Summer Storm (Broken Circles Book 1), page 16
Laughing, I hopped off said table, straightening my gown. “Dining room too, never heard you complaining before.”
“It’s unhygienic.”
“It’s sex. Don’t tell me the only place you fuck is in a bed? How utterly boring and far too vanilla for my tastes.” I had no idea what his sexual preferences were, he didn’t strike me as a missionary type of guy, but what did I know? The insult was the aim, not a conversation about sexual habits.
“You call that sex?” He huffed out a snort and rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. You ruined my breakfast.”
“So I see.” The chef was back in his whites, his poor cock still hard. Dismissing him with a wave, I watched as he scurried past Tayte. “What do you want?”
“You have places to be.”
“Unless you’re going to get up on that table and let me fuck you so I can get the other half of my orgasm, you’d best run along. I don’t need nor require a chauffeur or a chaperone.”
Tayte sauntered into the room, shark like eyes trained on me. “Let you fuck me? Oh, Irina, you are so goddamn delusional, sweetheart. If you got me naked, you wouldn’t have the first clue what to do with me. I don’t lie on tables and let women fuck me.”
“Is that so?” I licked my lips hungrily, because fuck, it would be damn good to get a man like Tayte under my thumb.
“Trust me when I say, there’d be no upper hand for you. All those little men you fuck? A joke. You’re a fool and you have no idea the things I would do to you.”
“Want to put your money where your mouth is?” I hedged, pushing my luck and poking the bear.
“Not fucking likely,” he jeered, looking me up and down like I was a piece of trash who’d just walked in from a street corner. My anger boiled, and I swung for the obnoxious bastard, my nails catching on his chin. Tayte grabbed and tugged back, turning me so my back was to his chest, his arm banded around my neck. “I should do Yan a favour and snap your bloody neck.”
Pushing backward with all my strength, I gasped. Tayte was hard, so hard I could feel him against the small of my back. “This turns you on?”
“Violence turns me on,” he growled into my ear. “Not a prima donna lamely fucking on a kitchen table. There’s nothing special about you, Irina.”
“Yannick will have your balls for this!”
“If I had you trussed up on a wall and was fucking your arse, he’d walk straight by with a pat on my shoulder. Yannick doesn’t care.”
“He’d care about that, trust me,” I whimpered, my fight temporarily leaving.
“Keep telling yourself so.” Pushing me roughly away, Tayte took one step back, then another.
Sick of repeating myself, I eyeballed the man when I swung around. It was nine o’clock in the morning and yet again he was skulking around. He shouldn’t be walking into my house as if he owned the place, especially now that Yannick had gone elsewhere.
“I’m here to collect you. Have you forgotten your appointment this morning?” Shit. I had, or maybe conveniently pushed it from my mind. “Ridiculous…”
Smiling, I pulled together the robe. “I’ll go get dressed.”
“Make sure to shower. You reek of filth and desperation, and while it suits you, I don’t want the stink tainting my car.”
Yannick
“A couple of guys are sniffing around.”
“Albanians again?” We’d had trouble with them before but nothing we hadn’t been able to run off.
“Don’t think so, I haven’t clapped eyes on these guys before. Definitely Eastern European though.” Andrey rubbed at the styled scruff on his chin.
“Sniffing out the competition?”
“That would be my guess. You want to let them continue poking around?”
“Sure,” I said. “They won’t get much without my say so. Let’s see how serious they are. What are they asking about?”
“You.” Sandir looked me straight in the eye.
“Me?”
“Yip. Just you.”
“All right. Then maybe it’s not business they’re scoping out. Think Irina’s making her move?”
Andrey scrunched his nose up. “Nah. Too amateur for her. If she’d asked around for some guys, we would have heard. Besides, she’d want you to know, she doesn’t hide.” Tapping his finger on the table, he glanced up and I could see his gears grinding. “Could be Lev.”
“You think he’s going to parade around some fresh faces and expect us to roll over and let them come at us? It’s not his style, besides, I got the distinct impression he’s done.” Sandir was right, Lev was done.
“He said he had influence, right? If anyone can clear your path, it will be Lev. He may not have given you a die-hard guarantee, but I reckon the old git knows he owes you at least something.”
“He does, Andrey. Our arrangement is over, even he can’t backtrack on that and he knows it, it’s up to him to decide what happens next.”
“Yeah, but…” Sandir rubbed at his mouth. “He could take those targets off your back, if there’s any there to begin with. These guys could be something or nothing, who knows?”
I pulled in a breath, my head exhausted trying to find ways I could escape from the shipments, the deals, getting my hands bloodied. I couldn’t see the end no matter how hard I tried. “He said he’d put the word out, I’m not entirely sure how he’s going to do it. Lev also said he was sorting out someone to take over. One of you guys could take the reins, I don’t see a problem with it, easy enough, right?”
“I love you like a brother Yannick, I do, but you are drinking some seriously weird shit if you think any of us want to step into your shoes. I’d rather keep my head, thank you very much.”
“What would you do?” I asked Sandir.
“With a hit on me?”
I waved my hand at him in dismissal. “No, you idiot. I mean, coming out of this organisation with your legs intact, what would you do?”
“Live a quiet fucking life,” he chuckled.
“You wouldn’t get bored?”
“Maybe. Guess I’ll find out when the time comes.”
I nodded, he couldn’t say more than that, we’d all lived this life for a lot of years, it was hard to think there was something else out there, something more on the other side of forty that didn’t involve illegal shit and running within an inch of the law.
“You’ve got your appointment with Irina, then you need to go sort out the bullshit with the container down at the docks. They’re holding but haven’t opened it yet.”
“Just the beans in that one?”
“Yes,” Andrey scowled. “The weight’s correct on the paperwork, matches the weight recorded when it was loaded in Cartagena. Not sure why they won’t release it.”
“It’s a shipment of coffee beans from Colombia, they’re always going to get their knickers in a twist and want to open those bloody containers. I’ll go down this afternoon. Stay at the yard, I’ll call you when the numb nuts apologise for harassing a perfectly legitimate shipment. Where the hell is Tayte? Shouldn’t he be down there smoothing it out?”
“He said he had some shit to do, so I’ll wait to hear from you.”
“All right, fine. I’ll call him after my meeting. Cheers, Andrey.”
Another bloody headache with another container. I made a mental note to get hold of Greg later, he could shake down Devlin instead of me, I wasn’t in the mood. He’d probably have a better way of persuading his copper to do some digging than I did anyway. One of them surely had a magic dick because they both skirted on the edge of professionalism with their respective jobs. Devlin was more loyal to me and Greg than he was his friends in blue.
Not looking forward to the next part of the day, an hour later I was sitting next to Irina in front of a lawyer we used frequently for legal business. He was obnoxious and got under my skin at the best of times, this meeting no different from any other time I had to endure his company. He was Lev’s man, and it showed.
“No remediation?” he asked after reading through the contract he most likely had memorised.
“No. Straightforward is all that’s require.”
“And your assets?”
That was the tricky part. “Irina and I can sit down and discuss whatever those are.” I glanced over to make sure she was in agreement. She nodded but said nothing, unusually quiet, her legs crossed at the ankles and her hands clasped over the Coach purse in her lap. I knew it was Coach because it was one of the few things she’d spent a ridiculous amount of money on and had mooned over for weeks. That damn bag had been the bane of my life for a long time and I was thoroughly sick of the sight of it.
“No clauses broken by you, Mr Ischmov?”
I wanted to laugh because there were no clauses for Irina to break, the onus to satisfy the contract’s small print had all been on my shoulders. “None.”
The wanker raised an eyebrow at me, tapping his finger on a paragraph I knew for a fact was the clause that had deprived me of a good dicking for fifteen years. “You haven’t had sex with another person in fifteen years?”
“Penetrative sex, as stipulated. No.” And just to be a fucker because I was in that kind of mood, I added. “I didn’t stick my cock in another pussy or arse the entire duration of this farce.” This guy was so fucking fired.
“When was the last time you had intercourse?”
I narrowed my eyes at him and growled. “All you need to know is I kept the contract valid, I didn’t break it. Do you think I’d be sitting here now if I had? Wasn’t that the whole fucking point of it?”
The twat coughed into his hand and turned to Irina. “Are you satisfied with what Mr Ischmov says?”
For fuck’s sake. I wanted a divorce, not the third degree.
“Yes.” A simple word but the right one.
“Divorce and amicable,” I reminded her. “We can sort out the assets and forward the documents.”
“That would satisfy the courts. You’re petitioning unreasonable behaviour, correct?”
“Yes,” we both echoed.
“You’re in agreement to dissolve the partnership, the unreasonable behaviour citation should make it so you don’t have to wait the twenty-four-month period to apply. As soon as I submit the petition, you will be legally recognised as separated. You are the petitioner, Mr Ischmov?”
“Yes.”
“How long?” Irina asked, shifting in her seat, looking uncomfortable as hell.
“Six months would be the quickest, I expect. As I mentioned, it all looks relatively straightforward. I see no problems which would cause any delays, the petition should be granted so long as the paperwork is correct and the assets and such are agreed upon already.”
“Consider it done,” I smiled but fuck, six months, really?
“Is there anything else?” Smarmy cocksucker.
“Nope.”
Stepping out of the room with Irina in front of me, I offered lunch, feeling it was the least I could do. There was no reason we couldn’t be civil to one another. She agreed, and we walked to a quiet café a couple of streets away that smelled delicious from the outside, and even better inside. I guided her to a table to the side of the large room, the booth against a wall, facing out into the rest of the area.
“You happy with what the lawyer said?” I asked once seated and our orders were taken.
“Sure. There’s nothing complicated to it, is there?”
“You’re going to see him, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am. I don’t really have a choice now, do I?”
“When?”
“Not sure. Next couple of days, I guess. Need to phone the old git first, make sure he’s still breathing.” She was lying and there was no reason for it unless she knew I’d beaten her to the punch, she hated being on the back foot. Whether she’d called Lev or texted him, she’d been in touch already. There was no reason for her to wait around.
“Listen. I know this isn’t what you want but surely you understood it was always going to be this way. Nothing was ever conventional for us no matter how many years passed. They forced my hand from the beginning. I had another life, Irina, and they took it from me. Nothing will be the same, but I want it back and that means having no involvement with you, or Lev or any of this godforsaken organisation. Try to understand, it’s all I ask.”
“Of course.” She swiped her hair from her forehead, a dramatic gesture more than one of need. “I get it.”
“You don’t love me, Irina.”
“You’re right, maybe I don’t,” she sneered. “But it doesn’t mean this is easy.” The coffee and sandwiches arrived, both of us concentrating on doctoring the black liquid in the cups. I leaned over the table and spoke in a low voice. “If you put a hit on any of them, I will come for you personally. Do you hear me?”
“Give over yourself, Yannick. If I wanted you dead all I’d needed to do was plunge my dagger in your chest any night you climbed into our bed. I had fifteen years to do it. If I didn’t then, I’m not going to now. I can’t speak for Lev, he’s out of my control. What he says is law, so maybe quit with the threats and direct them where they’re meaningful. I have no reason to put a bullseye on any of you, it serves me no purpose.” Finally, a brief glimpse into what was going through her head.
“You don’t need to speak for Lev, I’ve been up to the house already.”
“Is he of sound mind?” She wasn’t surprised at my confession, doing little to hide her reaction.
“He sounded solid, yes. It’s just his body that’s giving up the ghost. Sergey was doing more running around than usual.”
Sergey kept regular updates with Irina even though she never saw her grandfather more than once a year, if he was lucky, and if she could help it. Sergey was also the one who relayed Lev’s will and instructions, understandably, the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter was bare bones at best. Yet Lev had spoken fondly of Irina for a change, in such a way I’d never heard before.
For a moment, sitting in that café with Irina, it felt like trying to escape this life was simply too much hassle. But then a woman with hair in ridiculously cute buns and a kiss that shattered my brittle heart, popped into my head, and walking away was absolutely worth any amount of grief that came with it.
I wanted simple and honest, and I wanted Jolie.
“What has you smiling?” Irina pointed her spoon in my direction, coffee dripping from the end. “Or who?”
“Nothing and nobody.” I shrugged.
“You forget I know you well, Yan. Spill.”
“Cut it out, there’s nothing to spill. Whatever is going on in my personal life is none of your business. We’re not bosom buddies.”
“So, there is someone?”
“There’s no one.” The lie tasted bitter rolling off my tongue, yet I didn’t regret it. Jolie was definitely someone, and I desperately wanted her to be someone to me.
“Tayte’s been hanging around the house, he’s pissing me off.” Irina rolled her eyes, then took a bite of her chicken wrap.
“I asked him to.”
“I can take care of myself. I don’t need your guard dog spying on me or interrupting me when I’m mid fuck on my own kitchen table. Half an orgasm, Yannick. It’s Tayte’s fault I’m grumpy today.”
I barked out a laugh, she’d long ago been unable to shock me with her sexual escapades. She’d tried to rub them in my face too often for them to have any impact or arouse any reaction from me. I simply didn’t care.
“You’re in the house on your own. I don’t care how big you think your balls are, you’re vulnerable, and I won’t leave you unguarded. I’m not a bloody monster.”
Irina grinned. “Tell that to the poor sods walking around this city with missing fingers.”
Yeah, well… I had no answer forthcoming for that one. “One of our bean containers is being held at the docks.”
“Coffee beans from a country notorious for producing drugs will do that,” she said easily, and maybe it was just that simple. Wasn’t it why we transported the beans in the first place? We weren’t being targeted any more than any other poor fucker who’d decided Colombian coffee producers were sensible people to do business with. If we had some other produce in our containers, it was no one’s business, just so happened, this one didn’t.
“I’ll sort it this afternoon.”
“It will just be paperwork, someone fucked up their end, or wants more money from us. You know how inept they are. Besides, most of the bean containers get seized, and you damn well know why. People know who we are and what we do, even if they can’t prove it. Stop fretting, it’s nothing.”
See, this. We could do this. Have a conversation, talk business without trying to strangle one another. It was refreshing, so I relaxed and ate the rest of my lunch in a more comfortable silence, rather than an awkward stand-off.
Maybe, just maybe, Irina was coming to her senses and finally willing to let go. Going forward might not be so bad after all.
Jolie
The fist to the side of my head came out of absolutely nowhere and caught me by total surprise. I definitely hadn’t been expecting it. The drunken slurs I could hear around me made sense once I shook my head and focused. Pinned against the wall, a hand around my throat, another tugging at my hair, I glared up at CeeCee, her glazed stare back, murderous.
“You got me fired, you bitch.”
“That was all your doing, not mine.”
I heard a laugh from behind her, only then realising CeeCee wasn’t alone. There were two other women standing at her back, and one was built like a goddamn weightlifter.
CeeCee had yanked me down an empty alleyway between the buildings, two streets from work. I could hear the sounds of London around us but couldn’t see the mouth of the next street, nor could I see any other people. Shit, this wasn’t good at all.
The hand in my hair yanked harder, tears springing to my eyes at the pain as CeeCee pulled my head toward her then slammed it viciously back against the brick wall. I groaned, snapping my eyes shut and clenching my teeth. God, that fucking hurt.
“Now I have your attention.” Suddenly, she didn’t sound so drunk, though her breath smelled like she’d been at it all day. When I opened my eyes again, hers were laser sharp and focused. “You’re going to talk to Bill, get me my job back.”
