Redemption (The Volkov Mafia Series Book 4) (18 page)

“Well as you can see I have everything under control, so why don’t you go back to the party, Damien? I don’t need you here taking over and fucking up my chance of starting over,” I say. I’m not trying to be a dick to him, but he has to understand I need to stand on my own two feet. I won’t have him come in and save the day again, just to make me spend the rest of my life in debt to him, with cold looks and harsh words spoken to me whenever he feels like it. He needs to understand I’m the eldest Volkov brother, and it’s time I took my rightful place.

“I know, that’s not what I’m doing. We are here at your command, Alekzander. Tell us what you need us to do, but first just hear me out. I don’t want you doing anything you may regret or anything you can’t come back from. If you think you can handle this, then tell us what you need us to do.” He sounds honest. I see no trace of deceit or hatred there, just a brother wanting to help another.

“He has girls stashed on the boat somewhere. He was using them as the main attraction tonight, selling them off to the highest bidder. These girls need to be found and taken somewhere safe. I’m going to handle him and then meet you to clean up the rest of his crew. Those that won’t follow new leadership you can kill. I’m not risking anything,” I tell Damien.

He looks on in awe, like he is finally seeing me, someone who he has always known I could be. It lifts my mood a little knowing that he has some faith in me not to fuck this up. Malc looks fucking sick after what I have just said. I can’t say I blame him, especially after everything that Cami has been through. He really does take things like this to heart. He will do everything in his power to help these girls get back to their families. He couldn’t save Cami from her fate, but he sure as hell pays the price for that every day. I have never seen a man come back from being practically dead inside, to finding a way to help in his loss.

“Damien,” I shout just as he starts to leave. “You do know what this means, don’t you?” I give a small smile as he nods at me and leaves the room. Malc follows closely behind him.

I turn back to Jonny.

“Your reign is done. It’s time for a new chapter,” I say to him as I finally pull the trigger. His body gives its final breath, slumping further down. It’s done. I’m free.

I turn to face Emma. Wrapping her in my arms and pulling her close to me, I feel her crying into my chest.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, baby,” I whisper. Her arms grip around me tighter. “Can you take me as I am? I’m far from perfect, and I have a long way to go, but I can’t breathe without you. I don’t want to breathe without you, Emma. I’m a mess, but one thing I do know is, I love you.”

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes and a small smile on her face.

“You’re my mess though.”

Chapter Nineteen

Emma

It’s true, he is my mess. The time has come for me to face this with him, not without him. He needs to know that he can lean on me for anything, that I won’t run and hide from him because I feel indebted to Damien and Faith.

The thought of losing him really messed with my head tonight. Whilst I was at the front of the yacht with Faith and Cami, he was in this room with Jonny. God knows what could have happened to him.

In the weeks since I last saw him he has changed so much. He has an air of determination and is much stronger now. His perception of what he needs to do has shifted. He has grown up into the man he was destined to be. He has fought to make things right. Slowly but surely it will pay off for him, and he will be able to sleep a little easier at night knowing that he did it for himself, but above all else, he did this for us. So that we can be together. He thinks he needed to be a better man for me, but he didn’t. I’m the one who needed to change for him. I realise that if I want him, I have to stand with him.

Tonight that’s what I did; I told Damien that I loved Alek with all of my heart, and that if he couldn’t see that his brother was only human and made mistakes, then what sort of man does that make him? At the end of the day, to err is human; to forgive, divine. If he hadn’t have stepped up and helped Alek tonight, he was going to lose his brother forever. I could see it coming. After all, they say that a brother’s love is strong, but the love you have for your girl is stronger. When that love is threatened, it makes a man crazy. He can’t see straight until he gets back what he lost, and that’s all Alek was doing: trying to get me back.

Damien listened to what I had to say. I told him about Jonny and Russia. As hard as it was, I had to tell him. I had to make him see that Alek was doing it for me too,

that the dots connected to Ivan and Jonny. I don’t think anyone wants to hear anything like that, but they have to be made to see that not everything is black and white.

That’s when Faith stepped in. She put her hand on Damien’s arm and told him that without his fuck up they wouldn’t be where they are now, and that if he had any love for his brother he would forgive him and just be there for him. That’s when he asked me to show him where he was. All I could do was say thank you and that I owed him, again.

“Come on, we need to get out of this room and help Damien and Malc with those girls,” Alek says to me.

I nod my head before speaking. “You lead, I will follow. You know that you are the only one who can do this now,” I tell him, not letting my hand leave his.

We head back out to the main part of the yacht. All the guests have left. I have no doubt that Damien sorted that out.

I see the men kneeling on the floor, all with their heads buried into their chests.

“These are all the men that are left of Jonny’s crew on the yacht,” Damien says to Alek as we enter the big room. He nods at him and walks over to stand in front of them.

“Right, as you are probably already aware, Jonny is dead, and he is dead by my hand. You know what that means in this line of work, you keep what you kill. So you now have two choices. You can either join me or you can walk away. I won’t kill you unless you give me a reason to,” Alek informs the crew.

A few of them get up and make their way over to us. They shake Alek’s hand, nodding in agreement that they will join him.

There are about four men left on the floor.

“You think you can get away with this?” one says. “I’m not working for a Russian arsehole like you. And I’m certainly not going to let this lie.”  He spits on the ground at Alek’s feet. I look to Alek to see what he is going to do. He has a sly smile on his face. He retrieves the gun from his back and points it at the man kneeling on the ground.

“Then you don’t have to work for Russian scum like me,” he says as he fires a shot. It lands right in the middle of the man’s head. I wince at the sight, not out of fear, but because it was unexpected.

“Anyone else have anything they want to add to what that motherfucker just said?” They all shake their heads as another guy stands up and addresses Alek.

“I know I speak for these two and myself when I say this with the utmost respect. We are not here by choice. We owed him a debt that had to be paid. I hope you will understand that we would like to leave and go back to our families.” He is respectful and honest. You can see the genuine worry on his face, that their fate lies with Alek, and the fact they don’t know him is only making it worse.

“You are free to leave and return to your families. But if I hear of any trouble or backlash from this day, to me or any of the people you see in this room now, I won’t be so lenient next time,” Alek says. He isn’t angry, he is using the right amount of force to make his word carry meaning.

“We understand, and thank you. We wish you well, and I hope our paths never cross on a sour note,” the man says to Alek. He nods at them as they make their way off the yacht.

With all that dealt with, the girls are being driven home by Vlad and Malc. It turns out it’s just Damien and Faith and me and Alek left standing in the middle of the room. All the other men have gone home for the night with instructions to meet at Jonny’s house in the morning for the clean-up.

“You’re more than welcome to stay at ours tonight, Alek.” Faith’s voice is kind as always.

“Thank you, Faith, as long as it’s ok with Damien. It will only be for tonight,” he responds.

I watch the exchange and admire that he has dropped his guard a little with his brother. This is what he needed, a way to form a connection that wasn’t born out of hate, but forged from protecting someone they love.

“Alek,” I hear Damien call as we all turn to make our way to the cars. “When did you get Vlad to help you? That is the one thing that has bugged me since I saw him come in with his sniper rifle,” he questions Alek.

I see a smile form on his face. Pride, that’s what it is. He managed to achieve something without his brother knowing about it. It just proves that he is a born leader. Just like his brother, if not a better one.

“The night I left,” is all he says in reply as we make our way into the early morning air. We all chuckle as we hear Damien cursing in the background.

The ride back to the house is spent reflecting on the events that have transpired tonight. Changes are about to happen in this family and not all of them are good.

But the one thing I can say for sure is that where Alek goes, I go.

*****

Alekzander

It feels like a lifetime since I have been in this house. In reality though, it’s only been three weeks.

I see Lilly in the kitchen. A full spread is prepared on the table for all of us. The tea and coffee pots are ready too.

“Alekzander, you get your butt over here to me and give me a kiss,” Lilly commands as soon as I step inside the kitchen.  I stride towards her. She reaches out and pulls me in close. For such a little woman she sure does have some strength. Her grip is strong and steady. I feel the heat radiate from her and I relax into her embrace.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper onto the top of her head. I feel the sting of a tear in the corner of my eye. I never meant for it to come to this, but I needed to leave to step up and become the man that my mother would be proud of. I never knew my father, but my mother loved him with all of her heart, and to the day he died she never hated him for leaving us. I want her to have that same amount of love for me. She can look down on me with pride from this day forward and not feel an ounce of pain from my choices.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Alekzander. You had to do what was best for you,” she says as she kisses my cheek and releases me. I want to believe her. To be sorry for an action that has caused pain to another person is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are a good person, and that you have a moral compass, that compassion touches you and keeps your heart beating. It’s when you truly can’t feel sorrow for something you have caused, that is when you know that your heart has gone cold. There is no coming back from that.

I look over to Emma. I wonder if all this trying to make myself better is truly for my own selfish reasons, because after tonight how can I think that it’s what she really wants? She wants a life with a husband and kids and good jobs. She just wants to be normal. I think I have found what I need to keep me grounded, but now I’m scared I have to let her go. For her sake, not mine.

We all sit down to break bread and drink tea. Sure enough, one by one, couples start heading off to bed. Lilly and Anton are first to say goodnight, followed by Malc and Cami.

“So what does this mean for us as a family now, Alek?” Damien asks me. I know what he wants to know, and there is no use putting it off. He needs to be in the loop.

“You know what happens now, Damien. You keep what you kill. Jonny’s men and turf are now mine.” He shakes his head and looks at me. Am I missing something?

“I mean, what happens with us now? Are we going to be the same family but rivals, or are we going to take this to the next step and own most of London together as a whole unit?” His questions are valid, and I can’t say that I have given it much thought, but one thing I do know is that I can’t go back to working under him. We are equals, or we are nothing.

“Let’s talk about this in the morning, Damien. We all need to get some sleep, and we don’t want to say something we are both going to regret,” I tell him.

Standing up from the table, I watch to gauge his reaction. He nods at me, letting me know that for now he will let it lie, but this is far from over.

Emma stands with me as we say goodnight. She takes my hand and leads me upstairs to her room. Stepping inside and closing the door, I feel a sense of desire hit me right in my gut. I try my hardest to push it down; we aren’t ready yet. I haven’t earned my way back to her yet.

“I’m just going to take a shower and get out of this dress. I feel like mutton dressed as lamb.” Her voice is low and husky and, right now, to me she looks fucking stunning.

“You looked beautiful tonight. I know that it was hell for you, and had I known that you knew him I would have never put you in that position. You have to believe me, Emma,” I tell her honestly. Because every word I say is true. I wouldn’t have made her come if I had known. I never want to be the one to put her in danger again.

“I know,” is all she says as she makes her way to the bathroom. I decide to follow her once I hear the water start running.

I open the door to the shower, the steam hits me straight away. My cock hardens as I see her silhouette through the steam, though the outline of her body is clear. Her breasts are high and firm. Her nipples stand out, begging me to suck them. I step closer, watching as her hands roam her body, taking the soap over each of her curves. Her blonde hair is wet, and her head is tilted back under the spray, making it cling to the skin just below her shoulders. I start stripping out of my clothes, ready to step in and finish washing her delectable body. I soon get it dirty again. My need for her is insatiable. She has an appetite that rivals my own. Fucking her is perfection. Why would I need to go anywhere else when I have her?  She has turned and her arse is in my line of sight now. I see the long stem of her back and the curve of her neck as I gently move her hair out of the way. I place my lips against her skin, kissing down the column, nipping every so often as she moans. Her head drops back against my chest and her arse grinds against my cock, tempting me to hurry up. I don’t. Instead I run my hand down her side, bringing it to the front to trace the line of her body, wanting her to feel everything I do. She calls out my name in frustration, but I don’t let up. I find her clit and start teasing it, rubbing slowly at first, not giving her enough to climb but enough to cause a burn. The water cascades down over us both, causing our bodies to slide effortlessly against each other. I slowly push a finger inside and start moving it in and out. My other hand is pushing her shoulder against the cold, tiled wall. She grinds against me. I ease my finger out of her pussy, moving it up to her tits. I grab hold and gently caress each one, making sure I avoid her nipples. I know how much she hates being teased like this, when all she wants is release.

“On your knees, baby,” I whisper seductively into her ear. I loosen my grip so she can turn and drop to her knees. My cock is solid and wants nothing more than to be in her warm mouth right now. Her eyes look up at me through the spray. I watch the droplets land on her cheeks and the tips of her breasts. It’s a fucking sight to behold that only makes me harder. Her greeny-blue eyes hold me captive as her hand comes up and wraps around my cock. She starts her rhythm slow and gentle, not pushing all the way down and not going all the way to the tip either. She’s fucking teasing me now and it’s working. Her tongue peeks out and licks the ridge on the underside of my cock making it feel like it’s about to explode. Finally, after what seems like forever, she covers my cock and takes it all the way to the back of her throat. She works my cock like a champ. I love how she brings me to the brink and leaves me hungry for her. Her hands work in unison with her mouth and I’m lost. I can feel my legs begin to shake. My stomach tightens with the anticipation of release and my balls draw up tight. I pull away, not wanting to cum this time. I want to be buried inside her tight pussy for that. I pull her up, lifting her with ease and wrap her legs around my waist. I push her back against the wall and enter her in one hard thrust. Her face buries in the crook of my neck, her teeth scraping against my shoulder. Fuck! I pump harder knowing that she is getting close.