The Score (20 page)

Abruptly, Viviana tensed and cried out. Anton caught her next lower, sultry moan in his mouth, shushing to keep her quiet while he worked a tender beat with the second finger he added. Slick, warm arousal coated his fingers and Viviana’s pussy. That’s what Anton wanted, to have her ready, and so wanting for him. It’d been so long since he took her, and the last thing he desired for her to experience was any discomfort.

“No time,” he heard her say. “We don’t have—”

“Like fuck,” Anton muttered through his teeth.

Using his free hand, Anton pushed Viviana back until she lay flat to the table. Leaning over her form, he opened her shirt, pushed aside the black lace of her bra, and took her pink nipple into his mouth. Beautifully, her back arched like a bow. Anton bit down roughly around the taut peak.

“Shit,” Viviana gasped.

“Mmhmm.” Anton grinned, releasing his bite. A perfect set of his teeth marks stared back imprinted into her flesh. Face to face, he reveled in watching her lips part and eyes roll back. “You’re going to feel that all fucking day, baby. You’re going to feel all of me when I’m done with you.”

Anton pumped his fingers deeper, seeking for that spot to make her shake. When Viviana’s eyes flew wide open, her head falling back to the table, he knew he'd found it. One of her hands grabbed onto his wrist like a vise while her other reached back to hold the edge of the table. The faintest sheen of perspiration marked her skin. The silken, hot walls of her pussy clamped down around his two fingers as he thrust up into her G-spot again.

Viviana came with a broken cry, the sweetly tart wisps of scent from her sex finally starting to waft through the room.

“There we go,” Anton soothed, stroking with his fingers to coax her orgasm out as long as he could.

Who knew how long it would be before he touched her again. Viviana looked so fucking amazing laid out underneath him, too, with her skirt gathered up and her blouse opened. Like maybe they weren’t where they really were, and what was happening around them wasn’t actually happening. After all, they’d done this so many times before. For a short time, he could pretend.

“God, baby, look at you.”

There was a quake in Anton’s voice that Viviana didn’t miss. Those melted, milk chocolate eyes of her locked on to his damningly, soaking up every inch of his face with a simple sweep of her stare.

“We have to hurry,” Viviana said.

That might have been right, but it didn’t mean Anton wanted it to be. He said nothing when she fumbled with the button and zipper of his pants. Her shaking hands pushed the fabric of both his pants and boxer-briefs down in a frenzy. There was no question in her desire, only the hot, tight grip of her palm wrapping the steel-hard length of his erection in satin.

Anton barely had time to remove his fingers from her body, keeping her panties swept off to the side with his thumb, before Viviana was pulling him closer. She didn’t seem to need his help guiding her home, so he cupped her cheek with one hand. The moment the head of his cock rubbed against the slit of her pussy, Anton choked. The cold grip of something he was unaccustomed to feeling gripped him fiercer than ever.

Fear.

“Anton?” Viviana asked, glancing up.

A shudder crept up Anton’s spine. What was stopping him from taking Viviana?

“Not the last time,” he said through an audible swallow. The statement was vague at best, but his wife seemed to understand, responding with a faint nod. “Never, Vine.”

“Never.”

It only took a single, well-aimed flex of his hips and Anton was buried to the hilt in the heaven that was his wife. At the same time, he let go of the hold he had on her panties. Using both his hands, Anton grabbed hold of Viviana’s wrists and pulled her up from the table to meet him. Their mouths crashed together with a strength Anton never felt before. Teeth clashed as her tongue swept alongside his. The muffled moan that escaped from his chest mingled with Viviana’s gasped cry of his name.

What control Anton thought he had, was suddenly all but gone with a snap.

It was the heat, the wetness, and the tightness surrounding him.

Pulling away from her sex, Anton didn’t make it halfway out before he was slamming back in. Viviana’s nails cut into the skin of his hands, marking him like he loved. Something brutally swift came down on him harsh and strong, taking the wind right out of his chest. Anton filled her, stretching her open as her thighs dropped from his waist and widened further so he could get her deeper.

Like hell just picked him up and dropped him off in the best goddamned place.

“Fuck, Vine … Fuck, I
can’t
…”

No, Anton couldn’t do a damned thing. Even thinking was a lost cause. The only thing he understood was his cock was covered in her, slicked up with the arousal he wanted smeared on his mouth, and suddenly he was balls-deep inside her walls again. The trembling lips pressed to his opened at the same time her eyes opened wide. Fire burned in her gaze like the passion boiling at the very pit of his stomach. Over and over their hips met, the drag of skin on skin taking him a little higher, and a little lower.

Viviana brought their connected hands up, turning her face away from his view just long enough to press her lips to his knuckle. Then, she bit him, too. Air cut through his teeth, but her mouth was already back on his, their hands falling back down to the table.

“Faster,” Viviana pleaded, holding his stare, refusing to let go.

It should have been slow, soft, and sweet.

It wouldn’t be anything like that at all, and Anton knew it.

Brutal and dirty, it was how they always were; how life had made them.

When they were done, Anton would clean her, fix their clothes, and hold her like he’d wanted to. In the courtroom, he’d take a moment to kiss his wife, holding her chin between his forefinger and thumb to keep her gaze like she did him, just to remind her. While the prosecution laid the groundwork for a case that had to fail, he’d stare at nothing but the bite mark on his knuckle.

That’s what Viviana did for Anton.

No one could do it better.

So, he let her.

Chapter Seventeen

Viviana fumbled to answer the ringing cellphone in the darkness of the bedroom, not wanting the noise to wake the sleeping child beside her. It took three swipes of her hand over the top of the bedside table before she finally grasped a hold of the vibrating, screeching device.

“Do you know what fucking time it is?” she asked when she brought the phone to her ear.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.”

Ivan sounded as sarcastic and cocky as he always did. Viviana was starting to wonder how in the hell her husband managed to put up with his best friend and lawyer for as long as he did. Then again, Anton had a similar attitude, so maybe that was why their bond was as strong as it was.

“No, I’m not—”

“Do you have someone to watch Demyan?” Ivan asked suddenly.

Viviana wiped the sleep from her eyes, glancing at the clock blinking a time that shouldn’t be legal for someone to wake her up at, given the week she just had. The first week of Anton’s trial had been nothing more than the prosecution repeatedly dragging her husband through the mud. It was hard to sit there in the galley listening to it all.

It was harder keeping her act up. The one she held for Anton, the one reserved for the public, and an entirely different one that reminded a certain judge of the position he was in.

No, Viviana had no patience for late night phone calls that sported Ivan being a fucking smartass.

“Ivan, it’s—”

“Only one in the morning, so get up,” Ivan interrupted.

Viviana screwed her lips shut with a huff, chancing a look at her sleeping boy. “Listen, Demyan is in my bed. I’m not in the mood for this tonight.”

The next words Ivan spoke chilled the room by several degrees.

“We found her, Vine.”

“
Her
?” she asked quietly, knowing he’d get the point.

“Yeah, we fucking got her. One of Adrik’s men followed that lead and it led straight to her. We owe him a lot for this. It’s going to be done by the morning, and it’ll all be over.”

The cellphone dropped out of her hands to the bedspread. Viviana didn’t dare pick it back up for fear what Ivan said might actually be true. Natalie was the last piece to their puzzle. The one thing that could still put Anton away, even with the judge being blackmailed.

There were things the justice system could not ignore. A witness giving testimony, for one.

Quickly, Viviana plucked up the phone again, running on adrenaline and heartache. Their phone call couldn’t be recorded as they had used burner phones for as long as she could remember. They switched them out every couple of months just to be safe.

“Where is she?” Viviana demanded lowly.

Ivan replied, “At the club. You want a drive, or no?”

No, she didn’t need a drive. And she wouldn’t want someone seeing the breakdown on her way home, either.

“You could leave it alone, Vine.”

“What?”

“Leave it alone,” Ivan said again to her surprise. “Forget about it and let us handle it. You’ve already forgiven what might have happened between her and Anton, whether it did or didn’t occur. You’ve moved on. You don’t have to come.”

Ivan made a valid point, sure. Unfortunately, there was more to it than he could ever possibly understand. Anton was so adamant that nothing could have possibly happened between him and Natalie that Viviana wanted desperately to believe him. But, the truth of the matter was simple. He didn’t know.

Anton couldn’t know for sure, he didn’t have the memory to make his words fact.

Even so, there was a bleakness to Anton’s voice whenever he spoke about it. A cloudiness hazed his eyes. Viviana knew guilt was the first emotion to plunder through his system in regards to how it hurt her.

It wasn’t only Viviana that needed to know the truth. Anton did, too.

“I have to know if that woman was with my husband,” Viviana said softly.

“You’re sure?” Ivan asked.

There was no hesitation in her thoughts. No flowery explanation in her words. Just honesty, as plain as it was.

“Yes, I need to.”

***

Viviana pushed through the obnoxious, smothering crowd inside Seven Lights at a little past two in the morning. There was thirty feet of dancing, drunk, and far too happy people in her way before she would be able to disappear up the metal staircase that led to Anton’s upstairs office.

While her husband was incarcerated, a few of his guys had really stepped up to take care of the club after the feds were finished tearing it apart during their searches. Viviana had no interest in the place, and even if she did, she wouldn’t know what to do with it. The same guys handling the club business also made sure the other businesses Anton had a hand in was running properly, too. Even though Viviana technically owned those businesses, they were for all purposes, her husband’s. She didn’t have the first clue how to run a strip club, restaurant, or bar. Not a one. They didn’t ask her to, either.

“Vine!”

Over the loud music, drunken voices, and laughter, Viviana heard her name called again. She followed Ivan’s voice through the throng of people, feeling her heart beat faster the closer she came to the stairs. There were so many bodies inside the club she had to wonder if the building was over its fire code.

Seven Lights always was popular in Brighton Beach. With Anton’s arrest, it was even more so.

No one seemed to notice it was Viviana pushing her way past them, though. That, or they were too drunk and enjoying themselves to care. She’d tried to dress the part of being at a club to dance, at Ivan’s suggestion. Even though she hadn’t wanted to. Taking the time to get dressed up and do her makeup had wasted precious time that would have been better spent getting this over with and going home.

Finally at Ivan’s side at the bottom of the stairs, he leaned down to say in her ear, “No one noticed a thing when they brought her in through the back.”

“She’s up there right now?” Viviana asked. Jesus, there was a whole building full of witnesses! “Are you fucking stupid?”

“This isn’t our first scene, girl. Besides, with the cops they had watching Natalie, it was like picking up a penny out of a fountain. I guess they weren’t even inside the motel they had her shacked up in, just waiting outside like a bunch of fools. She was a sitting duck. Simple, or so says Adrik.”

Viviana tried to wave her worry off, but it was already settled in way too deep. “How’d his guys find her if ours couldn’t?”

“Adrik has a few official contacts we could really use on our side, too.”

“Is she actually awake?”

Ivan rolled his eyes. “For now.”

Yikes, that was cringe worthy. Viviana wasn’t sure she wanted to know what that meant.

“I don’t want to see—”

“It’s clean. Nothing like that. Anton wouldn’t want it that way, anyhow. Messy means we’ll have more to clean up later. That’s unacceptable. Come on, Vine, if you’re so fucking intent on doing this.”

When she paused, Ivan asked, “You do want to, don’t you?”

“Very much,” Viviana admitted.

Ivan frowned. “So what’s the hold up?”

“What if it did happen? You were right earlier, I have forgiven him. I’m perfectly happy to move on and not know because of it.” Viviana blew out a quiet sigh, her stress rising. “Did I just come here to punish myself? Because I believe him when he says he couldn’t have done it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. If I find out it did, will that change my opinion?”

“I don’t think you came here to validate what you already feel, Vine.”

“Oh, no?” she asked, trying hard not to scoff. “Please, feel free to tell me why I did, then.”

“Because you wanted to hear her say it,” Ivan replied simply. “You know how you feel about it, and so does Anton. Your reaction now, if you find out he did fuck her, won’t be any different from when you first thought he did. What’s the difference, really? Nothing. You only want to hear her say it. Either yes, or no.

“You want the confirmation that he can’t give. And you want to ask why, like any normal person would. Those are the answers you haven’t been given. Humans are the most curious of creatures. We have to know everything, pick things apart to understand the hows and whys of it all. You want to be satisfied in your information and there’s nothing wrong with that. It has very little to do with forgiveness, Vine.”

Oddly, what Ivan said made a lot of sense. It was something she hadn’t considered, but it felt right.

“Okay,” Viviana said, feeling her emotions lockdown and ready for the battle ahead.

Ivan waved at the stairs. “After you.”

***

Natalie sat across from Viviana with a fleece blanket tossed over her shoulders. With a stony expression and blank, eyes staring at the wall, she looked tired. If it weren’t for the slight tremor rocking the girl’s shoulders, she would almost appear unbothered by her current situation.

Viviana knew better.

“Are you scared?” she asked Natalie.

They were the first words Viviana had spoken to her since entering the office, and the effect they had were shocking. Natalie flinched, eyes fluttering closed as she grimaced. “I’ve been scared for a long time.”

Viviana nodded. That she could understand. “Your uncle is here as well.”

“To kill me,” Natalie said with a sniff.

“No, to show respect for his boss. Something you wouldn’t understand.” Viviana rocked back on her heels, resting her elbows to her knees. “You see, Viktor has caused Anton issues once before. Slapped me around a little when he was supposed to bring me to my husband safe and secure. Their business relationship hasn’t been the same since, or so I’ve been told. Viktor has a lot to prove. You’ll certainly help that.”

“But I will die.”

Viviana made a dismissive noise, though her heart clenched painfully. There was no denying the fact she didn’t like where this had all led them, and where they had yet to go, but it was the ways and rules of their life. Something Natalie hadn’t followed.

“Did my husband really tell you he killed Sonny and the Belovs?” Viviana asked quietly.

Natalie glanced up from under her damp lashes, the mess of wetness on her face shining in the overhead lights. “Yes.”

“What did you give him?”

“Vine,” Ivan stared to say.

“Shut up, Ivan.” Viviana didn’t even turn to look at him. “Natalie, what did you give him?”

“I … I don’t know,” the girl confessed.

Confusion ran rampant. “Excuse me?”

“They said it wouldn’t do any harm, just make him more agreeable. That’s how they said it: agreeable. The feds, I mean. I wasn’t told what it was, only how to use it.”

“They’d do anything,” Erik said angrily. “And what could he say, huh? Nothing, because it was probably all burnt out of his blood by the time they thought to check. Fucking ridiculous.”

Viviana had to agree, but she forced herself to bite her tongue and not respond. That wasn’t the discussion she wanted to have at that time. The question burned inside her mouth, so she let it out, knowing full well the answer might kill her further. “He wasn’t agreeable before?”

“No.”

“But he was after?” Viviana pressed.

Natalie blinked, the blank expression returned while tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. “I’m a pretty girl, or so I was always told.”

Sure, that was true. Natalie wasn’t anything to scoff at. “Your point?”

“Men look, they always have. I’ve never had a problem catching a man. It should have been easy. All I needed to do was get close, make him pay attention, catch his eye, and move in. The agents assumed because Anton wasn’t having a public affair that he must have been keeping it on the low. Someone inside. Or maybe even more than one. God knows he’s got enough girls working for him to do it, right? You were always around, I don’t think they even knew.”

“Knew what?”

Natalie shook her head frantically. “It should have been easy!”

Without warning, Viviana reached out and grabbed Natalie’s face. Her fingers squeezed painfully tight, nails digging into the creamy toned flesh of the girl. With a jerk of her hand, Viviana forced Natalie to look at her. More of the girl’s tears fell at the rough handling.

“Knew what?” Viviana repeated through her teeth. “You will answer my questions without unnecessary rambling or I promise, this won’t be easy for you, girl.”

“How much he loves you,” Natalie whispered.

Momentarily, Viviana’s grip loosened in her surprise. “Why did you do this to us?”

“They hounded me, nonstop. Showing up outside of my apartment, where I shopped for groceries, and even sitting outside my older brother’s job.” Natalie swallowed thickly, her tears falling freely, now. “I wasn’t sure if I was more afraid of the feds, or someone in the Bratva finding out they were following me.”

“They knew that,” Viviana assumed. “Used it to get you.”

“I—”

Anger washed through Viviana like a wrecking ball. Who did this girl think she was? Whatever excuses she was ready to spit for her choices, no one wanted to hear. Viviana’s fingers dug in again, causing Natalie to quiet with a painful whimper.