Dragon, looking worse for wear falls into a seat at the table and throws an ankle over a knee.
“You need to do whatever it is you’re gonna do and fast, brothers.”
Rage grabs a bottle and Dragon throws his hand up. “I’m good. I can’t stay long. They sent me on a scouting run.”
I cross my arms and rub at the stubble covering my chin. “That’s new.”
“I’ve been promoted apparently. The two thugs working the basement killed a girl and they won’t let them anywhere near the merchandise, sorry, women, anymore.”
Dragon scrubs a hand over his face and looks ten years older since the last time I saw him. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this shit. They have me talking like them. How much longer before I’m like them?”
Red eyes meet mine.
“The things they do to these women, Prez. The degradation they go through at their hands. It’s hard to not kill them all and walk away.”
“The sister?”
“Alive is all I can say. They seem to like their virgins untouched in every way but one.”
I straighten at that news.
“Details.”
Dragon’s expression turns stone cold. His eyes take on a glassy haze. “There’s more than one way to break a woman. You know this.”
I do. I lived through the horrors of my mother’s life. And her death at the hands of my father. That night I vowed to see him into an early grave. Growing up in the home a Russian mobster should have warped my mind the way it did my brothers. My blood brothers. Boys who turned into men as bloodthirsty as the man who fathered them. Who all betrayed me all for the sake of our father’s approval. And greed. I canneverforget their greed.
Seeing Nova’s fighting spirit makes me think of the strength of my mother.
On nights my father flew into a rage I would beg my mother to hide, but she refused. As a kid, I didn’t understand her stance, but now I see she was the bravest woman I knew.
The noose around her neck was taut from day one with my father. Somehow she found it in herself to teach me compassion for others. The second I was old enough to know how to point a gun and pull the trigger my father worked diligently to erase her teachings. I don’t think the things he wanted to stick registered in my head the way he preferred them.
The man who fathered me took enslaved women in front of her, beat them all if anyone dared to fail in pleasing him in the manner he desired. I swore off sex most of my younger days because of the cruel, unnecessary vileness I witnessed. Only when I learned to control my bitterness and anger did I dare trust myself around the softness of a woman.
Seething anger boils through my veins for the past I can’t shake. So much so it turns into ice in my veins. “Get back and keep tabs on the sister. Let us know if you catch wind of the next auction being moved.”
I finish with Dragon and climb the stairs to find Nova not where I left her. Damn infuriating woman. Any other woman wouldn’t have dared disobey my order. It amuses me. Most of the time. But tonight I’m not in the mood for games.
I spy the mass of her white hair and the blue embers of her glaring eyes.
Piper finds me as I pass the kitchen heading for the stairs.
“What’s she got that I don’t?”
“Not tonight.” Piper and Kendra both sidle up close, one on either side. Their hands go straight for my junk.
I don’t have time for this shit. Over the top of their heads, I jerk my chin in the direction of a prospect. Piper leans in and I can smell whiskey on her breath. Nothing new, but it’s her blown-up pupils and the familiar mark in the crook of her elbow that forces red into my vision. I brace an arm between her and me and signal Blaze to come get her. “Take her to her room and make sure she doesn’t leave.” I point to her arm. “That shit stops here.”
Kendra backs off at the tone of my voice.
“Got it, Prez.”
I pry the drink from Piper’s hand. “Tomorrow see to it she’s in rehab. I don’t care if this is her first time shooting up or her fiftieth. She does it again and she’s out on her ass.”
“I’ll call Fergie in to sit with her.”
“Da, moy droog.Good man.”