Page 69 of Paved in Venom

“Never, solnishka.” Roman kisses her and places his hand back on her lower stomach. It’s an instinctive, protective move that he’s been doing a lot lately, and I can’t help but wonder if I’ll be doing it soon. I hope like hell I will be. Just the thought of it has me grinning at Simona and giving her a wink. She smiles and when I give her thigh a squeeze, she rests her hand on mine and leans into me.

When we’re done eating, my brothers and I clean up, and right when the dishwasher is loaded, Emily comes in from the terrace and asks, “Has anyone seen my pruning shears?”

Roman looks everywhere but at her while Vitaly coughs out a laugh and Lev and Matvey become very interested in wiping the counter down.

“Roman, do you know where they are?”

I’ve seen my brother lie on many occasions, and each time he does it, it’s flawless, so fucking flawless that even though I know it’s bullshit, I can’t help but start to believe it, but he can’t lie to his wife. He stares at her and then runs a hand through his hair and then finally lets out a laugh and shrugs.

“We needed them for something, but I’ll get you a new pair. I promise, solnishka. I’ll order them right now.”

He pulls out his phone to place the order when she asks, “What did you need them for?”

When Roman hesitates, Vitaly laughs and says, “You don’t wanna know, Emily.”

Emily and Simona look at each other and then back at us. Simona looks at me and asks, “When did you guys borrow them?”

Turns out I’m also incapable of lying to the woman I love. I scratch at my stubble and say, “Last night.”

“Jesus Christ,” Emily groans. “That’s so gross!”

“He hurt Simona,” I say, because that’s reason enough, but then I add, “he also hurt Alina and countless other women.”

“I know. Roman told me some of the details this morning,” Emily says, looking between Roman and Matvey to make sure they’re okay. “I’m glad you killed him.”

“Me too,” Simona says, giving me a smile, and fuck if that doesn’t make me proud. I may not be able to give her a normal life, but I can kill any motherfucker who ever dares to hurt her, so at least I’ve got that going for me.

“He didn’t die a happy man,” Matvey says.

“That may be the biggest understatement I’ve ever heard,” Vitaly says with a laugh before popping another chip in his mouth.

Thankfully Simona and Emily seem content with just knowing that and not asking for more details. I’m not so sure they’d still be smiling if they knew exactly how unhappy Stefan was when he took his last breath.

Simona can sense how antsy I am, even though I’m not giving any outward sign of being anything but calm. She still picks up on the subtle clues that only she can recognize—the way I’m gripping the edge of the counter a little tighter than needed, the smile I give her that isn’t quite as big as usual, and the way my fingers are curling around the back of her neck so I can feel her pulse beneath my fingers and count the beats.

Grabbing my hand, she leads me back downstairs while the others go off to do their own thing. I’ve been worried that Simona might feel like I’m neglecting her by burying my head in my computer instead of between her legs, but when she pulls me over to my desk and gently pushes on my chest to get me to sit down, she cups my face and smiles.

“I know you have important work to do, so stop feeling guilty about it. I’m not going anywhere, so do what you need to do.”

I pull her into my lap and kiss her hard. As soon as I finish what I need to do, I’m buying this woman the biggest fucking ring I can find. She deserves everything, and I’m going to be the lucky bastard who gets to give it to her.

When she pulls back, we’re both breathless, and she’s giving me a cute, loopy grin. I run my thumb over her swollen lips, smiling when she lets out a sexy moan.

“Thanks for understanding, baby. I’ll be as fast as I can.”

“Take as long as you need. I’ll be here when you need me.”

She kisses my thumb before standing back up, and as soon as our bodies are separated, I feel the loss of her and want her back. Thoughts of finding Alina and bringing her back home force my attention to my computer. Simona kisses my head before walking away. I hear her go back into her music room, and then I get to work.

I lose myself completely, not even aware of the passing of time. Simona brings me plates of food and massages my shoulders, and when she feels like I’ve gone too long without sleep, she grabs my hand and forces me to lay down. When I try and resist, she unzips my pants and pulls my cock out, wrapping the wet heat of her mouth around me until all I can do is fist her hair and growl for her to take me deeper. She makes me come so fucking hard that my body is completely spent and I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep, just like she knew I would. God, how did I fucking survive without her?

The next morning, I wake before the sun and return the favor, feasting on her sweet pussy until I’ve pulled several orgasms from her and she’s so exhausted she immediately falls back asleep. Smiling, I take a quick shower and then get back to work.

Work, food when Simona insists, and sex that’s downright feral is our daily schedule for the next several days. When it’s only a few hours from Pink’s opening night, I finally find what I’m looking for. My heart races when I see the money trail I’ve connected. I’ve got to hand it to whoever is behind all this, because they’ve covered their tracks. It was damn near impossible to connect all the dots, but I did, and it’s staring at me from the large screen on my desk.

When I went through the Red Viper’s accounts, I’d found payments being made to and from a company called Swan Investments, and now I have proof that they’re behind everything, every damn thing. Every single money trail eventually leads back to them. They even own the fucking club in Romania that Simona was brought to and the rundown hotel they’ve converted into a holding cell until the women get transported to the auctions. They own everything, and they use their own private jet to bring the women into the country. Less than twelve hours before the auction I bought Simona at, a plane landed at a private airfield about an hour away, and the plane left again before the auction had even ended.

I know the two men that Simona saw were on that goddamn plane. We known it’s a Bratva that’s running this, and after hours of research, I’ve narrowed it down to three that are big enough and powerful enough to run something of this magnitude: the Zolotov Bratva, the Fedin Bratva, and the Lebedev Bratva.

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