Room Eight

LEV, TWO WEEKS LATER

My entire body crackles with unspent energy. My body twitches, restless and on edge. I need to keep moving or I’ll be in a car right now and head into Northern Alliance territory to retrieve our special package.

I leave Gregor and Elyah in the office going over logistics for when Sapphire arrives.

Armed guards. Who to trust. Who needs to be moved to another location.

If those two could, they would remove all other men from the property and I would help them relocate everyone. I don’t like the idea of other assholes invading our jewel’s sacred space. Or what we hope she will come to think of as hers.

Either way, she will be safe with us. No one will harm a hair on her head. Not and live.

He won’t say much about the topic but I know Elyah is having a hard time with Sapphire coming to live with us.

Our fathers ripped the lower half of Chicago apart, spilled blood in its streets, and took years to painstakingly rebuild the empire with a strong foundation after inheriting it from their fathers’. Back then they had a different idea of what our empire should look like.

Street wars lasted forever. I can remember parts of our childhood summers spent outside of the city due to fear of death threats from the East and West Alliances. The North was always content in letting us either die or kill ourselves off most times. But there has been bloodshed between us. Cousins killed. Brothers.

The time Sapphire remembers seeing us for the first time is when all three of us swallowed our pride and asked for a meeting with her cousin. There’s strength in knowing when you need help.

The burn of rejection that day leaves a sour taste in my mouth to this day.

I find my room and slowly close the door. Silence envelopes me and I embrace the darkness. Only now can I truly fucking breathe. The idea of letting Sapphire slip away from us leaves me hungry for blood. The last time I let vengeance rule me people died.

I sprawl over the bed and I guess I fall asleep because Elyah is standing over me when I crack my eyes open next.

“Wake up, brother.” A strong hand is on my shoulder. The thunder in his voice has me lunging to my feet. My fingers are shaking and the tightness around my throat has my vision blurring. I scrape a hand down my face and it comes back dripping with sweat. My breathing is ragged and my heart wants to beat outside my chest.

“What fucking time is it?” I take several calming breaths and try to lock my shit down.

I check the window and find the sun shining. The clock says I’ve been asleep all night.

“You were moaning in your sleep and it did not sound like the wet dream kind.”

“Da, brother. No shit,” I mutter and stand. My knees feel shaky so I fall back down.

“You okay?”

I nod, not wanting to talk about the images of Axsel dying to save my life. His body took round after round of bullets. The fear in his eyes lingers in my mind. Every time I close my eyes it’s his corpse I see. Knowing there was nothing I could do haunts me. But I live with it. Because he died for me and my brothers.

“Sorry about waking you.” I douse my raging emotions with the vodka Elyah holds out.

Since the night we lost Axsel, we’ve stayed together. First, it was my place across town. A large spread with ample gardens. Then at Gregor’s place four floors down in this high-rise. And now here so we can take turns watching over Elyah’s father.

We keep each other sane when the shadows reach out to claw us deeper into their territory.

Elyah shrugs his shoulders in silence like this is a nightly occurrence because it nearly is.

“Don’t worry about it. I haven’t gone to bed. Gregor hasn’t slept all night either. He keeps going on about making this place babyproof.” Elyah pinches the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think he understands we have nine months to prepare and that’s if she’s pregnant. The man is a fucking case of positivity I can’t handle.”

“You don’t think she’s carrying our child?”

“I think when we collect her, we make sure. Simple as that.”

He closes the door when my phone goes off. I fumble for it and see Sapphire’s sweet face.

I look up ready to call him back in, but maybe in a minute. I want a little one-on-one time with our soon-to-be baby momma.

“Lev, is that you?”

Her voice comes across as sleepy and causes my heart to jack into overdrive and my dick to stir to life. Fuck her voice is sexy. I haven’t cared for another human being besides my brothers in a long damn time.

The three of us haven’t spoken with Sapphire since we left her at her apartment with the instructions of being ready in three weeks. Elyah thinks she can use the space, but I think too much space allows regret to move in.

Hmm. Dread drops in my gut. Call it intuition or life experience, but I have a feeling this call isn’t for an early pickup from her place.

“Krasotka. Everything okay?” Her sweet face fills the screen. Small shafts of light shoot in from the curtains at her back. When she moves slightly, hints of the room she is in peek through revealing nothing out of the ordinary. No danger. But her eyes are wide in fear.

“Sapphire,” I state firmly. “Is everything okay? Or did you just miss us, malyshka?” The use of terms of endearment calms her so I use them liberally. She might not know what the words mean but she visually calms a few degrees.

Her hand darts into her hair and she tugs on the roots. “What have we done, Lev? I can’t find it in me to tell my cousin I am leaving.”

I hate being right. Fucking Elyah. The hardheaded man never wants to listen. We should have taken her that night and to hell with letting her get her affairs in order. Nothing she couldn’t do from here.

Blunt teeth press into the pillowy flesh of her lower lips again and I immediately want to pull her to me for a taste. One more week and I can do just that.

“Fuck Harlon and his friends. Tell him or not. I don’t care. It doesn’t change two facts, beautiful.”

“And what are those? Wait, I know.” She holds up two fingers for me to see in the low light of the morning. “I’m dead,” she says sarcastically. “And you three are dead. Even if my cousin doesn’t act on my betrayal, others can’t wait to find a reason to take down the family and I just handed it to them. Harlon and the men are already fighting to keep people in line. I think I’ve royally screwed up.”

Those pretty blue eyes are on me as she speaks. So bright with worry. Fuck she’s killing me. Seeing the pain in her eyes makes me want to burn this city down to get to her.

“Do you have regrets?” Some self-loathing part of me needs to hear the exact words. Invisible nails claw into my pulsing heart. For the first time in my life I want something solid with a woman. The night at Club Sin was the first in two years I didn’t wake in cold sweats. As much as I crave her, I also need Sapphire in my life.

She gets up and moves around doing exactly what I do when I am bothered by something and the solution isn’t obvious. Pacing. One pass and then the other. I let her gather her thoughts before speaking.

“Malyshka. Answer me.”

I hear the clink of a lock falling into place, and soft footfalls on the carpet. The rustling of cloth and then silence.

“Are you in your room?”

“I just locked the door like I have something to hide from in my own home, Lev.”

“I thought you lived alone.”

“That’s the problem. I do.”

I give a low chuckle.

“Everyone has dirty secrets, beautiful. We might as well add another one to the pot. Lay down on your bed for me.”

“I don’t need any dirtier secrets in my closet. That is not why I am calling,” she responds tartly.

And yet she has not hung up.

Dark hair spills around her heart-shaped face. Instead of looking like a mess, she makes bedhead look seriously tempting. Thick lashes tangle as they narrow them on me. I don’t know if she does it consciously or not, but her face turns up in a cute pout when she doesn’t understand the motivation behind something.

“Do it, beautiful. Turn the side lamp on so I can see you better. Or I can get in my car, come over there, and then all your neighbors will see me walk into your apartment and run to tattle on us. Your choice.”

“Okay. Okay. I’m on the bed. I don’t see how this is going to—”

“—the lamp,” I remind her.

Click.

“There. Happy?”

I hold her eyes firmly and force myself to talk slowly so she doesn’t miss the threat. “Talk like that to me when we are in the same room, and I will feed my cock to you in punishment.”

Her sexy, fuckable lips fall open in surprised silence.