Crave (Beneath The Secrets #3)

20. Alexei

CHAPTER 20

ALEXEI

Song- Self-Destruction, I Prevail

I’m not sure what I’m looking for.

The text I got from an unknown number just said to wait on this corner. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

Jax

Where are you?

Me

I can’t tell you.

Jax

WTF Alexei, we’re supposed to go to Vox and pick up the payment.

Me

I’m on a corner. You’ll have to go without me.

Jax

Just on a random corner? Looking to give your new piercing a spin?

That makes me involuntarily pinch the tip of my dick where the bar rubs against my zipper. It doesn’t hurt anymore.

In fact, it feels pretty good when I mess with it.

When a woman walks by and gives me a grossed out expression, I let go.

Me

No. I’m saving that.

Jax

We’ll find her.

I blink at the phone. He thinks I’m saving it for Lara?

Maybe I am.

Would that be so bad?

Except I promised Mikhail and Nikolai to protect her.

Every man she’s been with has hurt her. Killing them may have removed the problem, but only temporarily.

Do I just eliminate every other man out there?

Or is there a chance she’d be happy with me?

I don’t want to be the cause of her pain, though.

Fuck, I hate this. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be looking for.

Tipping my head back, I try to see on the tops of the buildings.

What is that up there?

Just a couple of steps back, and I might get a better angle.

Someone runs into me from behind.

“Hey, zhopa, watch where you’re going.” A big guy grunts from behind me.

Hey, I know that voice.

Turning quickly on my heel, I peer into the unpainted face of the clown.

He doesn’t have green hair, but I know it’s him.

And he recognizes me. His eyes flare wide and he begins to back up.

“I almost know who you are.” Leaping, I wrap my arms around his neck and bite the end of his thick nose until a piece shears off into my mouth.

Spitting it out, the blood pours before he screams and covers his face. “Now I’m sure.”

Tatiana is brilliant.

There’s an empty building so handy. It’s almost like she planned this.

I’ll have to remember not to piss her off.

Shoving the man through the unlocked door, I slam it shut behind me and kick him in the side of the knee.

“Where the fuck is Lara?” I shriek.

He stumbles before falling to the dusty floor. His hand reaches for his waistband, but I jump on him too quickly, driving my fist into the missing piece of his nose.

Tugging his hidden gun from his belt, I hold it idly on him while he cries into his fingers and pull out my phone.

“Jax? I need your help.” I text him the pin to my location as soon as he answers. “Hurry.” I hang up before he can reply.

What was this place? It looks like an old restaurant.

The big man lays his palm flat and starts to push himself up, but I drive my heel into the back of it hard enough that the bones crunch under my boot.

“Fuck,” he grunts, rolling away from me.

“I know you took her.” I land a solid kick under his chin, throwing his head back against a counter. “Where is she?” My fingers dig into the front of his shirt and I throw him again.

He claws at a drawer trying to get away. “You’ll never find her.” He spits at me, spraying my face.

My hand covers his, and I jerk the handle hard enough that a geyser of utensils falls over us, but the corner knocks him in the temple.

When he slumps to the floor, I don’t quite trust that he’s really unconscious.

I’ve faked it before.

A gust of hot air is followed by a slam, sJax is standing at my side.

He’s panting, and drops to grab his thighs as he tries to catch his breath.

“Fuck, Alexei. I thought you’d be dead by now.” His tongue bar rattles against his teeth.

“No, but this guy will be.” Ripping a cord from a lamp, I wrap it around one of his limp wrists and tie it to one of the vertical burners.

Some kind of rotisserie thing. But the two bars make a perfect place to latch the clown to.

“Help me with lifting him,”I grunt, wrestling the dead weight.

My feet slip on the small metal dowels that fell out of the cabinet. “What are those?”

Jax bends over and picks up one of the thin utensils. “They look like shish kabob sticks.”

I stare at him blankly. “Explain? Is that English?”

Jax smiles and shakes his head. “No. Well, it is, but I don’t think it is? Shit. You put meat on these and roast them. Veggies too.” He holds one over a dead burner and pretends to turn it over. “See?”

All I see are thousands of thin stabby devices.

“Like this?” I take one and poke it into the soft underarm of the unconscious man.

He groans and turns his head.

“Maybe another?” I slide another skewer into outside of his thigh.

Then the other arm. Through the fatty parts of his belly.

“What are you doing?” Jax grins.

“It’s like, shishka-puncture. Right? Acupuncture is the needles?” I tilt my head as I push another poker through the calf of the very awake man.

“Yea, you’re correct. But that’s usually therapeutic. He looks like a pin cushion,” Jax chuckles.

The clown without his makeup groans again. “You’re psychotic.”

I take one of the sharp tools and carve a star into his chest. “Lara taught me something recently.” I move closer so I can talk in a whisper. “She showed me my birth chart. You know, the thing that says the planets and the signs?”

His dark eyes fix on me. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“My sun is Scorpio, and moon Sagittarius.” I proclaim loud enough that Jax can hear me too.

Picking up another prod, I shove it between the bones of his wrist until it sticks out the other side. “According to her, I am unhinged. But on the bright side, we can blame your death on the fucking moon. Stop moving, you’re getting blood on my shoes.”

The spikes sticking out of him make a crinkling sound when he twitches and they hit each other.

“He looks like a porcupine. How many more of those things do you have?” Jax sits on the counter opposite of the clown and uses one of the stainless rods to pick at his teeth.

I glance at the floor. “There’s still tons of them. I could make him look like a tin man.”

Droplets of blood funnel from the protruding ends and drip down my pants.

Fuck. Onto my new sneakers.

I can fix that.

Kicking them off, the round skewers roll under my feet. “Time for the last round, funny man.” I get into the face of the man, pushing his chin up so he can see me.

“Please,” he gasps. “Just kill me.”

“I can make it fast. Tell me where my Lara is.” I curl my finger inside the loop of one of the metal pokers and twist it in a wide circle so it digs into the meat of his chest.

He grits jaw, sweat dripping down his face and jowls to mix with the seeping fluids at every puncture.

“Fine,” he grunts. “She’s at the old bottling factory on Nineteenth. Go in through the back,” he wheezes.

Jax clicks his tongue piercing. “Whatcha gonna do?” His heels bounce off of the dusty cabinet.

Opening drawers reveals what I’m looking for. A long steak knife is perfect.

Holding it over the pale man’s heart, I get close to him again. “You should have stuck with balloon animals, you worthless fuck.” Driving it as hard as I can between the ribs, his body jerks back and forth on the ties, spraying me with a thousand droplets of sweat encased blood.

“Dude.” Jax leans back with a frown. “You’re disgusting.” He points vaguely at his own cheek.

I drag my palm over my forehead and look at the crimson sheen covering it.

“I don’t care. Let’s go find Lara. Can you call Nikolai and Mikhail?” I don’t want to touch my phone. I just want to go.

“They’re tied up on a weapon’s drop. Nikolai said they’re on their way, but they’re at least an hour out.” He hops down and holds the door open for me.

“Um, Alexei?” He stops.

I’m already halfway down the block heading to my motorcycle.

“What? Let’s get going!” I stomp my foot onto the scalding sidewalk.

“Your shoes, man.” He points down.

My red stained socks stand out on the concrete and I have a wet print trail leading from the restaurant.

“Shit.” Running back, I grab my boots and carry them. “I’ll put them on once I get there.”

No I won’t. The spikes on my bike are sharp as fuck.

Jax laughs and jogs to his Ducatti parked just past mine.

I don’t pay any attention to the traffic. We cut in and out of the cars, swerving through the intersections at high speed until Jax waves me to a stop just a couple of blocks from where we’re going.

He holds his arm out. “We can’t just ride through the front doors.”

“Why not?” I growl.

Lara is so close. The last thing I want to do is slow down.

“We need a plan. Do you have your pistols?” Jax narrows his eyes at me. “There’s only two of us. I got kids, remember?”

“I don’t have my guns. Just my knife.” I pull it out of the sheath to show him. “We’ll be fine. I need to get in there.”

Jax grabs my shoulders. “Alexei, if you go in there half-cocked, I’m not going in with you. You might have a death wish, but, well—” He rolls the ball of his tongue piercing between his teeth as he looks away. “—I don’t anymore.”

“Jax. You don’t understand. I can’t live without her.” I pull away from his grasp and run towards the entrance.

I don’t hear him behind me.

Fuck it.

Blowing through the double doors, I sprint through the large room to the only hall in the back.

When I skid around the corner, there’s noises coming from the end.

That could be her.

When I peek in, I can see her on a small bed, and there’s a man leaning over her.

What is he doing to her?

Her legs spasm, and her hands jerk.

She’s cuffed?

As loud as I can, I bray like a donkey, holding my own blade up to my own throat.

“Let her go, or the ass gets it!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

Startled, the man turns around and takes a step back, fear, then confusion warping his expression.

I don’t wait, but throw my knife in one motion.

The man stands frozen watching it impale into his chest.

With a grunt, he falls first to his knees, then forward, burying it all the way to the hilt.

Rushing to Lara, I pull the tube out of her mouth that he was putting in her.

As gently as possible, I cradle her as she blinks up at me.

“Alexei?” Her voice is hoarse.

“Yes, pchelka?”

“You found me.”

My heart hammers in my chest as I stroke away her hair from her face. As beautiful as ever, even now.

I do everything to suppress the burning rage inside of me as I look at the mark on her face. They will all pay. Painfully.

But for now, I have her in my arms and as I look into her eyes, that is all that matters.

She is the calm to my storm.

“Of course. Nothing could ever stop me.”

It’s like the room around us crackles as she softly brings her cold hand up and rests it on my cheek. Wiping away the stray tear I didn’t even know had fallen.

She’s here, she’s okay, I remind myself.

She is all I see, all I’ve ever seen. I willingly gave up my soul to her a long time ago, because she is my person in this world. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As I look to her lips, this overwhelming urge consumes me to press mine against hers.

“Sladkiy,” she whispers.

I smile, leaning closer.

She sucks in a breath, her eyes still burning into my own as my heart feels like it’s making an escape through my ribs.

I really, really, want to kiss her.

Fuck it.

One kiss won’t ruin what we have.