FREDRICKI was beginning to think, that there was something wrong with me as I paced the gold-encrusted space of my chambers, a faceless woman sleeping idly on the bed behind me, out cold.”Goddammit,” I muttered, my eyes flashing as I watched the half-naked strawberry-haired blonde man who was dry-heaving sobs in the blue-tinted mirror vanity.There had to be something wrong, why else couldn't I get the image of Darlene’s puffy pussy lips out of my head? My twin brother’s wife?How the hell was I supposed to get anything done? When everywhere I turn the woman was right there! I’d been on my way to his office, Xander. Couldn't remember for the life of me, where I'd kept my own set of keys, but I decided I was going to give it a shot. He was probably going to be there too, sorting out the last shipment and keeping records, so I hadn't worried too much about the nitty gritty.That was until the sound of a long, drawn-out moan sent a bolt of shock straight to my loins.What the fuck? I
DarleneI could hear them from where I was hiding, the shrill, harried voices of rich women in heat mucking about in their uppity little social circles, the clank of their New York designer wears, and chardonnay wine glasses set my teeth on what I knew would be a night-long grind.I placed a calming hand on my chest, watching the brown-haired woman in the mirror chuckle what I could almost describe as evilly, the ruddy plains of her square face bent toward my hair as she attacked the short curtain of unbending black locks with bobby pins and her instruments of war.”Nervous my Lady?” Mary tittered and I inhaled sharply, my heart slamming once into my ribcage so hard that I cupped my hands to my chest, aiming to catch the stubborn organ.Did I look nervous? My eyes fitted to hers in the mirror, but they remained staunchly fixed on my diamond-encrusted hair, before I cleared my throat, the moment of hesitation passing somewhat awkwardly.“Me? Hardly, I'm excited,” I wheezed, flashing he
FredrickThere were strangers in the foyer of my father’s grand mansion that I did not want there.The elite of the elite standing around the gold and silver studded foyer of our expansive driveway so that it looked like I was some sporangia admiring the carnage in a shark tank.“If it isn't Frederick McKenzie, the mogul’s little brother, Always a pleasure to see the little ones fostering,” Don Baron laughed coarsely, the stubbled folds of his quadruple chin vibrating so hard I reared back, afraid some animal might leap through the folds onto my crepe gold suit.”Baron, I’m afraid I can't say the same, appears you might have been stuffing more than your face,” I gritted impassively. Letting my eyes rest on the folds of his belly that had sagged so far down from his badly designed monkey- jacket that pressed up against his tree-trunk knees.“Now hold on a minute,” Don Baron stammered, raising one plump index that had reddened worryingly at the tips and I watched as the stout man’s face
ALEXANDER“Who was that?” I asked again, watching the man in the gold suit take his sweet time before turning to stare at me dumbly, a light smirk playing on the full line of his lips.I hadn't seen my wife since the night of our rendezvous, rushing into the party like I was freaking Lara croft raiding a gold-encrusted catacomb.I had gotten sidetracked, in my search for who had invited Kayla Storm to the party, wading in the avalanche of files and employee records I had scattered across the marble-finished floor of my office study.It was unbelievable, there were no records of the buxom dark-haired woman anywhere, not at the head office and not in the study! There were no records of her anywhere, even after I’d cross-referenced her ID pictures on the web.“Fucking hell,” I’d gasped, the mouse stiff under my palm as I sat, blanched as a washed-out olive skin, the plastic of the mouse cold under my palm as I looked at the white screen of the search engine.The pressure that had built
DARLENEI watched the woman’s hands reach out to settle on the lapel of his suit for the second time that night, unable to tear my eyes away from the look of what I was certain was faux innocence on her face.“Dar love? Are you okay? You seem a bit cold,” Laura whispered, breaking away from the circle of giggling women. I snapped my eyes from the handsome man’s profile to meet my best friend’s worried face, her large silver earrings catching my eye as they slapped against her cheeks when she leaned in.Ugh! I hated this, the feel of my heart racing so fast it threatened to break from my chest.Everyone was having fun at the party, drinking, and gossiping, even the occasional fist-throwing I'd been surprised to see at one of the elite’s tables, but here I was freaking lovesick and unable to get as much as two flutes of Bailey’s past the lump in my gullet.”Yeah, Yeah I’m fine, just thinking,” I whispered, managing to arrange my face into a somewhat grateful smile, but it must not have
Alexander McKenzie“W-what do you mean? Your father invited me here,” The dark-haired buxom woman whispered, her lip quivering in just the slightest fashion and my ears started to ring.Why would my father do that? Just what was wrong with the mafia lord?I gave the wide-eyed woman a look of disbelief, feeling the corners of my lips turn down with irritation.“He did! I swear on it! Here, I- I have proof,” She muttered, her voice cracking at the confrontation as she dug hastily in her purse, fishing out the gold-embossed invitation letter my mother had made sure to deliver personally to the invitees.”We’ll goddammit Xander, you are one mighty prick,” Fredrick droned beside me as I tried to reach for the card, my hand stilling at the wonder in his voice before I retracted it.“I can leave if you want me to, I-I really would hate to impose,” Kayla whispered and I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head, my hand snaking out to grip her wrist faster than I could think to stop it.She paus
DARLENE BERNARDOThe noise of the siren faded around us as I stood in silence with my husband, what felt like minutes since I’d told him his mother had been poisoned.I watched emotions play across his face, the thick black of his eyebrows scrunching together before his lips twitched violently and he let out a loud, reverberating laugh, keeping over and gripping his stomach like he had been kicked in the shin.What the hell was so funny? I hadn't wanted to admit it, but something about the way he was behaving seemed different.It was almost as though he was disconnected, in a different reality, one where I wasn't his wife.Instead, a stranger who had just told him I had a pet fish who I fancied was Whitney Houston reincarnated.“My god Darlene! Have you gone mad?” He boomed, and I felt the whip of shame land heavily in the middle of my back as I turned to see a few heads angled our way, their searching eyes snapping away quickly when they saw I had caught them looking, but the tilt of
AlexanderI was fucked. Fucked in three different languages.So knee-deep in shit that I might as well have been a shit mausoleum humanoid for all I cared.How could I have hurt my wife so? What had come over me?I remembered the first time it had happened, the lapse. Our first night in the heat of the ring’s operations.My father had introduced us to the roguish-looking men, their dark eyes and thin lips lifting slightly with appraisal before settling back into a blank canvas.It had frightened Fredrick, more than it had frightened me when the killings started. Round-eyed men tortured so badly their skin was hanging on to the sinew of minced muscle by a thread.“Where’s the shipment Quavo?” My father grinned at the muscle man shaking his head wildly, but we had all known it was just a formality. The man couldn't very well speak when his tongue had been seared off.I hadn't even been certain he could hear us until the exposed balls of his red-rimmed eyes rested on me.”Dear God!” Fred
DARLENE“Rise and shine sleepy heads! Breakfast’s ready!” Prince Charles’ booming baritone cracked through my skull before a wash of yellow light bored through my closed eyelids so that I groaned, breaking into a chuckle when Alexander groaned beside me.“Fucking hell Charles, did your parents not teach you to knock?” My husband hissed, throwing the soft white duvet away from his hard body and stretching to his feet to snatch the coffee mug the purple-eyed man held out like a peace offering in one hand, his gaze sliding over to me and darkening a shade before he smirked.“I don't believe they did,” He whispered breathlessly, nodding his head to the door where the strawberry blonde-haired man was leaning against the doorframe in brown capri pants, a pearly grin stretched across his smooth face.“Have some decency Frederick, my wife’s in the room,” Alexander whispered, scoffing loudly and sipping his tea as I stretched a yawn and shimmyed away from the bed to rest my head on my husband’
FREDERICK“Die motherfucker,” I gritted, pressing my finger into the claw of the trigger and feeling the gun jerk in my hands, the impact pulling me forward so that I tumbled into the stone flooring.“Come on! Go go go!” I screamed through gritted teeth, waving my hands wildly at Darlene and pushing her around the car as she surged through the barrage of shots pummeling us and firing off a few more rounds as the Umbrella man roared with pain, tearing the knife from his eye with an impossibly loud sucking sound.“I need to get closer,” I hissed through my teeth as I rounded the bend of the car to meet Alwxander’s tense body where he was hunched, hiding from the rain of bullets with Darlene curled in his arms.I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat, jabbing my fingers into my palms to battle the wooziness that stabbed the sides of my head and peering through the rim of black sedan to see that the man now had a gaping hole in one eye that still spurted blood as he glared around
STEFAN MCCOYMy knuckles were white on the trigger as I watched the man’s hard body as he walked slowly into the room, his eyes never leaving the gun I had pressed dutifully against his wife’s empty ass head.“No sudden moves Alexander or I’ll have the woman’s brains plastered across the floor,” I growled through clenched teeth as Alexander staggered into the room with his father and more of my men surrounding them.I had known something was off the minute I left the penthouse, even before the sound of gunshots echoed out behind us and I asked Markov to turn the car around.The white penthouse with its flashing lights and tall pine trees loomed as ghastly as ever, as I motioned the men every which way, feeling adrenaline rush through my veins when the sounds of gunfire exploded around the sides of the house as my men sniffed the bastards out like the rats that they were.“Please, McCoy, don't do this, My wife has nothing to do with this okay? I’ll, I’ll give you whatever it is you wan
DARLENE“Something’s wrong,” I whispered breathlessly, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight as I watched the man with the Jerry curls stride away from the large lattice silver gates, a gun held tightly in his right hand.“What the fuck do you mean something’s wrong? McCoy’s going with most of his men! This is our cue to go in, grab the twins, plant the bombs, and hightail the fuck out of here in time for Mrs. McKenzie’s dinner special,” Erwin snapped blithely from his crouch beside me, the rim of a sniper rifle held tightly in his hands, as he peered through the scope.“Lassie’s right, this seems too easy, they must have found out about the decoy car approaching already, that's the only reason for him to leave...and yet,” Williams McKenzie growled on my right flank, raising the tight hulk of his frame into a low squat and inching to slap himself against the tree, the burnt orange blackness of the forest blending perfectly with our camo gear.“We should-” Erwin start
ALEXANDERThe bright fluorescent lights tore through my eyelids to fry my eyeballs before I had even opened my eyes. I groaned, the soreness in my arms and stiff legs making me groan louder as I let my head fall back into my chest.What the hell did the bastard hit me with? Fucking hulk?“Ugh!” I groaned, screwing one eye open to lock gazes with my brother’s blanched face and watching him sag with relief when he saw that I had opened my eyes.“Alexander? Fuck! Thank saints you're okay,” He rasped breathlessly and I felt the scowl deepen between my eyebrows as I glared at the swollen purple bruises on his face that had left the skin of his face puffy and red.“Your buddy didn't take too kindly to you I reckon, stabbed you in the fucking balls just like you did to me you piece of shit!” I barked acidly, watching my brother rear back on the chair that he was strapped to like he had been slapped.I looked down to see I was lying on some makeshift gurney table, feeling my heart pound wildl
DARLENE“Where is he? Where’s my husband?” I whizzed when I caught up to the ring chief scowling in the middle of the road, his hands fixed patiently on his narrow hips.“He’s gone Dar, that McCoy took him,” Prince Charles gritted, eyeing me carefully before I noticed his hand cupping the large gash on his chest, the trickle of blood pooling on the purple suit staining the area black.“Here, let’s get you to the car,” I gritted through clenched teeth, managing to push the words past the lump that had grown in my throat and tugging the man’s hand free when he resisted before hooking it over one shoulder, grunting when he leaned his weight on me a little.I could hear the whirl of sirens in the distance as they got closer and I yelped, slamming to a stop when the purple-eyed man stopped suddenly in his tracks.What the hell was it with mafia men and having death wishes? I tried not to look at the nasty knife wound on his abdomen or the purple and red bruises on his chin and focused inst
FREDERICK“Did you have to do it that hard?” I whispered, feeling tears gather in my eyes as I watched the Umbrella Man tower over my brother’s limp body, his brown eyes almost luminescent in the dark.“Quiet Frederick, you're ruining my groove, take him.” Stefan McCoy growled and I felt my heart hammer in my ribs as the masked ninjas dropped from the trees like banana monkeys, hooking my brother’s hard body onto the stretcher as I watched on with widened eyes.“Is he dead?” I rasped breathlessly, feeling panic burn in my chest as I trotted after the men, the crunch of dried leaves under my feet sounding loud in the silence as the masked men marched my brother to the large white van that had been parked off to the side of the highway.“Not yet,“ The Umbrella man whispered, rubbing his hands together in glee as they loaded him into the van and I felt a flicker of doubt spark in my chest.“So it’s all good now right? Everything will go as planned now?” I coughed, scarcely trusting mysel
ALEXANDERIt took longer than I would have liked for my eyes to adjust to the near blackness as I entered the forest.“Where are you? You son of a bitch,” I ground through clenched teeth, waving the gun this way and that and aware of the way I was panting loudly, carefully placing one foot in front of the other.My arms were starting to get sore from holding the gun up and high, my knuckles white on the trigger as I crept along the line of trees, freezing when I thought I had heard the distinct sound of a tree branch snapping.Could this get any fucking worse? Did the motherfucker have to pick the shittiest forest in the whole of New York to make his dramatic comeback?“Go on and run away like the coward that you fucking are McCoy, I can smell that cheap perfume from a mile away,” I jeered loudly, feeling goosebumps rise on my skin when my distorted voice echoed back to me in the blackness.I tried to focus past the hum that had started in my ears but my mind was not following my eyes
DARLENEMy husband hadn't made any sense when he got off the phone with the purple-eyed man and it made even less sense now as we sped toward the edge of town with his knuckles white on the steering wheel.I braced myself against the cool leather of the dashboard, trying to calm the staccato beating of my heart in my chest as we sped through the stretch of asphalt and felt a wave of nausea press insistently against the roof of my mouth.“Are you sure about the address?” I wheezed, unable to bear the silence any longer and risking a glance at the chiseled line of Alexander’s jaw, the way his piercing green eyes were starting dead ahead, his flock of obsidian black hair falling over his face as the muscles of his shoulder and bicep flexed when he fishtailed the steering wheel.“White Villa at Maple Street, I didn't know he lived there, there's only one of the kind, you can't miss it,” He whispered, and even though I knew the steel in his voice couldn't have been meant for me, it made sh