I walk away from him feeling his eyes on me. I wait until I’m a good distance from him and jump the wall again. When I make my way back to the front of the house, I get a report from the guards. I wasn’t seen but I was lucky. I have to be more careful. From my bedroom window, I see that he’s left. I need to question him. At least get more than his first name. He knows mine. What else does he know about me?
Vitaly
I enter my motel room and head for the shower. I don’t want to wash her scent off me, but if I don’t, I’ll be storming that gate to get to her. I’ve realized something in the last few days. She’s mine. She will be mine. I need to protect her now. I can’t ever let her know why I was originally sent here. I’d lose her.
I’ve broken so many of Grigori’s rules. I’m going to lose this contract and I won’t ever be able to get out. After a long shower where I have to take myself in hand because I want her again, I lie on the bed with her ripped panties sitting beside me. The scent of her drives me closer to that edge of needing her again.
I need to figure out my next move.
By morning, I still don’t know what to do, but I’ve assumed my position outside the gates. I’m in a different spot this time, in a different car. I watch as Domino shows up again and they all leave in the limo together.
I follow them police headquarters. I park and get out, taking position in the back of the crowd as they prepare for a press conference. I’m not liking how exposed Ana is. She stands at the side of the young woman on the podium. Domino, not in police uniform but in a suit, stands to the girl’s other side. Capo Morello and his wife remain back. The girl leans into the microphone and starts talking, and I learn of her pain. Why she looked so haunted. Americans think they are better than other countries, that they don’t have the corruption we do in Russia. But they are wrong. Corruption is right here. This girl is proof of it. She’s been ignored and treated badly as no one wants to go against her father and the man who assaulted her because they are cops. They are protected when they should be jailed. The girl, Posy Ivanov, goes on to recount how she told the very cop who arrested Natale Morello what happened to her at the hands of her father and the cop who violated her. He hid the fact of what was being done to her. I want to kill this man myself. I want to show him what a true monster is. I’m that monster. I’ve been to prison where I had to kill to survive.
Anatonia and Domino help Posy from the podium. Practically holding the girl up. Reporters push forward, but Anatonia and Domino keep them back. Ana moves toward the girl and holds her close. I see her lips moving as she talks to the girl.
Her face beautiful. Her eyes taking in everything around her, watching for any attack. How could I think she was a murderer when I see her like this protecting an innocent?
A car approaches, tires squealing, and I start making my way to Anatonia to protect her. The car comes to a stop and Natale gets out and make his way to his girl. The love he feels for her can be felt by everyone around us. The young killer has found his woman.
If he can do it, why can’t I?
I watch as everyone loads up in the limo, and again I follow them back to their home. I’m driven by the need to be close to her because I know that pretty soon others will be coming for my woman. I’m shocked when shortly after they get there, she takes off again in her car. I follow, knowing if she wanted to lose me, she could. Her car is built for speed while mine is built to blend in.
She waits for me with the door of the warehouse open. I lift out my bag and carry it with me, making my way to her. When I’m close, I reach out for her and she jumps up and wraps around my body.
I want this.
I want her.
I can go rogue and defy the family. Could I keep them at bay until they come for me too? That’s a question I’m willing to answer because I can’t let her go if I wanted to. Every dark ugly part of me heals when she’s in my arms. I’m not a monster with her, I’m a man.
We make our way up the stairs, her lips sucking along my neck. We are barely through the door when I take her against the wall, stripping her bare and kissing every inch of her body. Worshiping her.
“What is your full name?” she asks me hours later. After a round in the shower and another on the counter in the kitchen, we are lying in her bed.
“Vitaly Michail Kuznetsov,” I say, but once the flood gates open, I give her more. “I was born in St. Petersburg. I lived in the orphanage until I was almost twelve. Three months after I ran away, I was found by Grigori. He raised me.”
“Where is he now?” Her naked body is on top of mine, her hand leisurely tracing my tattoos.
“He died.” I don’t tell her more. “How do you know Russian so well for an Italian girl?” I ask. Her body stiffens slightly. She is still holding parts of herself closed off to me.
“I lived in Russia for a while.” She doesn’t elaborate. Her Russian is perfectly accented. She lived there longer than a short time. “I know you’re a hitman.” She doesn’t say more. I want to deny it. I want to ask her how she knows, but she’s tracing the dagger tattoo that is designed to appear embedded in my neck. I want to demand how she knows what that tattoo means. I’ve seen her tattoos. She has her own Bratva ink along with some that I know are Italian mob.
“I have rules.” I try to lessen the truth.
“Such as?” Her head tips up to look at me and I look down at her, loving the way her eyes are bright right now.
“I don’t kill women and children. No innocents,” I say.
“Why are you here?”
I lift her up my body and she straddles my hips. I need to distract her from getting too close to the truth.
“It doesn’t matter now.” I take her lips in a deep kiss. I flip her onto the bed and take her again. I need to bury myself inside her body, because when she finds out why I’m here, why I was willing to change the rules for her, she might fight me, but I’ll force her to hear me out. I slip a condom on and move my cock through her folds, wishing I were marking her completely. The caveman image of me ejaculating inside her body causes my hips to move faster.
Her hands roam up my body from my waist to my back. The feeling of her capable and supple hands sliding across my skin heals something deep in my soul. She buries her hands in my long hair, pulling it slightly, and I slam harder into her. I have a hand buried in her hair, holding her head so I can stare into her eyes. My other hand holds her hip captive so she can’t move because as soon as she does, she’ll take me over too. My emotions are too close to the surface right now. I pull out and flip her over, then I tug her hips up and slam into her from behind. Gripping a handful of her hair, I pull her back onto my cock.
“Fuck me, kotenok,” I say through gritted teeth, trying to hold off the need to come.
Her hips buck into me, slamming me harder into her.
“Vitaly, I’m coming,” she cries out as her pussy spasms around my cock again. The ripples pull me over and we come together. I roll us so that she’s spooned against me when my arms collapse. I’ve had her so many times today alone. I look out the window and see it’s already dark outside.
“I’ll be back, kotenok.” I head for the bathroom to remove the condom and then the kitchen to get some more water.