Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(8)

Rolling them, he flipped her onto her back, crawling over her body, pulling at the lacy bra she wore. Natasha was smiling, encouraging him, but as quickly as that registered with him, he turned her over again, bringing her up to her knees.

Even as he spent hours in that bed with her, he still couldn’t work out the tension curled inside of him.





3

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Bad Decisions





Though she had taken to drinking her nights away these past few months, partying in more than half of the clubs in Manhattan, it had been a while since Alex woke up with a hazy memory of the night before and a headache from hell.

Pushing herself up to a sitting position—though it brought with it a fresh level of pain—Alex rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear her blurry vision. Feeling movement to her right, she blinked, squinting, then blinked again, not believing what she was seeing.

A guy was asleep beside her on his stomach, his face turned in the opposite direction from her, but he looked vaguely familiar. If not for her skull feeling like it was splitting open, she might have tried harder to remember who he was. He wasn’t a particularly unwelcome sight, but considering there were two other girls sprawled out at the foot of the bed, she felt like she was going to be sick.

Gingerly, she climbed out of the bed, stumbling her way into the bathroom and grabbing her clutch along the way. Closing and locking the door behind her, she went over to the mirror, resting her hands on the edge of the porcelain sink.

Awful was the only way to describe how she looked.

Her skirt was skewed, top half unbuttoned, her hair in disarray with dark circles around her eyes, not to mention the day-old makeup, and Alex hardly recognized herself. Which was starting to become familiar

Digging for her phone, she tapped a button on the keypad to light up the screen, cursing when she saw the time. She was supposed to be meeting up with Lauren to hang out—her new sister-in-law had a thing for bonding—and if she didn’t show, Lauren would undoubtedly go to Mishca, and she really wasn’t in the mood for all those questions.

Alex was contemplating her next move when her phone rang, a name that made her heart skip a beat when she saw it appear on the screen.

Luka.

Luka Sergeyev.

Her brother’s new right hand, an enforcer in the Volkov Bratva, and the bane of her existence…and some days, when she allowed herself to think of the possibilities, he felt like so much more.

For a while, it had felt like a crush, then it felt like something more, something indescribable, something that Luka seemed to return for a short time, at least until Natasha seemed to become a permanent fixture in his life. Some days there was friendship, other days she felt a draw that made it nearly impossible to stay away from him.

Now, she didn’t know what was going on between them.

Though she didn’t want to answer, she felt helpless not to.

…But that was before. Before everything in her life had turned upside down

“Yeah?”

“Yo.” That was his standard greeting to everyone. “Where are you?”

Alex looked around, trying to rack her brain for a response, but she didn’t really remember where she was, but she couldn’t tell him that. She needed to stall. “Is there a reason why you’re asking?”

“Family bonding. I have to pick you and the best friend up. Ready?”

Pressing the phone to her shoulder to muffle any noise she made, Alex grabbed her shoes and clutch, heading back out the bathroom. “I’m perfectly capable of getting there on my own.”

The easygoing quality to his voice was slowly bleeding away. “True, but you can either give me an address or I’ll track your phone. Lady’s choice.”

“Fine, I’ll call you in five minutes.”

She hung up before he could respond, slipping out of the bedroom, heading toward the front where she could see the bar. There were bodies everywhere, in varying stages of undress. To even make it to the door, she had to step over a rather large man who was completely naked, a woman who was less than half his size draped across him.

When she was out on the street, she glanced up at the street sign at the corner, quickly texting Luka an address before he did follow through on his threat.

“Where you going?”

Alex jolted, glancing back over her shoulder to where her former bedmate was jogging after her, tugging his shirt on along the way. Though it was unlikely that Luka would be pulling up anytime soon, she still looked back, checking for any sign of that black Mercedes.

“I have things to do,” she said.

“At least give me your number,” he went on, not bothered in the slightest that she no longer seemed interested. “This doesn’t have to be the only time we see each other.”

That was true, but Alex wasn’t sure if she did want to see him again, especially with her memory still foggy from the night before, but as quickly as that thought had formed, the familiar temptation of doing something wrong filled her…not to mention that whatever he had given her was surprisingly strong.

Not thinking anything of it, she rattled off her number, her fingers tightening around her own phone as it started vibrating in her hand.

“Where are you walking to? I can give you ride back.”

Forcing a smile, Alex shook her head. “No thanks. I have a friend already coming.”