of gloss you only get from good nutrition and a high-end salon. Her nails are polished a delicate pale pink, very discreet and expensive looking.
She’s expensive skin, hair, and nails wrapped in cheap clothes.
She’s big eyes, and an innocent face atop the body of a temptress.
She’s a stunning contradiction, and it only makes her more interesting.
Untouched , he said.
A well-cared for virgin sold for a million dollars. What the actual fuck?
Seb mutters a disgusted curse and takes his knife from the holster on his thigh and plunges it into the man’s guts.
The woman screams around the gag, and I glance back to see her face drain of color. Shit, she’s going to tap out.
“Hey.” I click my fingers at her but keep my voice calm. “Look at me. Breathe. You’re okay. No one is going to hurt you.”
She turns to the side slightly, thrashing, and I see the ink. Small and discreet, like her nails. A bluebird, placed to one side on her shoulder. I glance down at what I can see of the rest of her body and notice it’s the only ink. No piercings. Not even her ears, which is highly unusual. She got the tattoo in a place it wouldn’t be easily seen.
Bluebird on her shoulder, like the song. Bluebird, blue, black hair, and the biggest blue eyes, I’ve ever seen. Sad eyes. To go with her sad face. Is the bird a reflection of her inner turmoil? Blue seems to be her defining feature in many ways. It’s my favorite color and she is awash in it.
I’m already guessing at some of this girl’s backstory, but in other ways she’s a stunning enigma.
“Boss?” Jinx snaps me out of my reverie. “Now that Mila is safe, and the yacht is secured, can I take this one for some fun?” He leers at the angel on the bed, and something fierce in me, something not felt in a long time, dangerously roars to life. “That’s what the Pakhan wants, no?”
He reaches down and touches her arm, trailing his finger down it. He touches her. As if he has the goddamn right. As if she’s his.
The sound in my throat is a low rumble as something white hot roars to life inside me.
I don’t even think before I have Jinx against the wall, my hand wrapped around his throat. His eyes widen in surprise, and I smirk nastily as I stare him down.
“No,” I snarl. “You can’t take any of them. Get a fucking grip, and stop dicking around or as God is my witness, I’ll choke the life right out of you. Don’t touch her again. She’s not yours to put your hands on.”
I let go, sanity returning in a slow rolling wave, and step back. Jinx coughs and winces, but he doesn’t do anything, and I realize just how far out of control I have stepped. Jesus, I need to get a grip. I stare at Jinx, and he stares back, both of us breathing hard.
Jinx shrugs but it’s an angry one and I hope this doesn’t get back to Jacob because he’ll think I’ve lost my mind.
Protectiveness. Possession.
This woman, this stranger , has brought that instinct out of me in spades, and I tamp down the desire to snap Jinx’s neck. He’ll have my fingerprints on him as is.
I glance again at the small tattoo and think there’s something infinitely vulnerable about it. A small act of rebellion painted against well cared for skin. Skin that was just sold for a million dollars, to a gangster.
“Let the hired and trafficked women go,” I reiterate, wanting Jinx and Yuri out of this room, and my orders made clear to all the men. “Get up on deck and make sure they get them to shore. Remember to call the number for Layna. She can find them a safe place for the next few nights. Take Mila home. I want four men with her at all times and you by her side until she’s safely returned to her father.”
“Yes, boss.”
“You want me to take her too … to shore, I mean?” Yuri asks, pointing at my angel with the bluebird on her shoulder.
He’s confused, as well he might be. She isn’t Dorian’s girlfriend, we know that now, so of course we should send her to shore.
She’s as here against her will as the other women.
The mythical girlfriend doesn’t seem to exist, and this girl is as trafficked as the poor women on deck, and yet, she is here for Dorian. Somone sold her, to the head of an organized crime syndicate for a ridiculous amount of money, to clear their debts. Furthermore, Dorian took her as payment. Why?
She’s gorgeous but it seems odd. There’s something screwy about the entire thing and I want to find out more.
It’s a reason to keep her with me for a few days, right?
I won’t touch her. I’m not a piece of shit who forces women. But there’s something so magnetic about her, so vulnerable that I can’t stand the idea of letting her go.
The way I tell myself this is for the best, that this is right , is ridiculous.
The fact is, I can’t set my little bluebird free yet because she’s somehow, with one damn look, entranced me.
I want her with a ferocious hunger that I’ve never felt before. I want her so much I ache from it.
One sentiment rides me hard as I look at her.
Mine.