Demyan & Ana (9 page)

“Okay.”

Demyan kissed the top of Ana’s head before releasing her. “I need to get home to Gia. Are you fine here?”

Ana nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, Demyan.”

“There’s nothing to thank me for.”

Ana thought there was because she was only now learning how much her brother really did care for and loved her. “You’re going to be a great father.”

Demyan grinned. “I hope so.”

Ana waited for her brother to disappear down the stairs before she went back to the office doorway.

The sounds of several items crashing to the floor stopped her from knocking. Her father stood over his desk, his fists pressed into the top as his shoulders heaved with silent sobs. Pain creased lines over his face while his teeth were bared and clenched tight. Everything from the desk lamp, from his laptop, knickknacks, and even his treasured photos were a broken pile on the floor. Her mother stood behind him, stoic and quiet.

“It’ll be okay, Anton.”

“Will it, really?” he asked, tremors rocking his hands. “You don’t know Liam Dolan, Vine.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

Anton growled in anguish. “I’m so sick, baby. In my fucking heart, it hurts. What he did to her—how do I get her to forgive me for not protecting her like I was supposed to?”

“You’re not Superman.”

“I was supposed to be hers.”

Chapter Nine

Demyan

“
Mmmm
.” Gia hummed, swallowing the last bit of chocolate covered fruit. She rested back into the half a dozen plush pillows on the king-sized bed. “Best surprise ever.”

Demyan grinned from the recliner. “You deserve it, babe.”

Gia pursed her lips, teasingly. “Do I?”

“Sure. You work so hard with the kids, you’re seven and a half months pregnant and tired most days. Worst of all, you put up with my sorry ass.”

Her laughter rung out in the hotel room. It was five-star all the way. Gourmet food. A million dollar view. Anything and everything Gia could want was just a phone call away. Demyan hadn’t told her yet, but there was more to this last minute getaway then she really knew.

Liam Dolan was flying into the city on Sunday morning and a meeting had been set up for Monday afternoon. Anton believed the best way to get ahead of the game was to hit first before they could try to strike you. So, instead of waiting for someone to come to them about Cavan’s death, Demyan’s father sent someone to them.

Hence, the early December meeting.

If there was anything Demyan’s father taught him that was more important than the rest, it was getting your loved ones to a safe place when shit was about to go down. Demyan would have preferred to take Gia out of state altogether, but he didn’t think that would go over too well with her. His mother and sister were two floors down with his father, but Gia wasn’t aware of that yet, either.

“Hey, where did you go over there?” Gia asked.

Demyan shook his thoughts away, not wanting to give her any inclination of his worries. “Nowhere, babe. I’m here with you, like always.”

Gia waved at the large, beautiful hotel room. “We have this place for the rest of the weekend, huh?”

“A little longer,” Demyan said. “Maybe the week, too.”

“Demyan, I have work on Monday.”

“Second surprise, I called in your emergency vacation time.”

“Demyan!”

He gave her a look that pinned her back into the bed. “Listen, after everything that’s happened over the last little while, we both needed a break. You’re almost done work, anyway.”

“Exactly,” Gia said quietly. “And I really wanted to spend as much time with the kids as I could before I finished.”

Guilt ate at Demyan’s insides. He hated lying to Gia, but she was too goddamn fearless for her own good. If he told her the truth about why she was there, she was liable to tell him to fuck off and away she would go. “I’m sorry. I thought this would be nice for us before the baby came, that’s all. Like a last hurrah.”

Gia sighed, side-eyeing him. Then, her pretty pink lips curved into a sly grin. One that spoke of sin, sex, and heaven all rolled into one. Demyan knew that look on her well. His cock hardened at the sight alone.

Gia crooked a finger in his direction. “Come here.”

“Hmm, you sure?”

“So sure. You, right here,” Gia said, pointing to herself. “Now.”

Demyan didn’t need to be told a second time. He tugged off his shirt as he crossed the room before unbuckling his slacks and kicking off the pants. His knees hit the bottom of the bed and he crawled up the sheets watching her like prey.

Gia had already situated herself on the bed in nothing but one of his T-shirts and lace panties earlier, so by the time he fitted himself between the sweetness of her thighs, she had her top gone, too.

Under Demyan’s palms, Gia’s skin was warm silk and crushed velvet. She shivered beneath his hands kneading the soft flesh of her ass. Grinding her lace covered core to his groin, she moaned into the kiss he crushed to her lips. She was soaking through her panties already and Demyan couldn’t wait to feel her hot and wet around his dick.

“Love you,
katyonak
. God, how I love you.”

Gia grinned, her tongue flicking out to tease along the seam of his mouth. “Forever?”

“Always, babe.”

“Good. You and me against the world, right?”

“Damn right.”

By Gia’s demand, he made quick work of removing what little clothes they still wore. Her fingers interweaved with his on the pillow above her head as he slid home inside her sex with a groan that rocked him from the inside out. Gia’s head tipped back to the pillow as her thighs widened to take him deeper.

Her pussy was a slick paradise. Pure ecstasy encompassing him. It drove him to the brink of in-fucking-sanity every single time he loved her.

“Christ, yeah,” Demyan said in an exhale. “Perfect. You’re so perfect.”

Gia’s teeth caught her bottom lip, her blue eyes darkening as she watched him above her. Demyan kept their rhythm slow, wanting to draw it out as long as possible. Gia was his queen, she always had been, and she deserved to be worshiped like one.

The pregnancy made Gia sensitive in ways Demyan loved. It didn’t take a whole hell of a lot to get her going and she climbed high and fast before dropping just as hard from her peaks. She was downright insatiable and he adored giving her all she wanted of him.

Every thrust of his body was met with the rise of her hips. His mouth explored the creamy skin of her chest and up to her collarbones. He licked, kissed and sucked on her neck to the line of her jaw. Demyan felt her walls begin to contract with a rushing orgasm. Gia came undone around him, shaking with his name in her beautiful mouth. Releasing one of her hands, he wrapped his arm around her back and rolled them over so she was on top.

Gia lifted his hand still connected with hers and kissed the tattoo on the skin between his forefinger and thumb. A small, black cross. Simple and brand new to his body. It was the first time she openly gave it any attention since he had it done two days earlier.

Demyan had always refused the Bratva tradition of tattoos. Ink wasn’t his style, and despite his father’s very vocal arguments about the meaning of the designs, he still never had one done.

Until Cavan’s death.

The single cross marked a worthy hit in the Bratva.

Gia undoubtedly knew why it was there though she didn’t say a thing.

She rocked on top of him, his hands keeping her supported. Her blonde curls fell over her shoulders, covering her breasts. “Why are we really here, Demyan?”

His gaze snapped to hers. “I told you, babe.”

“Please don’t lie to me. I know there’s a lot going on you’re not telling me about.”

Demyan licked his lips, trying to focus on her and not the urge to come curling in his lower half. “There’s a meeting on Monday. It’s safer if you’re out of sight.”

“Okay,” Gia said, her brilliant, sexy smile back in a blink. She squeezed her inner muscles around his shaft, taking his air away and sending pleasure rocketing through his bloodstream. “Never lie to me, Demyan.”

Demyan let his head fall back into the pillows with a moan. “Shit, don’t stop doing that.”

“Oh, you know I won’t.”

• • •

Liam Dolan was an icy man. Not just icy, no, deathly fucking cold.

Demyan didn’t think he had ever sat face to face with someone as entirely emotionless as the human being sitting across from him now. Liam even spoke with no sentiment or care. The man didn’t seem to get angry, he barely blinked, and his stare was practically dead.

It was … disturbing.

Liam snapped his fingers once in the air when his plate was empty. A man stepped in to remove the item, utensils, and napkin. He was arrogant enough that he refused to allow the restaurant’s servers to attend him.

“Anything else, Boss?”

“Rum and coke,” Liam stated, never looking away from Demyan. “Very little coke.”

“May we speak now, Liam?” Anton asked, leaning back in his chair beside Demyan. “I’ve let you have your meal, let your men search any of us they wanted, and whatever else you demanded. I think it’s time to discuss what happened.”

Liam shrugged. “If you desire it, but I think we both know how the conversation will end, Anton.”

Demyan didn’t, but those words put him on edge instantly.

Only a few of his father’s men were inside the restaurant, but the outside was swarmed with Bratva. In cars, behind the business, sitting out front on the benches, and even in the businesses surrounding the place.

Anton took no chances.

“I don’t believe I do know how it will end,” Anton said, raising a brow.

“Truthfully, I have very little interest in talking to you.”

Anton canted his head, eyes narrowing. “In Brighton Beach, I am the boss, Liam. I speak for my men here. They don’t speak for even themselves when I’m around.”

Liam nodded, his expression stony. “I can respect that, but I asked you to let me speak on a straightforward, no bullshit basis with the young man who killed my nephew.”

“And that young man is my son, so again—”

“It won’t really matter, you know,” Liam interjected, sounding bored. “We can argue all day, but I will still get what I came for all the same, Russian.”

Demyan practically heard his father’s teeth crack beneath his clenching jaw.

“He raped my sister,” Demyan said, wanting to get the dinner over with. The longer he sat in Liam Dolan’s company, the closer to death he felt. “He brutally attacked, threatened, and left her bruised and bleeding on her apartment floor. If it was your daughter—”

“I have no daughter, so your point is moot.”

Stunned at the man’s lack of empathy, Demyan didn’t quite know what to say.

“If you wish to appeal to some sympathetic part of me, I can promise it will be useless and you will fail, Demyan Avdonin. I have nothing to feel compassion for. No wife, very little family worth my time or breath, and nothing I have is something I would fight to keep from losing. Especially now that you’ve taken my nephew from me.”

“He raped my daughter,” Anton snapped. “And she was not the first girl he attacked, Liam.”

Liam turned to take the rum and coke from his man. Slowly, he sipped from the drink while he watched Demyan in that unnerving way of his. Demyan could smell how strong the rum in the drink was from across the table, but Liam continued downing it as if it were water. Liam didn’t react at all to Anton’s statement and he also didn’t seem to notice how thick the tension in the room was around him.

Who the fuck was this man?

The tumbler glass dangled from the tips of Liam’s fingers uncaringly. “I’ve always believed women are only good for a few things. None of them are worth killing for, mind you, but they’re always worth taking.”

“Let’s agree to disagree on that opinion,” Demyan muttered, nausea pounding at his insides.

“We’re all entitled to them. Women can easily become even the coldest man’s weakness. It’s Gia, right?” Liam asked.

Demyan stilled, feeling every eye at the table turn on him and Liam. “She has nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, but she has everything to do with you, my boy.”

Steely, green eyes surveyed Demyan from across the table. A shiver ran up his spine as Liam tossed back the remainder of his rum and coke. Liam picked up his vibrating cell phone from the table, glanced at the screen, sighed, and set it back down without a word. It was as if he had been waiting for that message, whatever it was.

Dread filled Demyan to the brim.

“I was going to do to her what you did to my nephew,” Liam said drily. “It would have been nothing less than what you deserved for his suffering.”

Demyan’s heart beat wildly. “His suffering was earned.”

Liam smiled grimly. “Perhaps, but it was still going to earn her the same fate, nonetheless. Then I learned of her condition. Seven and a half months pregnant. A little girl, they told me.”

Not his baby. Not his daughter.

Demyan’s mind fell silent.

No one moved around him. No one else spoke.

Demyan’s hands curled around the edge of the table, his fingernails breaking against the wood from the pressure. Something inside was screaming for him to leave, but his feet felt like cement stuck to the floor.

“I couldn’t help but consider the child, you see.” Liam ghosted the tip of his index finger around the rim of the glass. “I’m a monster, but unborn babies … I don’t know how that might affect me. Would the baby suffer pain like her mother? They’re attached while she’s safe and comfortable in her warm home. Would she feel the skin being cut from the bone and the life leaving? Would it hurt?”

Bile rose in Demyan’s throat.

“Just as well, I suppose,” Liam murmured. “You might not see her mutilated, you won’t wonder how long she lived, or even if she begged for her life, but you will lose two. I believe that’ll settle our scores. They’ll make it quick, Demyan. For the child’s sake. It was my only request of them and my olive branch to you.”

“
No
.”

Demyan stood so fast his chair toppled out from beneath him. Spinning on his heel, he headed toward the front door of the restaurant before anyone would say a thing otherwise.