“I don’t have to make it for her. She’s already made it. And again, we’ll be right there. How much you wanna bet anyone who gets too frisky will disappear five seconds after Bodhi notices?”
For a brief moment, Adam opened his mouth then snapped it shut. A vicious gleam entered his eyes. “He really does have a way of dealing with interlopers.”
“Exactly,” I said, then to my delight Lainey laughed as she leaned back against me. The earlier smile had been more than welcome, but her laugh? That was a gift.
“You two are terrible.”
“The worst,” I agreed. “But like us, Bodhi wants you safe and he has far fewer lines that need to be crossed before he takes action.”
“True,” she said in the same breath as Adam. “However, I suggest we keep it as business-focused as we can tonight. I’ll play arm candy.”
I snorted. “Not that you aren’t stunning, Kotyonok. But you are so much more.”
“I love you too,” she said, tilting her head back and then winking at me.
“Every once in a while, you remind me why I didn’t drown you when we were kids,” Adam informed me and I just smirked.
“That and I can suck a dick like a god.” Since I had literally done that between finishing my shower and starting his, Adam really couldn’t disagree.
He shook his head then focused on Lainey. “Remind me to put him in a timeout later.”
Yeah. Timeout my ass. That sent a wonderful shudder through me. I wouldn’t be opposed. “Fine, let’s go, the sooner we get this fucking dinner over, the sooner we get back here. I’m in the mood for Lainey to suck my cock and Adam to watch. He can enjoy all the things I do to you, Kotyonok.”
“That you do to her?” Adam challenged.
“Oh yes, that I do to her. You already got your dick wet today.”
“Asshole,” he muttered and I grinned. Lainey’s soft laughter circled around us. The distraction wasn’t much, but I’d grab every single bit of one I could with both hands.
“Keep laughing,” Adam murmured next to my ear. “I bet I can make her come more times than you can.”
Liquid heat spilled into my blood. “Challenge accepted.”
“Come along boys,” Lainey said, still chuckling. She claimed her clutch and headed for the door. I wasn’t the only one groaning because that silk sheath flowed with her steps as though caressing her.
I had no idea if I’d even survive the dinner, but what a way to go…
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
LAINEY
Acar was waiting for us when we came down. The driver—Kellan Traschel—was a familiar face. The Vandal slipped out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door for us. He was dressed in a black suit and had the look of a professional chauffeur.
“Miss,” he murmured in polite greeting, ignoring Milo’s snort of amusement as the others waited for me to get in first.
“Thank you.” The back of the vehicle was quite spacious. I didn’t take any of the edge seats. Instead I chose the middle seat facing forward. Ezra climbed in next and he dropped into the seat right behind the driver. Adam took the seat on my right with Bodhi going across from him and then Milo next to me on the left.
“You have the address?” Milo asked after Kellan climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Yep. Already scouted the area and Jas is there keeping watch with Rome.”
“Efficient,” I said even as Milo threaded his fingers with mine.
“Not taking any chances,” he said by way of explanation, but I waved it off. I didn’t need them to tell me about mitigating risks. We were in an unfamiliar city, meeting with unfamiliar people with a measure of influence.
We needed allies here. If we couldn’t find them and we had to do this on our own… Well, there were people we could hire to bring in if necessary.
So, no chances needed to be taken beyond what we were already doing. The drive from our apartment to the home of the evening’s host, Dimitri Solohub, took just a little under thirty minutes. I wasn’t sure how much of that was the roundabout route that Kellan took or the fact it was further out.
I could let my mind wander while we were in the vehicle. I needed to focus when we were inside. The house turned out to be a luxury villa in the Troja district. It occupied a hill with a pair of other villas flanking it. Close, but not immediately on top of it.
“All three homes are under the control of the Mikhailovskaya as far as we can tell. Doc called his friends. Alphabet did some looking and they reached out to some people they know in the region. Most won’t have anything to do with the Mikhailovskaya because it’s not good business.”
“Good to know,” Bodhi said. “Any warnings?”
“Just the standard,” Kellan replied as he pulled up the drive and then reached out to choose a button on the call box. No challenge was offered, just a buzz and an accented voice saying something in Russian.
“He said come up,” Ezra translated. No one said anything more until Kellan’s window was closed and we were moving once again. “It took us three days to get someone to even consider an introduction, now we’re invited to dinner.”
He rubbed at his jaw. The playful flirt from earlier was absent and replaced by a far more troubled man.
“And we’re here…” I let that trail off, waiting him out. Despite the assurances earlier that they wished I would stay behind where it was “safe,” we were all here.
Ezra and Adam would have fought a lot harder if they suspected a trap.
