Page 6 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

CHAPTER THREE

AXEL

This is me taking care of two pussies with one command.

I needed supplies for that damn cat, and I needed to douse Ruby’s fire.

She implied that I harass her, that she doesn’t like our love-to-hate game, so I tested her. I love testing her.

I gave her my address, gate code, and house key and instructed her to leave the food and litter box for Sparky, and she took the bait.

She could’ve said no. She could’ve quit.

Secretly, Ruby loves our game. She was born a queen: brave, strategic, confident, a fighter. And I see how she treats others in the office, too.

She brings them drinks. She works late so Helen can go home to her grandson. She collects the garbage every evening so Mr. Briggs, our elderly Custodial Manager, doesn’t have to.

Ruby’s fiery on the outside but has a warm heart, and she does something to mine.

She reminds me I have one.

Did curiosity kill her cat while she took care of mine? I mean, mine for the weekend?

Yes and no.

With cameras covering every angle of my house, I watched her on my phone app, entering my home with her pretty head on a swivel, scanning the place.

Instantly, Sparky went to her, purring against her bare legs.

Lucky cat. For a moment, it looked like Ruby had forgotten her menial task.

She talked to the cat, smiled, picked her up, and started cuddling the animal, and it pounded my heart.

Fuck, she’s beautiful . Until she glanced up and spotted the camera in my kitchen, and flipped it off.

I laughed. She was right. I was watching as she finished setting out food and the litter box. Knowing she was being surveilled, she didn’t snoop. She left.

But now she returns, barging into my office, shouting, “She’s pregnant! What are you going to do about it?”

“You mean my cat ?” I growl, “Mind your words in my office, Ms. Jones, lest you start inappropriate rumors.”

“Whatever.” She swats the air. “She needs a nest, like a box.”

“I’ll get her one.”

“Have you taken her to the vet?”

“On Monday, I’ll ask the vet to find her a good home.”

“Since you know everything, you should know when you’re wrong,” she snaps, reigning over my desk. “She needs a quiet space with no stress, and miraculously, she seemed content in your sterile home. You can’t move her now. You need to?—”

“Do not tell me what I need to do, Ms. Jones.”

“Why not? I’m not confident you know how to take care of a pussy.”

“Oh, I can take care of a cat , Ms. Jones. ”

She cocks a brow. “You sure? Because she seemed lonely. Like you don’t know how to pet one.”

“I know how to pet a pussy and?—”

What the fuck?

Shut up!

Suddenly, she smirks. She won. “Whoops. Did I push your buttons, Mr. Cummings? My bad. I was just looking for MUTE.”

Fuck, she’s a wildfire.

Every muscle in my body burns to bend Ruby over my desk, rip her tight purple dress open, and spank her ass before I take brutal care of her sweet pussy. I’ll make her come, screaming, and dripping on the floor. I’ll stand in our puddle while I make her lick our cum off my shoe.

That’s how I’ll take care of her.

She makes my heart pound, my dick swelling rock hard as I clench my molars. “Ms. Jones…” I’m tempted to risk my career for her. My life for her. For just one hard, sweaty fuck with her. “Close my doo?—”

“Knock, knock. Mr. Cummings.” A deep voice accompanies a rap on my open door. In a lust-crazed stupor, my glare whips from Ruby to my brother, Nick, standing in the threshold. “Am I interrupting?” he asks.

“No.” I’m shocked. “Come in.”

Nick enters with his partner, Zar Rollins, and Ruby stammers, “What… What are you two doing here?”

Nick looks back at me, his eyes asking what she knows about us, and I barely lift my brows— nothing. Thanks to our father’s violence, my brothers and I have a silent language of survival we can speak.

And Zar? He’s one of our queens. He knows better than to reveal our secrets, too.

“We’re clients,” Zar explains, greeting Ruby with a kiss on the cheek .

For a moment, I’m confused about how they know each other; then … of course . Zar is also partnered with Ruby’s sister, Scarlett, and her husband, Luca Mercier.

This is a passionate small city.

“Clients for what?” Ruby’s cute face twists. “Is everything okay?”

“Ms. Jones, it’s inappropriate to question my clients.” I stand, gesturing to my office door. “Give us privacy.”

“But they’re my friends ,” she debates. “They’re more than clients to me.”

And they’re my family . But I can’t tell her.

“ Now , Ms. Jones.”

If her eyes could fire bullets, I’d be dead.

“We’re fine, hotness.” Zar pecks her cheek again. “Mr. Cummings is helping us create a co-ownership agreement for my beach shack. You see, that’s love … since you don’t do it.”

Playfully, she backhands his biceps before pecking Nick’s cheek, too. Then, she fires an eat-cat-shit-and-die glare my way before closing my office door behind her.

“You can cut the tension between you two with a hot butter knife.” Nick sounds amused, settling onto my sofa. He reaches for Zar’s hand as he settles in beside him.

“She hates me.” I take the chair across from them.

“And you love it.” Nick chuckles.

“And I know the Jones sisters,” Zar adds. “For them, hot hate is a hair’s breadth away from deep love.”

“Enough.” I wave my hand, exhausted by my passion for Ruby today. I need a break … and sleep. “What’s going on?”

They exchange a long look. “Do you want me to—?” Zar starts, but Nick says, “I’ll tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

“I’m being bribed.” Nick’s brawny shoulders sag. “Extortion, I guess, is the legal term.”

“For what? ”

Though I already know. I love my little brother too much. I’m too protective of him.

Nick is gay and deeply in love with Zar. Yes, he knows about Zar’s bond with Luca Mercier and his role with Luca’s wife. Nick joins them, and I’ve never seen my brother so happy. It’s all I want. But Nick is also the leading tight end in the NFL, and it’s career suicide if he comes out.

And it’s lethal if anyone ever finds out who Nick really is.

“For being in love,” Nick answers. “For going on a vacation last month. We rented a chalet in the mountains, and I’m being bribed for having sex with the man I love.”

“What do you mean?” But, quickly, I figure it out. I have cameras in my house, too. “Someone took a video?”

“Yes.”

The pained look on my brother’s face fills me with regret and rage. Regret for the homophobic world we live in and rage that someone would threaten to out him. That’s his choice. His right. No one else’s.

“Did the rental listing say there would be cameras recording?” I ask. “Legally, they have to disclose them and say where they are. Most properties use them to monitor doors for security.”

“We didn’t fuck at the front door,” Nick seethes. “We were in the primary bedroom, where we should have privacy and?—”

“Regardless,” Zar adds, “I checked the listing. It never mentioned cameras.”

“So, walk me through what happened next.”

“It’s been weeks since our vacation, but yesterday,” Zar explains, “I got a text. I had to give my number to rent the property, and I did it in my name, but I guess Nick is too famous. They recognized him and sent a twenty-second clip of our sex, demanding five million dollars, or they’ll release it online. ”

“Jeez, they have so much on us.” Nick drags his hand down his face. “It was our anniversary weekend. We hardly left the bed.”

Zar leans over, kissing his cheek. “I’ll walk through hell for you, baby. It’ll be alright.”

“But you’re not ready to come out,” I seethe. “And you deserve to do it with pride, not like this. They’re trying to shame you.”

“I have no shame, no regrets,” Nick snarls. Like me, he can murder with his bare hands, but nothing can kill a viral clip. “But I have a career I love, a team I must protect, and a sport I’ve dedicated my life to. I’m not ready to leave.”

“They can’t make you leave,” I insist. “The NFL has a policy that protects against discrimination of openly gay players.”

Nick scoffs, “It doesn’t protect me from everything else. Come on. Name a top-tier player who’s out.”

“So,” I tent my fingers, itching to strangle necks, “what do you want to do? Take care of this legally or…”

We exchange a look, and Zar joins us.

“Both. I want justice,” Nick sneers, “then I’ll get revenge.”

Spoken like a true son of Ruslan Kholodov.

When we escaped the Bratva, Nick was only five. You’d never recognize him now. But I guess he’s like me. He’s like our father. It’s in his DNA, too.

I nod. “First thing: stall them. We need time and intel.” I tell Zar, “Reply and say you’ll pay one million every thirty days for their silence. As long as they stay silent, you’ll pay more than five million.”

“Fuck that,” Zar scoffs. “I have a trust fund worth a hundred million. I can pay more right now.”

“But they’ll never stop asking for it,” I explain. “So you supply it like a drug. You get them addicted and control them. In the meantime, Nick starts his pre-season, and we devise a plan.” I take my phone out of my jacket pocket. “And we start now.”

I call Nash first. He’s the accountant, able to follow any money trail. Zar will email him with their booking information through the online platform they used, and Nash will find the source.

Then, I hate to do this , but no one in my office is better at it. “Ms. Jones,” I open my door, “a moment.”

With smirky satisfaction, Ruby joins our meeting.

“I need you to dig up all you can about a rental property,” I order her. “No doubt, the owner is an anonymous LLC, but dig. Find out who owns it. I know you know how.”

“Tell me what’s going on,” she insists. “It’ll make my search faster.”

I grin. She’s good. But not that good. She wants to be in the loop with us, but I command, “The less you know, the better.”

“Obviously,” she blurts, “because you don’t know shit, and you seem to be in hog heaven.”

My brother laughs. Zar does, too. They’re way too amused by my defiant employee.

“I’m not your goddamn Willy Wonka,” I scold her. “I don’t sugarcoat my orders. Do as I say or find another job.”

Her nostrils flare. “Were you born this shitty, or did you take lessons from a toilet?”

Nick snorts, and Zar mutters, “Oh, no. Mom and Dad are fighting.”

“Shut up!” We shout at them together … and they laugh even harder.

Fire shoots up my neck, strangled by my tie. I yank at it, needing to murder. Glaring at Ruby, I relish the furious blush of her cheeks, the thrumming pulse in her neck, her ribs heaving under that mouth-watering cleavage in her V-neck dress .

I’m so furious I don’t care if she catches me craving her tits.

This is what happens when you corner a beast. I will attack if provoked.

Then, I glance down at her rebellious bare feet with her toenails painted cherry red. Her feet are dainty and unmarred. They’re perfect. They’re the opposite of mine, and now, they’re another fetish for me. I can’t stop the growl up my throat, “Put your fucking heels on.” My molars clench. “ Now .”

“Yes, Mr. Cummings .” She bumps past me, pushing ALL of my goddamn buttons as I slam the office door behind her, regretting it the moment I do.

This is what I mean. She loves to hate me. Or maybe I hate that I’m in love with her. Either way, she’s fire to my ice. She’s the only one who gets me this hot.

“Shit,” Nick huffs. “Fall in love much?”

I whip around. “She can’t know.”

“Know about what?” Nick juts his chin. “Our family? The kings and queens? Or that you’re in love with her?”

“Our family.” I won’t deny the rest. It’s written all over me; I’m painfully aware.

“Why not?” Nick lifts his hand, holding Zar’s. “She’s one of us already. We’re close with her.”

I don’t want to pry into my brother’s sex life, but when it comes to Ruby?

She’s MY sex life. She’s my future wife.

I haven’t fucked another woman since I met her because rituals don’t count.

I only want Ruby. And yes, it’s been a year.

It’s another reason I’m ablaze, feral, and about to explode. “How close ?”

Zar chuckles. “Not that close. First, her sister, Scarlett, will kill me. Then, you will.”

“Touch her, and I will be the first to kill you.”

Zar laughs even harder. “You haven’t met her sister.”

“Ruby comes to our parties,” Nick explains. “But we’re just friends.”

“So,” the logic hits me fast, “you three are just friends, but what about your friends? The other players? Are they all gay, or are some…”

Fuck, I don’t want to know. I will kill for Ruby, and half of me relishes the instinct to do it.

“We’re gentlemen,” Nick answers. “If you want to know something about a lady, don’t ask us.”

“Exactly,” Zar smirks, “if you want to know about your future queen, ask her.”