Nate walked into the bedroom. He’d already pulled off his shirt and was yanking off his pants as I sat up.

Relief swelled inside me, but I tried to play it cool. “How’d it go?”

“Better than I expected. Things went right for once.”

“The heroin?”

“Let’s just say there are some whales out in the Atlantic who are currently developing a taste for the finest heroin ever produced in the poppy fields of Afghanistan.”

“Good.” I wanted to go to him, to check him for injuries or any hurt, but I forced myself to stay put, to show that I could accept the danger inherent in his life without freaking out all the time. “You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah.” He smirked. “I know you want to inspect me. Quit being coy.”

I jumped at the opportunity. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t as good at playing it cool as I’d hoped. Running my fingers over his torso, I said, “You came away unscathed this time. That’s an improvement. Maybe you’re finally learning how to do your job right.”

“Sassy woman.” He grabbed a handful of my hair and walked me back to the bed. “When did you get such a smart mouth?”

I gripped his cock through his boxer shorts, the hot length of him coming to life in my palm. “Maybe when I figured out how much you like it.”

“I do like it.” He shoved me down to my knees, my back against the side of the mattress. “But I love it when you use it to suck my cock.”

I licked my lips as he pulled himself free from his boxers, the fat head glistening in the low light. Not waiting, I took him deep in my mouth, rubbing my tongue along his shaft as I went.

“Fuck.” He groaned and tossed his head back as I sucked.

Wrapping my hand around the base of his shaft the way he liked, I worked in tandem with my fingers to touch him from base to tip. Wet noises bounced around the room as I moved back and forth. He thrust his hips in time with my rhythm, almost gagging me a few times. When I looked up at him, he groaned at the tears shining in my eyes and one rolling down my cheek.

After a few more deep thrusts with his hips, he pulled me up and pushed me back on the bed. With a yank, he removed my panties while I peeled his white t-shirt away.

“How did you get so good at sucking my cock so quickly?”

I gave him a sweet smile. “I’ve been practicing on TicTacs.”

He stared, his eyes going wide before a laugh rocketed from his lungs. “You goddamn sassy girl.”

I tweaked my nipple. “What are you going to do about it?”

He growled and dove between my legs. His mouth, hot and wet, sealed to my pussy, and his tongue delved deep inside me as I arched off the bed and gripped the duvet. He knew just what to do, working my clit and bringing me to the edge of ecstasy in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

I dug my fingers in his hair and called his name, but he didn’t intend to get me off so easily. He climbed up my body and pressed his thick cock head against my entrance. I was wet and needy, but I still gasped as he thrust inside me. All the way to the hilt, he stayed still as he stared into my eyes.

The words that had been bubbling inside me for so long turned into an undeniable roar that I could no longer ignore. “Nate.” I put my palm to his cheek. “I love you.”

His eyes clenched shut as if he were in pain. Though I was full of him and my need for him, in that moment a great emptiness settled inside me. Even though I knew there was little chance of him saying it back to me, it still hurt.

I dropped my hand. “You don’t have to say it back. It’s okay.” The good thing about internal bleeding was that no one else could see it.

He opened his eyes, that deep green meeting me halfway. “I’m not an easy man to love. I’m not the man for you. You deserve so much better than anything I can ever offer you. But I’m still a selfish bastard. And I’ve never been able to do a cost-benefit analysis. When it comes to you, all I ever see is benefit.”

I stopped breathing. I stopped thinking. My entire world ground to a halt as I hung on to each of his words.

His gaze never left mine. “I’ve never loved anything in my life. Not like I love you. When I first saw you, something inside me broke. Not just broke, it shattered into more pieces than I could ever collect again. You were young. You’d been hurt so badly. And for the first time, I wanted to fix something instead of destroy it. And that knowledge is what broke me. Because I couldn’t fix you. I couldn’t make it all go away. And even though I was a failure, and I sent you away, and I continued down my destructive path, you came back to me. I think we were both broken and we were the only ones who could make each other whole again.”

My heart swelled until I feared it would burst from my chest. Tears welled in my eyes and rolled down, tickling my ears. “Did you just say you love me?”

The side of his mouth ticked up in a smile. “After I say the most poetic shit I’ve ever said in my whole life, all you can think of is the part where I said I love you?”

“That was the most important part.”

“Well, in that case, I love you. I’ve always loved you in one way or another, from the moment we met.”

“I was 13, you creeper.” I giggled.

He narrowed his eyes. “It wasn’t like that.”

“For you, maybe. But I’ve been masturbating to thoughts of you for years.”

He shook his head. “Are you trying to kill my boner, jail bait?”

I angled my hips up, rubbing his cock deep inside me. “I think it’s safe to say your boner isn’t going anywhere.”

“You’re a bad girl. You know that?” He pulled back and shoved, hard and sure.

I batted my eyelashes. “I guess I need someone to punish me.”

“You came to the right place for that.” He slammed into me, jarring the bed.

My toes curled, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Do your worst.”

He started a hard rhythm and never broke eye contact. “I love you. I love you so much.”

How many times had I hoped to hear those words from his lips? They were euphoric. It was as if everything clicked into place. All it took was for him to stop fighting it, but he had always been a fighter. So it wasn’t surprising that it took him this long to come to terms with the fact that we were always meant to find each other, to be strong for each other, and to love each other.

“I want you to use me to get off.” He rolled over and took me with him, settling me on his hips. “Show me all of you.”

I leaned forward and braced my hands on either side of his head. He grabbed my wrists and positioned my palms on his chest. “Use all of me.” He surged up, spurring me onward.

Sinking down, I took him all the way inside then lifted up and pushed back down.

He nodded. “That’s it.”

His hands wandered to my breasts, cupping and kneading them as I rocked back and forth. When I ground down on him, I discovered it gave my clit a delicious rush of sensation. So I kept doing it as he leaned up and claimed a nipple in his mouth. A line of flame traced from my breasts to my pussy as I rode him. All modesty abandoned, I stroked my clit against him again and again, each burst of pleasure building on the last.

He worshiped one breast and then the next as his hands wandered to my ass and squeezed. When he slapped one ass cheek and then the next, I moaned his name.

“That’s who owns this pussy. Say it again.”

“Nate. It’s yours.”

“Fuck yes it is.” He slapped my ass again, sending me higher and higher.

My body moved to its own rhythm, my hips grinding down until everything inside me tightened into that one little spot. I threw my head back as Nate feasted on my breasts. With one more delicious bit of pressure between my thighs, I came, moaning to the ceiling and filling every corner with Nate’s name. I rode him, letting my hips guide me down the cascade of pleasure. Nate laid back, his gaze on me as my orgasm began to subside. He thrust up three times, his body tense, and he grunted—that deep and masculine sound that was so particular to him—as he came inside me.

Sated, I dropped onto his chest and lay there trying to catch my breath. He ran his hands up and down my back and cooed about what a good girl I was. I loved his praise. I couldn’t help it. Wrapped in his arms, and joined in the most primal of ways, I was home.

* * *

I spent the next morning trying to evade David’s bear paws during a sparring match in the foyer. After being taken to the floor three times in a row, I missed the softness of the grass. But not enough that I would risk Dmitri getting a look at me.

“How did he do that, anyway?” I circled around to David’s right.

“Do what?” He eyed me warily, looking for some sort of trick to divert his attention.

“How did Dmitri get a video camera on the property?”

“He didn’t.” David stopped circling. “Not exactly anyway. We checked all of the electronics on the property and looked for any additional video cameras, but there weren’t any. Peter also did a check of neighboring properties as well, but there weren’t any there either.”

I tried to keep my gaze up, though I was analyzing how many steps it would take me to kick out and hit his knee. “So how?”

“Drones.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No. We suspected, but now we know for sure. We have a man permanently staked out on the roof here with a sniper rifle. Late last night a drone flew over the house. Our guy spotted it with his night vision scope and took it out. We have a day shift guy and a night shift guy until this is all over.”

I rushed forward and kicked hard at his knee. Only an inch away from making contact, he managed to swipe my leg away. But I stayed on my feet and bounced back out of his bear paw grip.

“You’re getting better.” David took up his fighting stance and focused on me again.

“But I’m still not good enough.”

“When you’ve been fighting as long as I have, we can compare notes. But for now, you’re getting better, and improvement is what we’re after.”

I jabbed with my left hand then feinted right. “We’ve been spending all this time together fighting, but I’ve never learned much about you and your brother. Where did you grow up?”

“No.” He dropped and shot out his leg, sweeping my feet out from under me.

I fell on my ass, the marble floor giving me an unwelcome bruise. “What do you mean no?”

He helped me to my feet. “I don’t talk about the past.”

Shut out. “You know all about my past. Why can’t I know something about yours?”

He ran both hands through his dark hair, his muscles flexing beneath his thin gray t-shirt. “Your past is tinged with blood. My past is drowned in it. Maybe one day I’ll tell you more, but not today.”

I tried to go for his throat, but he caught me with ease.

“You telegraphed that from a mile away. Work on it in the mirror, and we’ll practice more tomorrow.”

I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “I ask you one little question about your past and you shut down and ditch on training?”

“Training was over half an hour ago. You need to work on paying more attention to your surroundings.” Without another word, he strolled out of the foyer.

“Is there anything I don’t need to work on?” I grumbled to myself.

“Your bedroom skills are spot on.” Nate walked up behind me and dropped a kiss on my neck.

“I’m all sweaty.”

He growled in my ear and bit the lobe. “I’d lick you all over.”

A shiver went through me as he ran his hands down to my hips.

“Too bad I have an interrogation to carry out.”

All the blood drained from my face and the tips of my ears went cold. “The basement?”

“Not this time.” He hesitated and seemed to be having a silent argument with himself based on the way his eyebrows pulled together.

“What is it?”

He gave a small shrug as if admitting defeat in his mental disagreement. “You said you want to be a part of this, and I’m done trying to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. So, if you’d like to sit in, then you are welcome to.”

I couldn’t stop the grin spreading across my face. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I shower really quick and change first?”

He slapped my ass. “Yes, but hurry up before I change my mind.”

Ten minutes later, I was showered and sitting on one of the couches in Nate’s office, a legal pad and a pen in my hand.

Nate sat at his desk and took me in with a long look. “If you’d add some heels to the outfit, we could play naughty secretary.”

I glanced down at my white button-up top and gray skirt. “You guys are always dressed up, so I figured I would fit right in.”

“Come sit on my lap. I’ve got something for you that will fit right in.”

I bit my lip as footsteps echoed in the hallway. Nate schooled his features, trading his cocky grin for an expression of stone.

Peter walked in with a stranger. The man was tall and thin, possibly mid-forties, with scraggly dark hair. He wore a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt with a “Dandy Tuna” logo on it. Despite his bedraggled appearance, he gave me a wink.

Nate stood and pointed to the single chair that had been set in front of his desk. “Yuri, have a seat.”

Yuri obeyed, sighing as he sank into the wooden chair. I wrote Yuri’s name at the top of my legal pad.

Peter stood in the doorway, his right hand resting on his belt. I’d quickly learned that this stance allowed him to reach for his weapon with lethal quickness.

Nate sat. “Would you like something to drink?”

“No. I already had a good breakfast thanks to you.”

“You’re quite welcome.” Though his sentiment was polite, Nate resembled a shark with a tasty piece of meat in front of it. “Let’s talk about Dmitri.”

Yuri scratched his head. “To be honest with you—”

“Let me stop you right there. Whenever someone says ‘to be honest with you,’ the next words out of their mouth are often a lie.” Nate’s smile was cold. “I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with you. And I’m sure you want to make a good impression. My friend Peter over there?” He gestured toward the door where Peter pushed back his jacket to reveal the black butt of his pistol. “He’s particularly good at figuring out when someone is lying. And he doesn’t like liars. Not one bit.”

Peter tapped the butt of his gun for emphasis.

“So let’s start this over again, shall we?” Nate drummed his fingers on the desk. “Tell me about Dmitri.”

Yuri rested his hands on the arms of his chair, but he couldn’t hide the tremor that shook his fingers. “I’ll tell you what I know. Okay? I was hired by Dmitri over a year ago. I come from a long line of tugboat captains in Russia. My brother and I came to America as teenagers. He’s in the Coast Guard, and I’m well known on the waterfront. I have a lot of connections with the shipping people. Dmitri found out about all of that, and he came to me with an offer. Okay?”

Nate leaned forward. “What was the offer?”

“Either I started working for him to bring heroin into the city, or he’d murder my entire family including my five-year-old daughter.” His voice cracked on the last words. After a few moments, he continued, “That was when I first started working for Dmitri, and I’ve been bringing his shipments into Philadelphia at least once a month since then. Okay?”

“What can you tell us about his operation?”

“He has an office down by the water.”

Peter leaned against the door frame. “The storage warehouse?”

Yuri nodded. “Yeah, the front looks like individual storage units, but the rest of it just houses his guys, and they store drugs and guns there.”

“Is that where Dmitri stays?”

“No. He’s rarely there. Okay? Only to do a little business here and there. He mainly stays in his high-rise in the city. It’s some sort of penthouse. I don’t know where.”

“You sure you don’t know?” David pushed past Peter into the room.

Yuri shrank under his cold gaze. “I swear. I’ve never been there. Okay?”

David sat behind Yuri, intimidation from every angle.

Nate held up a hand. “I believe you. What do you know about the rat he has in my organization?”

Yuri shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I’ve heard talk that Dmitri has your rat by the balls. And that the rat is close to you.” He glanced to Peter. “Very close.”

Peter stiffened. “The fuck did you just say?”

“Calm down.” Nate held Yuri in his hawk-like gaze. “Do you have any idea who it is?”

“No. Okay? No. Only Dmitri knows. He doesn’t tell anyone. Except for maybe the shlyukha. She’s the only one he talks to, because she’s the only one who’ll never repeat what he says.”

A wrinkle formed between Nate’s eyebrows. “The what now?”

“Whore,” Peter supplied the translation. “He said the whore.”

“Who do you mean? He has a woman?” Nate asked.

“No. It’s not his wife, and I don’t think they have a good relationship. He does things to her…” Yuri trailed off and glanced at me.

“You can say it in front of her.” Nate slammed his hand on his desk. “Eyes on me, Yuri.”

Yuri’s head whipped around. “I mean to say that he hurts her. The shlyukha. That’s what he calls her. They say he keeps her chained. They say he likes to cut her. They say he forces himself on her in front of others.”

My horror grew the more he spoke, and I couldn’t keep the question from leaving my lips. “Who is she?”

“I’m sorry.” He turned his head slightly, but not enough to meet my eye. “I didn’t want to say those things in front of you.”

“Who is she?” I repeated. Dmitri’s words from his kidnap attempt resurfaced in my mind. He’d said he’d already ruined my father’s other toy. Could he have meant—no. I shook my head. No.

“I can’t say for sure. She’s Russian. A little older. Some of the men that worked on the boat from time to time when I had shipments gossiped that she was once a rare beauty who was shared amongst the generals of the Bratva. One of them crossed Dmitri very badly, so he took her as payment and punishment.”

The legal pad and my pen slid from my hands and slapped on the floor.

Nate rose and pointed at Peter. “Watch him.”

“What is it?” Nate knelt in front of me and took my ice-cold hands in his.

The words didn’t want to leave my lungs. If I said it out loud, it would be real. And I didn’t want it to be real. Not like this.

“Baby, please tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s her.” Tears burned in my eyes.

“Who?”

“My mother.”