He talks dirty at the same time he uses his phone to arm the security system. Once he gets confirmation from the software, he looks at me expectantly.
The scowl I give him makes his mouth tip into a smirk. “That’s not a no. Maybe it’s just the wrong time. On the plane, I could lick your pussy, so you see all the stars when we take off. Not just those in the sky.”
I grin back at him. “Such a sweet talker. Speaking of”—I redirect my desire by asking him something I’ve noticed—“your English goes from exceptional to not so exceptional.”
He laughs, and it’s villainous.
With a grin on his face, he glances at me in between turning back to focus on driving. “Like Santiago said, we’ve all had parts to play, and now we don’t need to pretend, I can be the real me. Thank fuck too, because it’s exhausting trying to maintain a facade. The real me slips into bad English when I don’t need to pretend, has a shitty eye with vision that gets so bad I’m blind in it sometimes, and a big cock. I want you to know the real me, so I will stop hiding what some might see as a weakness. But again, I say, I can be whatever you need, but I hope it’s the real me you want the most.”
“Well, it looks like I’m a sucker for any version of you. And you really should be yourself because I’m kind of besotted. You keep pushing me to be myself too.”
“It’s true, what you say, you give good head,maya, my little sucker.” And then Aleksei floors it, and I get pushed back against the car seat as he accelerates. He makes sure I experience firsthand how fast he can drive.
Kade is so close behind us, he must be only a couple of feet off our bumper. The thrill doesn’t help me get my hormones under control.
As soon as we hit the freeway, Aleksei veers straight across the traffic and drops into a small space in the middle lane. The roads are busy with other lunatics driving similarly to him. Cars whiz past, others purposely slow down before they rocket away in challenge.
When Kade zooms past us, Aleksei turns and smiles serenely at me. “Keep your legs closed,maya, I need to focus. I can’t let Kade win. Imagine how cocky he would be then.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
KADE
Aleksei only beats us to the airport because he continually cheats. If I couldn’t see Quinn laughing and smiling as much as she was, I’d have gotten Santiago to shoot out one of his tires.
Santiago glares at Aleksei as Aleksei reverses into a private parking bay at the airport. “How are we going to have any sort of peaceful life with him?”
“I ask myself that constantly,” I say, twisting around, ready to park. I’m just waiting for Santiago to shut the door.
He does, eventually. Once he’s standing next to Quinn and the dogs, I start. Aleksei stays inside the small space, directing me unnecessarily. And this is what I meant when I answered Santiago—Aleksei is full of contradictions. He leaves me unsure of how he will act or react in any given situation.
The parking assist in the Audi means his staying is redundant. I finish parking, and he hands me a briefcase.
“While we’re flying, you should familiarize yourself with the people in this file. I want to ask my wife about some of them, but I think she needs to rest more than we need answers. In seriousness, if they make her anxious, we have our answer if they are good people or not.”
When Aleksei talks so decisively, it goes against all the training I’ve done. At the Academy, we’re taught to systematically evaluate the evidence, as opposed to assuming anything and jumping to obvious conclusions. Except what Aleksei says is true; Quinn is our measure now. It’s that black and white, that decisive and simple.
“Thanks, Aleksei.”
He goes to walk off, but I grab his arm. “I am loyal to her and our pack. My job with Interpol paid the bills. It gave me access to track down info on who was responsible for giving my sister the drugs.”
His eyes narrow. “You use the same determination to keep her safe, and we will be fine.”
He stops talking, and while there’s the suggestion of a smile, more evident is the challenge in his eyes. I know where he’s coming from; he’s putting my actions back on me, leaving me to determine how far I’m willing to go. I know how far he’ll go. He won’t stop at anything; Sergey and Dmitri are proof of that. I might not be as vocal in my thirst to protect her, but it doesn’t mean I won’t be as vicious.
I keep my voice even in volume and emotion. “I’m counting on you having good lawyers, Aleksei. It’s like you said, people are either a threat to her, or they are not.”
He grins. “You and I will be fine. I know this, but you looked nervous, like you needed a reminder you have everything you need here.”
I finally work out why Aleksei is in here, giving me his version of a pep talk. “You know, the last time I flew, Santiago was thepilot. He’s not a bad pilot, but we were flying into the worst storm I’ve ever experienced.”
“Ah, well, we’re not flying like that now. We have an image to uphold, not only for Victor but for when we return to Russia. And when Santiago drags us into his world, we can’t afford fear, or bad suits, Kade.”
I look at the suit I’m wearing; it’s one of the ones that Santiago and I hastily organized. It’s pretty reflective of my budget or lack thereof.
He clears his throat, and when I lift my gaze, his eyes are free of judgment. “What you did was noble work, but being noble doesn’t make you rich, which all changed when she bit you, and you bit her. We all have our own challenges ahead of us. Are you going to cope with the money that comes with the life you have committed to? It’s not flaunting what you have, it’s using it as another means of keeping her safe.”
“Jesus, Aleksei,” I murmur, running a hand down my face. “Why are you so damn easy to like today? And philosophical too.”
