Page 4 of Savage Kingdom

“What’s so important you wanted my un…divided atten…tion?” he asked as he tilted his head.

Not being in heels put me at a disadvantage, forcing me to look up at him. While my eyes were like a winter, his were like night. They were crafted from oil, or so people said.

“I’m going to find out where Sergio is keeping the mafia princess. I want you close, distracting them. I need proof, Bas. If I’m going to go to Italy—”

“Are you trying to get killed?” Bastian gritted as his body pressed closer. “It’s one thing to request a meeting, but to go to Italy and look for Franco, that’s fucking suicide. Please tell me you know how fucked-up it is?”

He looked down at me as if I didn’t know the severity of my actions.

“That’s why I need a picture of her. I need to prove that she’s alive; it’s the only way I can get safe passage out of Italy.” I knew I was rolling the dice on my life. Getting the information I needed wasn’t going to be easy. Still, Damian leaving meant there was one less pair of eyes on me. Plus, the Latino men in my company were sexist and were underestimating, so most of the men wouldn’t expect me to have something up my sleeve. Except for him—Gideon would watch me like a hawk. He seemed to have an inkling to when I was going to get myself into trouble.

Unfortunately, when he was around, it seemed to happen more often.

“We have a peeper.” Bastian’s smugness made me curious. I turned my head so I could look down the balcony onto the people, and that’s when Bas took the opportunity to kiss my neck. I felt the brush of his lips at my tendon. Most girls found it sexy; I saw it as a weak spot.

Below, watching us with hunger in his eyes, was Julian Rivera junior. Since the moment I walked into the meeting, I had marked him as a target. He wanted me on my back, and I could use him for information. He wouldn’t be as cautious as his father. Rivera Sr. was as distrusting as they came, but when you built your empire of the backs of others, it was hard not to be on the lookout for the ones who you betrayed.

Sergio was another story. He was big fish in a now full pond. The coke business grew too much for Colombia to handle. Sure, they had production, but they were in over their heads to think they could sit back on their thrones and handle it all. You needed the borders under your control to flood white powder. Unfortunately, for him, Mexico was smack right next to the United States.

Mexico controlled borders there, for they controlled cocaine, but Sergio had yet to get the memo that he would no longer call the shots again. Not to the capacity he desired, at least. The problem with the world? Everyone wanted to rule it. Escobar didn’t know what he started back in the seventies when he opened up a new world.

Smiling down at Julian, I pushed Bastian back and walked toward the door, ready to seduce the one person I vowed never to sleep with again. Just before I walked out of the room, I stopped, not daring to look behind me.

“Bastian, if things…” I didn’t dare finish that sentence. “Go where blood meets faith, and take me home.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing for you to ponder on now only if—”

“You’ll be fine.” There was such conviction in Bastian’s voice that I knew it was more for his sake than mine.

After all this time, he wasn’t used to being on his own. Neither of us knew what to do. We both had our masters whether we admitted it or not. And maybe I should feel guilt for guiding him into hell with me, but all I felt was grateful that I wasn’t alone anymore.

When we stepped outside, I cursed the warm weather since I wasn’t used to it. Waiting next to a Rubicon was Julian with his right hand, Lobo. Julian Junior was young, and I wondered just how ruthless he really was. He wasn’t overly tall but not too short, with light caramel skin and big brown eyes framed with long curly lashes. He had the appeal of the boy next door, when he was anything but innocent. His bodyguard was dark skinned with a shaved head and tattoos on his neck and arms.

Smiling at them, I walked straight to the car they were leaning against. Lobo got into the driver’s seat, and I took the one behind him while Julian sat next to him. Before Bastian could get in, Gideon was sliding into the seat next to me.

The smell of methanol mixed with Chanel’s Allure filled my senses. It was something classy mixed with a hint of wild that made it so alluring. Ignoring his presence, I focused on the drive, knowing Bas would try to go in Sergio’s or Rivera’s car to try to get more information.

“Tell me,morra, other than Russian, English, and Spanish, what other languages do you speak?” Julian turned around, giving me a grin.

“Well, there’s Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Hindi,” Gideon answered for me.

And I’m about to get reacquainted with my Italian.Of course, I wasn’t going to say that aloud; instead, I gave Gideon a coy smile before I spoke. “I didn’t realize you were an encyclopedia on all things Daphne.”

“Oh, Petal, there’s tons you don’t know about me.” The wicked grin in Gideon’s face made my lower stomach recoil tightly. I could feel how wound up it got me. I was like a blind knot, and the only way to fix it was to make it snap. Then again, the grin on Gideon’s face promised to show me a few things I didn’t know about him, and whether I liked it or not, I needed him.

Leaning close to him, I whispered in a sultry voice that was almost a moan, “Maybe you could show me.”

Gideon kept his face blank so the two men in the front wouldn’t know the effect I had on him, but we both knew better. The flare of his nostrils, the bobbing of his throat, and his shallow breathing all told me what he was too proud to say. My babushka told me a long time ago that if I was going to fuck a man, I might as well get something in return for it, whether it be an orgasm or a picture of proof I needed.

“Have your northern wolves given you any more trouble?” I cocked my face to the side so Julian could see me better. Deliberately, I bit my lower lip and watched as he raked his eyes over my lips, then lower to my breast.

“Mate.” Gideon clasped a tattooed hand on Julian’s shoulder. “I suggest you don’t play with fire when it comes to this one. She tends to leave a bloody mess.”

“Everyone loves a bit of wickedness now and then,” I taunted both men. Julian was eating from the palm of my hands; Gideon not so much.

His whiskey eyes darkened, and he leaned a bit into my space, engulfing me with his smell. “Petal.” He purred the fucking nickname in a gravelly voice that did funny things to my body. “You don’t know the meaning of a little wickedness. You straight up relish living in chaos.”

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