Page 33 of All the Dangerous Things

“Your extracurricular activities say otherwise,” Nikolai replied, and I lifted my gaze to my brother, seeing him move behind the junkie, the knife still in his hand. He crouched and grabbed a chunk of Francis’s hair, yanking his head back so he was forced to look at Nikolai when he added, “In fact, we heard you’ve been drugging up some of the girls who walk the streets and using them in deplorable ways.”

Francis shook harder, the truth of those words becoming obvious by the terror in his expression.

“You know how we operate. We have to make an example of those involved. Can’t let anyone think they can look at us wrong, let alone make a move against us, without me slitting their throat in retaliation.”

I felt a smile spread across my face, listening to Nikolai. I knew it probably looked cruel and cold.

“And you’re the start of getting that message across.” My brother stared right at me, a grin cracking and spreading across his face as he brought that rusty blade across the junkie’s neck. His flesh opened up in a macabre gap where blood immediately poured out and spurted like a broken waterline.

The druggie’s screams sounded gargled and wet as he bled out, his blood spraying across Nikolai’s crisp, white button-down shirt.

He let Francis go and stood once again, handing the blade to one of our men who stood near the doorway.

“Clean up the mess after you’re done cutting him up. And then leave the pieces out on the street near where you picked him up, so everyone can fucking see what we do to motherfuckers who go against us.” I watched as blood made a dark pool along the dirt-covered floor.

“Make sure the head sits atop the pile of limbs and his torso,” Nikolai added, and I shook my head at his psychotic need to display that shit like a work of art.

After we left the warehouse, I met my brother atSdat'sya, an establishment we owned. We sat at the bar, tossing back shots.

“Gotta find out more about this fucking rogue group.”

I nodded at what Nikolai said and tossed back another shot. “Yeah, no doubt. But we have to be smart. Can’t go off doing our own rogue shit and causing havoc, you hear me, brother?”

He snorted and looked at me. “Dmitry, you know damn well that's all we do… wreak havoc.”

As I stared at him, I felt my grin spread. “True that.” I nodded. “True fucking that,” I said, my voice cold and final.

Nikolai huffed in agreement. “They’ll all learn what it means to cross us.”

They sure fucking would.

14

GIO

She was sweet and soft and everything I should have stayed away from.

But… I couldn’t stop.

I kissed her like it was the last fucking thing I would ever do. I probed her mouth with my tongue, sweeping it inside the warm, wet, and soft confines of what I knew would be my addiction.

Irritation burned through me. I had no self-control where she was concerned. She shouldn’t be here. It wasn’t safe for her, and it would fucking complicate everything.

But Jesus Christ… I wouldn’t tell her to go.

The fire I saw in her eyes mirrored my own turbulent emotions.

She moaned against my mouth, and I pushedher back harder against the door, her little body making athudfrom my weight and the force of my desire.

My cock was a fucking steel pipe in my pants, my balls heavy like an anvil. I wanted to fuck her until she couldn’t walk straight, until my nuts were drained dry and she was filled with me.

I felt this primal urge to fill her veryfemalebody with my cum until she was forever marked as mine. I wanted to leave a piece of myself deep inside her—a seed planted that would let everyone know who she belonged to.

That feeling was so monumental that I forced myself to break away, my breathing erratic, my cock throbbing.

“You shouldn’t have come,” I forced the words out roughly, though I couldn't stop looking at her slender, tight body. I couldn’t hide the fact that I wanted to fuck her until she whimpered and held on to me, until she begged me to go slower because I wastoo much.

“I know?—”

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