Withstanding Me (20 page)

Winter tells Tatiana to take Mace to one of the guestrooms, and surprisingly Tatiana doesn’t fight her on it. I watch as James hugs my clueless mother and whispers something in her ear. She looks over at me, and I nod. No doubt, James told her she needs to go to bed. I look around for Bom Bom and Creamy and don’t see them. Either they’re already in bed, or they scrammed before I even saw them. Braxxon puts the prospects on watch duty, and they take off. I just sit here twiddling my fucking thumbs because I have nothing to do but listen. Usually when I’m bored I can hunt down Piper, and she can make me laugh. But even she can’t be here right now.

“These men claiming to be my Russians are not mine. I can assure you they are not. The men who are with me tonight,” she gestures around the room, “are my men.” Her voice is fucking fantastic, and if I didn’t have a hot little woman upstairs, I might try to fuck Winter’s mom.

Liana thinks for a moment. “The men claiming they are mine. They’ve caused my daughter an extreme amount of worry. How you deal with them must be quiet. As you can see, I am not at all…” She pauses, tosses her hair over her shoulders, and crosses her legs to sit back. Jesus, she’s really fuckin hot. I adjust myself, praying I don’t get hard. I don’t wanna explain that shit to anyone. Just when I finish, I get a smack upside the head. I turn to find Pyro glaring at me, shaking his head in a no manner.

“I fucking know,” I growl. I wouldn’t do that to Storm. But before Storm, that’s a whole other ball game.

“Let’s just say I don’t need to hear about it, no?” Her mother finishes.

“I’m good with quiet.” Braxxon nods.

Liana snaps her fingers and one of her men hands her a folder. “Now… on to discuss your sister. I’m guessing this was news to you?” She asks Winter.

“Yes.”

Liana smiles at her and opens the folder. “Your sister is a few years older than you. She’s twenty-five. The reason she was never left with your father was because she was the oldest. You’re of Danish royalty, my dear daughter. You are only half Russian.”

I feel like at any moment, her mother is gonna murder our asses and take her daughter away. This is not a calm fuckin feeling.

“I don’t understand.” Winter says quietly.

“Your sister Sabine is in Denmark. On a trip to Russia, I met and fell in love with your father. Needless to say, I did not know he was an evil man. He forced me to come to the states when I was pregnant with Sabine. Her being the first-born needed to be named in our Danish hierarchy; it is the way of my people. He had no choice. But when you were born, he would not let me take you. He said one or the other. I know this may seem bad my child, but I had to get out. He treated you like the world. I made sure there were people watching you at all times. If I had stayed, we might not be having this meeting right now. I would most likely be dead. Murdered by my own husband. The reason behind your uncle’s hits is that I was still in fact married to your now deceased father. His money is mine, yours and Sabine’s. Your uncle is not thrilled with this as you can see. I’m done with this Russian accent . You know it’s me, yes?”

Winter is sitting stunned with the rest of us, and her mother quickly changes to another accent. I feel like my head’s spinning.

“Good my darling,” she pats Winter on the knee and her now accent is even hotter.

Shit balls.

“In this folder you will find contact information for your sister. You may contact her. She will be expecting it. The rest of your inheritance is also in that folder. There are directions on how you may come to receive it. I suspect you won’t be going back to Denmark with me after we clear this mess?”

Oh, shit!

Winter gulps with the rest of the room and you can see the stiffness in Braxxon’s back.

“No, no. My life is here. I would like to visit, if I’m allowed, on occasion?” She answers back.

“Of course, anytime you may wish. Your father was excellent at keeping his illegal businesses quiet. Which for my marriage and my head at Denmark was a very good thing. I expect you have no qualms about me splitting his estates with your sister as well? I plan to sell all the legal properties, and such; only cash will be left.”

Winter doesn’t hesitate. “She can have it all. I don’t want his money.”

Liana chuckles. “Yes, you do dear; it’s quite a lot.”

Again, Winter doesn’t hesitate. “I have plenty from my first inheritance that you left me and now this,” she shakes the folder, “is plenty.”

Her mother shakes her head in agreement that it’s plenty of money, but she’s not happy. “My dear, it’s your money as well. Consider it as a ‘fuck you’ payment to your uncle. He will not be at all happy about losing this amount of money.”

Everyone starts laughing.

“What, did I not use the correct terminology? Is fuck you not right?”

We all laugh some more and Liana laughs with us.

“Now for the heavy stuff. My dear daughter, I hate to say this. But if this is the life you choose… oh, this pains me to say. I will not be able to claim you as mine in the public eye.” Her mother’s voice breaks.

The entire room grows quiet, and Winter sniffles. “I understand.”

And it is understandable. Look at the life we fuckin live. Royalty can’t be tied to us at all.

“This cousin of yours, he must belong to your father and uncle. He is not to be trusted. I have no Russian men you’ve spoke of here. In fact, I have no Russians on my side at all. I’ve been in Denmark this entire time. With only hired help watching over you. Like bodyguards, I guess you would call them, well until you ran away. It took them until two months ago to relocate you. The only way your cousin could have possibly known was if your uncle told him about my call. Your uncle is the only one I spoke with. I would have handled these matters overseas, but it’s a lot of paperwork, and I wanted to meet you. I would say your uncle is running scared, and this is reasoning behind his hit. This is why I travel with all these men. It’s not safe for me to be in the states, but I am handling this matter of my deceased husband’s estates so I may put it behind me.”

Braxxon opens his hand palm up, and Winter doesn’t hesitate to dig out her prepay. He doesn’t yell; he doesn’t speak. He just calmly takes the phone and hands it to Sniper, who then takes off to dispose of it.

“I trust you will take care of my daughter?” Liana looks to Braxxon. “And that you will let her visit?”

You can hear the sound of Braxxon’s teeth gritting together about the idea of Winter leaving the states.

“I will take care of her, and she can visit.” He grits out.

At first, I think he’s offended her mother, until she starts laughing. “I wouldn’t keep her longer than a few weeks at a time.”

Oh that’s not gonna help.

“Now I know my visit is short Winter. But I must get back east, sign the documents the lawyers need me to sign, and I need to get the hell out of…,” she pauses and Winter finishes for her.

“Dodge?”

Her mother smiles. “Yes. It’s not safe here. I would take you with me if I knew I had that option. But I don’t. I really don’t, do I?”

Again, Braxxon growls.

“No, I’m married. My family is here,” she answers her mom.

“I understand. May I give you a hug?”

She doesn’t even answer; she just stands when her mother does and embraces her. When they release, they both are in tears, and it kinda tugs at all our hearts because shit this is sad. You only gotta be human to understand it.

“All my contact information is in that folder. All my private lines and emails. That’s all you need to get a hold of me. Even my address is in there.”

They take off walking, and I’m sitting stunned. I thought we were meeting more Russian royalty. We thought Winter was of Russian royalty. How wrong were we? She is just a Russian mafia princess, and she has Denmark royalty blood lingering in her veins. That’s some fucked up shit. She’s giving up a lot up to stay here with us and I now respect her even more.

“Brother,” Pyro says beside me.

“Yeah, I know. Seeing Winter in a whole new fuckin light man.”

***

Chapter 27

ZZ

Braxxon sends Winter off after her mother leaves, and we’re all back in the chapel trying to figure out this fucking Russian mess. It’s a clusterfuck. We have no idea what’s going on and why Winter’s cousin was trying to trick her into thinking her mother sent Russian’s here to help.

“Not understandin this shit, brother,” Pyro rubs at his temples and I feel like doing the same.

“The only shit that I can think of is that maybe the second set was possibly for Winter’s mom. They haven’t bothered us. So that’s my fuckin guess,” Braxxon says lighting up a smoke.

“So we fuckin kill them all. Fuck it. Let’s just get rid of them all. I’m tired. I want my fuckin freedom back.” Smokey snarls.

I get it. The clubhouse has been quiet. No muffler bunnies hanging around and shit. But Smokey’s translation is… he just wants to be able to fuck and do drugs in peace.

We hear a loud thud, and then Storm screaming my name repeatedly.

“MASON!” It’s blood-curdling screams, and she used my real name. We take off running outta the building to the parking lot. Winter, Storm, Bom Bom, Ma, Creamy, and Mace are all huddled around something. I push them outta the way. There sits my daughter all bruised up. I turn to Mace. “I THOUGHT SHE WAS FUCKING WITH YOU!”

“She took me to my room. That was it, and then she was just gone. How the fuck was I supposed to know she was leaving?” He throws his hands up before dropping beside me as I fall to the cement.

“HOW THE FUCK DID SHE GET OFF THE COMPOUND WITHOUT ANYONE FUCKING SEEING HER?”

I’m so pissed off I can’t see straight.

“Dad,” she croaks. “I snuck off.”

Calming breaths Mason, calm fuckin breaths.

“No shit baby girl. Who the fuck did this to you?”

Shadow drops down beside me and Mace and tilts Tatiana’s chin up, forcing her to look at him.

“His name now, T. Don’t fuckin lie to me, I swear to fuckin god, don’t you dare lie to me.”

She shakes her head no. “He got carried away. I asked for it, and you know I did.”

Oh, mother of fucking hell. No, she didn’t.

“You’ve been going to the club.” It’s not a fuckin question; it’s a fucking statement.

“T… name now!”

Shadow looks just as pissed as I am. I bet the motherfucker is blaming himself and that shit ain’t right. My daughter is a stubborn little shit. She starts rubbing at her neck, and Shadow pushes her hands away.

“You practiced breath play,” he whispers. Shadow actually sounds hurt until he moves her hair away more. “I’m gonna fuckin kill him. Name now, T. Done playin these games with you.”

I look at the spot he just moved my daughter’s hair from and I see fuckin red.

“Are you a fuckin masochist?” I all but yell at my fuckin idiot daughter.

“I dunno.” She replies shakily.

“YOU DON’T FUCKIN KNOW!” Shadow roars. “YOU DON’T PLAY IF YOU DON’T FUCKIN KNOW!”

He takes a calming breath like I keep doing. “Name. If you don’t give me a name, all I gotta do is ask around. But the more I have to search, the angrier I’m gonna be when I find this fucker!”

Tatiana stands up, shaking. Yeah, I bet you’re shaking baby girl. You’ve just were strangled because you didn’t know what the fuck you were doing.

I pull Shadow aside, away from ears. “Get rid of him, brother. He should’ve known better. He should’ve known my daughter hasn’t the first fuckin clue about this shit. I don’t know how your shit works there, but I want it dealt with. Do it right, because I swear to god, if you don’t, I might just take my anger out on you, brother or not.”

Shadow eyes me carefully. “It doesn’t work that way. He knew. He just seen a pretty girl and thought he could deal with her stupidity without fuckin repercussions. I’ll fuckin handle it.”

Any other time, I might beat him to the cement for saying my daughter is practically stupid. But right now, she’s fucking stupid for getting involved in shit she knows nothing about.

“Let the Prez know you’re headed out. Make sure he’s okay with it. I don’t have a clue as to why the fuck he wouldn’t.”

I walk over to my bruised up daughter and frown. “Ma, take her inside, put her ass to bed like the child she’s acting like.” And I walk away.

***

Storm

I’m almost afraid to go inside the clubhouse. Mason is pissed. He has every right to be so too. I can’t believe she pulled that shit. We have hits on our asses and she’s out playing kinky sex? I just don’t get it.

I don’t see Mason at the bar, so I go back to his room. I hate fuckin being in this building, in this hall. It’s not exactly woman friendly. I find him sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. He’s practically shaking. I shut the door and walk over to him. He doesn’t look up, so I move his arms, sit in his lap, and cradle him to me. It’s heartbreaking seeing him like this. It’s like he doesn’t know what to do.

His arms wrap tightly around me, and I sigh and almost groan because I’m so bruised, but he needs me, so I’m gonna buck up.