Page 35 of City of Salvation

And now, we found ourselves entrenched with these assholes. Maybe godwasreal, because I’d given up on ever exacting revenge on the top assholes running the trafficking ring.

“Gets better. Turns out, the same man runs the Circle…”

“You’re telling me the Bratva and the Circle are the same thing?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around all this shit.

Gunner poured us both another shot and threw it back. “Yes and no. The head asshole runs both organizations. Buddy back at the FBI did me a solid, probably the last one I’ll get. The Bratva used to be under the Circle’s thumb, too.” His eyes cut over to me. “Until there was a hostile take-over.”

“Dammit. That’s who’s after Nikki?” I asked, rubbing my forehead in frustration. “Why the fuck does he want her?”

“No clue, but fuckers like that have their own set of rules.He might just be pissed that Mario promised him women and then never delivered.”

Or she has a tie to them somehow?

Jardani’s words echoed in my mind. “Where’s Nikki from?” I asked.

Gunner shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. “Fuck if I know. I always assumed she was from here.”

I’d met Nikki the first night we’d shown up to Lotería, when we’d shoved our feet so far down our throats they were coming out our assholes. She was downright beautiful, with her golden hair haloed around a heart-shaped face, and lips that taunted me every time she spoke. It was her eyes, though, that had caught my attention. Those cornflower blue eyes held so much attitude and confidence it made my dick hard, but lingering in the background was a vulnerability she tried her damnedest to hide, and from the moment she smiled up at me, I had the strangest urge to convince her to let me in.

Instead, she’d only pushed me away.

“Why he wants her doesn’t really matter. What matters is the fact that he does, and we have to fucking deal with the Reapers,” Gunner said when I’d been quiet for too long.

“Going at them will start a war,” I said, my mind running through all the potential outcomes. Every single one of them was bloody.

“A war is what they want anyway. We might as well be the first to strike.”

My fists hit the marble top. “And how the fuck does that solve the situation with the Russians and Nikki?”

Gunner swirled the last little bit of his drink, staring into it as if it would provide him with answers. “Listen, I think we have to solve this in sections. First, we deal with the Reapers—seems that’s who the Russians hired anyway, so we take out that threat.” His face turned toward me. “Then we dealwith the Russians. Hell, I’m hoping they decide collecting the women they were promised isn’t worth it, and Nikki will be left alone.”

My instincts were screaming at me that there was more going on with Nikki and the Russians. I just didn’t know what that was.

But I would find out.

Whether she wanted me to or not.

CHAPTER 16

NIKKI

EAT ME OUT AND FUCK ME GOOD—THAT’S ALL I CARED ABOUT

“What the helldid you put in here?” Dex asked, his voice strained as he carried one of my boxes up the stairs of a nondescript apartment complex.

I rolled my eyes, pressing my thumb to a discrete pad on an otherwise normal-looking door. “Don’t be a pussy. It’s not even that heavy.” It had been a little more than twenty-four hours since I was given my sentence of round-the-clock babysitting. Ryan and I’d had an epic argument ending in three rounds of rock-paper-scissors to determinewhenI had to enter Dex’s custody.

I won.

Mainly because I’d cheated—Ryan had a clear tell every time she was about to throw out paper. Bought myself a few hours of freedom. Kind of. Ryan only conceded because I’d agreed to stay at Lotería and sleep on an air mattress in the office, and then I’d worked as normal that night. But now here I was, moving into some random apartment with a giant tatted biker who continued to grumble behind me.

The door swung open, revealing a sparse apartment. The entryway was about two feet of linoleum, barely big enoughfor Dex’s big ass feet. The flooring transitioned right into carpet and the living room kitchen combo. I moved farther into the space, peeking around the breakfast bar that at least gave a little bit of separation, and let out a sigh of relief when I saw they’d put linoleum in the kitchen, because I’d been seriously worried that the beige shag continued in there.

“Dammit.” Dex’s outburst had me turning around, looking for danger or…something. He looked like someone kicked his puppy, with slumped shoulders and honest-to-god pout. “That wall isn’t big enough for an eighty-inch television.”

It took my brain a moment to come back online because, surely, he wasn’t throwing a tantrum, as a grown-ass man, over a television.

“What the hell could you possibly need to see on eighty inches.” I regretted my question as soon as I saw his frown transform into a smirk. “Nope. Nope. I donotwant to hear what your answer is for that. I’ve heard too many of your freaky sex stories. I can imagine what you want to watch on that size of a TV,” I said, crossing my arms in the air, hoping the giant ‘X ’ would ward off his freak-tales.

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