The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

28. Lev

Chapter 28

Lev

"Are you sure? I mean, I said you can pick anywhere," I questioned Nicole's choice of venue with a raised brow.

Bouncing a little in her seat, Nicole hit the 'go' button on the navigation screen. "Hey, small family-owned places are the bomb. I'd pick them over a freaking five-star Michelin restaurant any day," Nicole retorted with an excited grin.

Rolling my eyes, I snorted softly as I reached over to pause the navigation, earning an angry pout from my hangry girlfriend. "Hey! You said I could pick," she snapped, balling her fists up in her lap and glowering at me.

If looks could kill, then I'd be burning in Hell already. "Empress, I just got done beating your dad bloody, and I'm covered in his blood and spit. Even if we're not going to some high-end place, I want to get decent at the very least." If it was a small splatter here and there then I wouldn't have minded, but I had it all over my arms and face. Also, dried blood was a bitch to scrub off.

Huffing in defeat, Nicole slumped in her seat with her arms crossed. "Fine, I guess you can go clean up," she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

"Baby, there's some snacks in the glove compartment and in the bag in the back." The drive home from our desert compound would be a long while, and the last thing I needed was for Nicole to rip my head off halfway through the trip.

Without a peep, Nicole trifled through the glove compartment and the snack bag after snatching it up. Thankfully, her munching kept her occupied for a good portion of the drive.

After a while, I broke our peaceful silence. "So, what are we going to do with your parents now? Just keep them locked away in The Catacombs until they die? What about Igor? I mean, they were our only lead to him so far." Unfortunately, these things couldn't wait.

Sighing, Nicole ran a hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face. "We'll see if they talk once Angel or one of the twins have a go at them, then we'll figure things out further." She didn't sound too confident, which made the corner of my lips frown. "We're going to need to have another go at the people who are supposedly in cahoots with Igor, and if we're lucky, one of them will squeal sooner rather than later."

The leather seat creaked with her movement as she leaned her head against the window. "I'll have to dig around with Bao to take a look at everyone's accounts. There's bound to be one idiot who did something electronically that will give us the thread that will lead us back to Igor." Her words grew in frustration as she spoke with heavy sighs.

Reaching over, I settled my hand on her thigh, offering her a soothing rub and pat. "Don't dwell too much on it, empress. We'll handle it one day at a time." We couldn't rush it if we wanted.

Yes, the possibility of Igor fleeing and resurfacing was a huge problem, but tracking people down and capturing them took time, same with going through their electronic footprint. As good as Nicole and Bao were, their fingers could only code and scroll at a certain speed, and their programs could only process so fast.

Keeping a hand on her thigh, I continued to drive for a little bit in silence to simmer the tension out. "What were you and your mom talking about earlier? I kept hearing 'Volkovs' every now and then." We hadn't had a chance to talk about the brief conversation in the previous car ride, and my curiosity was starting to burn holes into my brain at this point.

Lifting her head off the window, she gave a soft, questioning hum and blinked at me a few times before I saw the light bulb go off in her head. "Oh, that?" Sitting up straight, she continued to hum for a second before leaning over to me and hugging my arm. "She was going on about how there's a lot of people unhappy about the Volkov Bratva, the ones who were with Lady Qing before. Then, she tried to convince me to leave you to go marry Igor because, apparently, that was a condition of his for my parents to go fully into business with him."

Hearing the little bit about her mother telling her to leave me for Igor made my grip on the steering wheel tightened to where it squeaked under me. "Like hell are you ever leaving me for anyone." Over my dead body because I'd fight whoever tries to take her away from me or whoever she tries to leave me for.

Laughing softly, Nicole kissed my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that's my line. After all, I was the one who tattooed and collared you," she retorted, reaching up and tugging at the ring of my collar.

"Still can't believe you were thinking about cutting it off." Her voice flattened with her words, and a sharp pinch to my arm followed them. "Not that you would have been able to, but still, the fact you held those sheers to it."

Angel snitched me out to Nicole the other day about the one morning I hid out at Nikolai's place. Come to find out, if I did try to snip my collar off that morning, then I would've failed because there was metal in the damn thing.

"I said I was sorry, and it's not like I did it." I tried to defend myself, but the deadpanned expression she shot me meant I'd get nowhere. "I was confused and terrified, I told you." Still didn't make me feel less guilty about it all. Even though she waved it off back then as she did now, the hurt in her eyes was as clear as day to me.

Yeah, I was more than prepared to spend every day apologizing for almost making a huge mistake. Well, at this point, that would be the case. My sore ass served as a good reminder.

Speaking of my ass, the thought of punishment later tonight had me squirming in my seat with a slight grimace. Needless to say, Nicole definitely wasn't letting me forget her gracious gift to me, nor was she letting me forget who was in charge between us and who owned who.

Memories of the other night flooded my mind, making shivers trickle down my spine in response to the sudden heat blooming in my body. I knew what happened behind closed doors would always remain so, but it was still a little embarrassing to think about. No one would ever take me seriously if they ever found out about how I'd let Nicole—

Everything came to a screeching halt from the sudden jolt of pleasure shocking my unexpecting body. Sucking in a sharp breath, I glanced at Nicole briefly. "N-Nicole, I'm driving," I strained out through gritted teeth before letting out a trembling exhale.

"And?" she remarked smugly, and no doubt with a devious smirk etched on her face. "You don't need your dick to drive." Nicole snarked, snickering darkly as she leaned over more to my side until her upper body was all up in my lap.

Dragging out a playful sigh, she slowly worked my pants open, pulling my throbbing cock out. "Now, just what is my little lion thinking about to get this worked up? Hm?" Her soft hand squeezed my aching shaft tightly, slowly stroking and being careful to press against my piercings.

Frustrated, I let out a brief shout and pounded a fist against the steering wheel. "God damn it, you're going to make me crash." I gasped sharply and shuddered at the hot feeling of her mouth swallowing my cock. "Nicole!"

God fucking damn it! This woman!

Slamming my head back against the headrest, I let out an anguished cry as I breathed deeply.

The fuck do I do?!

My fingers went numb from how hard I gripped the steering wheel while my knuckles turned deathly pale.

Should I pull over? Keep going? Pull her off? Fucking hell!

"Focus on the road, little lion." Her voice insisted through my indecisive haze. "Just worry about getting us home safely." Her soft tongue ran along the underside of my length, starting from the base all the way to the crown of my tip, where she teasingly swirled her tongue around. "And I'll worry about taking care of you." She chuckled deviously before taking a good few inches into her needy mouth, causing me to shudder violently.

I don't know how I didn't fucking crash with how well she took me for the remainder of the ride. I nearly pulled over a few times when she somehow worked my pierced cock down her throat, especially when I heard her struggling with it. Her sweet gasps and gags as she choked on my member were like music to my ears. It was so lovely that I couldn't help myself from reaching down and grabbing her head to keep her there a few times, which earned me some smacks to my arm and chest, but the consequences were worth it.

Thankfully, I managed to blow my load before I threw in the towel and pulled over—I did come very close, though. Right as I was slowing the car down to pull over, I felt the familiar squeeze and rush. So, I continued down the road while Nicole sucked out every last drop from me.

When she went to pull off, I stopped her by holding down the back of her head, forcing her to remain pressed against my pelvis. I couldn't tell what her expression was because of our positioning, but her confused hum and muffled protests made it clear that my antics didn't amuse her.

Relaxing in my seat, I patted her growling head. "Since you can't seem to get enough of my cock, then you might as well stay on it." I laughed teasingly, earning a smack to the thigh from Nicole. "Love you too, zhizn moya ." My laugh grew louder with amusement the more Nicole reacted.

Luckily for her, we were close to home, so she didn't have to stay like that for long. I don't think she would've complained much, though, because her protesting died down rather quickly. Though, no doubt I'd be paying for this later tonight or within the next few days. But, again, it was worth it.

Once we got home, I took a quick rinse to freshen up and threw on a pair of dark jeans, a fitted tee, and some black combat boots, looking rather casual compared to Nicole's business-casual outfit, which consisted of a powder pink skirt with black edges, a black blouse with a blazer thrown over, and a pair of black ankle boots.

Nicole wanted to change when we entered the house, but I convinced her against it with a teasing idea. Dinner and a fuck in the streets. A little roleplaying never harmed anyone, so it didn't take much to convince her to play out a date where she'd end up bent over in an alleyway and ravaged by me. The sweet and powerful businesswoman who's looking for love, only to come across a ruthless bratva boss who claims her in a not-so-romantic place after wining and dining her.

Of course, she only agreed if I agreed to one of her ideas, which was to reenact our little moment when she tattooed me. It seemed harmless enough of a trade to me, but in hindsight, I probably should have prodded her for details before agreeing blindly. Oh well, not like she'd kill me or something after all this time. The worst I could think of coming from the scene would be me ending up with her name tattooed on me this time.

After we settled into the car and hit the road, I double-checked with her on our destination. "Are you still sure about your choice?" Well, she had until we were sitting down in the place to change her mind, but I didn't want to end up parking and walking only to bust a U-turn and do the whole dance again. Not that I would nag her about it or make my displeasure known because it would lead us to a pointless argument.

"Yes, I want dim sum, and that's one of the best dim sum places," Nicole answered confidently, beaming at the road with an excited grin. "Seriously, it's the best in terms of quality and quantity for the price, and the atmosphere is so nice." Leaning over to my side of the car, she trapped my arm in hers. "None of the other places stack up to it, and a lot of them left me sorely disappointed. I mean, nearly thirty bucks for four small ass pieces of seafood shumai, and it tasted bleh. Honestly, if I'm paying thirty bucks for any kind of food, it better be a loaded ass plate and taste good, or it better give my mouth an orgasm with one lick."

Don't say it, don't say it, don't—

And my intrusive thoughts won. "You know, for a person who cooks like shit, you sure love food." I better start writing my eulogy because I doubt I'd be leaving this car alive.

Offended, Nicole scoffed loudly and punched my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. "I will put you in the corner, mister," she threatened me playfully. "And my cooking abilities have nothing to do with me liking food. Those two things are completely unrelated," she retorted sassily .

"You can't make good food, yet you enjoy it. I feel like enjoying food and being able to make good food for yourself goes hand in hand." That's how it worked, did it not?

"Honestly, have you been surviving on takeout your whole life?" Now that I thought about it, I only ever saw her eat out or order in when I stalked her. Her trash was constantly filled with local takeout boxes and bags, along with instant meals, chip bags, and all that jazz. Even now, unless I cooked, our meal was some kind of takeout or instant meal that only an absolute idiot could fuck up. Not that I was complaining; she could actually do quite a bit with some packets of ramen and some extra things.

Her nervous chuckle plucked at the air, making me roll my eyes and groan internally. "I mean, my family has a chef… And I lived with my parents up until they tried to ship me off to Vietnam…" she said sheepishly. "So, I never really had to cook for myself at any point in my life, and if the chef had the day off or something, then I had the money to eat out or order in," she added nonchalantly. "And when I had to live on my own… I just… I mean, the instant meals are easy, and making stuff from scratch is so much work and time-consuming and just ugh."

Rolling my eyes, I reached my hand up and pinched her face. "You are so lucky I'm a decent cook. I might not be a wonder chef like Stepan, but I make it work." It was rather adorable that my older brother thought his love for the kitchen was a well-kept secret. Actually, it probably could've stayed a secret if he was more careful about it. All of us have caught him in the kitchen numerous times over the years, and he may deny it all he wanted, but we weren't that stupid.

"Well, I'll leave the kitchen chores to you." Nicole chuckled softly and kissed the back of my hand after grabbing it.

"And the laundry, dishes, cleaning, and gardening," I added with a grumble, wondering just how the fuck I ended up with all the housework.

Yeah, I was definitely not the man of the house. Don't know how that fucking happened, but no point in arguing over it with Nicole. Besides, it wasn't even that bad to do all the house chores. It wasn't as if Nicole and I were slobs, and Nicole picked up here and there, which made things a little easier for me. Also, not like I had something else to do when I got home from work or during my free time when Nicole would be occupied in her office.

As tiring and boring as it got sometimes, I really had no issues with it. So, I really don't understand why so many men out there make such a big fuss about it. The other part that boggled me was the whole house chores being a woman's job debacle. Why sit around being a fucking lazy ass turd while your woman is stressing about? Why not help because you fucking can? Chores had no gender labels on them, and anyone who liked to argue otherwise was stupid in my books.

"I really love you so much, you know that?" Nicole buried her face into my arm with a giddy giggle.

Rolling my eyes, I let my hand fall to her thighs. "Oh, I don't know. I mean, you haven't put permanent cuffs on my wrists and ankles yet, nor have you tattooed your name on me yet," I snarked back with a snicker.

I could feel Nicole's body slither up my arm. Then, her breath hit the shell of my ear. My body shivered involuntarily at the sound of her wickedly playful whisper, "Oh, don't worry, your limbs are free for now because they're not done being made yet, and I ain't gonna tattoo my name on you because that's just a little too tacky for me." The heat of her body pulled away from my head as she returned to her seat. "So, my signature is gonna have to suffice," she told me matter-of-factly.

Slowly, my face scrunched in thought as her words sank in fully. I opened my mouth to ask if she was serious or not about the cuffs, but I quickly zipped it. Knowing her psycho tendencies, she'd just toy with me more rather than give me a straight answer. If anything, I might have dug my own grave with my jest before. So, might as well keep quiet and hope to God she won't act on it.

I mean, cuffs in the bedroom, fine, whatever; permanent cuffs, though, were a whole different story. The collar already pushed it for me. I don't know how Stepan does it with his wrist cuff, but personally, I didn't like the thought of such items on me 24/7.

Being a spoiled pet? Yes.

Being a slave? No.

Shoving the thoughts aside with a sigh, I lightly squeezed her plush thigh. "Why me?" I stammered rather hesitantly. "Of all the guys out there, why me?"

There was nothing special about me. Okay, let me rephrase that: there was nothing special about that was good. I was nothing but a huge pile of red flags. Granted, Nicole wasn't exactly normal, but still. I didn't see what about me was 'lovable' or relationship material.

"Pull over," Nicole demanded after a few seconds of silence.

Without questioning her, I obeyed. Veering off the road, the car rocked a little when I drove onto the uneven dirt and gravel that crunched under the car's weight. It didn't take long for me to have a hard time discerning whether the cracking noise was the ground outside or my buzzing nerves crowding my eardrums the more I slowed the car down. For a moment, I could've sworn my anxiety killed my heart when I killed the car's engine.

Fear kept my slumped body rigid in place as a chilly silence filled the car. I don't know why or how the question left my mouth. Sure, it had been something on my mind for a while, but it was a stupid question. So, I always held myself back from asking Nicole her reasons for picking my broken ass over someone decent. That, and I was afraid of the possible answers. What if she didn't have any good reasons, and my question was the start of our end when she'd realize what a bozo I was?

Even the sound of her body shuffling around couldn't get me to turn my head the slightest in her direction. The only reason why I even looked at her was because I had no choice when she plopped herself onto my lap and grabbed my face. "The simple answer is everything," she started, with a half-smirk that slowly grew into a smile. "But you're not simple, so that answer won't do."

Her head darted forward, and a kiss pressed itself against my tense forehead. "You're stubborn about me. And yes, I know, I was your assignment, but even after you found out the truth and decided to drop it, you still cared enough about me to have my back." Keeping her head against mine, she lightly stroked the side of my face with her finger. "I admire your persistence and devotion and how you genuinely want what's best for me and protect me because you care for me. You never ask for anything in return from me." She had to pause for a second to chuckle. "Well, besides my happiness."

Looping her arms around my neck, she tangled her fingers into the back of my hair, curling and tugging at my locks. "I also love how observant and thoughtful you are when it comes to important things. Like yeah, it's a little creepy how much you know me more than myself sometimes, but it's sweet in its own way." A brief chuckle came out with her heavy breath. "You may be a violent brute, but you're a big softy underneath with a good heart."

Okay, I couldn't help but flash her a questionable look at that last part, making her laugh softly. "Okay, a good heart to me, which might be considered twisted or dark to some." She corrected herself. "But back to what I was saying… You're thoughtful, and everything you do, for the most part, has your good intentions behind it."

Cupping my face with both her hands, she looked deeply into my eyes with such tender affection. "Most importantly, you accepted me for who I am. You didn't rip my head off when I broke your nose with that wooden plank, nor did you try to get revenge for me tattooing my signature on you." Her eyes softened further with gratitude as she continued to speak, "Never once have you tried to change me ever since you met me. You've never asked me to be less crazy or to ease back on my hobbies with the bombs and tech. You never nagged or guilted me into doing more feminine things like tending to the house or being more ladylike and shit."

It started as a gleam before her eyes turned glassy with tears. "You actually love me for me, and you only ever want to bring out more of it rather than try to drown or snuff it out."

Tightly, I engulfed her with my arms and pressed our lips together in a frenzied kiss filled with lust, passion, and gratitude.

Nicole was just like me.

We were both confident and independent individuals who wanted nothing more than to have that special person who would have our backs. The missing piece of our souls who would complement and complete us rather than change us. The other half who would accept us for who we are and love us wholly.

Two twisted souls finally united.

And we won't let anyone stand in our way.