All Chapters of Reckless Hearts: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The intense smell of Cuban cigars and alcohol fumes hit Andrei as soon as he stepped inside. A crew of low-rank soldiers lounging around stood up and bowed their greetings. He waved them off, followed his lieutenants straight to the rusty metal door in the back, and took the short flight of stairs to the basement, where Sergei and the rest of the family's top management were waiting for him. "How's the old man?" his uncle asked as they hugged and shook hands. "A pain in the ass as usual," Andrei replied, accepting a drink from Sergei's wife, Rowena, before taking his place at the head of the table. He sipped his drink slowly and closed his eyes, wincing when the liquid scalded his throat. Why everyone thought all Russians loved vodka was a mystery to him. He didn't hate it, but it wasn't his go-to drink, and his aunt knew this. For some inexplicable reason, though, she insisted on serving it to him every damn time in the hopes of making him a real Russian. According to her, he wasn

Dave took his sweet darn time answering Holly's knock, and by the time he did, she was on the verge of giving up and heading back to Morningside Mews. "Holly?" the butler stammered, obviously surprised to see her there since she hardly ever visited her big brother. Not uninvited, at least. "What's going on?" Dave threw the door wide open, inviting her in. "What are you doing here?" "I didn't know where to go," Holly admitted, wringing her hands in despair. Something she'd felt her whole life but hid so well because when you were pushing yourself to be the greatest, you had to keep it together and exude fearlessness and indestructibility. Dave closed the door with the heel of his shoe and opened his arms. Holly flew into his embrace, the comforting smell of his Old Spice aftershave taking her back to her childhood when he still worked for her parents. When he was still just her Davey. Before he lost his family, and her head grew so big from being the youngest prima at the Instit

"Holly?" "Andrei? " They both spoke at once, gawking at one another. Well, Holly was sure she was staring more than him, because he liked his woman warm-blooded, and she was anything but. "You keep showing up like a bad penny," she said caustically, remembering his comment earlier as she strolled to the kitchen to get a glass of water. "You live here now?" Andrei arched his eyebrows, ignoring her snarky comment. "What's it to you?" she asked. "Do you live here or not?" "What does it matter? You have my penthouse now, and because of you, I have to squat at my brother's place." Andrei stepped closer, his face an expressionless mask. Holly inched back with each of his measured steps, only to trap herself against the kitchen island. Finally, he also paused, leaving very little space between them. His cool cigarette-laced breath fanned the side of her face as he whispered, his voice sending a tingle up her spine, like he'd run his sensual fingers on her skin, "Listen here, you li

"What did you do to her? You'd better not have touched her!" Andrei shoved Liam off, growling at him as he fixed his clothes, "Get your shit together. What the fuck do you take me for? She came to my penthouse, drunk as a skunk, trashed my clothes and fell asleep. I took care of her, and you're welcome!" "Look, Drei," Liam said, addressing him by his nickname for the first time in a long while. "I'm sorry. It's just that she's my baby sister and going through a rough patch. I'm sure you heard about her injury." "Well, you might want to keep her on a leash. I'm not the one you should be worried about!" Andrei shrugged off his apology, still pissed out of his mind that Liam had the nerve to put his hands on him. He was damn lucky they were old friends and business partners. Otherwise, he would have put a bullet right between his eyes. Nobody fucking touched his Armani suits. Well, nobody except Liam's bratty sister, of course. The same woman at the centre of their conflict. "Wha

Andrei thought heading home, having a few drinks, and sleeping it off would do the trick. But it didn't. When he woke up the following morning with a mother of headaches, he was still hopping mad. An hour later, all showered, dressed up and slightly sober thanks to Helga's nasty ass hangover cure, he felt almost human again. Almost. But his rage was nowhere close to cooling. When he jumped in the car a little while later, Ivan and Igor barely spoke after their usual greetings. They'd known each other all their lives and could read the other like a book, so one look at him told them to keep their wisecrack comments to themselves. "Where to?" Igor asked from behind the wheel as they paused at a four-way stop. "Glen Eagles!" Andrei replied. Wordlessly, Igor indicated, switched lanes, and took a left to connect them to the highway. Not a single word was uttered between the three men for the duration of their drive to Glen Eagles; the uncomfortable silence swirling in the car was f