Razing Grace: Razing Grace Part 1 (34 page)

I throw another nugget in my mouth and mumble, “I’m not surprised by anything anymore. Anyway, what is it?”

He cocks his head. “I’ve moved all your stuff into my room…”

I continue chewing, waiting for him to continue. He pauses and searches my eyes.

“And?” I say, sucking the salt off my finger.

His eyes follow the movement. “And are you going to make that difficult for me?”

“What? Sleeping in your room? No.” I close the bag. “Is that all?”

“No. There’s a meeting tonight. I have Hachiro Akimoto and Roman Lazovsky coming too.”

“So you have the Yakuza and the Russian mafia attending… where?”

“Here.” He points to the ground.

I swallow. “Great.”

“Hey.” Wrapping his fingers around my chin, he turns my face towards his. “This is how I’ve always done things. It’s how I’m trusted.”

“What? By showing them where you live?”

Raze shakes his head. “This is how I show them they can trust me, and baby, if these men wanted to kill me, it’d take them about four seconds to find out where I lived so that didn’t matter.”

I exhale. “It’s weird.”

Raze laughs, dropping his hand and taking mine. “Weird is probably putting this lightly. Come on. Oh!” His hand pauses on the door handle. “And I want you to be there tonight.”

“What? Where?”

“I want you in the basement with me and Miles tonight so I don’t have to repeat anything.”

“Oh,” I say absently. “But I thought that I wasn’t allowed to know business unless I was your wife?”

Raze shrugs. “Guess I don’t really give a fuck when it comes to you, and since I make the rules, I can break them. Come on.”

MILLIE

I run my hands down the tight fabric of my dress while tilting my head and scanning my body in the mirror. “Maybe this is too much?”

Miles looks down at his watch and then looks up at me, impatiently. “No, it’s perfect. Your ass looks peachy and your hip bones are sharp. Now let’s move.”

“Wait!” I say, gripping onto his arm. “Miles, you said you don’t like ultra-skinny girls.”

“What?” He drops his hands in defeat.

“You said you like girls with healthy meat.”

He steps up to me, bringing his warm palms to my cheeks. His hair is tied into a bun at the back of his head and his eyes are sharp but with added softness. “Baby girl, I told you I don’t have a preference, but I love you anyway I can get you.”

“You love me?” I say, tilting my head.

“I don’t say that to anyone, so maybe you should record it.”

I giggle. “Maybe I should?”

He smiles, his thumb caressing over my bottom lip. “God, trust me when I say that if Raze didn’t fucking drop his load all over you, you’d be mine.”

“Miles?” I say softly, bringing my hands up to his. “Honey you already have a girlfriend and a boyfriend. Where am I supposed to fit?”

He throws his head back and lets out a laugh. “Nicely played, puddin’. But I’d push the two in front of a moving train to have you in my arms forever.”

“You don’t mean that,” I whisper, my eyes searching every inch of his lips, lips I know are soft.

“I do,” he whispers harshly. “Fuck, I’ve never meant anything so much in my entire life.”

I frown. “Miles?”

“Yeah, puddin’?”

“Are you in love with me?”

His finger pauses and the edge of his index finger dips under my chin, nudging my face up. His eyes search mine intensely. “Yeah. Yeah, puddin’, I think I am.”

A loud bang on the door down the stairs of Raze’s room pulls us both out of our daze.

“Hold the fuck up!” Miles yells over his shoulder, his eyes remaining on mine. “But here’s the thing,” he continues, his other arm wrapping around my waist and pulling my body into his. His fingers come up and play with my hair. “I know Raze doesn’t admit it, puddin’, but my fucking God, he loves you.” My heart lurches into my throat and every fleck of my flesh begins to throb with uncertainty. I try to pull my head out of his grasp. “No,” he says, his hand coming up to my chin to tilt my head back towards him. “Don’t go shy on me. You need to hear me out.”

I swallow down past the boulder of nerves, emotions and everything else that is building in my throat.

“He loves you, Millie. He loves you more than I have ever seen anyone love one person. The thing with Raze is that he doesn’t know what love is. He’s not familiar with the feeling, so he doesn’t know he’s feeling it.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I whisper, tears threatening to spill out of the sides of my eyes.

“Because, baby girl, if there’s any one man who deserves the kind of love that I have no doubt you can give, it’s him.” He pauses, his knuckles gliding down my cheeks. I lean into his touch. “But that’s also why I’m letting you go.”

My eyes open slightly as a tear trickles down my cheek. I don’t want Miles to hurt, but I don’t want him to let me go either. Do I feel the same way he feels? Not really, but I do love him. Could I try to work things out with him so I didn’t have to see his heart break in front of me again? Absolutely.

“Miles?” The banging gets louder. “Can we talk about this a bit later?”

His smile comes up slowly. “Yeah, puddin’. Of course.”

The loud thud of more banging vibrates through the doors and I roll my eyes. “I’ve had about enough of this shit.” Ruffling up my hair into a messy bundle of joy, and smudging the dark burgundy lipstick that’s smothered on my lips, I walk up to Miles and pull at his tie until it’s loosened. Giggling to myself, I step up to his hard chest, ignoring the way my nipples spark to life at the connection, and bring my lips down to the collar of his crisp white shirt under his suit jacket. Raising my eyes up to his, I run my lips over his collared shirt slowly and then pause at the heat that flares in his eyes. Blinking, I drop my eyes to his neck and to the rose which sits proudly on the side of it. Bringing my eyes back to his carefully, I take my lips away from his now-lipstick-covered collar and toward his neck, over the pulsing angry vein that throbs under his warm skin. Gently, I scatter my lips over it when his body tenses. I open my mouth slightly and the grip he has around my waist tightens. Carefully, I lay a soft, tentative kiss on his neck and then slowly lean back until I can look up into his gentle eyes, eyes that are only gentle for me.

“We will talk, okay?”

He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Yeah. I guess we will.”

I take his hand in mine. “Okay, let’s cause trouble.”

“You always will be my little monster, you know…” Miles laughs, letting me take the lead.

“I’ll always be your little monster,” I repeat with a nod and a chuckle, looking over my shoulder and smiling before running down the stairs.

Swinging the door open, I lean on the doorframe with my arm stretched up. “Hey, sorry,” I tilt my head and suck my bottom lip into my mouth. “Got a little, you know…” I look beside me and behind the door. “Carried away.”

Miles pulls open the door wider while failing at straightening his tie. “Yeah… ahhh…” He brings his eyes back down to mine and I grin up at him under hooded eyes. Miles takes the door handle and looks back to the shocked door-banger. “Yeah, we’re gonna need more time.”

Miles slams the door in the door banger’s face and turns toward me, hiding his laughter with his face turning purple before he bends down and wraps his arms around my calves, lifting me into the air. I let out a loud squeal in surprise and Miles lands his hand on my ass with a loud slap. “Shhh, puddin’.” I cover my mouth with the palm of my hand and try to swallow my fit of laughter. Once we hear the footsteps disappear down the hall, Miles places me back down to my feet with a smile.

“Okay, Johnny Depp. Let’s go.”

“Ooohhh,” he says, his arm hooking around my waist as his other hand grips the door handle. “You really think that was a Johnny Depp level performance?”

I shrug. “Wasn’t bad.”

He throws his head back in a fit of laughter, nudging my body with his shoulder. “You know damn well I’d give Johnny a run for his money.”

“Run?” I say, quirking my eyebrow and following him down the hallway until we reach the top of the stairs. “You couldn’t run if Stephen James was chasing you.”

His mouth snaps shut and I pause. Searching his eyes, I can see the crazy brewing. He lurches forward, his hand flying out to grip my arm, but I sidestep him and move backwards.

“Nuh-uh, can’t touch this. Na, na, na…”

He lunges forward to chase me and I squeal out in shock before launching myself down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Rounding the corner, I pick up my speed when I look over my shoulder to see Miles on my tail with a grin on his face and a psychopathic glint in his eye. “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the fuck machine man.”

A loud laugh rips out of me as my feet hit the pavement of the hallway. I swing open the door that leads down to the basement and take the stairs again two at a time. Reaching the door which opens out onto the vast space of Raze’s basement board room, I swing it open to find all eyes already on the door, waiting for me to open it because they had already obviously heard the stampede upstairs.

“Hi.” I smile. “Sorry,” I whisper, ignoring Raze’s glare from the head of his table. Miles comes crashing down the stairs and barricades into me until my body falls forward an inch. My hand comes up to my mouth to stifle my laugh.

“Shit, sorry, boss. Had to, you know, tell her to hurry up…” Miles continues, his voice dying out when his eyes meet Raze’s.

Oh, nope. I won’t be looking his way right now.

I step forward anyway, ignoring his gaze. Miles follows in front of me, nudging his head while mouthing, “Come on,” to me. I follow him towards the long wooden table that has “Fear no evil, speak no evil” carved into the impressive woodwork. Subtle, much?

Offering Miles a small smile, I follow him to where Raze is. The chair he’s seated in is more like a big plush leather throne, while the rest are mere office chairs. The room is dimly lit by thin bulbs pressed against the painted red walls, and there’s outside access through a sliding door towards the side. To the right is Hachiro and two of his men with a couple extra standing behind him in vests and clutching machine guns. To the left of Raze is who I’m guessing is Roman Lazovsky and two of his men standing behind him also. The atmosphere is tight with tension, so I straighten my clothing out and stand beside Miles, away from Raze. In each dark corner of the room, I can see the masks of each man from The Army. The sight throws me off a little because I didn’t know that they’d be here, but I shrug it off.

“So as I was saying,” Roman begins, leaning back in his chair.

“Stop.” Raze throws his hand up and then leans over the table around Miles. “Pet?”

“Hmmm?” I say, finally looking down at him. My breath hitches and my palms tickle.

“Get the fuck over here now.”

“I—”

“Now.”

“Okay.” I roll my eyes and step back before rounding his chair to the other side. His fingers lace into mine as he tugs on me to stand directly beside his throne. Looking up at me, his eyes flash with desire but are mixed with anger. I swallow.

“Beast and his crew will be here in a second,” Raze tells me, talking to the other men but his eyes remaining on mine. He slowly pulls his penetrating gaze away from mine and back to the others. “Let’s wait so no one has to repeat themselves.”

A few minutes later, there’s a light tap on the door. Miles steps towards it, then rolls up his sleeves before unlocking the latch and sliding it open.

Beast walks through first, followed by the rest of the crew. I smile softly at them all. Raze’s arm hooks around my thigh possessively. Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I lean my arm on the top of his chair. Beast takes the seat opposite Raze at the end of the table while Hella, Frost, Hannibal, and their new prospect—I forget his name but he’s really smart—stands behind him. I look over my shoulder quickly to the wall when I see Beast’s eyes go over us. There have to be around fifty guns of all sorts hanging proudly on the wall. Raze smiles and then looks up at me. “Ready?”

Confused about his question, I nod my head. “Yeah.”

“This is the deal,” Raze starts, picking up his glass of whiskey. “We’ve been planning to bring down Kurr for some time now. We have a plan. Millie was always supposed to get taken.”