Page 43 of Bought By Sin

No.

She was not coming before the matter of Gregori and his network threatening us.

She couldn’t.

But damn it all if I felt calmer to have her with me.

I glanced at her, then did a double-take and gave her a side-eye as I drove. “You smell like sex.”

Her mouth dropped open as she scowled at me in disbelief. “I didn’t ask for⁠—”

“Then maybe you should.” I kept my eyes on the road the best I could. “Maybe you can ask me for it so I don’t bottle up all these fucking fantasies until I’m on the verge of insanity.”

She had yet to lose her incredulous stare. “Are you supposed to tell women that they smell?” She scrunched her face. “Where am I going that I should worry about smelling like sex?”

I snorted and fought a smile. The instant spike of anger that a mention of Gregori could cause was mellowed out with her talking to me. She was opening up to me. I would have her submission.

“To Adrik’s house.”

She winced, glancing down at her lap before facing me. “Maybe you smell sex because you still have…” She pointed at my beard.

“Some of your cum on my face,” I finished for her, marveling that I could be frank like this with her and not feel shut out. A couple of orgasms and she was thawing toward me. It was progress. I gestured at the glove compartment. “Where?”

She followed my lead and got a napkin out, but when she leaned over to wipe at my face while I drove, I struggled with the need to pull over and haul her onto my lap and get my cum on or in her.

She dabbed at my short beard, cringing. “What is my role in going to Adrik’s?”

I shrugged. “You’re just with me.”

“To… look out for danger.”

After that intruder was caught, Adrik ramped up security. We wouldn’t need to rely on her quick instincts. “No. You’re just with me.” I didn’t have the patience to explain anything beyond that, and we didn’t have time to, anyway. I pulled in and didn’t delay getting inside. She followed me, and I wondered if I smelled like her yet.

If I did, no one pointed it out. We gathered in Adrik’s office and got right down to it. No one even blinked at the fact that I’d brought Mila with me. She stood behind me, almost like she thought she had to blend in as a member of the guards. I rolled my eyes, dragged a chair over, and tugged on her hand to make her sit next to me.

“We’ve discovered a distribution channel linked to Gregori’s network,” Adrik said. “And it might be able to give us leads on where Yusef Antonov is hiding.” He scowled. “Or Gregori himself.”

Elena took over for him, discussing how she followed the money trail with some of Gregori’s shell companies. The channel was meant to serve the San Diego port, and with her tracking, it seemed that she was getting closer to a location for us to strike.

Carina spoke, too, relaying the intel that she had from her former position with the Cartel. She described the specific routes that the Bratva runners were watching to better catch a sighting of Gregori or Yusef.

All of them pitched in with what they were collectively investigating under the umbrella of the issue that was Gregori’s network.

In the end, it was up to me to act as the enforcer.

“Going undercover near the docks would be the best approach,” Maksim said. He was the problem-solver, always a strategist. He and Carina completed each other like that, the go-getters when there was a puzzle to attack.

“Then I’ll go,” Alexei said.

Adrik shook his head. “No. I need you to make sure this shit isn’t linking to the Konstantins.”

“I will go,” I said. Glancing at Mila, I corrected myself. “We both will.”

“You? And Mila?” Adrik volleyed his attention between me and her.

She’d stiffened in her seat, but she still masked her surprise well. Maybe I was confusing her. She’d been waiting for a job and after I fucked her in the gym last night and ate her cunt out this morning, she could be assuming I had a completely different so-called job for her to fill. That was partly true, but I wasn’t stupid. I wouldn’t waste her talent and skill for stealth. I intended to reap the rewards of having her in my life with regard to both of her capabilities.

“She’s not trained yet,” Viktor said.