Page 2 of Road to Ruin
I’ve never had a thing for feet before. I’ve never even thought about them as a sexual part of a female body, but Genevieve ’s feet are delectable. What would it feel like to suck her toes into my mouth? To run the tip of my tongue along the delicate arch of her sole? Her dress has hitched up to her thighs. In my mind, I’m running my hands roughly up the inside of her legs, and she’s gasping, writhing in ecstasy as I trace my fingers higher, higher, higher…
A gentle knock at the door cuts me off there. Genevieve jumps at the sound, sucking in a deep breath. “Would you like something to calm your nerves?” I ask. “Weed? Whiskey? Cocaine?”
She shakes her head.
“Okay, then. Stay there.” I loosen my tie as I make my way across the room and open the door. I slip the length of silk from my shirt completely and hand it to West as he enters the room. He takes it without question, as if he was expecting it. Vaughn shoots me a reckless, excited grin as he moves past me and into the room behind our brother. The familial resemblance is extremely apparent between Vaughn and West; they’re identical, twins born eight minutes apart. They’re tall and dark like me but where my eyes are brown, theirs are pale blue, pale as ice, pale as the morning sky in winter after days and days of rain.
“Good to see you.” West’s voice is tense and low. Under his breath, he says, “He broke Javier’s nose. We had to knock him the fuck out just to stop him from smashing the wall down with his fists.” He’s talking about David Kendrick. David’s three years older than Genevieve, and sorely upset about my plans for his sister. Shame I don’t give a fuck.
“We’ll wake him up as soon as this is over. Is he still going to be able to drive?”
“Yeah. Just about.”
Over West’s shoulder, I see Vaughn already inspecting Genevieve, pacing around the bed, drinking her in with a fierce, wolf-like hunger. “She’s like a midnight rose. All that dark hair. Those ruby red lips. That pale, beautiful skin.” Crouching down to one side of the bed, he cocks his head to one side, frowning slightly as he studies Genevieve. “What’s your name, pretty one?”
Her eyes dart to me, looking for guidance. What do I want her to do? I give her a sharp nod of my head. “Genevieve,” she responds. Her voice waivers, hinting at fear, but she does me proud. She stays exactly where she is on the bed.
“Genevieve.” West considers this. “She’s different. I can see why you decided to keep her.”
“You know why I’m keeping her. She’s a means to an end.”
“Still.” He shrugs, still staring at her. “Doesn’t hurt that she looks like that.”
I’m not surprised that he’s taken a shine to her. Genevieve is striking, breathtaking in the truest sense of the word, but it’s not just her beauty that separates her from other women. It’s the way you feel when your gaze meets hers, like you’ve been shoved from the roof of a very tall building and you’re freefalling toward infinity. It feels as though she holds your soul in the palm of her hand when her focus is on you, and it’s a strange, unsettling sensation that leaves you raw and energized at the same time. She has no idea that she holds such power within that gaze of hers. If she did, this situation might easily be reversed. I might be the one laid out on the bed, obedient and ready to serve.
Both West and Vaughn are dressed in black: black jeans, black shirt, black leather jackets. Their black and white Chuck Taylors are equally scuffed and dirty. Hardly suitable attire for this event, but then again this is all very last minute. West moves to the other side of the bed and crouches in the same way that Vaughn did, so that both of them are admiring Genevieve from either side. “She’s magnificent,” he whispers. Genevieve glances between the two men, only a flicker of surprise registering on her face as she realizes that they’re almost impossible to tell apart.
“Alexander?”
Father Gustavo is hovering in the doorway. He is appropriately dressed, which is reassuring. He’s here, ready and willing to do his duty—very convenient since breaking into the rectory behind the Santa Maria Church and forcing him over here at gun point would have taken time I don’t have.He looks wired, wide awake, his salt and pepper hair combed neatly back from his face. His cassock is spotless, brushing the floor, and the huge pectoral cross hanging like a yoke around his neck looks like it’s been polished especially for the occasion.
“I wasn’t expecting to have to do this for you, Alex,” he says gravely. “At least, not quite so unexpectedly.”
“Yes, well. When you know, you know, right?” My voice is dripping with sarcasm, and the priest hears it. He blinks, like he has something in his eye, and then he turns his attention to Genevieve.
“The Kendrick girl,” he observes. “Do her brothers know about this?”
“One of them. The other will soon enough.”
He shoots me a scathing sideways glance. “You’re inviting trouble to your doorstep, you realize.”
“I’m not inviting it. I’m demanding it,” I correct him. “You know how I feel about debts, Gustavo. A debt must always be paid. Tommy Kendrick has owed me his pound of flesh for far too fucking long.”
Gustavo rolls his eyes. “Must you really…?”
It’s laughable that he objects to my language, given what he’s about to do for me. I give him a tight-lipped smile. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“As you wish.”
Genevieve shivers as I move and stand at the end of the bed. I hold out my hand to her, and her cheeks seem to grow redder. She takes my hand and allows me to help her up from the bed. West and Vaughn both move to stand on either side of her, looking to me, waiting for me to give an order to restrain her, but I shake my head.
“We don’t need to use force, do we, Genevieve? You’re going to behave. You’re going to do as you’re told, aren’t you?”
Her lips part, her eyes flickering with defiance, but after a second she nods. “You keep your promises. I keep mine. I’ll do as you ask.”
Poor, poor girl. She doesn’t see it yet. This will not be an arrangement of convenience. Yes, she’s agreed to my terms in order to save her brother David’s life, but I won’t be satisfied with that. They say the sins of the father are visited upon the heads of his children. Well, Tommy Kendrick’s sins are about to be visited upon his siblings, his sins are about to obliterate their lives, and I intend to enjoy every last second of it. I want payback, and there is no sweeter way of achieving my revenge than actually making Genevieve fall in love with me.
“You’re here willingly, yes?” Gustavo asks quietly. He shifts nervously from one foot to another, his gaze flitting from West to Vaughn, avoiding me altogether. Genevieve looks at the priest like he’s gone mad.
