bawling stopped.
“Tied up?” Maksim the monosyllabic asked.
“Nyet.”
He scowled.
“She’s locked in tight. It doesn’t feel right tying her there and leaving her.” I cleared my throat and glanced away when he stared at me. “She has some problems.”
“Problems?”
I passed him the key to my room. “If you hear anything . . . off, go check on her.”
Something new and unwanted gnawed at my guts when I left the townhouse to climb into my SUV.
Someone else could go to the trade.
I could stay and look after Lucia.
But that was weak thinking, putting a woman before work.
I’d taken every precaution. She couldn’t get her hands on any weapons.
Locking her in was for her own safety no matter how much her pleas and screams drilled into my head.
I’d retrieved her meds although I wasn’t really any closer to knowing why she needed them in the first place.
But it wasn’t like she was addicted to a cocktail of opioids at least.
Was it?
Blyad.
On the way to The Cat and the Sickle, my palms were still hot from the rough spanking I’d given Lucia. Watching her succumb to me, seeing her give in to arousal from the hard swats interspersed with lighter caresses kicked up my raw lust for the woman.
By the time I finished my punishment—keeping her on the verge of climaxing—I wanted nothing more than to drop her to her knees. Mount her like a beast. Fuck her deep and rough and hard.
I would finish with my Italian beauty later. First, I had business to attend to.
At the compound, I parked all the way at the back of the loading bay. In seconds, I was outside again, behind the main building where a heavily guarded bulkhead opened to the cellars beneath The Sickle.
Two vans—black and unmarked—awaited my final inspection. As well as five soldiers looking ready to go on a raid and armed with rifles. That time, Grigor was among the men who’d accompany me.
I motioned to him to show me the crates of weapons they’d already loaded, which I’d checked meticulously from a list sent by the new Sicilians.
“Good.” Shoes ringing on the pavement, I moved to the driver’s side of the lead van. “We go. Stay sharp, comrades.”
Grigor hopped in with me, wearing a cool look on his face, very unlike the anxious kid he’d been just months ago.
His education in the Bratva had come hard and fast.
He said not a word, and neither did I.
I lit a cigarette, cracking a window to let the smoke billow out.
I’d called on the Irish for extra backup tonight too, with both my brothers otherwise engaged. I also knew Jo’s brothers would keep their fucking mouths shut about whatever went down. Not that I planned on keeping intel from Yury, but something prickled in the back of my mind about this deal, especially considering some of the Cosa Nostra faction had every right to hold a grudge because of Bastiano alone.
Anyway, we now had a strong alliance with Lucky, Kelly, and Dex what with owning a share of their coke profits.
Even better, the trio offered up their old shithole compound for the drop point, the place where their dad had stowed Joanna away in order to sell her off to Bastiano. Not particularly a place any of us wanted to revisit but needs must.
The location kept the bulk of our other businesses off the Italians’ radar.
As expected, the Irish pulled into the dusty lot a couple minutes after me.
Their gang exited vehicles as the three in command reached me.
I clasped each of their hands.
“How’s my sis?” Lucky, who was oldest, quirked a brow at me.
“Our sis,” Kelly, the middle one, corrected him.
“She made it back from the honeymoon in one piece.”
Lucky shoved his gun in my face. “That shit ain’t funny anymore.”
Dex snorted. “Kinda is.”
I knocked Lucky’s piece aside. “Saw you at the club last night. You mean to tell me you haven’t heard the news?”
“What news?” Kelly asked, leaning toward me so the light of one of the vans glinted off the same ginger-red hair his sister possessed.
Blyad. They didn’t know yet.
I screwed up my lips before expelling a breath. “Not my place to say.”
“She’s up the duff, isn’t she?” Dex’s eyes rounded wide.
“That is one way of putting it,” I reluctantly admitted.
“Hot damn! Jo’s gonna be a mom?”
“Sure hope the kid’s a boy since Sis is way better at wielding a blade than braiding a girl’s hair, that’s for sure.”
“Well, you didn’t hear it from me.” I looked out over their heads as three