“Look at me.” He breathed. “Look at us.”
I opened my eyes and stared between our bodies; a bloody handprint was pressed over my heart. “Blood in. No out,” he whispered.
“Blood in.” My voice shook. “No out.” And then I unbuttoned his jeans sliding them down his legs with my foot.
“Clever.”
“Just trying to be useful.” I kissed him again, forgetting that this wasn’t just a one-night stand, sex, or even a two-night stand.
He was making me a promise.
And I was agreeing to it.
To everything.
No regrets.
“You’re mine.” He said through clenched teeth as he pressed punishing kiss after punishing kiss against my mouth.
I moved with him, gripping him in my hand. “Yours. Yes. Yes.”
He gritted his teeth then thrust into me. No warning, no hesitation.
I sucked in a sharp breath as our bloody palms met and pressed into each other, as he anchored them against the wall along with my body. Moving inside me, claiming me in a way I would never come back from.
“It should always, always be like this.” He vowed.
I let out a whimper.
“Don’t hold back. Not from me.” His lips were on my ear, then my neck, waves of pleasure pounded into me until all I saw were ocean blue eyes and full wicked lips.
Body shaking, I couldn’t hold out any longer, maybe he could sense it, maybe he was just as close, with a growl he cried out my name.
My head fell back against the wall.
“Look,” His voice was hoarse. “Look at us…”
I turned to where he was looking, and next to my head, were two bloody handprints in the shape of a heart.
“Blood in. No out.” He whispered again. “Get ready for one hell of a ride, Claire.”
“Didn’t we just do that.”
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, I chose well.”
“What? You were doing background checks for two months or something?”
He just shrugged, then said. “I’m his favorite nephew.”
“What?”
“You really don’t remember?”
He was still inside me, and we were having a perfectly normal conversation what was wrong with us?
“High School Graduation, I was in the third row, you wore pink. I asked Nikolai who you were, and he said over his dead body. I just assumed he was being an ass, had no idea it was actually because you were his niece. But he noticed… and yet here we are… nobody is sent to Eagle Elite by accident. They’re chosen…” With that, he pulled away and held out his bloody hand. “Ready for an adventure?”
“Wait, you planned this?”
He pulled me against his chest. “Like I said, when you know, you know.” He winked. “I just didn’t want to pressure you into anything, and then I walked by your room and…”
I felt my face flush.
He grinned. “I’m an Abandonato. I get what I want.”
“Arrogant.”
“That too. Both start with A so…”
I smacked him on the chest. “This should be creepy.”
He shrugged. “It’s the mafia. We don’t do creepy, we do scary as fuck, and for the record, I’m not letting you go.”
“Do you see me running?”
He sighed; it was the first time I felt this guard slip. “No, but you should.”
“How about we have more vodka…”
“Cheers to Russia.” He grinned.
I smiled back and realized that this was where I belonged, where I would always belong, apparently—in my enemy’s arms.
Chapter Four
Asher
I chose my words carefully with Claire. I made her think it was more adventure less killing, but the truth was that we’d been in a war for years, one that none of us knew how to navigate.
And it wasn’t one that made sense.
Because it was a war within our Family.
When the uncles started popping out kids, they suddenly realized they had the money and the power to send their kids anywhere, some of the kids studied abroad, some didn’t come back, they didn’t want anything to do with this life. And that was the problem, they were already a part of it, and we weren’t allowed loose ends, and in the fucking end, we weren’t really allowed a choice. Yes, you can study in Spain, but you sure as hell better come back here and join the fold. Because if you didn’t, you were considered a loose end, and it didn’t matter whose kid you were, a loose end was dangerous. Too dangerous to live.
I clung to Claire as she slept in my arms, and then kissed her forehead and slowly crawled out of bed. I made my way downstairs and wasn’t at all surprised to see my dad sitting on the couch, knife in one hand, gun in the other.
With a sigh, I moved to stand in front of him. “Do I want to know?”
“I don’t even want to know.” He rasped, and then looked up at me. “I would have killed every fucking person in this godforsaken world to get you free of this life, but of course, I was cursed with a younger version of myself, wasn’t I?”
I smirked. “Did you just call your favorite child a curse?”
He groaned. “Did you just call yourself favorite?”
“I won’t tell the others.” I uncrossed my arms and then moved to sit next to him on the couch. He had at least twenty pounds of muscle on me, and I was still a big guy, but my dad had learned a long time ago the only way for him to fight his demons was to literally beat the shit out of a punching bag and lift so many weights that he could compete and win against most guys his size. “Why are you really here?”
“I need my best,” he said with a hint of sadness. “And the others don’t have the stomach for it yet since you and I made a pact to protect them as much as possible.”
I sighed as heaviness washed over me. “Junior already down there?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t look at me. “His intel’s right, it’s always right, the little shit lives and breathes for his intel.”
“I’m not the only apple who fell directly off the tree into madness.” I agreed. “Can Vic watch the house while I go in?”
“Already on it.” My dad waved a hand behind him as Vic made his way stealthily into the living room, gun raised. “Give us a few minutes, Vic, try not to scare the shit out of Claire if she wakes up.”
Vic rolled his eyes. “I’ll do my best.”
“Well—” I held out my hand while my dad put the knife in my palm. “—let’s get this over with.”
My dad snorted. “Yeah, yeah, you have fun, remember, I didn’t see anything… I’m clean now that I’m in politics.”
Vic burst out laughing behind us.
It was rare to hear him laugh.
Then again, that was fucking hilarious.
I gave my dad a yeah right look and then grabbed the gun from him as well. “Go back to bed, hug Ma, you know I’ve got this.”
My dad put his hand on my shoulder and then gripped it, pulling me in for a tight hug. “I’m proud of you.”
My throat almost closed up. All I’d ever wanted was to be him, and all he’d ever wanted was for me to run away.