Page 7 of Daddy's Reluctant Queen

I can’t speak. The words won’t come. He growls against my cheek as he fucks me even harder…

I’m so close… I’m… I’m about to…

My eyes popopen as I gasp for breath. The scenery around me melts away and I’m facing the hazy light coming through the dirty curtains of the motel. I’m clutching the sheets around me, my heart pounding… and my thighs slick under the covers.

Shit. It was just a dream… and some kind of dream it was.

I sit up in bed and run my hand over my face. Of all the sex dreams I could have had,whydid I have one about the man who killed my father? As if I would ever.

It’s hot in this room. There’s not much to it. A bed with a dirty comforter folded at its end, an old wooden nightstand, no TV, stained wallpaper, and the faint smell of cigarettes and God knows what else sticking to the carpet and curtains.

This motel sits just outside the city. We stopped here because we don’t really have anywhere else to go. Last night, we both collapsed from exhaustion. I took the bed and Adam…

I turn to the chair sitting next to the bed. It’s empty, nothing but the blanket he left behind draped over the arms.

Oh, shit. Where did he go?

Just as I think that, the door opens and he walks in. He’s wearing a dingy-looking T-shirt and jean shorts and a baseball cap pulled over his face. He’s also carrying a couple of plastic bags in each hand. He closes the door and glances over at me before going to the window and peering out. “You’re up. It’s about time.”

“Where did you go?” I ask him.

He sets the bags down on the floor. “Provisions. We can’t go on the run in eveningwear.”

I glance down at the bra and panties I’m wearing, half covered with the dubious looking sheets on the bed. I pull it up a little as Adam sets one of the bags down.

“I didn’t know your size,” he says, “so these might be a little big on you.”

I reach into the bag. A T-shirt and jeans, a pair of creased white sneakers and socks. “You went to a store for these?”

“Of sorts,” he says with a shrug. “There’s a second-hand place down the street. I also stopped by the convenience store and got some food. It’s not much, but it’ll do until we can get somewhere safer than this.”

I nod as I rub the sleep out of my eyes. He watches me in silence for a few seconds.

“This is bad, right?” he says. “I mean… really bad. Defcon five?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Maybe even Endgame protocol.”

He nods stiffly, his head bobbing up and down in a short movement. “I’ve been trying to think of someone we can get to. Some relative that lives far enough away. I’m coming up empty.”

I sit and think for a moment. “We’ve got family in Russia. I doubt we could get there, though. Those men, they’ll be looking for us at the airport or anyplace that might take us out of the country.”

“Dad has…” He pauses, then, “hada private jet, right?”

I nod. “Yeah. We’d have to get to it and…” I have to stop. I haven’t given myself a chance to really think all this through, what it all really means. I take a breath and say, “Sit down, Adam.”

He blinks and a sort of panic fills the blue in his eyes. He sits on the bed.

“We need to get comfortable with a few things right now if we’re going to survive this,” I say. “The men who killed Papa and everybody else at the party? They were Bratva.”

He swallows hard. “How do you know?”

I just look at him. He knows as well as I do. We grew up in this shit. He looks away for a moment and tries again.

“Okay, so it’s a rival Bratva. That’s… bad.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I don’t know what Papa did to bring this down on us, but what happened was… last night was abespredel,or a liquidation, maybe. They were killing everyone. Our family, Papa’s Bratva, everyone. That probably means that they’re not going to stop until everyone’s dead.”

He suddenly looks as pale as paper. “I’ve, uh, I’ve heard stories of stuff like this. A Pakhan deciding to wipe out somebody’s bloodline .” He shakes his head as tears appear in his eyes. “They’ll never stop coming for us.”