11. SUTTON

The last place I ever expected to find myself was inside the house of the family I'd been told would kill me if they ever found me. Granted, that tidbit of information was only gleaned because they assumed that I had taken their money. Thankfully, they only knew my name, they didn't know what I looked like. So, for now I had to pretend to be a Zack while I was playing pretend boyfriends with Danya, and oddly enough, I didn't know if he was playing, or this was real.

I was introduced to his mother. An adorable woman who guided me to the kitchen where another a man was pouring vodka over rocks. I didn't get an introduction as he rolled his eyes and passed by me.

"Ignore him," a voice chuckled behind me. "That's Grigory. He's an asshole to everyone."

"Hi, hi," I said, tugging at the strap of my bag on my arm. I didn't know where Danya had disappeared to. He could've been anywhere, and I was told not to do anything, but wait. "I'm—"

"Zack," she said. "Uncle Arkady called ahead and mentioned Danya was bringing home a boy." She pulled out a lipstick from her little clutch purse and freehanded it over her lips. A deep red. "I'm Evelina," she said, smacking her lips together. "And you'll get used to them talking. Danya's my younger brother. My husband gets to go to the meetings, but me, someone who has some business knowledge, I'm the one who must wait. I'm the—"

"Evelina," her mother said, tutting. "It's not a woman's job. You know they get their hands far too dirty."

She wiggled her manicured fingers at me. "My mother still thinks a woman must be background to their husbands. Which makes me curious about you." She tilted her head and stared deep into my eyes. She shared that dead stare that Danya had, almost like they were pulling information from my core.

"I don't know," I said. "Danya is nice. I didn't think he would ever let me meet you."

"Danya is a private boy," their mother said. "He has always been that way. We do not push, and we do not pry."

"Well, they don't," Evelina said. "But that's because my mother pretends he isn't gay sometimes. Look at her. She's doing everything in her power to take her mind off you even being here." She chuckled. "I bet he only brought you over because he's trying to piss them off."

I never liked being in the middle of people. I looked at their mother, and she was right, she was doing the most to try and keep herself busy, scrubbing away at non-existent grout with a toothbrush at the splash tiles.

"Is there anywhere I could sit?" I asked. "I've got some work I need to finish. Danya also mentioned getting me the Wi-Fi too."

"Sure," she said. "I'll take you to the dining room."

Their house was big. I'd never imagined I'd be on the inside of a mafia boss's house before. In fact, I never thought I'd be on the receiving end of a mafioso's witch hunt. But here I was, trying to fit in, acting like I wasn't waiting for Danya to finish and take me away.

Evelina sat at the dining table with me. "How long have you known my brother for?"

I placed my bag on the table and pulled out my laptop. "Not long," I said. "But it feels like forever."

"He's never spoke about seeing anyone before, so I'm surprised he brought you with him," she said, tapping her manicured fingertips. "Do you love him?"

Trying to keep my cool was growing difficult. I opened my laptop. "Yeah," I said. "I think he's different to how you see him. I see all sides of him, and he's special to me." I was nauseous, not from lying, but because I could smell food, and yet I hadn't had any breakfast.

"Oh, I'll get you that password," she said, pushing out of the chair, the legs scratching on the floor. "You want some coffee?"

"I'll—" I paused. Coffee would've gone right through me if I drank it without food. "A fruit juice, maybe."

"Got it," she said.

It felt like an intense game of operation, except, I was both the one on the operating table, and the one doing the operating.

Evelina came back with a bottle of orange juice. "My dad keeps bottles of this in the fridge, all freshly pressed and shit," she chuckled. "Oh, and here's the passcode." She presented me with a small slip of card.

"Oh, you have it printed out?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It's better than just telling people. There are parts of the house where mobile signal doesn't reach, so they need the internet."

That struck me as odd, not the fact that parts of the house were inaccessible to mobile signals, because that was expected for all the horrible things I imagined happened here. I was surprised that they had the Wi-Fi printed out on a card for guests to come in and take. In some ways, it was like using a public Wi-Fi, and that was sometimes the worst decision anyone could make.

"So, what do you do?" she asked. "I'm guessing something to do with business. That looks expensive."

She was talking about my clothes. They didn't itch like the fancy clothes I'd been forced to wear when I was in foster care, trying to make an impression on the adults as they came by and we had to be on our best behavior like animals in a shelter, waiting to be rescued.

"Yeah," I said. "I—" I hadn't thought of an answer. "Freelance consulting for firms about their businesses. I look at how they operate, and I see how they can achieve better results, whether that's cutting, or increasing production." It wasn't exactly a stock answer, but something I'd lied about before. "It's boring, but I've got to send some documents over."

"Ugh," she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "You know they'll keep you out of their business, it doesn't matter that you're a guy, whenever they all meet, you'll be here with me."

"I don't think I'll be here every time," I said. "Your uncle surprised us. We've got plans after we're finished here."

"Lucky you," she sighed. "My plans involve getting home, opening a bottle of wine, and then making preparing dinner for my kids before passing out with my bottle of wine, and then probably starting an argument with my husband to feel something."

I knew not to get involved, but she was bringing my energy further into the abyss. "Perhaps you could get a job," I said. "I'd never want to stop working because I had kids or a husband."

She snickered, tapping one of her manicured talons on my hand. "Danya won't want you to work if the two of you do make it official," she said. "He's always had a thing about keeping his prizes close."

"Prizes?"

Her laugh startled me. "As a kid, he'd keep little prizes from things he did," she said. "He once stole a bike and kept the wheel. Then he once broke someone's leg and kept their shoe. He'd even once killed a bird, and then kept the egg by its nest. He didn't know the first thing about raising a bird, so that eventually died too. I'm assuming he keeps prizes of the guys he sleeps with too."

I knew that to be true. He kept prizes. He kept photos of them on his phone. I didn't know if I wanted to be on there, even though I'd given him my consent at the time, I wasn't ready to become someone who was worried about him leaking pictures. "I've not seen anything like that," I told her. "Maybe he outgrew it."

"Well, he is thirty-six now, and those were all from his younger years," she said. "Speaking of, how old are you, Zack?"

Addressing me as Zack, a name I didn't identify with was jarring. "I'm twenty-five."

"Ten years," she scoffed. "Don't you think you're too young for him? You're probably fresh out of college. He isn't someone you want to be around long-term."

I knew she had good intentions behind her words, but she didn't know the extent of the relationship I had with Danya. This wasn't a long-term thing. "I like him," I said, protecting the lie. "He's nice to me."

She leaned in and whispered. "You know, he's been accused of stealing from the family. It wouldn't surprise me if he did it."

I pretended not to know, a wide-saucer eyed expression on my face. "No," I said. "I don't think he would have ever stolen from his family." I looked to the laptop screen, scouring through all the connected devices that were active or had been active on the Wi-Fi network in the last month.

"Anyway, I'll let you work," she said. "But think about what I said. You don't want to have your life tied to this family. Take it from someone born into it."

I smiled at her, waiting for her to leave before feeling the hitch in my breathing return. It was panic, taking over me. At any moment, I could've been found out.

On the network, there were a lot of them, and most of them had connected to an online banking facility. I was surprised nobody hadn't fleeced them for every dollar they owned. They were sorely lacking in the online security department. It also went to prove that because you had the entire city scared of you, that didn't mean anything on the internet. People were ruthless behind an IP address.

Danya stormed toward me. "We're going," he said.

"What happened?" I furiously tapped on the keys.

"We're going."

"But I'm—"

He glared at me. "Come with me." He grabbed my arm.

I tilted the laptop lid before he dragged me away from the table.

"What happened?" I continued, quieter.

He opened a door and pushed me inside to a bathroom. "They're about to start a war with another family," he snapped in my ear. His face close to mine.

"I—I—"

Locking the door, he grabbed my chin and turned my head to the side. "You need to figure this out, or it'll blow up." With his nose pressed to my cheek, he inhaled. "I know you can do it, and if you can't, then steal it from someone else and put it back. You like to be Robin Hood so bad, then show me."

My hands on his chest, but far too weak to push him off me. "What's a couple million to your family anyway?" I asked, slipping my hands behind his belt.

"You don't want to find out," he said, gently biting my chin. "You're gonna need to shave that stubble. I don't like the way it feels." He let go of me, but my hands remained on his belt.

Something clicked in my head. "Unless it's not their money that was stolen," I said. "Your family has ties to Russia; I can't imagine anyone there is happy about someone stealing their money."

"How do you know that?" he asked, confirming it to me.

Pushing a hand into the front of his slacks, I found his hard, thick, bulging surprise. "It was a guess," I said. "By the way, I'm removing my consent for you to take pictures of me. I don't want to be a memory on your camera roll."

Danya rolled his shoulders and glared at me. "What are you doing?" He tilted his head. "If I don't get a picture, then you don't get this dick." He licked his lips.

I kissed him. "Then stop me," I said. "Or maybe you want me to grab your dick in here. Maybe you want to fuck me. Make me moan so everyone hears. Isn't that what you want? Isn't that why you brought me?"

"I brought you because I'm not letting you out of my sight," he said, giving my lips a quick kiss. "And I'll do whatever I want to you." He kissed me again. "And what I want from you right now, is on your knees, and stop playing with your food."

With my back against the tile, I slipped from the wall until I was kneeling in front of the warmth of his crotch. "Like this?" I asked, tugging at his zipper. I reached inside and pulled his thick, chubbed cock through it. "You know, you didn't even feed me breakfast."

Looking at me, he caressed my cheek with his thumb. "This is your fucking breakfast." He snarled. "Go on. That's a good boy."

Sure, I'd been thinking about being face-to-face with his cock again ever since last night, but I wasn't completely doing this because I was horny. I was biding my time. My laptop needed roughly fifteen minutes to finish its download.

Sucking his dick was a workout for my jaw, opening wide enough for him to attempt to fuck my throat against the wall.

His voice turned soft. "Take it," he said. "Take it all. Go on. Good boy."

I hummed, letting the vibrations from the back of my throat tickle the tip of his sensitive cock. Tasting precum as my first meal of the day was something I fantasized about. It was delicious, his cock holding my tongue.

Once I struggled to breathe through my nose, panic crept in, and I choked on his cock. He took that as a sign to hold me as my throat tightened on his cock and he filled my throat with cum.

"I might keep you around," he said, pulling his cock out and walking with it in his hands to the wash basin.

I sat there, taking deep breaths and trying to hide my smile. That had to have been long enough for the download to have completed. "I still want a proper breakfast," I told him, wiping my mouth. "But that was a good little snack."

He snickered, smiling at me. "You're so eager," he said. "Stop it. The world will eat you alive."

Turning my head to roll my eyes. I wondered if he thought I was helpless. "Are you the world?" I asked. "Will you eat me alive?"

He splashed water in my face. "Maybe."

My cock hurt it was that hard, a mix of excitement about what I'd done in secret, and from tasting Danya's dick.