Kissing My Killer (18 page)

I checked the gun in my holster one last time—I’d put my suit back on, which felt fantastic after those stupid student clothes, like coming home. I got out and motioned for Gabriella to do the same, approaching the ship slowly and openly, hands where they could be seen. We’d almost reached the gangplank when a voice rang out from behind me.

“Alexei Borinskov. What brings you all the way out here?”

I spun around, but found myself looking straight into a narrow, sun-bright circle of light. A man—Petrov, I guessed—was standing on top of a shipping container and he had us pinned in the beam. I knew it wouldn’t be just a torch. It would be a tactical light attached to the top of a gun. He had us right in his sights and I couldn’t see a thing.

I tried to brazen it out. “I just want to talk business.”

There was a metallic click off to my left as someone cocked a gun. Another click off to my right. They had us surrounded. They must have seen us as soon as we’d entered the docks.

“Word is,” said Petrov, “you went soft on some girl and turned on Nikolai. Disloyalty, Alexei, is never good. I’m sure Nikolai would be very grateful if I cleaned up his mess for him.”

Shit.
“That’s not what happened,” I said, trying to sound angry.

“Then what did?” The circle of light moved to Gabriella and she flinched, throwing up her hands to shield her eyes. “She’s alive, isn’t she?”

Suddenly, I knew exactly what I had to do. They’d heard rumors, but they weren’t sure—if they were, they would have shot us by now. They knew me by reputation—everyone did.

All I had to do was become
that
Alexei again. The one who’d walked into Gabriella’s apartment. As soon as I thought it, I could feel my old ways coming back to me. It felt right, even though I knew it was wrong. It felt as good and familiar as when I’d put my suit back on.

I grabbed Gabriella by the waist and hauled her up against me, her ass to my groin. And then, as she squirmed in shock against me, I ran my hands up her body and over her breasts.
God,
the feel of them in my hands at last, even through her blouse. I could feel myself getting hard, despite the situation.

“Why the fuck do you think she’s alive?” I snapped. “Look at this body! I’m having some fun with her, before I shoot her in the head.”

Gabriella

I panted for air as Alexei mauled my breasts, his huge hands just as warm and powerful as I’d imagined. I was reeling in shock from what he’d just said, but that didn’t change the effect: blazing ribbons of pleasure rippled out from my breasts, making my hips jerk and my groin ache.

The light that had been on Alexei switched back to me. This time, it didn’t stop on my face—it stroked lazily down my body, illuminating his hands as they fondled me, tracing over my waist and hips and then down my legs.

Then it switched off, as if a decision had been made. I heard boots on steel as Petrov climbed down off the shipping container. My eyes were still throbbing and burning from staring into the light so I couldn’t see him until he was right up close, pointing his gun at us.

His face was all hard lines with no hint of softness, as if his skin was slightly too tight on his skull. His lips were pressed together into a thin, straight line, as if he was permanently on the edge of rage. It made me shy away from him instinctively and he laughed when he saw that.

“So she’s your plaything?” he asked Alexei.

“She’s my plaything,” Alexei growled. His thumb found my nipple through my bra, stroking it to erectness. It didn’t matter that I was terrified—his touch was a direct hotline to my groin, a twisting, thrashing heat I couldn’t control. I’d been waiting so long for this….

And it wasn’t just his touch. To my horror, the words burrowed down inside me, right down to the secret places we never admit exist. I was his
plaything.

“Does she do as she’s told?” asked Petrov. He still had his gun pointing at us, but it was wavering a little.

Alexei leaned in and licked my earlobe. I yelped and instinctively tried to pull away because, however much I loved it, doing it as a display for Petrov felt wrong. But Alexei held me tight against him and now I could feel the throbbing hardness of him against my ass.

“Mostly,” said Alexei. “I punish her when she doesn’t.” His hand captured my breast again and, this time, he pinched my nipple through my bra with his thumb and forefinger. I cried out, arching my back and squeezing my thighs together, silver pleasure and white-hot pain mingling together.

I knew it was a trick. I knew Alexei was just acting. I knew we were in a very, very dangerous situation. But none of that mattered to the dark places that had suddenly started glowing, deep down inside me.
I’m his plaything. His captive, tied to the bed in some hotel room while he uses me however he wants….
I twisted and tried to pull away from him and it wasn’t acting—I was trying to fight against my own reaction.

Petrov chuckled and lowered his gun a little. He sounded considerably more relaxed, now. Relaxed and...something else my brain was too addled to decipher. “So you and Nikolai are okay?” he asked.

“Nikolai and I are just fine. The cheap bastard just didn’t pay me in full, so I yelled at him and he got mad and now he’s bad-mouthing me. I’ll finish the job once he pays up. But in the meantime, I’m going to fuck this one over and over and over.” He rolled his hips against my ass and I wailed...and went mushy inside.
God, what’s wrong with me?!

I heard movement in the darkness off to our sides. Men lowering their guns.

“Fucking Nikolai,” said Petrov, lowering his gun completely. Alexei had him on his side, now—everyone understands getting stiffed for a fee and everyone understands sex. “So why are you here?” He sounded as casual as an old friend...but there was still that edge in his voice—excitement? “You said you had business. Or did you just come here to show off your sex toy?”

Alexei did something I’d never heard him do before: he chuckled. A dark, lusty sound that made me feel as if I was being wrapped up in dark smoke. I closed my eyes and shuddered, feeling the heat turn to slick moisture inside me. “She’s worth showing off, isn’t she? But I need to talk, too. Some things for Nikolai, for when he pays up.”

“Fine,” said Petrov after a moment. “Come inside. It’s too fucking cold out here.” He started towards the gangplank.

I went limp against Alexei.
Thank God.
Now we’d get the information we needed. And hopefully, I could make Alexei believe that my responses had just been play-acting. He grabbed my shoulders and steered me along behind Petrov so that I was sandwiched between the two big men.

“I’m taking a turn at her first, though,” said Petrov casually. “You don’t mind sharing your plaything, do you?”

And suddenly I understood that edge of excitement in his voice. I turned and tried to run, expecting Alexei to be doing the same.

But Alexei caught me and shoved me forward, sending me staggering into Petrov. “Of course not,” he said with a shrug.

Gabriella

My eyes went wide and I had time for a single scream of fear before Alexei clapped his hand over my mouth from behind, his huge palm killing all sound. His other arm wrapped around my waist and he began to walk me along behind Petrov, using his hips to swing mine and lifting my feet clear of the ground when I resisted. “She’s not used to others,” he explained. “Yet.”

My insides had turned to ice water. It had all just been an act...hadn’t it? Was this just part of it, or….

Or was this going to be the cost of getting out alive? To convince Petrov I was really just Alexei’s sex toy, was I going to have to….

I thrashed and twisted but Alexei held me easily while Petrov watched and chuckled. We entered the ship—metal bulkheads and harsh overhead lights. My desperate grunts and the kicking of my feet on the metal floor made men poke their heads out of doors. They laughed when they saw the scene. Everyone understood what was happening: a thrashing, kicking woman being force-walked towards their leader’s room.

Is it a trick, or is this really going to happen?
All the dark arousal I’d been feeling at the idea of being Alexei’s plaything had evaporated. The idea of Petrov....I didn’t even want to think about it. I twisted around and looked at Alexei, but he was grinning at Petrov.
How far is he going to let this go? All the way?

Petrov opened a heavy steel door and led us into a room. There was a desk covered in papers and a buzzing overhead strip light. Petrov waited until we were inside, then slammed the door. Once it was shut, the room was quiet as a tomb save for my desperate panting.

“Get her on the desk,” said Petrov.

No!

But Alexei lifted me like a doll and placed me on my back on Petrov’s desk, my legs hanging off the end. He kept his hand over my mouth the whole time.

Petrov grinned and reached down, undoing the button of my jeans. As I tried to kick at him, he began to peel them down my legs.

No!

Something red flashed across the room and Petrov sat down, hard, on the floor. An instant later, my brain registered a metal
clang.

The hand lifted from my mouth. I sat up. Petrov was shaking his head, dazed. Next to him on the floor, still spinning, was the fire extinguisher Alexei had hurled.

Before Petrov could get to his feet, Alexei was on him, punching him once in the face and once in the guts, his face contorted with fury. Then he lifted Petrov off the floor, hurled him into an office chair and pulled out his gun, pointing it at Petrov’s head.

Petrov spat blood onto the floor and glared at Alexei, but he’d gone pale.

“You okay?” Alexei asked me without looking at me.

I shakily pulled my jeans up my legs and stood up. “Yes,” I said in a small voice.

Alexei still didn’t look at me, didn’t dare take his eyes off Petrov even for a second. “Sorry,” he said at last.

Petrov shook his head in disgust. “So the rumors were true. You
have
gone soft for a girl. We should have killed you on sight, and all of us fucked her.”

Alexei hit him across the face with his gun. I flinched at the violence, but a little part of me cheered.

“Seventeen,” said Alexei. “He works for you. Who is he?”

“What the fuck do you want with Seventeen?”

Alexei moved the gun from Petrov’s forehead to his balls. “I’ll blow one off,” he told him coldly, “then the other. You’ll bleed to death before they can get you to a hospital.”

Petrov set his jaw and glared at Alexei. It turned into a battle of wills—which of them could be the most intimidating?

Petrov never even stood a chance. After just a few seconds, he wilted. “Slava,” he said. “Seventeen’s real name is Slava Federoff. But I don’t know where he is. He left a few days ago and I haven’t seen him since.”

Alexei cursed. We’d been right: Nikolai had secretly lured Seventeen away. Everyone thought he still worked for Petrov, who in turn worked for Konstantin. But really, Seventeen was now doing Nikolai’s bidding.

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Petrov said. “That guy is
insane!
” He shook his head at our stupidity. “Do you even know why they call him Seventeen?”