Page 6 of The First Seal

My eyes scan the growing crowd as the mourners start arriving. I know instinctively I am looking for the four mysterious men from earlier as they seemed so familiar to me. I couldn't place where I've seen or met them before, but something about them kept drawing my attention away. Abruptly, noticing that the four mysterious, strange men must not have come to the burial interment, when I don't spot them in the crowd. I place a single green rose on each coffin and prepare to say my final good-byes to Mama and Papa.

I don’t care who is watching or listening to what I say. Everyone here knows what and who my Papa and Mama were. “Mama, I hope I turned out the way you had hoped I would and I haven't disappointed you too much. I hope you love how I took your advice and wore the last dress and heels you had bought for me. Then arming myself the way you used to and the shoes are pointy enough to become a weapon.” Tears streaming down my face, a little giggle escapes my lips, as Mama’s voice pops into my head about how a women's heels are the best weapon.

Looking over to Papa’s coffin, I try to put on my best poker face, but it fades away fast as I begin to speak. “Papa, I will do my best to fill your shoes, in my stilettos. As I take over the family business. I shall raise a glass of your favorite Emerald whiskey tonight for the both of you, and for everything you have done for me. I will never allow any other kind of alcohol in the house unless it is the best. The Chertanov’s deserve the best and will always have the best. Mafiya budet upravlyat'sya tak zhe, kak ty upravlyal yeyu vse eti gody. YA nadeyus', chto odnazhdy ya stanu takim zhe khoroshim donom, kak ty. (The mafia will be run the same way you have run it throughout all of these years. I hope that one day I will be as good of a Don as you have.) Vy oba budete zhit' vechno v moyem serdtse do kontsa vechnosti. YA vas oboikh ochen' lyublyu i nikogda ne zabudu ni odnogo iz vas. Pokoytes' s mirom, Mama i Papa.” (You both will live forever in my heart until the end of eternity. I love you both very much and will never forget either of you. Rest in peace Mama and Papa.)

Per Russian tradition, I stood at the exit of the tent that held the burial site and held my hand out to receive the kisses from everyone in attendance. As the long line of people passes, I get more and more anxious to leave. I watch as four men in black suits appear at the end of the line and wait their turn to kiss my hand. The funeral director looks nervous as they approach, and the first one, who is tall with platinum blonde hair slicked back and tall enough to reach the ceiling of the ten foot tent without trouble, reaches for my hand and leans down, kissing it softly.

Memories of my childhood flood the back of my head and I push them down too raw to handle that right now. I nod to him as he smiles lightly at me and the other three do the same. They are the first to leave, quickly ducking out of the burial service. After everyone had paid their respects I was finally free to leave. As I left, I scanned the area, looking for the four men, and sighed as I realized they were long gone.

Walking back to the car with tears still stinging my eyes, I keep going back and forth on whether I should call Iris or not and find out where she is and why she didn’t show up. So instead of calling her, I decide against the call, and text her instead. As I pull out my phone, I sigh out in annoyance, rapidly clicking the buttons to text my sister.

Iris where the fuck are you? You missed the funeral service and burial. What the fuck is more important than our parent's funeral?

As we are driving back to our apartment, Vee and I just sit in silence as the music plays, and I stare out the window again. My thoughts aren’t about my parents or Iris but about the four gorgeous men again. Why can't I get them out of my head?

Once we get back home, Vee unlocks the door to our apartment. Walking in I bee-line for the couch, I plop down with a huff, sinking into the soft cushions.

“I can’t believe she didn’t even show up for the funeral service or the burial. What the fuck is more important than that?” I seethe, looking at Vee.

Vee just shrugged her shoulders and said with an evil grin “Let’s go out tonight… Yeah?’

“Hell yeah, Where to?” I grinned back at her all-too willing to forget my shit day and shittier unreliable sister.

“Let's go to that club, the one everyone is always talking about, the one with the weird name. What's it called?”

Excited and laughing, I reply, “Yes, let's have some fun tonight after such a depressing funeral. Mom and Dad would want us to have fun instead of sitting around the house being sad and depressed. They always loved to have a good time.”

Vee screams “Yessss!” and runs to her room to get ready.

As I walk past her door to go to my room and get ready, it hits me. The name of the club. After hitting play on my speaker and having Bad Omens Limits blare through the speakers.

I yell over the music to Vee, “By the way the name of the club is End Times!”

Chapter four

Onyx

Ialways hate it when Aspen plans on holding meetings. I would rather be heading to our club to have fun with some random girls. But no, now I'm heading to our club for us all to talk about whatever it was he mentioned to us earlier at the funeral. Riding on my pale, green Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, heading to the club with my brothers, my internal monologue is hoping to the gods this meeting won’t last long. Invading my thoughts again, Ember Chertanov, the woman I have known her whole life, takes forefront. We were assigned as her bodyguards from birth, a duty that has become increasingly difficult when she came of age and her father took over as the Don.

I saw her for the first time in years when she was eighteen years old. I was there on business for Ryker Chertanov, keeping to the shadows as always. She must have come home from a tattoo studio because she had fresh ink on her arms and piercings in her nose and bottom lip. I know she never had them before today because her father said she never showed interest in them. I guess sometime in the past year, when we last talked to Ryker that must have changed. But, those light green eyes are what sucked me in.

I wanted to drop to my knees and worship her at her feet. It was like she saw right into my darkness where my soul should have been. That was the day I decided that she would be mine. But, I couldn't just confront the mafia heiress. Her father would have killed me if I did. So, I resorted to the next best thing, stalking.

She was my new prey, but she had no clue. I ended up finding everything out about my Little Siren within forty-eight hours. From jobs she has had to her favorite food to ex-boyfriends. I was so into her there was no way I would let anyone get to her. Whenever we went to the Chertanov house, I would leave two roses on her pillow, one dark green and the other black, with a malachite pendant on a silver chain wrapped around the stems. I have done that every year since and every chance I could.

But all I could think about was her tan skin that's covered in tattoos. That long dark chocolate brown hair would be perfect to pull on. All of those amazing curves to place all kinds of marks on. Those light green eyes looking deep into the darkness of my soul and luring me to her. I just want to be the one to break her, to own her, and to push her limits. The way her pink tongue flicks across her plump lips when she's deep in thought hardened me to brick.

Now is my chance. Since the old man isn’t around to kill me if I ever touched Ember. Oh, to be the one to fuck the Don of the Chertanov Bratva.

My brothers are on the coms in our helmets, talking about why we were going to our nightclub, End Times. I’m not paying attention to their conversation because it will just keep getting repeated to us even when we finally get to the club for this meeting. I speed up, pass them all, and take the long way to the club. My thoughts floated back to the tan skinned beauty that consumed all of my thoughts and dreams.

I imagine that her voice is sweet sounding and would make the most amazing moan when I would spank her ass. I wonder if she would let me do what I want to her. Tying her up, suspending her from my bedroom ceiling, and just admiring the ropes cutting into her flesh. That thought alone made my dick hard. All the red marks I could mark her skin with. Ahhh. Just to have a taste of her would be fucking amazing. I can feel my dick getting harder, and my piercings are starting to rub against my tight jeans as I take the hard turns on my bike. I don’t want to be thinking about Ember in a sexual way because we are going to end up doing business with her in the future and that would make her our boss. But I just can’t stop. Would she be a dominant or submissive? Oh, I hope and pray to Satan himself that she's a submissive.

All of the different things I could do to her. Maybe she isn’t interested in the sexual kinks that I am or maybe she doesn't even know about them, or she could be into all kinds of kinks. My dirty Little Siren doesn’t know what’s coming for her.

I pull into the back of the club and park my bike. As I get off of it, I have to adjust myself. My cock was so hard I could barely think straight. This meeting better end fast because I need to release this tension I have building up. Again. I have never been so entranced by a woman before. Normally I meet someone, fuck them, get it out of my system and never talk to them again. I've never been a relationship kind of man, always content waiting for my Little Siren. With the businesses my brothers and I run, I don't have the time to be tied down to someone. Especially someone who doesn't understand “my lifestyle”.

Standing there waiting for my brothers to catch up with me, I decide to check the camera footage in her house. Yes, I have hacked into her camera system. My job is a hacker, after all. I had to because she doesn't have a Facebook, so that was out. But I did find her on Instagram and a few dating sites. Her Instagram was just a bunch of pictures and videos of her and her parents and some of her friend, Valerie. This isn't giving much about her, but it's a good start of where she likes to go and what she likes to do.

---