Absolution (The Titans of Founder's Ridge) Read online

  “You guys go ahead,” he tells everyone without taking his eyes off me, “we’ll be right behind you.”

  “Right,” Levi chuckles. “You can’t hold her hostage all night, Con.”

  Connor grabs my hand and starts pulling me toward the bedroom we use when we visit Z. “Watch me,” he says over his shoulder.

  He closes the door with a quiet intensity. “I love you so much it fucking hurts. This love is a beautiful agony that I want to suffer for eternity.” He moves toward me with fast, deliberate steps but cups my face gently. “Let me show you how much I love you tonight. I know we flew here for here for your birthday, but you’re going out for your bachelorette tomorrow night.” He drops to his knees before me. “Let me worship you.”

  His eyes are the green of a forest at midnight, deep, dark, and mysterious. His fingers are creeping under the hem of my dress, lightly dancing over my thighs. I can’t say no to him with the unspoken desperation in his gaze.

  I reach behind my back and untie the halter of my dress. It flutters down my legs, and I’m left standing in my heels and black lace panties. He reaches up and pulls my panties down my hips and thighs. He grasps one calf and gently lifts it, removing my shoe. He repeats the process with the other foot.

  He leans down and trails kisses from my toes to my ankle, up my calf to my thigh. He licks my panty line and drags a finger through my slit, giving my clit one quick circle. Then he repeats the same painstakingly slow process on my other leg. It feels like not one inch of me goes ignored by him.

  He’s always been a generous and attentive lover, but this is different. He’s at another level tonight. A nagging thought presses at the back of my mind, but I push it away when he lifts my leg over his shoulder and devours my pussy like it’s his last meal. I grip his hair and pull on the dark, silky strands the way that makes him groan into me. His hands grip my hips when I start to lose my balance. He pulls back and drops my leg to the floor, spinning me around at the same time.

  I love when he gets like this, wild and greedy for me. He bends me over the dresser, facing the mirror. I watch him strip behind me, his eyes never leaving the reflection of mine. He grabs my hips again, lining himself up, and plunges his hard length into me. We both make little noises of ecstasy as he holds still inside me for a minute. Then his hips start pumping into me, the room filled with sound of our sweaty bodies colliding. I watch as he puts his thumb to his mouth, coating it with his saliva and tense up in anticipation.

  I yell out his name when he slides his thumb into my ass, the rest of his fingers splayed across my lower back. He wraps my hair around fist with his other hand and fucks me until I come violently, my body milking his cock. Our eyes lock in the mirror when he comes, neither of us looking away.

  He lets go of my hair and pulls out of me. I feel our combined juices running down my thighs. He looks down and gives me his signature arrogant smirk, proud as fuck to see the mess we made.

  “Lay down on the bed,” he commands. “I’ll get something to clean you up with.”

  I take a second to think about it. Even though we are completely in love with each other, we both still have the need to push each other’s buttons. I think we’ll be ninety years old in a nursing home and still pissing each other off regularly.

  I decide to do it, just because he seems more intense than usual tonight, borderline desperate. I pull the covers back and slide into bed. Connor walks into the room with a cocky swagger, hungry eyes, and already ready to go again.

  He climbs between my legs and wipes my thighs gently with a warm washcloth. He presses it over my core, letting the warmth soothe the ache he left behind with his savage fucking. While he waits for that, he massages my feet, letting his eyes wander all over me.

  “Lily, do you even understand how beautiful you are? I love every inch of you, from these cute toes, to that heavenly pussy, the trio of freckles on your side, your gorgeous blue eyes, and that beautiful platinum hair.” He pulls the washcloth away and tosses it over his shoulder into the bathroom. The he leans down, lining us perfectly. “You are everything I never knew I needed and definitely don’t deserve.”

  “I love you so much,” I cup his cheek and trace his lips with my thumb. “We deserve each other. We deserve this love.”

  He drops his forehead to mine for a moment and then kisses me. It’s a deep, soulful kiss. His tongue sweeps across mine languidly, as if we have all the time in the world. We’re both a bit breathless when we finally break the kiss. He presses small, sweet kisses down my neck and chest until he comes to my nipple. His tongue circles the tight bud until it’s aching for more. He sucks it into his mouth and then gently bites. He switches to the other and torments me until I’m grinding against him, seeking to impale myself on his cock.

  His mouth moves back up to mine, and as we kiss, he slides inside me. He grabs ahold of both my hands pushes them up beside my head where he links our fingers. The pace he sets is slow and rhythmic. Every thrust of his hips feels deeper than the last. I squeeze his fingers and arch my neck as I come. He kisses and licks every available inch of me until my orgasm completely subsides, and only then does he increase his tempo until he’s coming, filling me once again.

  I drift off to sleep in his arms, deeper in love, and more at home with him now than I ever have been.

  7

  CONNOR

  Leaving Lily asleep in bed and walking out that door was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There are no promises that I’ll return safely, or at all. At least I know she knows how much I love her. Our bodies have always communicated better than our words ever have.

  The streets of Chicago are eerily empty for a Friday night. It must be the cold October rain that’s steadily falling that has everyone staying home for the night. I send a text to Lake, letting him know I’m on my way and to make sure his guys keep an eye on things back here. Then I send another one to Dad, who’s already in St. Petersburg, getting some of the families he knows that are loyal to him to join us.

  My rented town car pulls up on the tarmac next to one of our jets. I tell the driver I don’t need help with my bag and jog up the steps. I ignore the flight attendant who tries to fuss over me. I don’t need anything from her except to be left alone for the eleven-hour flight. I don’t look around the cabin, just sit down next to a window to lose myself in thought.

  I’m startled when two seats in front of me swivel around to reveal Griff and Levi. The former has a grim expression on his face, lips pressed in a disappointed line. The latter has a smirk on his face but not his usual golden boy smirk, this is the one he wears right before he tears into someone. There’s a tense silence beating between us as they stand up and stare me down.

  “Fucker,” Levi says with ice in his voice. “What the fuck did I tell you when I beat the shit out of you weeks ago?”

  “Please,” I sneer, “you didn’t beat the shit out of me.”

  “Con.”

  “Lev.”

  “You deserve a repeat performance for this dumbass stunt you’re pulling.” He steps toward me, attempting to use his slight height advantage to intimidate me. “How stupid and selfish can you be to run off to deal with your family on your own?”

  “How do you even know what I’m planning on doing?” I shoot a glare at Griff because I know he found out somehow. Probably tapped my office or something.

  “I put a program that copied all your texts, emails, and files on your phone when you started acting shady,” he says with zero remorse. “The program uploaded everything to my servers while it uploaded to your cloud simultaneously.”

  My inner psychopath is already scheming up ways to use it. After all this is over, I’m going to have to hit him up for it.

  “Quit plotting ways to be a psycho with Griff’s tech,” Lev rolls his eyes, clearly seeing my plan written all over my face. “Why are you doing this on your own?”

  “I’m not going on my own. Dad will be there, and Lake has a team set up for us as back up.” />
  “The only people I trust to have my back are standing in the cabin of this plane. I sure as fuck wouldn’t be running off to fight a dirty war with my family and not have you guys with me,” Lev looks as hurt as he is pissed.

  I look at Griff, questioning him nonverbally about whether to tell Lev the whole story or not. He nods, understanding wordlessly. Lev looks back and forth between us, turning red with anger at the conversation he’s not privy to.

  “What. The. Fuck. Is going on?” he seethes.

  I sigh and rub my hand over my face. “Sit down, and I’ll explain everything from the very beginning.”

  Lev plops down across from me, a hard set to his face. Griff sits down beside him, his mask of indifference on his face. I don’t know what to expect from Lev, how he’ll react to my secret. I take a minute, staring out the window to collect my thoughts. They both understand this is challenging for me, so they wait patiently until I’m ready.

  I begin with the story of the little ways the abuse started my first summer with Ivan. Then explain how it became progressively worse each summer. All the awful things I witnessed and the fucked up things I did. I can’t bring myself to make eye contact with either of them after I finish. Griff had a general idea of what went down, but he didn’t know any details. I’m terrified that when I look up at my two best friends, my brothers, I’ll see the loathing I feel for myself reflected back in their eyes.

  “Right,” Lev says, “so are we killing your uncle slowly and painfully or just fast and brutally?”

  “I vote for slow and brutal, personally.” Griff’s voice holds a sadistic edge. “Drag it out for all the years of abuse.”

  I finally look up and see nothing but support coming from them.

  “Good call,” Lev holds his fist out, and Griff bumps it with his own.

  “I like where your heads are,” I shake my head, “but it’s going to have to be quick. There’s a party tonight celebrating the joining of The Nine. Essentially, The Nine are the nine families who hold all the criminal power in Eastern Europe. The party includes the members of each family’s organization, and it’s held on neutral ground at a mansion outside St. Petersburg. The leaders of each family will meet in a closed-door meeting halfway through the party.”

  I stand up and grab my iPad with all the schematics and information Lake was able to procure for us. I walk back to the conference table and motion for them to follow. It’ll be easier to discuss everything around it.

  “Dad has three of the families on our side. We know that Ivan has three as well. Two families are notoriously focused only what benefits them in the long run. I know that Ivan has infringed on the territory of one family regularly over the past decade. They will likely back us or at least remain neutral. The other family has had leadership upheaval recently, and none of us have any idea what we can expect from them.”

  “You guys can stay out at the party. Lake has a team already in place for us to act as security. You can absorb into that.”

  “Fuck that,” Lev says.

  “No,” Griff says at the same time. They share a glance. “We’re going wherever you go.”

  “Guys,” I lean back in my chair, “this is unlike anything either of you has ever experienced. A full fucking shootout is likely. These people are some of the most dangerous individuals on the planet.”

  “Oh, I’m aware from the letter you left me,” Griff pulls an envelope out of his jacket and tosses it on the table. I wrote them both goodbye letters and hid them in their suitcases, although, apparently not well enough. “I’m not scared, nor am I letting you go in there alone.”

  “I didn’t get a letter,” Lev’s brow furrows as he opens Griff’s letter. “Dick move, Con.”

  “You did get one, apparently you just didn’t find it.”

  “Did you give Lilith to Griff?” Lev asks with an incredulous look on his face. “She’s going to be pissed.”

  “She’s going to be pissed at a lot of things,” Griff replies. “She doesn’t need to know about what’s in this letter though,” he says sternly.

  “I didn’t give her to anyone. I merely stated that if they ended up together, I wouldn’t be upset. No one would protect her and love her like he would in my absence.”

  I can tell by the way Griff looks at me that he agrees.

  “I don’t want to think about anything beyond tonight right now though. I know there will be hell to pay if I make it through the night alive, but I have to focus on this.”

  “You’re making it through the night alive,” Lev says confidently. “We all are.”

  Griff pulls out his laptop and tablets. “What’s the name of the family that’s the wildcard? I’ll work on finding leverage.”

  I tell him the name but then add, “These are career criminals. It’s going to be hard to find anything of use on them.”

  “I’m a criminal, too.” He slides his glasses on and fires up all his electronics. “Do not doubt me.”

  “I’ve got a grand on Griff finding usable information before we fly over Greenland.” Lev points at my iPad. “Let me see that, so I can read up on everything you’ve got.”

  “You can focus on how you’re going to get out this unscathed with Lilith. She’s not going to be happy.” Griff frowns at his computer and then looks at both Lev and me. “With any of us.”

  Truth be told, I’m really fucking concerned about what’s going to happen when I get home. I’ve never lied her to her. This trip and plan are essentially lies of omission, which she won’t appreciate. I can’t risk her safety though, and had she known about this, she would have insisted on being with me. Hell, I can’t even keep Griff and Lev away.

  Lev was right. Griff found potentially usable information about an hour and a half into his search. If he wasn’t one my closest friends, I’d be afraid of him. We all fell asleep for the final few hours of the flight.

  Dad is waiting for us in an SUV. If he’s surprised to see Griff and Lev get off the plane with me, he doesn’t show it. I, however, am surprised to see Lake sitting beside Dad.

  “Gentlemen,” Dad acknowledges Lev and Griff. “How was the flight?”

  “Productive,” Griff immediately launches into the information he found. The matriarch of that family has just been diagnosed with cancer. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue because these families are still heavily traditional and led by the males, but the patriarch of this family has been undergoing treatment for early onset Alzheimer’s. Their position of power is hanging on precariously. Neither of the heads of the family will be in attendance, sending their grandson instead.

  Lev suggests that we find him before the meeting. If there is anything the three us can do, it’s turn on the charm and schmooze on the drop of a hat. It comes with the role of being heirs to billion-dollar companies. If being friendly doesn’t work, Griff will drop some subtle hints that we know his family’s secrets.

  “Why aren’t we going to the family estate?” I ask, surprised when the SUV pulls up in front of the Four Seasons.

  “No way in hell is Ivan ever getting near you again,” Dad answers. “I’ve booked suites for each of you. Do you two have suits on hand?” he asks Griff and Lev.

  They both nod their heads.

  “Good. You’ll need to be dressed and ready by seven tonight. Do you have guns?”

  They both do; under their jackets they’re wearing double shoulder holsters. We’ve all been carrying everywhere we go for the past two months. Lake is staying as personal protection for Dad at the family estate. He gives me a burner phone programmed with all his team’s numbers.

  It’s only eleven in the morning, so each of us goes up to our rooms for a little more rest, but sleep evades me. I text Lily good morning and tell her to have fun today. She thinks I just flew back to Boston. She probably won’t be awake for several hours.

  I keep going round and round trying out how to justify this to her when I get home. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a justification for it. I’m just
going to have to man up and accept the consequences when the time comes.

  I’m trying to force myself to sleep when I hear a knock on the door. I get up, not bothering to throw clothes on. It sounds like a Lev knock, and sure enough, when I look through the peephole, he’s standing in the hall.

  “I can’t sleep,” he says while walking in, “between thinking about everything you confessed and how pissed the girls are going to be at us.” He looks over at me, his blonde hair standing in every different direction. “Fuck. I wish you would have told me sooner than this. I would have been there for you.”

  “I know. I couldn’t talk about it though. I just bottled it all up and let my fists do all the talking for me.” It’s kind of ironic how the way I cope with anger and other negative emotions is to beat the shit out something or someone when that is literally the reason I hate myself.

  “I feel like we should have seen that something was wrong. We’ve been friends since before we could talk. If anyone should have noticed, it was Griff and me.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” I squeeze his shoulder. “Worry about how we’re going to get out of this mess with the girls. Lilith is going to tear my balls off and feed them to me.”

  “She’ll probably feed them to all three of us,” he scoffs. “It’d be deserved, too.”

  8

  CONNOR

  After Lev left my room, I wandered down to the Church of the Savior on Blood. It felt fitting to spend an hour or two walking around the site of where Alexander II was assassinated while I worked through the upcoming death of my uncle.

  I’ve always had such a love-hate relationship with Russia. It’s beautiful, more so than any city in the US in my opinion. The architecture of St. Petersburg is arguably the best of any European city, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical but then with random splashes of medieval Russian architecture like the onion domes on the church I sit outside of. The history surrounding you on every block is bloody and dark and speaks to me in the darkest parts of my soul.