Page 14 of Deviant Need

“You looked happy about it though.”

He finally turns his head to look at me and huffs out a breath. “You’re impossible.”

“So I’ve been told.” I raise an eyebrow at him. “I texted Alexei, by the way. He’s in.”

“You brought up the counter incident like I told you to?” He starts laughing halfway through asking.

“Da, good call. You’re a genius.”

He grins, staring back up at the ceiling. “I’m still traumatized from that.”

We both are. Walking in on Alexei and Kelly burned itself into my brain, and I’m milking it for everything it’s worth. Blackmail material for life. He’ll never have the upper hand on me again, not with that image hanging over his head. My ace in the hole.

He sighs, still smiling. “Fine. We’ll break in tomorrow and get it back.”

Relief washes over me, and I close my eyes for a second.

Father’s going to murder me if I don’t get that document back, and I’m exhausted from him constantly ripping into me for being a fuckup. For once I want to do something right. I want him to look at me without that disappointment weighing down his expression.

Chapter 3

Mikhail

Something hard connects with my shoulder from behind, and I lurch forward, pain flaring hot through the muscle in an immediate brutal hit that’s definitely going to leave a bruise. I whip around in my seat, already pissed, and find Alexei sitting in the back with that emotionless stare of his, not even pretending to look sorry.

“What was that for?” I snap.

“Bored,” he says flatly.

Why did I bother asking? I don’t know why I thought he’d have a better explanation than that.

“Did you really have to punch me that hard, asshole?”

“That wasn’t hard. Kelly’s teaching me to be nicer and practice restraint. If I wasn’t trying, I would’ve broken something.”

This is Alexei being nice. I’m thrilled for Kelly, truly, but maybe his influence could extend to not assaulting people in moving vehicles. My shoulder is already throbbing, and I curse him out under my breath.

Daniil’s driving with no headlights, rolling up to Yulian’s place nice and slow. The house sits dark, all black glass and modern design. It’s on the family property with our parents’ house and where my brothers built their places too. We bailed and got our own spot in the city.

We get out, and Daniil’s already on his phone, killing the security system with a few taps that make every camera go dark.

“Are we sure he isn’t home?” Alexei asks.

“No, we’re complete idiots who didn’t bother checking,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Of course Danya checked. Shocking that we’d use our brains first, right?”

His eye twitches, and he mutters something in Russian, then flexes his fingers. “I can’t believe I let you drag me into this. We get this over with, and then we never talk about what you saw. Ever.”

My grin is massive. “But⁠—”

He shoves my shoulder hard. “Shut the fuck up, suka.”

Daniil’s trying not to laugh as we type in the code and push inside. I haven’t been to Yulian’s place in months, and it looks exactly how I remember it—pristine dark wooden floors, gray walls, everything so clean and sterile.

We split up without needing to discuss it.

I start in the living room, tearing through drawers and shoving aside cushions before moving to the bathroom to check cabinets and behind the mirror. Nothing. Daniil’s upstairs going through the office, and Alexei’s off doing god knows what. He better help us find this document because if we walk out of here empty-handed, I’m killing him just for the stress relief.

Heading to the bedroom last, I push the door open and move fast. I open his drawers, rifle through papers on his desk, check under the bed. The document has to be here somewhere. Pulling open his closet, I start going through jacket pockets, tossing clothes aside when they come up empty.