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“Oh, just that little Luci over there was getting messages from an ‘Uncle A’, and he would call her hisPrintsessa. Isn’t that right?” King asks as he looks at me.
“Yes, King, he does call me that because he saved me that day. I became part of his family. He vowed to take care of me and treat me like his own. Andrei always told me he felt guilty for not getting there in time. If he had, my parents would still be alive. It turned into yet another lie that I told. I don’t even know if I have any biological family out there,” I snap back at King, but really I’m addressing everyone because I can see the judgment coming from all of them. The girl raised by a low-life gangster really thinks he cared about her.
BJ finally releases her grip on me, and I immediately miss the comfort. “No matter who he is or what he’s done, Nat, he’s your family, and despite everything, you still care about him,” her voice is gentle and brings back the comfort I need.
I look at BJ and mouththank youto her. She really has a knack for making even the smallest gestures mean so much. “Back to the story,” I begin again. “From that day on, I became part of the Volkov family. Alexie and I were raised together, but not in the way you might think. We weren’t together all the time because Alexie had to learn the business since he is the only heir to the Volkov family. Andrei wanted me to speak and act like a proper lady. He put me in dance classes and even sent me to etiquette training.” Marcela scoffs at the other end of the table. I look up at her and notice a few others have smirks on their faces as well.
“What? Am I not lady-like enough for you all?” I ask, but the memories of shootouts, girls’ nights out, and intimate times flood my mind.Definitely not very lady-like.This thought brings a smile to my face.If only they knew how I acted at times. They wouldn’t even recognize me.
King speaks up. “Lady-like? Really? I don’t think fighting with your stairs constitutes as lady-like behavior.” A chuckle escapes him, which shocks me. Everyone else at the table follows suit and laughs too.
“Body slamming a guy twice your size also throws the idea of being lady-like out the window as well.” I look over to Conrad as he talks about me taking down Donovan on my own.
“Did they teach mixing tequila and vodka in those etiquette classes?” Everyone is surprised when Marcela asks that. I look at her, and we both burst out laughing. She regains her composure when she realizes she might be lowering a wall without realizing it. “Anyway, back to this traitor’s story,” she deflects.
And just like that, the tension returns to the room.
“Wow, my love. So many stories with your friends here. I can’t wait to hear all the nefarious things you got up to while I was away,” Alexie remarks. He grabs my hand and brings it up to meet his lips.The things I want this man to do to me.“You left off at all your lady-like ways,” he reminds me with a grin as he places my hand back on my lap.
“Right.”Composure, Nat.“My dance class is where I met Katia. She became the third and final member of our close-knit group. We really were the three musketeers. She was my closest friend and fully supportive when Alexie and I started, umm…” I break off and glance between Stryker and Conrad before continuing. Having hurt them so much already, how could I possibly go into detail about the man I’ve loved for so many years right in front of them?
“Let me help you out here,” Alexie starts in as he grabs my hand again, lifting it up to meet his lips, but this time keeping it in front of him. “We became very passionate lovers.” He kisses me closer to my wrist. “We were enthralled with each other and still are.” He kisses further down my arm. “I could not get enough of her, but I believe a few of you know what that is like, yes?” He kisses me even further down my arm. His eyes are looking directly at Conrad and Stryker.He’s taunting them. Alexie wants to see how far he can push them. To force them to make a move.That is what Alexie does. He gets in their head before he makes his move.
“Alexie, that’s enough,” I whisper to him. “No need to taunt everyone. We want them tonotkill you.”
He releases my hand again. “You spoil my fun,” Alexie pouts as he moves his mouth closer to my ear. “I will have to make you pay for that later.” He says in a very devilish tone. My pussy throbs at the thought of being with Alexie again.Oh, how I have missed the touch of this man.
“As Alexie was saying, we became a couple. He’s the only one I was ever with,” I pause. “Before I joined this team, of course.” I look at Marcela, who is watching me with one eyebrow lifted as though she is skeptical of what I’m saying.
“We were maybe sixteen when we gave into our feelings. Katia was the one who called us out and told us to get over our shit. She knew how we truly felt about each other before we could admit it to ourselves.” Out of the corner of my eye, I can see a smile form on Alexie’s mouth.
“Katia was always there for me, for us. She was going to go to beauty school. It was a perfect fit for her. She was…” I have to stop myself.Remember, she’s alive.“She is the most beautiful woman. I can’t deny the fact that I was always a little worried that Alexie would want her instead of me, but she made it very clear she was not interested and knew we were meant to be together.” Tears creep their way back to the front of my eyes just talking about Katia. “We all lived together, as strange as that sounds. I could have never imagined a life without either of them. And then, the cops showed up one day and told me she was murdered.” The tears start to roll down my cheeks once more.
“It made little sense. They said she was leaving a shift at work. She was an exotic dancer, and I knew men were always clamoring to be with her, but she never gave in. She’d say that going out with customers was bad for business. They said someone tried to mug her as she was leaving.” Alexie sits up a little straighter in his chair beside me. His body is becoming tenser as I talk about what happened.
“What doesn’t make sense is security at the club was always tight. There was no way they would have let their best and most sought-after dancer walk to her car by herself. Something just didn’t add up. She knew better than to leave by herself.” The anger inside me only builds as I speak. The fact that it was all a lie, and I had to mourn my best friend, creates a pit in my stomach.
Stryker stops me to ask, “Wait. How did they cover up that she wasn’t dead? We know that this Katherine woman in Las Vegas is really the Katia you’re talking about.”
“I’m a fucking idiot, that’s why.” Stryker opens his mouth to say something, but I stop him. “No, it’s true. From the very beginning, the story didn’t add up. Any other time, I would have looked into it more and fought harder against what I was told. Maybe I was so blind with grief that I couldn’t see the truth even if it smacked me right across the face. I don’t fucking know! All I know is that I will find Katia, and I will make whoever did all of this pay!”
“Don’t worry, Little Fox. We will all make them pay,” Stryker agrees.
There is silence for a few moments, and I’m not sure where to pick up my story or even if they want to hear more. Marcela clears her throat. “Okay, listen, a lot of shit happened, and I’m sorry for that, but we need to get to the part where you joined this team with all your hidden fighting skills and betrayed us.”
“Marcela!” BJ chastises, but Marcela continues.
“I’m not trying to be insensitive to everything that happened prior, but I need to…weneed to know why joining this team meant anything to you and how that lead you to stab us in the back.”
Before anyone can speak up, I shock everyone by agreeing with Marcela. “You’re right. You all deserve to know the truth. So here it is; I was trained to get close to important people.” Marcela shifts in her chair and leans a little closer. “I was sent to get information from or about certain individuals and report back to Andrei.”
“What kind of information?” Conrad asks.
“Anything and everything. I would get close to the target by acting in a way that led them into a false sense of security. I was there to look nice and not appear as a threat to any of them. And they…would spill it all. Any secrets they had. Everything from where they would hide away for vacations to secret fetishes. I retrieved information that Andrei could use to blackmail them.” My eyes drop to the table in shame.I was not a good person. But neither were the people I got information about.
“I was good at it too,” I admit, hearing King scoff down at the end of the table. He is still standing but is now leaning against the wall. My eyes lock on him. “I was. It’s probably how I was able to fool all of you.” Our eyes remained glued to one another. “It’s something I will always regret, but we can get to that later. I know you are wanting me to finish so you can decide what you want to do next. Right?”
“You got that right,” King snarks as he moves forward to place his hands on the back of his chair again.
