Queen of Hearts

Chapter Sixteen

ROSIE

As the sun sets, Creed drives us into the city and towards the docks and the warehouse the Volkov’s used to ship their guns. It had been smart thinking on Jay’s part to use a facility that wasn’t directly tied to The Family, since we were about to interrogate traitors and neither of us knew who to trust any more.

When we locate the warehouse and make our way inside, we’re greeted by the very beautiful Volkov twins and two members of security. I’d yet to meet the Volkov’s personally before, but I’d been to their club The Blue Butterfly, and their restaurant The Bistro, and I’d always thought the rumors of them being drugged up, sex-crazed party animals were a little far-fetched. Looking at them now, I realized that they’d taken that part of their personalities, and made it their whole public persona. And I didn’t like it.

Anoushka Volkov steps forward with a small seductive smile, and hands Creed a set of keys. Her almost white hair is pinned up gracefully, a stark contrast to her fitted black dress and red heels, all very expensive looking. It’s easy to see why she used to be a model as she oozes sex appeal naturally, without having to do much other than breathe. When she opens her mouth and her heavily accented Russian comes out, it does nothing to detract from that. In fact, it only seems to make her more charming. Fuck her.

“Mr. Asaro, you’ll find everything you requested through those doors. If you need any further assistance, please simply let our man Sergei know.” She motions over to the two security men who nod in our direction before moving towards the front of the warehouse to give us a little more privacy.

I bite the inside of my cheek at the way she looks at Julian, the flicker of interest clear in her pale blue eyes. I know there’s no way Julian would go there, even if she does seem like a logical choice. She would strengthen his relationship to Lev and their arms deal, and publicly she was a rich, party-girl socialite turned businesswoman. The press both loved and hated her, but she had a lifestyle that would work as a cover for many Family activities.

Alexi Volkov, her twin, grins and winks in Julian’s direction as he looks him over. He’s equally as beautiful, but unlike his stoic sister, his face is more relaxed, his expressions more animated. His interest is more obvious as he tries to flirt. “And if you’d like company afterwards, you have our number.”

He stands with his arms crossed, dressed similarly to his sister in all black with red leather brogues. His black shirt is unbuttoned down to his navel, and I notice a silver body chain against his pale, creamy flesh, catching in the low lighting as he moves

“You work too hard Mr. Asaro, we can help you relax,” he purrs as he pulls out a joint and lights it up. The sweet, sickly cloying smell quickly fills the space and for a moment no one says anything.

Taking a few steps forward I ignore Creed’s whispered ‘Ohhhh shit’, and I fist my hand through the Russian twinks’ hair, pulling him down until his eyeline is the same as mine. “I don’t normally do this…but do you know who I am?”

“Nyet, but I know you are bezumnyy, little woman,” he whines, trying to twist away. His large hands slap at mine, but I’m determined once I latch on. “Let go!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see his sister step forward, but Julian raises a hand to stop her. “I’m sorry, I haven’t formally introduced you. This is Rosie, Queen of Hearts.”

“The Queen of Hearts?” The ice princess stands and stares at me, tilting her head from left to right in confusion and I knew I should have worn something other than a green rockabilly dress with matching heels, but I’d wanted Daniel to shit himself when he saw me alive and well, looking incredible. However, my outfit didn’t exactly give off killer vibes, unless you knew who I was.

Alexi shrieks, trying to get out of my hold even harder now. “The one who eats the hearts every year?”

“I DO NOT—” I yank harder, shaking his head, ignoring Creed’s howling laughter at this point. “—EAT HEARTS.”

“No, she posts them lovingly to Julian,” Creed unhelpfully chimes in.

Holding his hands up in defeat, Alexi goes still. “Okay, okay!”

Finally, I let go of his precious white hair, and moved back towards Julian, enjoying the way his arm sneaks around my waist and his hand rests on my hip possessively.

With a firm push, Anoushka shoves her brother towards the door. “I apologize for my brother’s overtures. We’ll be leaving now.”

Julian nods at them and they go, muttering to one another furiously in Russian and they do. Just before they’re out of sight, Anoushka slaps her hand over her brother’s mouth, hissing something and glancing back at us with an uneasy smile. Moments later she yelps, as he’s apparently bitten her.

“That was fun,” Creed says, grinning like an idiot.

“They are chaotic, how do they manage to keep their personal and public lives separate? I’m amazed they haven’t been uncovered yet.” With crazy energy like theirs, it was easy to make a mistake, to slip up. Once that happened, it was game over and you’d end up in Kenfig Correctional, or if you were really unlucky, Ogmore Grange Penitentiary.

Julian puts down the duffle bag he brought with him and crouches down to unzip it. “They have a lot of money, many connections and they entertain Newtown. People in this city are charmed by them, they love reading Oliver Staddon’s scathing articles and they love seeing pictures of them getting in trouble. As long as they keep that up, who will believe they’re actually quite bloodthirsty and ruthless?”

He hands me my stiletto blade and garter, which I quickly slip on. Then he hands me my small handgun, which I tuck into a hidden pocket inside the skirt of my dress.

“And are they bloodthirsty and ruthless?” I ask as I re-adjust my petticoat so that my dress sits right and doesn’t show any bulges where my weapons are hidden.

“Some of the best.”

Creed rummages around in the bag, loads his gun and slides it into a shoulder holster I didn’t even notice he was wearing. “I’ve never seen someone take so much pleasure in skinning a man until I’d met Anoushka Volkov.”

He takes a hunting knife out of the bag, thinks better of it and puts it back before choosing a smaller blade that he tucked into the back of his trousers.

“And the brother?” I ask, through gritted teeth.

Julian laughs and gives me a pointed look. “He’s a sadist. I thought you knew this, since you said he liked it rough.”

Shrugging I watch as he too hides a gun on his person, even though I know he won’t use it unless he has to. “I’ve never had sex with him, I just know someone who did.”

“Are we ready?” Creed asks, closing the duffle bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

Julian grins. “As we’ll ever be.”

I look between the two of them, grinning. “Is this where we do some weird three musketeer chant or something?”

It was strange being here with Julian and Creed, but it also wasn’t as strange as it should have been. Some part of it felt right, like we were some sort of fucked up, bad-ass team of avengers out to conquer the evil lurking in the shadows. Except, to some, we were the evil in the shadows.

“Three mafia-teers?” Creed suggests with a shrug as he unlocks the door in front of us with the keys Anoushka gave him.

“Hmmm. I like it.” I glance over at Julian, whose mouth is set in a straight line as he looks between the two of us like we’d lost our damn minds.

“No. Now open the damn door,” he grumbles.