Page 56 of Claimed By Rage

Maybe that’s why Rebel’s so fucking whipped for them.

“I, uh…” She licks her lips. “I need a new phone.”

“Mmm.” Maybe I’m a little dazed, too. I inhale her scent and try to wrap myself in her presence. My lips ghost over hers.

“Rage,” she murmurs, peeling herself from my arms. She stands a few feet away, catching her breath. “Did you hear me? My phone broke this morning. I need a new one.”

I drag my hand across my jaw. She was texting us just fine two hours ago. “What’s wrong with it?”

She shakes her head. “It got wet. I dropped it.”

I blink at her. “In the toilet?”

“In theshower!” Her mouth gapes. “I need a new one, okay? Please take me to the phone store.”

What was she doing in the shower with her phone? I narrow my eyes at her skirt, imagining the smooth, creamy velvet of her thighs hiding beneath, a hand sliding between them and white, frothy suds dripping from her fingers. “Why did you have it with you?”

Her cheeks burn. “I was texting.”

She sure as shit wasn’t texting me.

Sighing, I nod. “We’ll get you a new phone. I know a guy.”

Celia follows me back to the car. “I don’t wanta guy, Rage, I want a phone store. You know, how normal people fix their phones.”

“We’re not fixing it, we’re getting you a new one. Isn’t that what you said you wanted?”

She purses her lips. “I want a phone that works. It doesn’t have to be new.” This woman gives me whiplash. It’s like she goes out of her way to disagree with me.

While she buckles, I call my guy and put in the order. Extra-wide screen. Amazing speakers. The best tracking device in the country, linked directly to my phone, laptop, and car.

Only the best for my girl.

“It’s so big!” Celia fiddles with her new phone while I handle payment.

“I know you like them big,” I rumble, smirking at her.

She inhales sharply, that spark of defiance in her eyes. I turn back to Terrance and hand him her old phone. “Upload the data to our server.” I’m going to find out what was so distracting that Celia gave her phone an unexpected bath. “And text me once it’s done.”

“You got it.”

My phone rings in my pocket as Celia walks back over to me. She chats idly with Terrance, thanking him for helping on such short notice and promising to send more customers his way.

“He doesn’t need references,” I inform her, checking my phone screen.Ezra.My boss. I have to take this call. “I keep him busy enough.” Really, the entire bratva keeps Terrance busy, but she doesn’t need to know whose money paid for her phone.

If she finds out it’s blood money, she might throw the fucking phone in my face.

“Does he handle your security at the club?” Celia wanders the room, idly checking the dozens of monitors, hard drives, and technological baubles lining the walls. She’s probably referencing all of the security panels within our apartment. There’s one on the outside wall, then one more for each bedroom door within. An armory has two separate scanners, one for hands and the other for eyes, and the escape hatch hidden beneath the floor is connected to a completely different system.

She doesn’t need all of that information. “Something like that.” Terrance doesn’t have access to any of the security feed or systems within the apartment, but he monitors the club. It’s close enough that I don’t have to bend the truth too much.

The call goes to voicemail, and I immediately call back. While it rings, I keep my eye on Celia. Thankfully, she notices a picture frame on Terrance’s desk and strikes up a conversation with him about his kids, giving me time to step into the hallway and greet my boss. “Ezra.”

He grunts across the line. “You missed meeting this morning.” His Russian accent is thick today, meaning that he’s likely been up most of the night. “Have you found Jimmy?”

The only good reason to miss a weapons trade with a rival bratva is finding one of our missing men, apparently. I know it’s been bothering Ezra, that one of our own would disappear into thin air. He takes the family aspect of being a member of the bratva seriously. As the head enforcer-turned-bodyguard to the bratva, all men, women, and children are under his protection. “Haven’t seen him.” The lie flows easily. If Ezra finds out that Ruin killed him onmyorders, we’ll both be punished for acting without permission. It’s okay to kill an enemy at our own discretion, but killing one of our members, even someone as two-faced as Jimmy, is bad for our reputation.

But Jimmy was fucking shit up left and right. I don’t have proof, but I know he was intentionally missing drops and pocketing something in return. Until I have the proof, though, it’s my word against a dead guy’s. The odds would be unfairly stacked in my favor, and it would look suspicious.

---