“I love you, Nico. I’m here to bring you out of the shadows.”
“I love you, Dusah Moya,” he vows before proving exactly how much he loves me.
Nico
Two Months Later
I followAnton into the warehouse where two men are hanging from the scaffold, blind folded, and naked from the waist up. With their shirts removed, I finally see what had been bothering me about them from the meeting not so many months ago. These two men are from the Levi Family.
I roll the sleeve of my shirt up, cuffing them before picking up one of my many tools at my disposal. To a normal person it’s a pipe cutter, for me, it’s my finger snipper. I give a nod to Anton, indicating for him to remove the blind folds. Over the last two months, Anton has shown me that he is exactly what I’d hoped he was. The day after the intruder in Aubrey’s home was dealt with, Anton sat down with me to take complete responsibility for what’s happened, and asked for the ability to fix it. He’s gone above and beyond to get me the answers that I needed to locate Timur’s shipments. I’ve brought him into this situation as a show of trust.
When the men's gazes fall on me, they both piss their pants. I hate the odor of urine, it’s strong, putrid, and reminds me of the soiled streets I grew up on. Sparking a memory of the area I was raised in. My upbringing isn’t something I allow myself to think about often, but nevertheless, the past invades my senses, making me nearly irrational with anger..
“I take it you know what it means now that you’re hanging in my lovely space? I ask, spreading my arms out to my side and spinning around.
The men, once again, start throwing each other under the bus, accusing the other for the crimes they’re on trial with. Only, they’ve only been tried and convicted by Timur, I’m the executioner. It’ll do them no good to plead their case.
Over the bullshit lies, and ready to get back to Aubrey, and the pre-planned dinner with Timur and Cara, I move to the one that I know will talk first, and snip off his middle finger. The man not touched goes into shock, staying silent, and going stone cold still, not moving an inch as his wide eyes stare in horror at his colleague. However, the man who’s digit I removed begins fighting with his shackling… his instinct to survive kicking in. He’s cursing, swinging around as he kicks out his feet, trying to kick me in the balls. I get it, but it doesn’t make me happy. I’m not the one paying his penance for thefts against the Bravata. If I were, I’d never stoop low enough to kick a man in the nuts.
“Thank fuck you shut them up,” Anton states, sighing.
“I mean shit, no one can understand anything when more than one person speaks at a time, especially when their voices are muffled by their sobs. So, let’s get to the point as I’m on a time crunch. I now know that you two are members of the Levi family, and have stolen two of our shipments,” I accuse, like it’s a normal day at the office and I have all the time in the world.
“I don’t know where you’ve heard that, it’s not true.” The man who is now missing a finger lies… to my face like a pansy.
“Now, lying just isn’t right.” I tsk them. “Every time you lie to me, I’ll remove something from your body. So, let’s start again, shall we? I know you two work for the Levi family. Who’s calling the shots there now, huh?” Who do you two answer to?
The man that still has all ten fingers hangs his head before looking at the man hanging beside him, apologizing, “I’m sorry, Kyle.”
He turns back to me, telling me everything I need to know. Disloyalty at its finest. Shameful. Someone could hold a torch to my dick and I’d never turn on Timur or any branch of the Bravata. Once he’s done talking, I let Anton have some fun with him while I torture what information I can from Kyle. After an hour of torture, I have all the information I have use for, and then some.
“Fuck, those assholes broke too easily. I was hoping for more fun,” Anton conveys, coming up to my side.
I like Anton, and at moments see a lot of myself in him. The thing that gives me pause is his thirst for torture and causing pain, his bloodlust exceeds my own.
“Well, now, you get to clean this mess up. I have dinner plans I need to get to.” I pat him on the shoulder as I walk out of the warehouse.
I step out of the dark warehouse just as the sun falls behind the skyscrapers of Atlanta, and make my way across the broken pavement of the parking lot to my car. As soon as I reach my SUV I pull the door open, and slide into the smooth, buttery leather seat and start the engine before pulling out of the lot, heading toward Timur’s home.
It takes me about forty-five minutes to get there. His and Cara’s house sits on the hill. I pull up, insert my identification code into the keypad, and wait for the gate to slide open. I take in the magazine worthy sight of the massive red brick home, with perfectly cut lawn, and precisely trimmed landscape. Once I make it to the top of the drive, Timur steps out onto the porch with two glasses of scotch nestled in his hands.
I place the SUV in park, unbuckle my seat belt, turn off the car, and step out. “Domestication looks good on you.”
My teasing has him huffing out a muffled laugh. “Just you wait. Aubrey and Cara’ll have you moved in next door. I mean, that’ll make my life so much easier.” Timur grins, handing one of the glass tumblers over to me.
“What do you know that I don’t?” My gut tells me this dinner is more than just friends getting together and bullshitting.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s go find the woman and see if they are ready to eat.” Timur pats me on the back as we make our way into the large foyer, one that is very much indicative of a historical, plantation home.
We make our way through the house, finding our women sitting in the shade by the pool. I stroll over to Aubrey, bending at the waist to take her lips in a long, blistering kiss that’s hot and makes my dick swell behind my pants.
“Keep kissing me like that and I’m going to be begging you to take me, right here and right now,” Aubrey whispers against my lips.
“I know where the best hiding spots are in the corridors. So don’t make promises that you don’t intend to keep, Dusha Moya,” I murmur as I kiss and nip my way down her neck, landing at her collarbone.
Aubrey throws her head back laughing. Seeing her finally being her true self, and not the portrait of what she thinks everyone wants her to be, means that by pulling myself out of the depth of the shadows, and opening myself up to her light, was the correct decision. I kiss her one last time on the mouth before pulling her to her feet, and heading back into the house and into the dining room.
When we make it into the room, Timur and Carra are already sitting there. There are two more places set at the table for us, one with a gift sitting in front of it. Aubrey leads the way, sitting at the placement that doesn’t have the gift sitting in front of it. I casually sit down looking at the gift wrapped box. I reach out and take the package into my hands, turning it over, examining it.
