Page 12 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

Andras, more than anyone else, as that big bastard still terrified me.

Although when we walked back down to the limo, I didn’t take it as a good sign when I saw him leaning back against the car.

His big arms were folded, and he was staring straight up at what he must have known was our window.

Nor did I take it as a good sign when Tal gripped his shoulder and gave it a squeeze after telling him,

“Patience, my friend.” To which Andras simply nodded the once before folding himself into the driver’s seat without a word.

As for me, I was once again corralled into the car, this time accepting my fate by sitting in between them. My duffel tossed to the floor ahead of me gave me something to stare at. It felt like that bag always symbolized the next big shift in my life.

First, when I left the guise of a family home, and then again when asshole, Dex, had taken practically everything from me.

And anything he had left I’d had to sell most of it just to try and chip away at the tip of that fucking big iceberg.

Fuck, it was like being on the Titanic watching yourself getting closer to it, and the irony of it all was that I wasn’t even the one who bought the damn ticket to board it.

Well, the precarious waters I had been travelling through had turned even more dangerous, because now there were sharks in its depths, and they could smell blood in the water.

And speaking of sharks, they allowed me this quiet time of contemplation with only a few words spoken.

That dagger now lay across Victor’s lap, with one hand held firmly around it’s hilt and his other around my wrist. As if he was trying to make his ownership of us both perfectly clear.

And as for his brother, Tal had one of his hands heavy on my leg, keeping my thigh in his grasp and staying there for the entirety of the journey… his own claim on me loud and clear.

Yet no one said a word, as if this would help my troubled mind to process things.

Yet in reality, I needed far longer than the time it took for us to reach their steel and glass castle.

A fortress in the sky mocking me with the fact I had no wings in this dark fairytale.

And as for its King, once inside I watched Victor’s reflection emerge behind me in the glass window, and the sight of New York at night no longer held my interest. Not with the living God at my back who placed his hands at my shoulders.

“You hungry, Firefly?” he asked softly, which was when my stomach chose to answer for me with a rumble.

“I will take that as a yes,” he replied with a chuckle.

Then he let both hands stroke down my arms, with only one of them taking hold of mine.

This was so as he could pull me from the wall of glass in his living room.

As for Tal, I found him in the kitchen pulling a couple of beers from the fridge at the same time his eyes were on his phone.

“Okay, so our options are pretty much limitless. There is one place here that does sushi pizzas.”

I screwed my face up, making Victor laugh, and it was such an easy going and carefree sound that it made me do a double take.

It was like the second I had stepped back into their domain, both of them had instantly relaxed.

In fact, it reminded me of that night they had fed me ice cream after kidnapping me, making me blush when looking back to the sofa.

“The apartment above the Chinese restaurant, I take it you used to live there before moving in with Stacey on Allen St?” Victor asked as he pulled out the barstool for me to sit on at the kitchen island. One that was made of a large slab of marble shiny enough I could see my reflection in it.

“Yeah,” I replied, giving Tal cause to ask,

“Their food any good?”

I couldn’t help moaning before forgetting myself by getting animated.

“Oh my god, yes! In fact, they do some of the best pork noodles and, oh my god, their steamed dumplings are to die for.”

Tal grinned before twisting the cap off both beers and tossing them to the sink, not the trash. Then he slid one to his brother, who palmed it instantly.

“Then that’s what we will order, now what do you want to drink, babe?” he confirmed, making my mouth start to water as I hadn’t eaten all day and I was suddenly starving. But seeing as Tal was waiting, I nodded to his beer and replied,

“I could take a beer.”

His smile once more transformed his face into some beautiful.

So much so that I had to concentrate on breathing again.

A regular occurrence around these two, for sure.

After which Victor slid his beer in front of me and added to the thoughtful gesture by kissing the side of my head.

This was before walking toward where he had left the dagger at the end of the counter.

“I am going to put this in our safe until we can get it back to Millbrook.”

“And the Bugatti, is that back at the Estate?” Tal asked, making my eyes widen at the sound of what I knew was an expensive car.

In fact, I only knew this because Dex had been a gearhead and used to tell me the list of dream cars he wanted to get ‘when he made it big’.

Which I now knew translated into scoring big in whatever dodgy shit he was into at the time.

But then, that was before the Erebus brothers had caught up to him because he was no doubt still recovering in the hospital.

The thought made me shiver. I didn’t think I would ever get the sight of that nightmare out of my mind.

Because despite how much I hated my ex, no matter how much damage he had done to my life, I still wouldn’t have wished that type of torture on anyone.

Which was why I couldn’t ever forget what they were truly capable of, knowing it would be dangerously foolish to do so.

“I had Andras handle it,” Victor replied, before taking hold of his most prized possession, the dagger…

or was that now me? Either way, it was clearly going in another secure place, and one they no doubt didn’t worry about me breaking into anymore.

As well, not only was I without my power of luck but also, I knew it wouldn’t help me in escaping, nor would it help me in breaking the curse.

And speaking of the curse, I was suddenly brought out of my silent musing when a pair of thick, muscular arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Right, beautiful, what are we picking?” Tal asked, holding his phone right in front of me and letting me see the menu.

“You know I practically lived on the stuff, right” I informed him.

“Meaning?”

“I could recite the menu from heart,” I said, making him chuckle before spinning my chair around to face him and leaning in, caging his hands at the counter either side of me, his phone still there now held out of view.

“Alright, cocky girl, what number is a sweet and sour chicken?” he asked, glancing to his phone as I laughed.

“Oh please, it’s thirty-five, now stop being a pussy and give me a hard one,” I teased, making his eyes widen before the biggest grin deepened and again, I had to remind myself to keep breathing.

“Okay, asparagus sauteed with garlic?” he asked after scrolling down the menu on his phone, his eyes leaving mine for a few seconds to do so.

“Eighty-three,” I answered without even needing to think about it. His eyes widened in surprised before hitting me with two more.

“Soy glazed Cantonese salmon steak, with a side of Steamed Bao Buns?”

“Twenty, and sides aren’t numbered but it is third down the list,” I answered, making his lips twitch as he had tried to catch me out.

“Wonton noodle soup?”

“Oh please, that’s an easy one, ninety-two.”

He smirked down at me, as if he was enjoying this game, then he went back to his phone and the second he smiled, I could tell he had found what he thought was a hard one. Which was when he leaned down close and whispered in my ear, each word perfectly clear.

“Dong Gu Lap Cheong Jing Gai.”

I chuckled at this one, because I knew he thought he had got me, seeing as not many people would order it over the others he had mentioned. Which was why I turned my head, and whispered back,

“Thirty-eight.” To which he pulled back slowly, his expression shocked, whereas mine was downright cocky.

“Gotta be honest, Peaches, never once thought a Chinese menu would be such a fucking turn on.”

I blushed and before I could respond, Victor was back.

“I think we just found our girl’s secret addiction.”

“Yeah, what’s that? And how do I eradicate it from the planet so as to take its place?” Once more, this left me blushing, whereas his brother chuckled.

“Chinese food, as she knows this menu by heart.”

Victor’s lips lifted at one side as he walked closer to us.

“Is that right?” he asked in a tone that said he knew something his brother didn’t, making me wonder if the gig was up.

“Sure as shit she does,” Tal replied.

“And did you ask her why she knows it so well?” he asked in a knowing tone.

“Said she used to eat there all the time.”

Victor took his brother’s phone and scanned through it before looking back to me.

“So, you have tried everything on the menu?” he asked.

“Yep, sure have, nothing I didn’t like,” I said and of course, I lied.

“What, even pan-fried lotus root pork patties and stuffed tofu skin wraps?” he tested, making me roll my lips inwards before commenting,

“Uh huh… yup. Yummy.” Which it wasn’t because I hated tofu with a passion, and anything that had the word root in it was a hard pass for me. At this he smirked and said,

“In that case, order her that… oh, and add Jellyfish salad.”

Which finally made me cave by screwing my face up.

“Okay, okay, so eww, eww, and extra eww with added uh gross,” I said, making them both laugh.

“Then how…?” Tal asked, but before I could tell him, Victor came up with the simplest answer.

“My guess would be she used to help out on the phones when it was busy… am I right?”

Yeah, he was pretty much spot on, making Tal whip his head to me and point his phone at me with one finger extended.

“Why you little cheater!”

I shrugged my shoulders and said,

“You never asked.”

I heard Victor laughing before going to get his own beer, after already giving me his.

“Well in that case, I think I will let the pro order,” he said, handing me his phone and trusting me to make a call. So, I took it slowly, as if this was a test and any second the thing would grow fangs and bite me.

“What do you both want?” I asked after Victor shut the fridge and leaned back against the counter that faced the kitchen island. Then just like his twin, he twisted off the cap and tossed it into the sink.

“Surprise us,” he said, making Tal add,

“Yeah, but no Tofu shit, we eat real meat.”

I laughed, tempted to order the weirdest shit they had just out of revenge. But then I wasn’t that cruel.

“They don’t have Dolmas,” I teased, referring to those stuffed leaves we had eaten at his restaurant during our date. Victor grinned and sent a little thrill through me when he praised,

“You remembered… good girl.”

“Hard to forget that night,” I admitted, although I was referring to the part where I was kidnapped at the end.

“Mmm, that it was,” Victor agreed before adding, “Well, you trusted my choices that night, therefore we will do the same.”

I nodded and clicked the ring icon, putting the phone to my ear.

“Mrs. Won, it’s Nessa here… erm, yeah, I am good, thanks,” I said, after purposely giving a pointed look at the two brothers who made this a lie. Oh, and both were of course smirking at the lie told.

“Yeah busy, busy, I know. I just wanted to place an order, a couple of friends of mine have never tried New York’s best Chinese take-out.”

Victor mouthed the word, “Friends?” making me shake my head at him, as if to say, not now.

“Okay, can we have three number fives, two sevens, but fried not steamed, and can you add a pot of that awesome chili oil I like?” I asked, making her agree as I knew she would.

“Then let’s have a twenty-one, a thirty-nine, for sure, a fifty-six, but a half not a whole. Hang on… are any of you allergic to nuts?” I asked the brothers and again, they looked amused by this before Victor shook his head, his smirk out in full force.

“Then let’s have a thirty-three as well, and as for fried rice, let’s go with a fifty-four, no, let’s go for a forty-eight as that will go better with the Kung Pao chicken, so two of those.

Oh, and noodles, let’s go a hundred and one, yeah perfect,” I replied, already feeling my stomach trying to eat itself at just the thought of all this food coming.

Of course, I was going way overboard because this would have been enough to feed a small Vampire army.

But hey, I wasn’t paying and they were my kidnappers so, I was calling it a perk and ordering a feast.

“Okay, great, oh, but you need the address as it’s not being delivered to my apartment.” It was at this point that Tal took back his phone and reeled out his address, then he purposely looked at me and told her,

“Oh, and it’s for her lovers, not her friends.”

Then he handed it back to me with a wink as my mouth dropped. Because of course, I knew exactly what this was.

It was…

Payback for winning the Chinese menu game.