Elsa shudders, biting down so hard on my shoulder that there’s a good chance she’s drawn blood. But I can barely feel it, because I’m way too focused on the pure heaven of her pussy strangling my cock as we explode together.

I groan, my hand in her hair pulling her mouth to mine so I can kiss her as my cum spills deep inside her cunt. Her thighs clamp around my hips, her ankles locked around my back with her panties still hanging off one heel.

Slowly, catching our breaths, I pull my head back. Elsa’s face is flushed scarlet, and split by a huge grin. But her brow caves suddenly as she snaps her gaze past me to the door of her office.

“We weren’t too loud, were we?”

I only keep myself from saying “who the fuck cares” because it’ll throw her into a tailspin. We probably were too loud, almost certainly. But I truly do not give a fuck.

I’m completely off the deep end with her, and I have no intention of swimming back to the edge of the pool any time soon.

“Nah, we were fine.”

I grind my hips into her one last time, bringing a whimper to her lips as she feels my cock pulse inside her.

We’re not even hiding this anymore. For two weeks now, I’ve been visiting “my attorney” at her place of work just about every day, where we have a closed-door meeting for a minimum of one hour.

By which I mean, I fuck Elsa absolutely senseless on every available surface in her office until my cum is dripping down her thighs and she can’t walk or see straight.

Since the night that someone—“someone” almost certainly being Leo or one of his goons—broke into her place, I’ve had Drakos men guarding her building: two outside the front door, two by the back door, one on the roof, and two more patrolling the halls on her floor.

But even with that, she’s been at my place a lot. At first, Nora stayed over too, which I’m completely fine with because she’s a really cool kid. But once Elsa accepted that her apartment was one of the safest places in the city with my people guarding it, she pulled a few solo nights over here, with Nora more than happily getting their apartment to herself.

I kiss her slowly before I grudgingly slide from the wet warmth of her sweet little pussy. Without batting an eye, I pull her panties back up her legs and fit them snugly against her cunt.

I want my cum staying right where it is. I want her to feel me slowly dripping out of her for the rest of the day.

I want her panties to be sticky with it when she leaves work later, to remind her of me.

Like I said: off the fucking deep end.

“What do you want to do tonight?”

That’s code for “who’s sleeping where?”

Elsa’s mouth twists. “I’d love to come over. But I feel like I’m neglecting Nora. She’s been up and out the door to school or practice without me like three days in a row now.”

I nod. I totally get it.

“Stay at your place then,” I growl, buttoning my shirt back up. “And we can talk—”

“Why don’t you stay over at mine?”

I grin. So does she, her face tinging with pink.

“I mean, if you—”

“I do,” I growl. “Want to. Thought I’m supposed to meet up with Sean later for a sparring round.”

She shrugs as she finishes adjusting her blouse and fixing her hair. “Come over after, then?”

“I’ll be all sweaty.”

She grins as she leans up to kiss me.

Good. And, ah—here.”

My brows shoot up as Elsa presses a key into my palm.

A key to her apartment.

Well, this is an absolute first, by a mile.

She blushes. “Come over whenever. I’ll be waiting for you.”


I spend the rest of the day running errands and then helping Callie and Eilish cart a bunch of beer deliveries for The Banshee down to the basement walk-in fridge. Then I head to Sean’s local gym in the Lower East Side for some long-overdue sparring practice.

My phone rings just as I pull up. Glancing down, I spot Ares’ name on the screen before I answer.

“Yo, what’s up? I’m about to head into—”

“We just got hit.”

Everything goes still.

What.

“How fast can you get to my place?”

“Office or apartment?”

“Apartment. And Hades? Watch your back. Someone’s trying to start a war.”

“On my way.”


Holy shit.

My jaw grinds as I lean on the kitchen counter in Ares and Neve’s all-glass penthouse overlooking the Hudson. But I’m not scoping the views right now. I’m scowling over at where Castle is patching up a gash across Mike Karagiannis’ forehead.

…A gash he received about an hour ago, when a crew smashed their way into a warehouse of ours that he was guarding, cracked a bat over his head, and made off with about two million dollars’ worth of black market high-end electronics.

They left the other two million dollars’ worth of gear that was being stored there smashed into smithereens.

This was someone sending a pretty clear message.

“Mr. Drakos,” Mike blurts, looking terrified as he stares wide-eyed at Ares. “I’m so sorry, sir—”

“It’s not your fault, Mike,” Ares growls quietly, walking over to put a comforting hand on the older man’s shaking shoulder.

That’s the difference between Ares and me, and it’s what makes him such a great leader. If it were me, well, I doubt I’d be this calm. As it is, I’m barely keeping it together, standing over here across the room.

One sixty-year-old man isn’t going to stop ten armed guys from doing shit. The concerning thing isn’t just the theft or the vandalism, though. It’s that someone even knew that the warehouse was worth hitting in the first place.

There are a couple of spots around this city where our family hides its more… underground activities and products. Sometimes cash, too. And when I say they’re hidden, they’re fucking hidden. That shit is locked down tight on a strictly need-to-know basis.

Except these assholes clearly knew.

“Tell us again what happened,” Ares mutters. “Try and focus on any small details too, if you can.”

Mike nods, wincing as Castle finishes stitching up the gash in his forehead.

“I’d just done a round of the perimeter and was headed back to the office. They came through the side door…used a plasma torch to cut the damn hinges right off and come storming through like a bunch of commandos.”

“How many of them were there, again?”

Mike looks down. “Ten of ’em. I pulled my gun, Mr. Drakos, I swear—”

“No one’s doubting that, Mike,” my brother grunts. “We just want the details.”

“They cracked me one good,” Mike sighs. “I winged one with my piece. But they got me hard on the noggin. Then another one tied my arm to the radiator. It was lucky I could use my foot to get the phone off the desk to call you later. They went through the whole place like they knew exactly where everything was. Grabbed probably half the merch and then went to town on the rest with bats and tire-irons.”

Ares glances at me, then Kratos, before his eyes slide back on Mike.

“Okay, I want you to try and remember this all on your own, without me prompting you. When you first called, you mentioned—”

“They were fuckin’ Russians, Mr. Drakos,” Mike growls. His eyes dart to Neve. “Begging your pardon for the language, ma’am.”

“Fuck that,” Neve mutters back. “You’re sure they were Russian? Could’ve been some other Balkan—”

“My ex-wife’s mother was Russian,” Mike grunts. “Trust me, I hear that shit in my nightmares.”

Ares’ jaw clenches as his eyes lock with mine and Kratos’.

I clear my throat. “Family meeting.” I growl. “Patio. Now.

Castle, who was with Ares and Neve when Mike called, stays in the kitchen with the wounded guard. Ares, Neve, and Kratos follow me out onto the glass penthouse’s sprawling patio.

“It’s Gavan.”

Ares looks grim. “We don’t know that. It could be—”

“It was a clear shot across the bow, Ares,” I mutter. “A warning shot.”

“Yeah, but Gavan has no reason to—”

“He, uh…” I frown, clearing my throat. “He might.”

My brother’s eyes narrow. “Hades…”

“It wasn’t a big deal. I went to see him the other day about something, and—”

“Something you completely neglected to inform me about?!” Ares snaps.

“It wasn’t family business.”

Bullshit, Hades,” he growls. “You went to see the head of the fucking Reznikov Bratva—who, by the way, we’re still in a silent fucking bidding war with over the Albanians. I don’t give a fuck if you were popping over to have a fucking book club meeting with Gavan. When you see the head of that organization, believe me, it’s business. And that means you tell me about it.”

I grit my teeth. “It might not be him. I’m just saying, things got heated, and Gavan may have interpreted my visit as a threat.”

“Oh, you fucking think, Hades?!”

The door to the penthouse slides open. Castle clears his throat as he sticks his head out.

“I just got a call from a buddy of mine from the VA. He works security over at Mt. Sinai, and wanted to let me know that a known member of the Reznikov organization just came in for stitches.” His eyes darken. “Bullet graze, left shoulder, from a thirty-eight snub-nose. Same place Mike winged one of them. Same gun.”

Ares nods stiffly before he turns to me.

“Apparently, someone did take your visit as a threat.”

“So what are we going to do about it?” Kratos rumbles.

My lips curl as I glance first at him, then at Castle.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I think it’s getting chilly. I’d love to warm my feet by a campfire tonight.”

Kratos nods his chin, folding his arms over his big chest. Castle grins.

Ares glances at me and nods curtly.

“Do it. Pick something of similar value, and no loss of life, Hades. We’re not trying to start World War Three here. But if Gavan wants to start fucking around, it’s time to send a message of our own back.”


Two hours later, my feet are getting plenty toasty next to a fire that’s soaring into the fucking heavens. Gavan’s four men who were guarding this particular Reznikov warehouse are bound, gagged, and blindfolded, tied up on a pier that juts out over the East River.

I glance at Kratos and nod, clinking my beer to his before turning and doing the same to Castle’s.

“You didn’t have to involve yourself in this, you know,” I grunt at him.

He shrugs, sipping his beer as he watches the flames.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have a new episode of Succession to watch tonight. What else was I going to do with myself.”

The three of us stand there watching the fire curl and snarl up at the heavens before we hear the sounds of sirens approaching.

Time to go.

Tip: You can use left, right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.Tap the middle of the screen to reveal Reading Options.

If you replace any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report