I’m unsure if it’s lust or anger deepening my voice when I reply, “We have company.”
I assume my confession will have him falling in line. I soon discover I have a lot to learn about this man.
With two clicks of his fingers, Rocco slips out the door, closing it behind him. “Now, we don’t. We have all the time and privacy we need.”
Dimitri’s growl when I step back doubles the damp slickness between my legs, but like many times in the past, I don’t put myself first. “If we don’t leave now, our flight will be rescheduled. I don’t know about you, but I have a heap of questions I need answered. Answers I can only get in Erkinsvale.”
That seems to sober him up a bit. “Erkinsvale?”
I nod before stepping back into the ring, gloved-up and hopeful the drugs running through his system will only last as long as our flight home. “I know you’re tired, and you are probably sick to death of playing with the hand you’ve been dealt, but we’re so close, Dimitri, the end is right there. It would be ludicrous for us to give up now.”
Once again, my voice is more possessive than it should be, but then again, I don’t care. So many of Dimitri’s actions make sense now. The shift of the blame. His inability to give himself a single moment of reprieve. The remorse in his eyes when I stepped into this room. He’s holding on by a thread, and my presence the past week made it the thinnest it’s ever been.
That has to stop. I’m already responsible for him losing his daughter. I refuse to be the reason he loses everything.
“Let me help you, Dimitri. Please.”
The crackling of energy that forever teems between us doubles its output when he runs his fingers across my mouth for the second time. His eyes are as bleak as my father’s when he went on a bender. I’m not even sure he’s entirely here, but it feels as if the world shifts beneath my feet when he dips his chin for the quickest second.
Stealing his chance to change his mind, I dart for the locked door to let Rocco back in. He has his back braced on the outer wall of the room Dimitri was found in, either disinterested in the theatrics of a strip club or more concerned about Dimitri than he’s letting on.
I realize it’s the latter when his eyes swing my way. He’s quick to shut down the concern in them, but not quick enough for this sly fox. “Done already? I’ll have to show the old guy some new tricks.”
He laughs when I roll my eyes before he joins me inside the room reeking of desperation for a second chance. The humor on his face vanishes when his eyes follow mine to Dimitri. He’s no longer balancing on the desk. He’s slumped on the floor, out cold.
I didn’t realize Dimitri’s team followed us to Frosty Kinks until Rocco says, “Send Clover in.” Past incidents advise me he’s talking to Smith. The knowledge our every move is being monitored doesn’t lessen the knot in my gut when Rocco checks Dimitri for a pulse, though. “It’s weak but there. Trace back footage so we can get a better idea of what he’s taken.” Rocco lifts his eyes to mine. “Did he mention anything to you?”
I shake my head, too stunned to talk.
Clover barrels into the room just as Rocco rips up the sleeves of Dimitri’s jacket. He’s checking for track marks. How do I know this? My mother did the same thing to my father anytime he returned home from an all-night bender. “There are no needle marks to indicate he shot up, so I’d say his drug of choice was coke.”
“Is this how he usually responds to drugs?” With fear clutching my throat, my words are as weak as the vein fluttering through the tattoos on Dimitri’s neck.
Air whizzes out of Rocco’s nose before he shakes his head. “But it’s been a while since he’s used.” He drifts his eyes to Clover. “Help me get him up. We’ll take him back to the compound so Ollie can take a look at him.”
“No.” Rocco responds to the snapped command in my tone. Clover acts as if I’m not in the room. “Take him to the airstrip as planned.”
The strain of holding up a man as large as Dimitri is heard in Rocco’s voice when he says, “If he’s ODing, we can’t help him thirty thousand feet in the air.”
“We can’t, but Ollie can. Make him come with us.”
Rocco takes a minute to consider my suggestion. It adds even more tension to his face. “I know you’re trying to help, Roxie—”
“This isn’t about helping. It’s about doing what Dimitri would want us to do. If you go back to the compound, we won’t be able to fly out until tomorrow at the earliest, and that’s only if forecasters are wrong. Take him to the airstrip, have Ollie meet us there. I’ll pay him with my maxed-out credit card if you’re worried about the fucking bill.” I grit my teeth when my last four words come out with a sob. I’m panicked out of my mind for Dimitri, but I also know this is the right thing to do. “Please, Rocco. You want me in the deep end, but you’re refusing to let me jump.” When his eyes stray to Clover, my panic is showcased in the worst light. “Don’t ask his opinion. He’s paid to be here. We’re not.”
Although Clovertsksme, my scorn rolls straight off his back. He knows I’m no better than him as only days ago he heard me offer myself to Dimitri for a little bit of coin.
I don’t have a tiny bead-like device in my ear like Rocco, but it’s clear Smith is on my side when the strain on Rocco’s face clears in an instant. “If this backfires—”
“It won’t,” I reply, issuing him a promise I have no right to issue. “I swear to God, everything will work out.”
With his brows hanging as low as Dimitri’s head, Rocco jerks up his chin before shifting half of Dimitri’s lifeless weight onto Clover’s shoulders. “Tell Ollie I’ll pay him double if he beats us to the jet.”
Seven
Dimitri
While swishing my tongue around my bone-dry mouth, I hesitantly open my eyes. The dream I was having was intoxicating until Roxanne was ripped from my grasp as cruelly as Fien was removed from her mother’s stomach. Being thrust out of a nightmare so brutally has me feeling like death warmed over, although I’m skeptical not all the thump of my pulse is compliments to my rude awakening. My head is thumping as if I drowned in a bath of whiskey. My skin is patchy and dry, and my cock is acting as if the first half of my dream is all that matters.
