Page 8 of No Longer Safe

I didn’t give a single shit. I didn’t want the empire. I didn’t want the responsibility. I had money from my own endeavors and I loved spending it. Especially on beautiful women and that was why I didn’t understand weddings or why people had them. Being with the same pussy for the rest of my life didn’t seem appetizing but Ace had to look good for the parents. He needed a wife in order to take over when Father stepped down. He needed someone to give him heirs. I could understand marriage from that standpoint. An easy lay every few months just to get a kid out of it and then go to your mistress or mistresses wasn’t such a bad idea.

I leaned back in the leather booth at my most frequented place and watched as tits and ass swung round and round. Most of the bridal party was scheduled to fly in at any moment, including the bride-to-be but I couldn’t find it in myself to care. Ace asked me to pick them up from the airport and I would, when my favorite dancer was done with her set. She winked at me from the stage and that only meant one thing.

Backstage.

Backstage fucking was one of my top favorite things in the world. Not only was it scandalous, but it was also dangerous and there was nothing I liked more than living on the edge. I liked it wild.

Chapter Six

Audrey

“What time wasyour brother supposed to be here?” Carina asked Ace for the fifth time since our plane landed. He checked his phone again and I watched as his face transformed into granite. It was the most frightening thing I’d ever witnessed. He could kill someone with that glare.

His blue eyes blazed and he shook his head. His blond hair was rumpled from the flight and his clothes didn’t seem to match him. Gray joggers and a sweatshirt. All I’d ever seen him in were suits. Seeing him so casual was strange but welcoming. It helped me dispel the thought of him being a serial killer on the side. But then his face didthatand I knew he had to be into some kind of illegal shit.

“Ace,” A voice growled behind us and every single hair on my body stood to attention. Carina whirled around with a bright look but I watched her before I assessed, who I assumed to be, Ace’s brother. Her eyes dimmed slightly but her smile didn’t fade. She was really good at faking it. All those years in drama class had paid off. When I looked at him over my shoulder, I instantly knew why.

He was easily the hottest man I’d ever set eyes on. I thought Ace was attractive? He had nothing on his younger brother.But that wasn’t what made Carina’s eyes dim. First impressions, for many people, were everything and Ace’s brother hadn’t put much time or thought into the way he presented himself to us for the first time. His face, though it looked like it was carved by angels, was void of all emotion. He almost looked bored. His black hair was a mess around his face but that wasn’t what I zeroed in on. There was glitter matted into it like he’d come from a little girl’s birthday party. Was he a dad? He certainly didn’t have the air of one.

My eyes continued their assessment to the generous spot on the front of his pants, a similar spot to the one I’d left on Brian the night before. The thought of him being a dad flew right out the window. My cheeks flamed as I tried to look at anything else. His dark navy suit was wrinkled and he smelled like cheap perfume and alcohol. There was no way he hadn’t just come from the strip club. My top lip curled in disgust. What a way to greet your future sister-in-law. Based on his expression, he didn’t care and didn’t exactly want to be here.

His black eyes washed over me quickly before he turned to Ace. “This it?”

Ace nodded before he patted his brother on the shoulder. “This is my fiancé, Carina,” He motioned to the drop-dead gorgeous woman beside me. Not a single black hair on her head was out of place. She’d fussed over it for thirty minutes in the bathroom when we’d come off the plane. Her makeup was immaculate and her clothes were fresh too. She looked like she was ready for a runway and hadn’t just gotten off of a long flight. Me on the other hand? I didn’t even want to think about how I looked. I got one glimpse in the bathroom mirror, in passing, and it was enough to chalk it all up to a lost cause and hope this brother wasn’t an asshole.

He looked like an asshole. Ace turned toward me and smiled warmly. I hoped I wasn’t showing how I really felt about all ofthis. I liked Ace… if he didn’t turn out to be some kind of drug lord… or worse. Was there anything worse? I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head. I was sure there was and it would come to be eventually.

“This is Audrey Wild, Carina’s best friend, Maid of Honor, and chosen sister. Ladies, this is my brother Alexei. If something happens to me, he will be the heir.”

Alexei spit on the pavement. “I don’t want to be the heir.” His voice was all gravel and dark as night. It was what I imagined sin to sound like if it was a person. But it seemed like everything about Alexei Cristof was sin incarnate. He reached forward to shake my hand, too late did I notice the smears of dried blood on his knuckles as I took his hand in mine. Besides the dried blood, his palms were rough and not soft like the pretty boy I expected him to be. They were definitely into illegal shit. What the hell had Carina gotten herself into?

The car rideto Ace’s penthouse was full of the two brothers speaking what I assumed to be Russian. When they first started at it, I looked at Carina with wide eyes and all she did was give me an innocent smile. She knew more than she let on. I gave her a look that promised future questioning. But honestly, did I even want to know? If I knew, would something bad happen to me? Would I be targeted? I rubbed my temples gently as I went over everything I knew about Ace in my head and then internally chastised myself for taking money from these people. That would definitely incriminate me. I could picture it now, thepolice asking me why I accepted such a large sum of money and what I needed with it.

This was all unusual and it would come back to bite me in the ass. Maybe Brian wasn’t so wrong about the safe aspect of things. Maybe he knew more about the Cristofs and that was why he didn’t come. Things were starting to click into place and I wondered if it was too late to call Mrs. Phipps on the phone to tell her she was right and we had to kidnap Carina to bring her back to her senses.

But I would never do that to Carina. No matter what she got herself into, she loved this criminal of a man and love made you do silly things. Or so I’d heard.

Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the cool glass of the window. Brian gave me a chaste kiss when he dropped me off to be with Carina and Ace this morning. There were no lingering touches, no heated glances, and certainly nothing steamy. I even asked him if he wanted me to bring a toy with me so we could dirty talk and have phone sex. His response?

What for?

I honestly had no idea anymore. What was I doing? Was this for safety? Was this for comfort? All of these thoughts swam through my mind on the flight as Ace and Carina fought to keep their hands off of each other. I was almost certain they’d joined the mile-high club but there was no way in hell I would ever ask. I didn’t even want to know, not when my own sex life was in the toilet. Especiallywhen my own sex life was in the toilet and I’d spent the night before crying into my pillow.

“You look tired,” Alexei’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts and I met his dark eyes in the rearview mirror. It took me a minute to realize he was actually speaking to me.

“I guess flying will do that to you,”And you were late, I wanted to add and I’d cried all night long and hardly got any sleep.

He openly rolled his eyes and looked back to the road. “My brother could have hired his usual driver to come get you all but I guess he wanted to get introductions done early before all the celebrations.”

“If I’d known you were more concerned with a stripper’s cunt than coming to help, I would have had another brother help out.”

I knew it! Kind of. I expected some kind of anger but instead, he let out a booming laugh. “Years ago, I remember you enjoying the same cunt. Irena is a nice distraction sometimes.”

Ace looked down at his watch. “At 3 pm on a Wednesday?”

From the corner of my eye, I watched Carina. Her brow was slightly furrowed and her hands were clenched in her lap. This was a side she’d never seen of Ace and it was confusing her. I grabbed one of her hands in mine and squeezed gently. We were in this together, even if it meant getting shitfaced to get through his past. None of it mattered as long as it wasn’t still happening. Carina had a past too and I was sure she didn’t want to be judged for it. I would remind her of that if I needed to. That’s what best friends were supposed to do and we’d been reminding each other of plenty of shit since kindergarten.

“Sometimes it takes the edge off.” Alexei shrugged as he navigated the blacked-out SUV through the streets of New York City. He was an expert driver and maneuvered through all the taxis like a pro. Did he have his own driver too or did he do the driving himself? Why did it even matter?

---