Chapter 12

“Shit, shit, shit.” I can hear the rumble of my brother’s footsteps coming down the hall and I’m not in the mood for their crazy. I could contemplate hiding, but the last time I tried, Dayz caught me and they still invaded my office, not giving any fucks about interrupting my work day. I have a feeling that’s what they’re about to do again.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Sir Fucks-a-Lot,” Tav comes through the door first, a shit-eating grin on his face. A deep sigh leaves my body as I watch him take a seat across from me, Jules silently following behind and Dayz walking across to the opposite corner of my office to put down her laptop and her ridiculously large drink bottle.

“Bit thirsty there, Dayz?”

Her eyes roll, “Rhodie bought me the viral Stanley drink bottle, and it’s a nice gift so I have to drink water now. The only downside is the size. Although on the upside, I have surprised myself at how powerful my pee flow is, like a racehorse. Maybe when I need to go, you guys can stand outside the bathroom door and listen in. I’m telling you, it’s super impressive.” She finishes her sentence by taking a long sip of her water and then smacks her lips.

“Um, thanks for the invite, Dayz, but I’ll have to decline. I’m sure I’ll be busy at 3pm,” Tav says, politely turning our sister down.

“Oh, well, here’s the thing. Since I’ve been using this, I’ve had to bump up my scheduled toilet breaks. I’ll let you know the new schedule.” Tav gives me wide eyes and I just smirk back. Fuck him. I’m not making an excuse for him. He can just go listen to our baby sister’s toilet breaks, as requested.

“Anyway, let’s get back on track. What did you get up to last night, big brother?” Tav places his hand on his chin, eyes squinting as if he’s thinking really hard.

“Oh, pick me!” Jules has his hand up, an evil grin on his face.

“Yes, Jules? Do you know what August Michael Tombs was up to last night?”

“Well, Tav, I believe he was busy vigorously giving it to his wife many times over the course of the evening.” Tav nods his head up and down and I roll my eyes.

“Do you two dicks have anything helpful, or, oh I don’t know, work related to say to me? If not, you can both fuck off and let me work.”

Tav’s smile grows across his face, “Now, why the hell would we do that? Look, big brother, we’re happy for you. Proud even if Ana’s noises were anything to go by.” He wags his eyebrows at me and I snort when the stapler I throw at his smug bastard face hits him in the forehead.

“Argh you motherfucker!”

“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Dayz blandly says from across the room, her eyes not even leaving her laptop screen. She has three older brothers, she knows the drill.

“I have a date later on, you dick!” Tav bitches, rubbing his forehead. Jules reaches his fist out to me to bump.

“Speaking of, is that who you’ve been texting lately? I’ve noticed you’ve been a little distracted.”

He glares at me before answering. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I am going on a date with the woman I’ve been chatting to and no, I’m not going to tell you nosey bastards anything just yet.”

“But you can wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me you all love Ana and then come in here and give me shit about her? That’s a bit two-faced, isn’t it?” I watch as my brother goes red before he lets out a breath.

“Fine! She’s a nice lady who’s been through the wringer, and she doesn’t need my asshole siblings getting in her face. She’s not fully on board with what we have, but when she is, I’ll let you know.”

Jules flicks a side eye at our brother before looking back at me with a frown. I give him a tiny nod while Tav picks at his pants, letting him know I’m on board with whatever he has to do to find out about this mystery woman. We may give each other shit, but a woman who has “been through the wringer” and is reluctant to get on board with Tav, by far the nicest of us all, obviously has a history that we should probably know about.

“Well, I’m glad that you’ve found someone that makes you happy. She does make you happy, yeah?” Tav’s eyes shoot to mine and he smiles and nods. He’s what Ana calls a Golden Retriever, and I definitely see it now that she’s pointed it out. Although she also said that I was a Boxer dog, protective of family but sometimes not the brightest. She laughed her ass off after she came up with that, too.

“She does. She just has a lot of shit going on from her past and she has kids she has to be mindful of. But we’ll get there.” I watch as a blush covers his cheeks. I think my baby brother has fallen in love. Goddamn. Another one bites the dust.

And then there’s Jules, looking bored out of his mind.

“Well, now that you’ve given me shit about my sex life, you could probably go back to your own offices and maybe do some work? Unless you have something work-related you need to talk about?”

“I’ve just dropped off a box of those military grade smart watches to Marx,” Tav pipes up.

“The ones with the ear buds?”

Tav nods at me. Those things are a good piece of equipment. In a pinch, you just release the earbuds from the watch, pop them in and you’re ready for comms.

“Yeah, after yesterday’s drive by, he wanted the brothers to all be open for comms as soon as shit went down. Charged him family discount and put through a new order for our guys,”

I nod at him, happy with that. Having Dayz and Wire with eyes on and being able to communicate with us will make us work smoother together if we find ourselves in that situation again.

“Good work Tav. That’ll tighten up the MC operations. Anything else?”

My brothers look at each other, then turn to look at Dayz, then back to me before shrugging.

“We have an update on Tony Manero?” Tav asks, clearly knowing that we don’t. He just doesn’t want to get back to work. I know their tactics.

“Nope. I’ve run facial recognition software and nothing,” Dayz offers.

“Wait, since when do we have facial recognition software?” I ask the room.

“Since I did that most recent job for the FBI, I told them to pay me in software. It’s gonna come in real handy,” Dayz says with a blinding smile, making her look like a kid in a candy store.

“Nice score, little sis” Tav puts his hand up for a non contact high five and Dayz waves at him. She’ll get it one day.

“What do we think of that new Nomad MC?” Jules asks.

The new Nomad MC is a concern. We’ve only just had things kind of settle down from the last lot of shit we found ourselves in.

“I think it’s a worry. If Hammer is Prez, then his first hit is going to be his old MC. Who is now an ally of Devil’s Rose MC which means we too, have skin in the game,” I nod my head toward Dayz. “We also don’t know who the hell else he’s been recruiting. The Bratva have shipments going missing so it could all be connected.” I run my fingers through my hair. Ana and I spoke about this after one particularly vigorous sex session early this morning.

Dayz nods from her little position in the corner.

“It’s definitely connected. I just have to find out how. No word from Lexi, and Katya is looking into dark web rumblings. Although from looking at the Nomad MC, none of them look clever enough to have email addresses, let alone be doing business on the dark web,” Lexi and Katya are Roman’s daughter and ex-wife, respectively. Lexi is currently in Russia taking over her grandfather’s legal and illegal businesses, while Katya is a dark web hacker.

Where our lives used to be all about running our security business and keeping civilians safe, it’s now also about keeping our wider MC family safe and rubbing shoulders with criminals. Jesus, I’m even married to the interim head of the Russian Mafia.

Life is fucking mental sometimes, but I’m not complaining. The crazy connections we’ve made since Dayz dropped us into this world led to me marrying the woman of my dreams. Hell, she’s even better than my dreams. Just picturing her spread out on my bed, thick thighs wide open, her tight little hole waiting for me to sink into her wet heat. Shit, I’m getting worked up, and it’s not a good look with my brothers sitting across from me.

“Right, you gotta go. I need to get home and get dinner on for my wife. I’m surprising her tonight,”

“Shit, I thought you liked the woman! You can’t feed her stuff you’ve cooked. You’ll be a widower before the night is over” Tav laughs as he stands, then tips my pen holder over. Jules stands next to him and messes up my papers, while I hit out on their hands with my paperweight. It’s like playing Whack-A-Mole, but the moles are big bastards with shitty attitudes. Dayz stands behind them watching while she sucks on her straw, making that god awful sound.

“That’s it! Fuck off the lot of you!” In a move that seems choreographed, all three throw their heads back and cackle before all trying to walk through the doorway together, getting stuck before Dayz breaks through first, and then Jules and Tav wrestle into the hallway.

Kids, the lot of ‘em.

I mull over the information that Ivan gave me as I swing from side to side in my office chair. Spinning one way has me looking out the large windows into Roman’s meticulously manicured garden, the other way has me looking directly at a God awful tapestry of two dudes wrestling a bull. Sometimes rich folk have no taste.

I’m going to have to make yet another call to Roman about Ivan’s findings. Hammer has been a busy little MC Pres with his shitty new nomads. Not only has he been recruiting MC members, but he’s also bought out some of our lower-level junior employees. Young men that we gave menial Bratva jobs to until they could prove themselves to the outfit. It turns out they would rather be paid off by another big bad.

I do some yoga breathing that I learned off of a YouTube video because, let’s face it, I’m not much of a yoga girl, but that breathing stuff is the shit. I find my center and think about our next steps. On the one hand, I’m glad that none of them are family. It’ll make it easier for Ivan to deal with them. On the other hand, they’re just young men who were looking for something. A living, a family perhaps, and unfortunately they got greedy, and they chose wrong. We’ll have to act swiftly to shut this down. The last thing we want is to have some two bit criminals taking over our turf, or worse still, impersonating Bartashev Bratva.

I let out a big sigh, stretching my arms over my head and feel the aches and pains. Some of them from being sat at my desk going over plans with Ivan. However, most are from my activities with Gus.

Last night was…everything. I have never experienced that level of soul deep connection with another human.

Gus.

My thighs clench instinctively at the thought of him kissing me, touching me, fucking me. There were times where I didn’t know where Gus ended and I began. Heat pools between my thighs and I’m surprised that my vajeen is ready to go again. I would have thought she would need a break after the four times we did it throughout the night, but she’s proving me wrong. Shit, so did Gus. The man has remarkable recovery. I really need to get this shit done and dusted so I can head home to my hunk of a man.

“That is the look of a well-fucked woman,” my head snaps toward the voice to see Roman leaning against the doorjamb with a smirk on his face.

“Roman! Argh you’re back!” I jump up out of my desk chair, squealing as I rush toward my friend and throw my arms around him. We embrace and rock side to side for a moment before Sasha’s deep voice cuts in.

“Ok, Ok, my turn” I release Roman and then I’m engulfed by Sasha’s massive body.

“Oh. My. God, why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?! You sneaky zasranets!” I slap both of them with a mock frown on my face.

“Well, my wee married Kiwi, Kovalev has been quiet and behaving himself, with a little firm guidance of course,” Roman gives me his signature Bad Guy smirk. Kovalev was running the skin trade here. Thankfully Roman stepped in, strong armed him back to Russia and somehow got him back on the straight and narrow. Well, the straight and narrow for a criminal.

“What about Lexi-Lou?”

Roman’s smirk breaks out into a grin as he shakes his head. No one calls her that but me.

“Lexi is now in charge of her grandfather’s businesses and I was at a loose end and missing home.” I wrap my arm around him in a side hug and take a deep breath.

“Well, you came home at the perfect time. We have shit going down.”

Sasha rolls his eyes, muttering “there’s always shit going down”. Roman and I grin at each other.

“And you two love it all too much. I never thought when I brought the little Kiwi stray home -” “Hey!” He dodges me as I try to slap him on the shoulder, “-that you would turn her into a total criminal mastermind, babe,” Sasha says in mock sadness.

“I’m the secretary, dammit!”

Sasha just gives me a bored look with his eyebrow raised. He’s good at that. Probably because he does it to Roman on an almost hourly basis.

“Right, Pinky and the Brain, I’m jet lagged to fuckery. I’m going to have a nap in that posturepedic bed in our luxurious room in our fantastic home that I missed.” He drops a kiss on the top of my head, and one on Roman’s cheek before wandering off.

“Homesick much?”

Roman rolls his eyes at me. “He would not stop bitching the whole time we were away. I think I’ve spoiled him too much. He can’t handle the simplicity of Russia anymore.”

I snort and then cover it with a cough. “Yeah, the simplicity of that luxury penthouse, or was it the country mansion that did him in?”

He gives me a droll look and I smirk as I move my junk back to my desk and dust off any chocolate crumbs I may have left on Roman’s before letting him sit where he belongs. Thank god. As much as I love my friend and my job, I am over being the boss.

“So chica, tell me what’s going on.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “Chica?”

“I’m trying something new, and it seems it is not working.”

I let out a snort. “Not at all.”

He lets out a sigh before sobering up again. “Ok, tell me everything”

“How much time do you have?”

“Well, with Sasha down for a little nap, I have all the time in the world for my favorite secretary. So spill, and I mean everything. Starting with August Tombs.” He waggles his brows at me, and I can’t help but laugh. It’s so good to have my friend back.

“Well, you know we got married and since then, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. For one, there’s the court mandated counseling we’ve been going to -”

“Bor-ing! Get to the good stuff! What’s he like in bed?” Roman leans over his desk, resting his head in his hands, looking at me with a goofy grin. I look around furtively for I don’t know what. I mean, I’m in my office with my bestie.

“Its fucking amazing. He’s fucking amazing.” I cover my face in my hands and squeal a little, my feet making pitter patter sounds as they run on the spot under my desk.

“I knew it,” I hear Roman sigh out.

“Hey! Keep your hands and eyes and everything else to yourself! That’s my husband!” I point a finger at him. Not that he would do anything to hurt me, I know that. But he is a known flirt when he wants to be.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll keep my mitts to myself. But, if he ever expresses an interest….” I throw a chocolate bar at his face while he laughs hysterically back at me. I missed this girl talk with my bestie.

“I’m glad to see you happy, Ana. You deserve the world, and that man can give it to you,” I smile at Roman, his black hair styled perfectly even after the long flight.

“Thanks, I’m starting to believe it too.”

A smacking sound rings out as he claps his hands once, giving me a serious look.

“Ok, enough mushy stuff. Let’s figure out what the fuck is going on with our shipments.”