Page 19 of Kiss the Villain

“If by guys, you mean Vaughn, then yeah. Yuliandefinitelywants to fuck him. Or be fucked by him, I’m not sure.”

“OurVaughn?” I ask, honestly surprised.

“Is there another Vaughn?”

“The New York Bratva Pakhan’s son, Vaughn?”

“Again, do we know another one? You hit your head or something?”

Vaughn is the fifth member of the Heathens. An absent member. He’s around Kill’s age and chose not to come to this island or go to this college, opting to stay in New York. It was solely his choice.

He was vehemently against studying with us, no matter how many times Nikolai and Jeremy asked him to.

But he still joins the fun at initiations, mostly to hunt people.

“That doesn’t make sense,” I say. “Vaughn is straight. Hasn’t he had a girlfriend for years?”

“The girlfriend Yulian seduced and fucked, then sent Vaughn the video of her screaming his name while riding him? They’ll probably break up. That is, if he doesn’t kill her. You know how much he hates sharing.”

“When did that happen?”

“Last week? Right before we got back to school.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I heard it when I happened to pass by Vaughn talking about it to Jeremy and promising to kill Yulian.”

Happened to passbyin Kill’s vocabulary is eavesdropping. He loves gathering the most random shit about people. Big or small. He thinks it’ll help him crack them open and see inside them. Figuratively or literally.

I, on the other hand, find most people depressingly dull and would rather not gather any unnecessary details.

Vaughn is anything but dull, though, especially with this latest development.

“What do you think his plan with Yulian is? He’s on the other side of the ocean, so he can’t do much about him.”

My brother shrugs. “Not sure yet, but he’s putting in a last-minute transfer request to come here next term, which is playing into Yulian’s hand, if you ask me.”

“Because Yulian is the reason Vaughn didn’t want to study here in the first place,” I say, not a question, but a fact.

The pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together.

The way Yulian always, and I meanalways, only fights Kill, Jeremy, or Nikolai in the ring.

Those are the only three he’s had any interest in fighting. He also makes sure someone is filming. I thought it was a sense of pride, but this is different.

He’s probably been sending those to Vaughn.

Our friend, on the other hand, has chosen not to engage in Yulian’s antics, hence the girlfriend and the staying in New York thing.

But he obviously hasn’t been able to completely stay away. I’ve always thought it’s because we’re his friends, since we grew up together, so he wants to pay us a visit now and again, but maybe that’s not all of it.

“Exactly.” Kill finishes and releases my hand as he grins. “Not sure what type of foreplay those two are into, but shit will be interesting. The sons of the leaders of the two most notorious Russian mafia branches? I sense trouble and I’m here for it.”

I say nothing and kick Kill out. As I close the door, I lean against it and let my lips pull in a smile.

This is a variable I didn’t expect.

The motherfucker from tonight is such a fool. Yulian is obviously obsessed with Vaughn in some way, and that means the man who’s probably a bodyguard is struggling with some form of unrequited lust, or even better, love.

---