K. Alex Walker's Blog, page 11

Book Discussion – November 13th at 7pm

K Alex Walker is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Ladies' Night Book Discussion – Elias the Wicked & More

Time: Nov 13, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

We're going to be talking about Elias the Wicked and more so, bring your questions. The theme is classy, black and white, and I want everyone to feel welcomed and comfortable, so bring your wine, your snacks and let's just relax.

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Episode 18 – Bàba hé Érzi

Mature (18+) Audiences. Contains bad words and sex-y scenarios.

Mosvar burst through the front door of his family home. The servants at the front looked up, saw it was him, rolled their eyes, and returned to their tasks. 

“Where is Father?”

“Mos?” His mother entered the room. “Dear, what are you doing here? Your father said you were in Hawaii.”

He gave her a kiss on each cheek. “I was. Where is Father?”

“Away. Business.”

“Is someone here, Mama?”

She licked her thumb and rubbed something from his jaw. “Like who?”

“Mama, you know who I’m talking about.” He pulled away and brushed past her. “Where is she staying? What room is she in? I know she’s here.”

He started toward the stairs, but two guards in uniform blocked his path. That told him everything he needed to know. Somehow, someway, Xara had been snatched right from under his nose. What his parents wanted with her, he didn’t know, but he would get her back. And, when he found Dom, he would get the other side of the story. Maybe old Ramzsyn had offered Dom money for the abduction. 

He would find a way to offer twice the sum.

“What is this?” He swung around and headed back to where his mother stood. “You release your hounds on your own son?”

“I don’t want you bothering her,” she said. “Her first few weeks here weren’t the easiest.”

“What did Father do?”

“He was his normal self.”

He scoffed. “And you think she’s better off with you two here than with me?”

“Yes.” She held his gaze. “I do. You are my son, Mos, and I love you dearly, but your lifestyle is not at all suited to a woman who is expecting.”

His face was hit with a blast of cold. “Expecting what?”

“A package.” She smacked his chest. “A child, son. A baby.”

Leverage.

That was the leverage he needed. The minute Mike found out he was going to be a father, the crazy assassin would have no choice but to carry out the request to kill Ramzsyn.

“May I see her, Mama?” 

“You may not.”

“How do you know she is truly expecting, then?”

With an exasperated groan, his mother walked to a drawer just off the entryway and pulled out an envelope. “Look for yourself since you think I am a fool.”

“Mama, I never said—”

She stormed off, waving away his protest.

He opened the envelope and pulled out the first document, an ultrasound image, and pocketed it. There were a few more of Xara in what he recognized as one of the bathrooms upstairs, in her underwear. The lens had zoomed in on the tiny rise in her stomach. His father’s work, no doubt.

He pocketed them all, making a note to keep a few copies for himself to stroke his cock to. He didn’t know what it said about him that knowing she was pregnant made him even harder than before. 

After Mike killed his father, he would have Dom kill Mike, truly this time, and keep her for himself. Keep them both. An uncontrollable woman was easily manipulated once her child became involved.

In a few weeks, he would have her bouncing on his cock, her husband a distant memory, and it would be like there’d never been a moment she’d so much as considered rejecting him.

He turned and left the way he came in.

MARY STUDIED THE expression on her son’s face. 

A mother knew her son. 

After Argun’s death, he’d started acting strangely. Also, based on the coroner’s report, there should have been enough time between the incident and Argun’s last breath for Mosvar to get help for his brother. Then, after Dominik let her know Xara’s husband was still alive on account of Mosvar, she’d pieced everything else together—Mosvar wanted something from Xara’s husband, and it was something he felt only that particular man could deliver. 

Xara’s husband had effortlessly and stealthily sliced Argun’s throat. That meant Mosvar wanted him to kill Ramzsyn.

If Xara’s husband could remove all three from her life, maybe she’d finally be a free woman. She’d no longer be wife and mother to abductors. Men who beat their wives to within an inch of her life. 

Sadists. 

Rapists.

Now that she was certain, she’d let him take more pictures to Xara’s husband, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind.

Mosvar assumed he was duping them all.

But mothers knew their sons.

And hers, was a fool.

* * *

Mike no longer flinched whenever one of the goons Mosvar sent to try to “convince” him to agree to kill Ramzsyn landed a shot to his ribs. He could barely feel the punches, and he definitely couldn’t feel the iron around his wrists and ankles that kept him propped on a wall in his cell. If Xara was dead, he wouldn’t talk. If they couldn’t prove she was alive, he wouldn’t talk. 

“Enough.” Mosvar’s flowery accent flitted into the room. “You are done for right now.”

The men, sweaty and knuckles sore, backed out of the cell and left the dank room. 

Mike let his head hang forward. Every muscle and bone in his midsection hurt, but what the fuck did he care? 

“Have you changed your mind yet?” Mosvar asked.

He raised his head.

“I did not think so.” Mosvar’s shoulders lifted and fell with an elaborate sigh. “You will change your mind, my friend. Do you want to know why?” He reached into his jacket and pulled out an envelope. “Guess what I have inside?”

Mike studied the man’s jaw, the bones in his nose. There were fourteen bones in the human face. The mandible had spots that were easy to fracture, and a skull was pretty hard. A hit from his head, at the right angle, could collapse one of Mosvar’s cheeks. Hard enough, maybe an eye socket.

Mosvar pulled out a long strip of white paper, came closer—not close enough to head butt—and turned the paper around. 

Ultrasound images. 

Three of them.

“Know what I am looking at?”

Mike shrugged. “You think I care that you have a kid on the way?”

He tapped the top region of one of the images. “Look closer. What does it say there?”

Mike squinted.

Xara Liu was printed at the top. 

They still didn’t know what name he went by.

The image was dated for that year. He had no idea what day it was or what month he was in, but it was dated for that year. He recognized Xara’s birthday, the name of a hospital, measurements, and some other numbers he couldn’t figure out. 

GA 16wk4d

GA?

Gestational age, maybe?

So then it would be “gestational age sixteen weeks, four days.”

His heart stopped. “When was this? How long ago?”

Mosvar briefly flipped the image around. “Three days ago, which means she is seventeen weeks now, does it not? From what I understand, the next ones will be the newer kind. What is it? 3D? 4D? Either way, you will be able to see the baby’s face a little bit.”

There was the head, arms, legs. A belly. A mouth that looked like Xara’s. If it hadn’t been for the piece of shit human in front of him, he would have cried. He’d been nervous, uncertain, unsure and now…it all dissolved.

He was going to be a father.

“Is she okay?” He tugged at the restraints. “Is she healthy? Is she eating? Is she okay?”

“She’s healthy,” Mosvar said. “She’s eating. I think the other date on the image is the time she is estimated to deliver. January.”

His mother’s birthday was in January.

“Is she…is she happy about the baby? Is she scared?”

Oh, baby. You’re all alone. I’m so sorry.

“Overjoyed.” Mosvar presented a second picture. “You can see a little bit of her stomach in this one.”

There it was, a small protrusion below her bellybutton. He wanted to kiss it. Whether or not she was happy, he wasn’t there, and nothing would be right until she was in his arms again.

He noticed the other details—the extravagant bathroom where she stood, the angle the image had been taken from, the way it appeared she didn’t know the image had been taken.

“Who has her under surveillance?”

“That would be my father.” Mosvar pocketed the photo of Xara’s stomach, pulled something blue from his jacket, pressed it against the back of the ultrasound, and stuck it on the wall next to Mike’s head. “She is with him and my mother.”

“What does he want with her?”

“I do not know, but he is my father, after all, and she is beautiful.”

“How’d she get there?”

“Will you agree to kill my father now?” Mosvar glanced at the image next to Mike’s head. “If you kill my father, I will have your wife and your child returned to you.”

Dom had taken Xara and Mosvar didn’t know, until now, where Xara had gone. That meant Dom had to have stepped outside of Mosvar’s plans. 

Why? 

“Fine.” Mike turned his head so he could see his baby again, even if it was from the corner of his eye. He didn’t want to stop looking. “I will kill your father if you promise to keep an eye on Xara. Make sure nothing happens to her. You say you like her, and it appears you and your father aren’t exactly close, so you can do that for me. You can make sure no harm comes to her.”

Mosvar nodded, the elation evident in his eyes. “I can do that.”

“Tell her I’m alive.”

Mosvar opened his mouth in protest.

“You have no bargaining chips here, Sarayev. Tell her I’m alive. That way, she’ll eat. I know she’s already taking care of herself because of the baby, but I need her to do more.”

Another nod.

“Check in on her. Make sure she is being taken care of.”

Nod.

“Only then will we have an agreement.”

Mosvar backed up to the opening of the enclosure. “Tell me what you will need.”

“A flight, climbing equipment, and his schedule. How do you want it done?”

“It does not matter.” So much joy vibrated through the man, he bounced on his toes. “So long as he suffers.”

Mike nodded. “Okay. Just don’t forget my terms.”

“I will protect Xara.”

“Thank you.”

“When it is time to leave, I will have men come for you. If you try anything, I will have her killed.”

“I won’t try anything,” Mike promised. “I won’t risk their lives. You have my word on that.”

“Good.”

He left. 

A few minutes later, seven large men entered. Four held guns on him while three removed his restraints. Once the iron clasps were undone, they hurried out of the enclosure and slammed the door shut. Mike ignored them, plucked the ultrasound image from the wall, and sank, cross-legged, onto the cot. 

“Daddy’s coming. Take care of your mother until I get there. I love you. I love you both.”

19: There You Are



11/16/2020

He drew them close, taking in their warmth and smells and the reality of just how much he’d hated being away from them. How much he’d longed to see them. 

Across the room, his gaze met Ayesha’s.

There you are.

We’re coming up on the final 3 episodes!

Episode 17: Brother, Where Art Thou?

Mature (18+) Audiences. Contains bad words and sex-y scenarios.

Mike opened his eyes. His body hurt, he had a headache the size of a California Redwood, and his surroundings weren’t at all familiar—concrete floors, a cot that belonged in a dorm, iron bars, and a light bulb fitted into an aluminum, triangle fixture that wasn’t nearly enough to illuminate the basement or cellar he appeared to be imprisoned inside. For now.

Someone cleared their throat. “I understand you are called Mike?”

He raised his head. “Where’s Xara?” 

“How did I know that would be your first question?” Mosvar asked.

“Where’s Xara?” 

“Do you not want to know how you are still alive?”

Mike rushed the bars and gripped the cold rods until his fingers went white and numb. “Where the fuck is my wife?”

“She did not make it, my friend.”

A mallet struck his chest, but he pushed back at it. Xara wasn’t dead. He’d know it. Feel it, somehow. He’d seen her taken by that two-faced asshole instead of harmed, so until he saw a body, Xara was alive. Xara was fucking alive. He didn’t lose her. 

He’d promised her. 

He’d promised her.

“You expect me to believe you?” he asked. “You lying, pussy ass motherfucker? You really expect to believe a fucking thing you say?” 

Mosvar stepped closer to the bars, but not close enough. “What choice do you have, friend?”

“If she’s dead, then you might as well kill me. Whatever torture you have planned, go ahead and do what the fuck ever. I don’t have shit to say to you if my wife’s not walking around on this earth somewhere. But, and listen to me good, Sarayev. If you open that door, at any point, make sure I’m dead first. Because if I have even five percent consciousness, I’m going to do some fucking damage. If you killed my wife…” Mike shook his head, a grimace on his face. “I am going to fucking murder you.”

Mosvar studied him, hands behind his back. 

Still, Mike saw them shake.

“I hired Dom,” Mosvar said. “My father sent an entire army to kill you, and I hired Dom to make it look like you have died. Then, I had your body brought here. Dom was supposed to bring our Xara to me—” 

“Our who, motherfucker?” Mike reached through the bars but Mosvar jerked backward, throat quivering. “Don’t let that shit come out of your mouth again. Xara is mine. My woman. In no universe will that ever be any different. Until I have no breath left in this goddamn body, she is mine. In this life and the next, she is mine. So drop that ‘our’ shit.”

Mosvar scanned Mike from head to toe. “You had five bullets in your body when we took you. You nearly died on an operating table. How is it that you do not feel any of that?”

Mike stared at him, unblinking. Maybe he wouldn’t murder Mosvar, not immediately. Maybe he’d stick a blade behind his eyeball, pop it out of its socket, turn it around, and show it to him. Or break his bones so they punctured skin then leave him to die of infection. Crack his femur with a cinderblock. Rupture his spleen. Or maybe he would murder him, quick and simple. Wrap his hands around the asshole’s neck and bash the back of his head against something solid. 

He glanced down.

Against the solid concrete floors.

“Dom orchestrated the whole thing,” Mosvar continued. “I need you alive.”

Mike mentally calculated the length of his arm and Mosvar’s distance from the bars. Even if Mosvar was his only way out, he’d still kill him if he got his hands on him. Why the fuck did he need a way out if he could break open this fucker’s skull? And, if Xara truly was…gone…he’d willingly starve to death in this fucking cell because he’d have nothing else to live for.

“Mike, you have been my prisoner for over a week now.”

Mike pushed off the bars and went to the cot.

“Look, do not blame me. You know I would not have killed Xara.”

He sat, leaned his head back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

“I can get her body to you.” For some reason, Mosvar’s mouth was still moving. “If you do something for me.”

“Fuck off.”

“You will not get out of here without my say so.”

“Fuck…off.”

“Without my help, you could die in her—”

In a blink, Mike was back on the bars. 

Mosvar sucked in a breath and stepped backward, this time stumbling over his feet. 

Mike smiled, broad and unhinged like a clown in a sewer drain. “Is my wife dead?”

Mosvar lowered his eyes. “I am s—”

“Is. My. Wife. Dead?”

“I am sorry for your loss.”

“Fuck off.”

“Have it your way, then. But, until you agree to my request, this will be your new home.”

Mike’s smile stretched. “She’s still alive. You need leverage. You might not know where the fuck she is, but she’s still alive. You wouldn’t be that stupid. Dom took her, but if that two-faced motherfucker could betray me the way he did, knowing what’s coming to him, then he played your ass too. My wife is alive, and I’m going to get to her even if I have to sail to where she is on a river of your blood.”

Mosvar snapped his fingers and backed out of the cellar.

Gas poured in from below, but Mike didn’t care. If it killed him, it killed him. If Xara was dead, he might as well die too. He would have found a way to do it himself, but there was still a small possibility she was alive and looking for him. Waiting for him. That hope alone was the only thing that kept him breathing.

If she wasn’t…nothing could stop him. Not the guys, their wives, their kids. No one. He would not exist in a world where Xara didn’t, and especially not a world where she didn’t because of him. 

The gas filled the chamber. 

His limbs loosened, his lungs filled, and he collapsed onto the cold floor. 

* * *

Mary Sarayev, Ramzsyn’s wife, stood over Xara’s bedside, a wide and almost proud smile on the woman’s face. Xara didn’t know how long they’d had her. Some time ago, maybe a month, maybe longer, she woke up on a private jet handcuffed and with ties around her ankles. Ramzsyn brought her to the home he shared with his wife and their shitload of servants. The “home” was an ornate, Mediterranean-style mansion that sat on a section of land the size of Denmark, and it was located in Dubai instead of the Sarayev’s stomping grounds in Chechnya. 

He “loved his country,” Ramzsyn had said. But he “could never truly live there.”

They kept her in a small studio off the kitchen as a form of torture, she supposed, but it was virtually the same size of the first apartment she and Mike ever shared after running away from Kentucky. 

They brought her five meals a day, but she refused to eat until she passed out. Then, they force-fed her. Once they learned about her diabetes, they tried to use that against her: “You could die, dear.” 

It didn’t stop her from refusing to eat, and it didn’t stop them from shoving food down her throat. What they couldn’t feed her, they gave her via an IV she’d ripped out twice before Ramzsyn threatened to cut off her fingers. Then, the threats evolved into if she didn’t behave, her baby would suffer. No prenatal care, no appointments, and no vitamins or ultrasounds until she cooperated. 

The joke was on them. 

There was no baby.

The “baby” was the only thing keeping her alive, she knew, but there was no longer any reason to live. She’d seen her husband take a bullet to the forehead, and she didn’t understand why they didn’t just do the same for her.

Late last night, Ramzsyn’s wife returned from a trip she’d been on for the last few months, from what the woman had told her. When Mary arrived and found out about what was going on, she’d demanded Xara be moved to a proper room, yelling that she would not be responsible for the mutilation of a woman and her unborn child. 

The next morning, this morning, Mary guided her onto a private jet. 

They were now at a specialty clinic in Zurich.

Mary had come expecting to see a baby, but today was the day they would find out about Mike’s lie.

The problem was…

“Can you hear that?” the obstetrician asked. “That’s your baby’s heartbeat. I can’t believe this is your first time hearing it.”

“She’s had a rough go of it, Dr. Keller,” Mary explained, giving Xara’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Xara has been through a lot. She recently lost her husband in an unfortunate accident. I was friends with her mother, and I’m here make sure she’s well taken care of henceforth.”

Dr. Keller took her hand. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

Xara couldn’t look away from the screen. “That’s a baby.”

“Yes, dear.” Dr. Keller’s brows softened. “How sweet you have this piece of your husband with you.”

Mary gave her shoulder another squeeze. “Listen to that heartbeat!”

“Xara, I put you at around sixteen weeks and four days gestation.” Dr. Keller moved the device around on Xara’s stomach. “You are a little malnourished, but that could be due to depression and grief. I’d like to see you get your weight up to at least fifty-six, fifty-seven kilograms before our next appointment. We should be able to see a little bit more belly than this, at this point, even for someone as fit as you are, dear.”

“She will,” Mary promised. “I’ll make sure of it. She’ll have nurses and maids at her disposal.”

This changed everything, Xara realized. Whatever they wanted, she would give it to them. She’d even eat their food. She’d been prepared to die knowing Mike was no longer alive, but now that she had this part of him growing inside her, she had to live. 

At all costs.

“W-when am I due?” she asked, her heartbeat speeding up and slowing as though attempting to sync with the other one echoing around the room.

“January. A wonderful blessing for the new year.” Dr. Keller looked up at her. “Excited?”

“Very.”

“Look at you.” Mary hugged her from the side, the woman exuding a warmth that had felt confusingly genuine since the beginning. “You must be so proud. A baby is always joyous news. Hopefully, now that you are with us, we can make up for the time you have lost. Get you and the babe healthy.”

She hoped her stubbornness hadn’t done irrevocable damage. 

“Mosvar said I wasn’t.” Xara kept her voice low to hide the tears. Ramzsyn’s “people” had already punished her for crying. For mourning the loss of her husband. “He said he saw the test.”

Mary flicked her wrist. “Almost no one can read those things, least of all my son.”

Hopefully, they would at least let her hold her baby after she delivered. Oh gosh, she couldn’t wait to hold her baby. Their baby. 

“More good news.” Dr. Keller studied the monitor. “I’m actually already able tell you what you’re having. If you’d like to know.”

Mary looked at Xara expectantly.

“I do,” she said.

“This January, you’ll be mother to a beautiful little baby boy.”

A boy.

Michael Jr. and Mikey J for short. They’d talked about using his uncle’s name as one of the middle names, and she’d wanted a second middle name. One that began with an X like her and her brother’s names.

Michael Xavier Jian Huang Jr.

It was a mouthful, but she could already tell it suited him.

“I will take care of you like a daughter,” Mary promised. She lowered her voice. “My husband will not harm you.”

Xara glanced up at her. The woman lowered her chin in a quick nod.

It was real. This was real. This wasn’t how she’d wanted it. Mike was supposed to be the one standing over her head right now. She could even see him, eyes lit up and that gorgeous smile on his face as he cradled her belly. He’d make some joke to hide how nervous he was about being a father, and she’d laugh to hide how nervous she was about becoming a mother. This baby…she had to have this baby. She had to have this baby. There could be no complications. No threats to a full-term pregnancy. This was the last thing she had of the love of her life.

Their son was going to be so beautiful.

“Oh, don’t cry.” Dr. Keller pulled tissues from a box and handed them to her. “Then you will make me cry. Xara, I will do everything in my power to give you a healthy and safe pregnancy and delivery. I swear it. On my life.”

“It’s why I brought her here,” Mary said. “Because I know you will.”

The women exchanged glances.

“I’ll be right back.” Dr. Keller rose. “Take your time, and congratulations.”

She left.

Mary placed her hand on Xara’s lower back to help her up. “Before we get back, how would you like to get some things for the baby?” 

“Why are you doing this? You know who I am. You know what my husband did.” Xara wiped the ultrasound gel from her stomach then stepped back into her clothes. 

“I know my boys,” Mary said, taking her hand. “I know my husband. Your doctor, we know each other from before. She’s been in your situation, but it was Argun’s baby. I helped her get out, and she terminated the pregnancy. Your intuition will tell you why. Ramzsyn has been watching me closely, but even if I can’t get you out, he will not hurt you.”

Xara placed her hand on her stomach. “Mary, you are a blessing.”

“Just a woman, sweetheart. I’m just a woman.”

THE ROOM THEY MOVED HER to was the size of an average home back in the U.S., almost. The wallpaper was hideous, and a large, four-poster bed that looked fastened to the floor sat in the middle of the room, covered in frilly drapery. There was entirely too much gold—it covered all the trim, around the windows, along the ceiling—and even more marble than gold, but at least the chandelier over the bed was modern and actually kind of pretty.

Mary, arm around Xara’s waist, directed her into the room. Behind them, four servants carried bags filled with maternity clothes, vitamins, organic health tonics, and baby things. When the guys found her, she would make sure they knew to spare Mary’s life. In some ways, it was like the woman was a prisoner in her own marriage.

“You rest.” Mary walked her over to the bed. “The first part of pregnancy is the most annoying, the middle is the most joyful, and the end brings the most suffering.”

The servants moved about the room, removing the items from the bags. 

“I have to tell you something,” Mary said. “Mosvar hired a man to bring you to him, from what I understand, but the man brought you here instead, for which I am grateful. Mosvar would have taken care of you, yes, but he would have taken other things as well. Sons are often not much different from their fathers. Lie down, dear.”

Xara did as she was told. “Mary, are you the reason I’m alive?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know what they were doing to me?”

Mary’s jaw pulsed. “No, and I would not let Ramzsyn rest if he allowed a young woman with child to die in our home. Usually, he does not do much what I say but…” She fussed with the covers. “Now, what would you like to eat?”

“I don’t know.” Xara turned onto her side, falling into the plushness of the mattress. “I don’t have much of an appetite.”

“I will have some dolmnash made. It is like a roll of cabbage with rice, mutton. Do you have allergies, dear?”

“No allergies. Just the diabetes I was born with.”

Mary’s jaw dropped. 

“You didn’t know.”

“Not at all.” She looked at her the way a mother might look at her ailing child. “I will review your papers from Dr. Keller. The dolmnash, you can eat. It will be okay for you. There might be a few things to adjust, but it can be done. Settle, dear.”

Xara eased further down into the pillow underneath her head.

The servants continued to bustle about, filling drawers with baby clothing, an assortment of maternity outfits, and whatever else Mary had picked up. Xara hadn’t noticed. She’d been in an entirely different world inside her head as they’d gone from Swiss shoppe to shoppe, and in that world, the only thing she’d heard was that heartbeat. So fast, so steady.

My baby boy.

“While you rest, I will have your lunch prepared. Should you need anything, the phone on your nightstand,” Mary pointed, “pick it up, someone will answer, and I will come.”

Xara nodded. “Okay.”

Mary ushered the servants out of the room and followed. Once the double doors closed, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She knew what she’d seen, but just like when she’d “lost” Mike the first time, she wasn’t convinced he was gone. She still felt him somewhere. 

He was alive. 

He had to be. 

One of the curtains near the window twitched, and Dom stepped out from behind the satiny fabric.

She pushed up in the bed, back pressed against the soft headboard. “Ramzsyn sent you to kill me?”

“No, Xara.” He walked over and took a seat at the bottom of the mattress. “Mike’s alive.”

She, momentarily, stopped breathing. “What?”

“In Maui, he came to me about taking out Mosvar’s last hit. I told him I was the last ‘assassin’ Mosvar hired, so he gave me his watch and told me, once the plan with Mosvar was set, to trigger a distress notification.” Dom tilted his head back, his eyes searching the gold-plated ceiling tiles. “The plan was to extract you while Mike dealt with Mosvar, but Ramzsyn’s men stormed the villa earlier than anticipated. That’s when I changed the plan. I couldn’t turn you over to Mosvar. God only knows what he’d do to you, and Ramzsyn’s men would have killed Mike. If your guys had shown up a fraction of a second earlier, we wouldn’t even be here right now.”

Xara, shivering, pushed onto her hands and knees and crawled closer to Dom. “Mike’s alive?”

“Yes. Mosvar kept him alive because he thinks Mike will do what he wants, and what he wants is for Mike to kill Ramzsyn.”

“B-but I saw you shot him.”

“None of it was real.” Dom turned his head and his eyes, like two drops of liquid mercury, locked onto hers. “That part, Mike didn’t know about so, as it stands, I betrayed him. But I did what I had to. I shot Mike with a tranq, which is what made him turn around. Then, I ‘shot’ him in the forehead. Mosvar’s men took Mike, and I took you. I didn’t know, at the time, he’d been shot already. Five times.”

“When?” she asked. “Ramzsyn’s men didn’t shoot him in the hallway.”

“It wasn’t me.”

She cradled her stomach. “He got shot in the bedroom and on the balcony? He…why didn’t he…” 

Jesus, Mike. You’re a lot stronger than I realized.

Dom nodded toward the door. “I know Mary. Her family is Italian. I’m…betrothed…you could say, to her great niece. It’s why I brought you here, but I didn’t know at the time she was out of town. I’m really sorry about that.”

“You couldn’t have known.”

“Still…” He swiped a large hand over his face. “I need to get in contact with the rest of Mike’s team.”

She could tell him where to find them, but she wasn’t sure she trusted him yet. Not completely. This could be his roundabout way of finding out where to locate the rest of the guys to execute them.

“I know where Giorgio Pozza liv—”

“Any-fucking-body but him.” Dom lifted his chin to show off a hell of a scar across his neck. “This is his handiwork and, by now, either word or speculation’s gotten out I had something to do with Mike’s disappearance. Pozza doesn’t ask questions first and shoot later. He doesn’t ask questions at all.”

“You’re right.” She eyed him. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“Which is fair.”

“If you can get back into the villa, find my phone and bring it to me.”

He thought for a moment. “The plan is to get you out of here, as soon as I can. I can get us all the way to Switzerland, but I’m working under the radar at the moment, without the full backing of my family, so,” he blew out a breath, “it’s going to be…tricky.” 

“You mean your ‘family’ the Russian mafia? Why are you working without them?”

“I’m the prodigal son.” He searched her face. “By the way, how are you? At least, it appears, they’re treating you well?”

“Now that Mary’s here, yes.” She sat back on her legs. “Not so much before.”

Something flashed across his face. “Noted.”

“If you can get my phone, I can help you. However, know that betraying me would be a stupid decision.”

“I won’t.” He flipped his hand, revealing a tattoo of a cross on his wrist. “I promise. My only request is that you be the one to explain why I did what I did to your guys. And Mike, when you see him. Because you will see him.”

Xara closed her hand over the tattoo. “Thank you, Dom.”

Relief brightened his dark features. “You’re welcome, Xara.”

18: Bàba hé Érzi (Papa & Son)



11/09/2020

“Fine.” Mike turned his head so he could see his baby again, even if it was from the corner of his eye. He didn’t want to stop looking. “I will kill your father if you promise to keep an eye on Xara. Make sure nothing happens to her. You say you like her, and it appears you and your father aren’t exactly close, so you can do that for me. You can make sure no harm comes to her.”

Four episodes left!

Kerah vs. Eric vs. Kennedy

As we get closer to the Ladies’ Night Book Discussion, I’ll be popping in with some questions/topics. If you have any questions before the event, leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to our “itinerary.”

I started back toward the bar but he reached out and grabbed my wrist. 

“Look, Eric, if you’re going to give me another sermon on my date—”

“I’m not. I actually wanted to ask you about,” his gaze darted to the bar’s open back doorway, “Kennedy. If you don’t mind.”

I smiled so bright, I almost blinded the man on the bicycle who swerved around me and Eric at the last moment. At least, that was the story I told myself.

“I don’t mind at all. What do you want to know?”

He was still holding my wrist. 

“Do you think she’s feeling me?”

My mouth fell open. “Are you serious? She’s hanging all over you.”

“I know, I know.” He released my wrist and scrubbed a hand over his short haircut. “Why is she single, though?”

“You mean why is one of the world’s most beautiful women unattached?”

He stared at me, blinked slowly, and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Kennedy’s careful,” I explained. “Cautious. I know I’m a little biased, being her sister and all, but she’s a prize. A gem. And the best gems aren’t the ones you find on the surface. You have to do some digging.”

His gaze lifted over my head. “She seems distant with me one time and then into me the next. I guess that’s just her being cautious? Feeling me out?”

“Exactly.”

“And what about you?” His hand swung forward, lightly tapping my wrist. “Notwithstanding your date with the asshole. Are you cautious too?”

“He’s not an . . . okay, so there’s more to Elias than what he shows.” There I was again, defending Elias like my name was Tammy Wynette. “He’s been going through some stuff. His father just died.”

Eric’s expression crumpled into one more apologetic. “Oh man, that’s right. He’s Elena’s uncle. She said her grandfather was sick for a while.”

“Yeah. Plus, he apologized.”

“You like him, you think?”

“I haven’t gotten that far.” 

I liked the version I was getting to know. That version was the one who made me reach for my phone with every notification or phantom vibration. That Elias was the one I couldn’t wait to see tomorrow. I even had my outfit already picked out, but I would have to go back and reevaluate. After all this alcohol and cheese, I might still be bloated hours from now which meant no form-fitting tops unless I was trying to get us an Expectant Mother parking spot.

“Kerah Moss, too good for us black dudes.” He poked me in the ribs. “She went and got her a Puerto Rican cat.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. He’s Cuban.”

“Isn’t Will Cuban?”

My heart stopped beating. “What?”

“Bardem. Where’s he from again?”

No one in the office knew about my past with William. At least, no one was supposed to know. The level of embarrassment I would have to deal with if they found out I was only in the position I was because I’d, essentially, slept my way there? I wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

“No, no he’s from Spain,” Eric said, correcting himself. “I’m on a whole different continent.”

Thankfully, he didn’t notice my near-death experience.

I headed toward the bar. “Let’s go back before Kennedy thinks I’m trying to put the moves on you.”

He mumbled a response.

“What was that?” I grinned up at him and cupped my ear. “I didn’t hear you.”

He rose his voice, smile dimpling his cheek. “I said, Kennedy has nothing to worry about.”

“Good.”

“Apparently.”

Do you think Kennedy should have been upset about Eric’s confession?



[image error] credit: shutterstock [image error] credit: tumblr.com [image error] credit: If this is you, you’re beautiful, I’m jealous, and please contact me for credit/removal.

Quick Note: I watched this, easily, at least fifty times to get inspiration to write Kennedy’s scenes at the bachelorette party and the fight at the end.

Repost: Ladies’ Night Book Discussion for Elias The Wicked+ (via Zoom)

Reposting since the polls weren’t working for some of you.

Episode 16: In Another Life

Mature (18+) Audiences. Contains bad words and sex-y scenarios.

The next two episodes will be released on the 8th and 9th, both to keep pace and to give everyone an escape.

The jet taxied down the runway, and they didn’t turn away until the Gulfstream was nothing but a dot in the sky. Afterward, they headed to a black SUV parked nearby. Dez drove, Julien sat up front, and Joel, Gage, and Giorgio sat in the back. As they headed to the location where Mike’s watch was found to begin their search, they armored up, installed clips, and oiled blades.

17: Brother, Where Art Thou?



11/08/2020

“Do you not want to know how you are still alive?”

Five episodes left!

Episode 15: The Storm

Mature (18+) Audiences. Contains bad words and sex-y scenarios.

As she prepared to scream, he swiped his fist across her face, knocking her out, cold.

So, uh…how are y’all feeling about Dom right about now?

16: In Another Life



Tomorrow

“And Mama?”

Only a few episodes left!

Ladies’ Night Book Discussion for Elias The Wicked+ (via Zoom)

Episode 14: The True Cost of Trust

Mature (18+) Audiences. Contains bad words and sex-y scenarios.

“Mike, please, dear God, Almighty, for all that is holy. How are you this calm right now?”

“Calm means a clear head.” He tapped his temple—with the nozzle of the fucking gun—and she knew then all traces of her husband had left. “And I need a clear head right now, Xar.”

Episode 13: Ramzsyn Is Now In Charge

Mature (18+) Audiences. Contains bad words and sex-y scenarios.

When he was only a few paces down from the office, he lifted his phone to his ear and called in a few more of those favors owed to him.

Episode 14: The True Cost of Trust



11/04/2020

“Easy.” The man held out two hands. “It’s me.”