Page 33 of The Games of Madmen

He pushes off me and I turn to face him.

I can’t help my stupid fucking mouth when I retort, “Well, I hope you’ve got something bigger than that cock to break her with because what I just felt against my ass won’t do it.”

Small dicks must run in the family.

The backhand to my face nearly takes me off my feet. Motherfucker is strong. My cheek throbs but I refuse to touch it or cry for him. I yank up my panties and fix my dress, giving him my nastiest bitchy glare I can muster.

“Be glad my brother is in that room and that he loves you or you’d be getting my whole fist. He wants to marry you and that’s the only reason you can still walk.”

Pig.

I watch him leave, not turning my back for a second. He’s mean and unpredictable. Once I hear the engine rumbling as he peels out, I make my way down the hallway to the room I share with Jeremiah.

I need a shower, badly.

I slip into the bathroom to brush my teeth and clean both brothers from my skin, avoiding looking at the haunted eyes that stare back at me in the mirror.

The woman in the reflection isn’t someone I even recognize anymore.

Chapter Ten

Rodion

Finalizing on Club Vibe without ever meeting the previous owner leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Our private investigator and lawyers did their due diligence on the previous owner and confirmed what Viktor had told us. Darrell was dodging his taxes and needed to sell to pay his bill or face jail time. His misfortune is our gain, and we don’t look a gift horse in the mouth when presented with one.

I spread out the floor plan documents for Club Vibe—soon-to-be Klub Chernyy—on the table in front of us.

There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but from what little we’ve learned, we know one thing. The club is popular and has become the premier hotspot for anyone of significance in this town.

What intrigues me most about this exact club is how there are two floors to it.

We plan to have the face of the club for normal clientele and the lower body of the club for elite members only, just likeViktor wants to do with The Vault. I think he likes the idea of us creating more of a party and fight scene, whereas he will cater to more of kink fetishes and smut fantasies. I see a lot of Yuri in him, but I’ve never spoken the insult out loud to him. Not looking to die any time soon.

If we’re going to open clubs here, we want them just like this one, and like ours back home. We can build on the foundations already been laid by the previous owner and create fucking magic. Once we know what people want and what works over here we’ll expand into bigger cities.

“You seem in a better mood tonight,” I say with a smirk to my brother.

He slept most of the day and then spent three hours in the hotel gym. I know he’s not ready to talk aboutheryet. Hell, neither am I.

Zahkar’s blue eyes turn to me knowingly. “I’ll be glad to get started with the club. Add in some touches of home.” He goes back to looking out the window.

“Are you missing Nikita?” I tease. “She’s flying out soon.”

I know without looking at him that he just tensed all over. Nikita will be coming to show our new staff how we like things run. And then we’ve promised her to Viktor for his club. She’s discreet and damn good at her job. She’ll be perfect to help get things moving with the darker delights part of the club. It will also keep her mind off of us. Nikita would give anything for us to take things with her to another level, but it will never happen. She’s a distraction and knows what we like, but it will never be more than that.

We made that mistake once before.

Our hearts belonged to the woman who ripped them from our chests when she decided to up and leave us. Like death passing through and taking with it our souls to the underworld. Seeing her again was like taking a knife to the gut. How alive andthriving she seems to be without us. It pisses me off that it still hurts.

I’ve always known Zahkar was my soulmate. Ever since the first time I laid eyes on him, fate’s hands were at work. And I’ve always been content in the knowledge we may never find a woman who could fit between us like she was created for that space.

Until Alyona.

She came barreling into our lives, and changed us. We changed her too. She became a fighter. Brave, formidable,ours…

It took months before she finally gave in to us and let us fucking own her. She held out longer than most. But I knew she would be ours. It was the same feeling I had when I first met Z.

There’s something so beautiful and untamed about the way they both fight and fuck. And they were mine.