I said nothing, too lost in my demons to offer her more than my silence, but something unfurled in my chest at that simple word, at the knowledge that she was still there in the house, up to fuck knew what but safe at least, answering the house phone like she thought she lived there or some shit.
“Is that you, Horny Barry?” she growled suddenly. “Because I told you, if I catch sight of your beady little masturbation eyes ever again, I’m going to pluck them out of your face and feed them to a honey badger.”
“It’s me,” I murmured, a breath falling from my lungs as the tightness in them eased.
“Oh ho,” she said, her voice all full of outrage. “Needed a break from the big-boobed sex woman, did you? Thought you’d just call up tiny tata Brooklyn and remind yourself what small boobs sound like?”
There was hurt in her voice that I’d put there and bastard that I was, I couldn’t do anything to soothe it. This was better. She needed to hurt over me, hate me if she liked, anything other than want me. Because she couldn’t want me and I couldn’t want her, that was the one thing I was certain of. I couldn’t do it again. Not to her. Not to a woman who actually knew me, saw me and didn’t even shy away from the truth. She was…
“Well, here they are and I’m shaking them right now and nooo, you can’t hear them slapping together because they can’t do that. They just bounce, Niall. They bounce and I’m bouncing too and if I take my shirt off, they-”
“Mi sol, what are you doing?” Mateo rumbled in the background and I gritted my jaw.
“Just telling Niall some important things about myself,” she replied haughtily and my lips lifted just a little.
I wasn’t sure if she really had been topless with her tits bouncing up and down or not and I was trying pretty hard not to think about that, but my cock was seriously interested in the subject despite my protests to it.
“Give it here,” Mateo said and Brooklyn huffed out a breath before he took the phone from her. “What is it?” he growled down the line a moment later. “Is she in danger? Do I need to do something?”
My mind went to the way Kyan’s boys had circled around Tatum like a pack of wolves when she’d been under threat this morning, and my brows arched as I realised Brooklyn was forming her own pack of attack dogs too. I liked the idea of that.
“There’s no new threat,” I replied, unable to give any excuse for my call. “Just keep her safe from that giant in the basement,” I added, unsure when I’d started trusting Mateo with my little psycho, but I was somehow unworried about him doing anything to harm her while I was gone.
“Of course I will,” he replied scathingly then the line cut out and I was left in silence.
True silence.
Ava’s screams had abandoned me and I was left there in the cool air inside my car, with nothing but my own thoughts in my head and my cock aching for release.
The fucking thing was healed at least now, but I was yet to give it a whirl with the addition of my piercing and with the mental image my little psycho had just gifted me, it was damn tempting to do so right now before I was forced to endure the agony of Anastasia’s company.
But just as I moved my hand to my waistband, an obnoxious knock sounded on my window. I turned to look out at a very grumpy looking Russian arsehole who seemed to have been waiting a while.
“Well shit,” I said, throwing my door open so suddenly that it hit him in the gut and made him double over with a wheeze of pain while I stepped outa the car. “Don’t go sneaking up on a fella like that.”
Another bodyguard type fella stepped forward, his gaze lowering to my hands like he was expecting me to pull a weapon.
“The lady is waiting inside,” he growled, seeming offended by my lack of haste and I had to assume they’d been standing out here the whole time I’d been sitting in my car. Probably a good thing I hadn’t started jerking off into my cup holder in that case, but my cock was still sad about it as it slowly began to give up on its quest for satisfaction and deflate.
“Well, we can’t be having that, can we?” I asked brightly as I swerved him and headed for the entrance.
“We ask that you go in unarmed,” the bodyguard man called after me and I shrugged, opening my arms wide to allow him to check me. I wasn’t carrying a single thing because I knew it would have made it too tempting to kill my family members earlier on, so it didn’t take him long to usher me inside.
The hotel was eerily quiet, the lockdown on the country preventing the usual hustle and bustle. I walked in silence into the restaurant set beyond the bar, finding all but one of the mahogany tables empty.
Anastasia sat there waiting for me, her long, blonde hair all coiled up on top of her head and a silver scrap of fabric which I guessed passed for a dress clinging to her body.
“Niall,” she purred as I closed in on her and nodded.
“Glove.” She still hadn’t even noticed I addressed her as if she were winter handwear instead of using an endearment, and I was all giggly over the fact, so I even managed to give her a smile.
“It’s good to see you,” she said, giving me a heated look.
I didn’t reply to that, placing my jaw against her cold cheek in an imitation of a kiss as she stood and damn near forced it against my lips by trying to turn her head into it. I dropped into my seat and man spread myself until I was comfortable.
“I took the initiative and ordered for us, I hope you don’t mind?” Anastasia asked, crossing her legs and smiling at me with her deep red lips.
“So long as it comes with whiskey, I’m game,” I agreed, looking towards the lone waiter in the room and arching a brow to let him know I wasn’t in the mood to wait on that drink.
He hurried to comply, grabbing a fancy decanter and whiskey tumbler before heading over to me.
“Ice?” he inquired as he set the glass down and held the decanter ready to pour, but I just reached out and took it from him.
“No need,” I said. “And you can leave this here – I’m feeling inclined to get shit-faced.”
He glanced at Anastasia who nodded once, encouraging him to leave me with my decanter, and I poured myself a healthy measure before knocking the entire contents of my glass back and refilling it once more.
“My father tells me that you are close to securing the position as head of your organisation after your own father’s death,” she said, apparently in no mood for bullshit today which I was glad for.
“I wouldn’t hold too much stock by anything my pa says on that subject,” I replied. “He likes to use that possibility to keep his children in line and working hard for his approval.”
“I know this,” she agreed. “But I also know that he has plenty of reason to select you for the role and I intend to help you give him more.”
“You want to help me take my father’s place as head of the Irish mob?” I asked, sinking another whiskey because her company was sending me towards the dark place once more as I pictured us married and the reality that presented to me.
“Of course. I made it clear to you already that I am a woman who gets what she wants.”
Food arrived, offering me a reprieve from replying to her and I looked to my plate, eyeing the fancy pasta stuff and trying to decide if I was going to eat or not. Avoiding the food would give the booze a faster journey to getting me wasted so I had good reason not to, but it did smell nice.
I glanced up at Anastasia just as she dropped a pill into my drink, her eyes flashing with fear as she realised I’d seen whatever the fuck that was and I arched a brow at her.
“Well, well,” I said slowly, reaching out to take my over full glass of whiskey into my grip and looking into it as the little white pill bubbled and dissolved before my very eyes. “Look who’s playing dirty tonight.”
To her credit, Anastasia just lifted her chin. “It won’t kill you,” she said defiantly, not bothering to deny what she’d done, and I hummed thoughtfully.