Chapter 41

My arm still aches a bit where the tracker sits. After Kai and Boris came to us last night, everything happened pretty quickly. I had no issues with the device, especially after everything that’s happened to us in the past, and Cillian was on board too.

He was so on board that he nearly spit his drink across the room shouting that Kai was a little genius. I got the feeling he was a big fan of that nickname too.

It helps knowing I will be able to check in on Kai if we are ever separated. I know he won’t be going on some missions with us, and it’s nice that we can know the others are safe as well as their exact location. Lev programmed them so that we can even see how high in the air the person is, which makes it possible to detect the exact floor someone is on in a building.

I hope Kai knows this means he won’t ever get away with shit, but I have a feeling he doesn’t want to. We are doing our best to create a relationship with him where he can trust us with the truth, and I hope it stays that way.

“Are you ready?” Laney asks as she buckles the twins into their car seats. Akio and Adrian needed some alone time, and Laney thought we could all take the girls to get their nails done. Evie’s coming too, but only because she wants a massage at the spa.

It’s nice because there’s a pool there for the girls to be able to play in while we relax on the loungers. I was thinking about a massage, but the last time I did that, my whole world flipped upside down. While I know the two events aren’t related, I’m just not ready yet. At least I’ll be getting my nails done with Laney and the girls.

“To get out of a house full of boys? Yes,” I say, practically jumping into the passenger seat of the bright pink G-Wagon. Evie is in the back between the twins. “How are you girls?”

“Princess day,” says Ami contentedly.

Ani smiles, putting her head down. “Pretty nails.”

“Do you know what color you’re planning to get?” I ask.

“Rainbow,” Ami replies with so much confidence it makes me chuckle. I look at Ani, who just shrugs.

“Do you want all the colors too?” I ask, curious as to what has her so shy.

She glances at Laney, who leans over and kisses her on the head before shutting the door. When she gets into the driver’s seat, she throws on her seatbelt and glances back at the little girl who has stolen her heart. They both have, really.

“Ani wants black, but Ami made fun of her for it this morning.” I look over to her sister. “We don’t do that, do we Ami?”

The feisty twin crosses her arms, but eventually her face softens as she turns to her sister. “Sorry, Ani.”

Evie nudges Ani. “I was going to get black too. Want to see if they will paint little skulls on there for us?”

Ani's face lights up as Laney snorts over Evie getting her nails done now that she’s found she has a buddy with the same style. Leave it to these two girls to change our lives even more, but in all the best ways.

=====

Our nails are done, massages complete, and now we’re sipping on drinks as the twins explore the sandbox. Laney had to show them that the sand wasn’t scary, but once another girl started building a castle, they were immediately interested.

For two girls who were terrified of us and water just a few months ago, this is huge progress.

“How are Akio and Adrian doing with the transition into becoming parents?” Evie asks Laney.

She smiles over her cup as she looks back at Ami and Ani. “They are really doing amazing. I know I never wanted kids, but being the fun aunt who lives right next door is perfect for us. When Akio and Adrian need a break or want to go to our club, I can hop over and watch them. Havoc loves to take them out into the back yard and run fun obstacle courses with them, and Arrow is all about the Disney movies. I think I’ve seen Frozen fifty times now.”

“That’s nice they have you when they need space,” I say, thinking about how last night Kai walked in on the three of us about to start something in the living room.

Who knew once you had a kid that you couldn’t just have sex out in the open anymore?

Oh my god, my inner thoughts just had a Cillian moment. I need to calm down.

“What’s wrong, Ness? How are things with Kai?” Laney questions.

“They’re great. From the moment I met him, he just seemed to fit with us. Now that he’s part of the family, I feel like a newfound peace has settled between us all. Like Kai was our missing piece in some way, if that makes sense?”

I love Kai, yet I’ve struggled to say those words to him. I still fear that once I accept him, he’ll be taken away from me. I don’t want to keep him at arm’s length. So, I try to show him with my actions how I feel instead of my words.

He knows I care about him, and I know he cares about me. The rest will come when we’re both ready.

It’s been different getting used to having a kid around. I love that he isn’t really a child, but I also yearn to bring back some of his childhood. Even though Cillian and Boris want to fight me on it every time.

Drawing boundaries with our world is the only way I know to keep him safe, and yet, he blows past them because he wants to protect me. I can only hope our new trackers bring him the sense of peace he needs, and maybe I’ll be able to relax too.

“You should go to the club on Sundays, and we’ll hang out with Kai. Alexi has been asking to spend time with his new brother; Damien even suggested we find a way to bond with him,” Evie says.

“Really? That would actually be great. I could do inventory, and then since it’s our slow night, I could get a room with the guys. They would love that. Cillian is struggling with not being able to go at it like dogs wherever he pleases; it’s driving me insane.”

Laney and Evie snort. “What?”

Evie shakes her head while Laney answers for them both. “Driving you insane with frustration, or is he using it as a way to edge you?”

“Damien would totally use it as a way to edge me all day long,” Evie adds.

Now that I think about it, that’s exactly what he’s been doing. But does he realize that? Shite, that fecker totally knows exactly what he’s doing!

“He is, isn’t he?” Laney guesses from my silence.

Shaking my head with a grin, I nod over to where Ani looks three seconds away from fighting the kid that accidently knocked down her castle.

“Ani,” Laney calls, rising to stand. Ani is about to pounce with her reddened face and balled fists when the boy surrenders, holding his hands up.

“I’m sorry. It was an accident. I tripped.” He points to a shovel on the ground. Ani glances at it then back at him before looking over to Laney. She looks sad and torn, but Ami comes to her side.

“Deep breath?”

Ani nods and inhales as Ami helps her exhale.

“Build together.” Ami points to the boy and he agrees quickly.

“Yeah, I’d love to help. I have a few extra buckets by my mom’s chair. One sec.”

He takes off in a run and comes darting back with a rainbow of buckets in all shapes and sizes. Ani squeals as they begin to work together, and Laney looks relieved as she walks back to us.

Normally we rent out the place, but since it was a Saturday and snowing outside, we didn’t want to ruin the business and the obvious joy for the kids in town.

“It might not seem like it,” Laney says, taking a seat, “but that was a huge improvement for her.”

“They seem so much better than when we first found them. What does their speech therapist think about them talking?”

Laney sighs, looking saddened. “She thinks that because of the trauma and delays in development, it’s likely only Ami will really learn to speak well. We have started taking some sign language classes now that we can see Ani isn’t progressing very fast. She has learned to say more words, but she doesn’t like to use them. Sometimes she will fight with the therapist and spend the rest of the session in silence.”

Laney looks over at the girls who are happily working with the other kids around them now.

“You would think that Ami is the stubborn one, but Ani holds grudges. She’s so smart and adapts quickly, but that girl never forgets a thing. I wish she could speak more because it would help us work through her frustrations better, but we all agree that forcing it will only make her reluctant to use her speech at all.”

“How do the girls feel about that?” Evie asks as we watch them giggle with the boy when he starts pretending to be a knight at the castle.

“They seem fine with it. It’s all they’ve ever really known. The two of them have some secret signs they must have taught each other, but now we are going to need to help teach them more so that we can better understand what they need.”

“We can all learn that,” I say. I used to study some signs to use when on a mission. While I know this is different, I’m willing to put in the time if it means Ani will be able to talk to all of us.

“I’ll get Lev to find us some of the best classes,” Evie offers.

Laney holds a hand over her heart. “Akio and Adrian will be so relieved. They were worried you would find it to be too much.”

I scoff and lean in so no one else can hear.

“What the feck? Do they really think so little of us?”

Laney shakes her head. “No, they just have their own trauma. Parents that were always telling the both of them that they were never good enough, so now they worry about dumb shit with the girls. Dr. K is helping them all though.”

“I’m impressed,” Evie says. “They have grown so much. All of us have. Especially you, Ness.”

I sit back in my chair, getting comfortable and drawing my feet up.

“What do you mean by that?”

She shrugs. “You used to believe that you would never get anything in this world unless you stole it. Your father practically beat it into you. Yet, look at you now.”

Laney nods her head. “You’ve worked hard to not only change your mindset, but to be someone greater. You don’t let the world beat you down anymore. You keep fighting until the universe has no choice but to accept your strength or its defeat.”

My cheeks burn with heat as I let their observations sink in. It’s empowering, but I’ve never been good at being the center of attention.

“Thanks guys,” I say quietly, trying to keep all of the emotions I feel at bay. “You both mean a lot to me.”

“You mean a lot to us,” Evie confides, patting my shoulder.

“You’re our family now, Ness.” Laney chimes in as she glances over at the tower all of the kids are now helping the twins build. “We will do anything for our family.”

“Together?” I ask. We all turn to watch the two girls who can hardly speak become leaders to about twelve or so children, helping them all build something they believe in.

“Always,” Laney says.

“Until the very fucking end,” Evie adds.

=====

Two things unexpectedly happened this morning.

The first being Dr. K calling to say that her and Laney’s parents are in agreement on the home for the kids. Alexi and Boris will be starting construction on the east end of the property when we return to Norway, so that they can all have everything they need.

When I say everything, I mean that Boris is getting permits to build an indoor lazy river the kids can float around in because he read somewhere that it relieves stress and anxiety.

I love it though. It is so easy to tell how much all of us care for these children, and that they are in our lives to stay.

Evie mentioned that some of them have requested to attend Elysium after they finish college. Most of them are older, while some of the younger ones have been requested to be adopted into crime families allied with the Bratva and Evie’s Brutal Babes.

We don’t have many of them, but Dr. K assured us she would work hard to see if anything was a good fit.

For some reason, she sounded sad to leave Russia. I texted Alexi to ask if we could find someone else like her so that she could have time off to go be where she pleased and he agreed. Next week, we’ll tell Dr. K to start looking for a stand-in. My hope is that she will finally be able to find herself. I get the sense she thinks she’s missing something.

The second surprise was that Damien called and said he would be taking Kai for the weekend so that my men and I could “sex it up” at the club.

I thought Evie’s offer was just her trying to be nice, but apparently the guys said that just one day wasn’t enough, and they wanted him for Sunday and Monday.

I am headed into the club early today to do inventory after a special event weekend that Havoc and Arrow hosted. Apparently, people went wild for this new performance shibari team they have an in with.

Damien was the rigger in the family for a while, but once Havoc honed his skills with Arrow and Laney, he became the go to at the club. Since the stage on the weekends is the main draw, we all try to find different performances that the people want.

Last week, we had a dominatrix and her submissive put on a show where she edged him until he cried. Then after she let him come, she made him endure post orgasm torture until he came again, twice . Damien found them on a fetish site, and Evie has been obsessed with them ever since, so they were beyond excited to watch them perform.

Next weekend, we’re having a swingers night, which has become one of our most popular events. Laney found these two couples who help introduce everyone to the different dynamics of swinging, and then act a few of them out on stage.

We’ve made a lot of good friends in the kink and fetish communities since opening the club. Laney and I even took a few special classes in the beginning, after I decided what I wanted my room to be.

Damien insisted we all create a room tailored to us and what we liked, and tonight I plan to use the space for the very first time now that the construction is finally finished. Originally, I planned for it to be more of a showroom, but now that I am tapped into my exhibitionist side, I think I want to be center stage this time.

As I enter the building, I take in the dark red walls and black accents. It isn’t one of the clubs you see on television where the place is run down. Everything here is polished to perfection and catered to some of the most elite in all of Europe, the UK, parts of the Middle East, Africa, and India.

There was apparently a prince of some kind that requested a private room with Arrow last night. He politely declined, but only after ensuring the man signed up for the lifetime membership and paid a hefty sum to get a private room on the top floor once a week.

He probably thought Arrow would share it with him, only to have those hopes crushed. Damien said he had to physically restrain Havoc during the whole encounter, and that he needed a break from the madness today with his favorite nephew.

I make sure to go to each floor and check that every VIP room was restocked and cleaned properly before making my way to the one I reserved for the evening. It was one of the three rooms I designed.

The first room I designed has a cage that hangs from the ceiling in the center of the club. It can be brought to the side for the guests to enter, then they can play however they would like while anyone watches.

The second of my creations is a red room, but it’s not designed the way most people imagine. It’s crafted with red neon lights that illuminate the space in sultry tones. They frame the furniture and even the mirror on the ceiling. The back wall is full of red electroshock glass wands with heads of all different shapes and sizes. Black leather bindings are attached to each piece of furniture in the room so that no one can escape the painful pleasure a little shock brings.

And the third room; the one I have dreams about playing in all too often. That’s the one I plan to use tonight.

After making sure everything is perfect and that the flooring is sealed just right, I make my way down the stairs to finish taking stock of the bar and materials we’re running low on.

None of us needed this club, but when Damien came to us all and made the suggestion to build a place we could truly call our own, where we could each blow off some steam and be ourselves without judgment, no one hesitated to sign on the dotted line.

This club is kind of like our baby, and I definitely treat it as such when I’m here. I love everything about it, except for the name. Damien played his trump card on that one though since this was his idea. Thus, why most of us refer to it as “The Club” instead of Kray.

At least he had a designer make the name look classy, even though, and I quote, he said, “It’s because we are all kray kray for our kinks.”

If he had never said it like that, I could have gotten behind the name. But now that I know, I just call it The Club and try to forget.

All too soon, guests are filing in for the evening. I invited a special performer tonight that both Laney and I have grown close with. She’s so much fun and teaches the best classes.

“Here you go, Misty,” I say, offering the performer a cold bottle of water. “Thanks for checking over the room with me. I will be sure to let you use it after I break it in.”

She laughs, her silver nails shining as she unscrews the cap and takes a long drink. “I’ve been to a lot of sex clubs, girl, and I have to say that room is the most unique one I have ever been in.”

“Thanks,” I reply, a blush appearing on my cheeks I hope is well hidden by the lighting. “It took me a while to figure out what I liked, and you helped with that.”

Her tight pink body suit is a contrast to her dark skin, much like her neon wig. She is truly one of the most beautiful women I have ever met. I nearly took her up on her offer of a date when she asked me out after we interviewed her a few months back.

But I knew Boris would probably have an aneurysm, and I still don’t know if I’m into women for sure. I’ve played around with the idea, wanting to find security in my sexuality and make sure I wasn’t just conforming to societal norms.

But as much as I can admit that Misty is one of the rare beauties in the world, I don’t think I'm into her in a sexual way and would hate to lead her on.

She was a bit upset with the rejection at first, but after I opened up about dating an ex-mafia don who is older than my father, we quickly bonded. When I told her about Cillian a few months back, she hardly batted an eye, waving her hand to say that she knew I was too much for one man to handle.

“So when do I get to meet the broody one with tattoos?” Misty asks, nodding to my two men who just walked into the room looking sharp as ever. Boris is in a tailored navy suit, every inch hugging his muscular body.

Then there’s Cillian. He’s dressed in a black leather jacket with a fitted black tee underneath, ripped black jeans, and Doc Martens. They couldn't be more opposite if they tried. Boris’ hair is slicked back whereas Cillian’s falls into his face. White in contrast with black. My dark and my light, both saving me in all the ways a guardian angel should but defiling me like the devil in the night.

I’m living every girl’s dream.

“You can meet him now,” I say as the guys walk towards me. The second they entered the room, it’s like they could sense my presence, their eyes shooting straight to mine without even scanning the room first. As they should because I went shopping just to surprise them tonight.

“Misty,” Boris greets, leaning in to hug her. She returns the sentiment with a grin.

“Have you been working out?” she mock flirts, squeezing his bicep.

He chuckles as he nods to Cillian. “Trying to keep up with the kid.”

Cillian rolls his eyes. “I am not a kid.”

“You’re definitely not,” Misty says, eyeing him up and down. “One hundred percent man if I’ve ever seen one.”

“I like her already,” Cillian says, holding out a hand, but Misty bats it away to hug him. When they pull back, she assesses his arms as well.

“Not as bulky as the older fella, but I am sure you get the job done.”

“That he does,” I say with a wink as I slide into his side and kiss him. Boris leans over to kiss me the second Cillian and I break apart.

“You look like a goddess,” Boris whispers.

“Hmm, absolutely stunning, Love.” Cillian’s lips brush my neck and I nearly whimper.

Misty whistles. “To live a day in your life,” she jokes.

“We’ll come watch your third act,” I promise her as I begin to pull my men towards their surprise for the evening.

“If you can walk to the third act, then they didn’t utilize the room properly,” she calls back.

Cillian turns in my hold to look back at her. “Don’t worry, I’ll carry her.”

We all laugh as I enter a dark hallway, black key card in hand. My thumb slides over the shiny blue letters on it.

Room 201, Liquid Dream.