Everything became a kaleidoscope of new surroundings and faces once they arrived at the Kingston estate, too much so for Brianna to be able to take it all in as she stood beside Felix in the huge entrance hall of the main house.
She was pretty sure delayed shock had begun to set in as she’d sat beside Felix in silence while Nikolai drove the SUV onto the estate through huge open iron gates.
The Russian had handed Brianna a business card, waited for her and Felix to get out of the vehicle, and then driven off again. No doubt he was now well on his way back to London to report on the situation to his pakhan.
A glance at the card showed her it only had Nikolai’s name on it and a mobile telephone number. She’d ignored Felix’s scowl as she slipped the card into the back pocket of her jeans. She might need to ask for Nikolai’s help again before this was all over.
She now clung to Felix’s hand for reassurance as she was introduced to two of the Kingston brothers, the tall and distinguished Sinclair, and the long-haired and mischievous-looking Casper. These were the two brothers who had taken part in her rescue, although their black tactical gear and slightly disheveled appearance didn’t look anything like the bloody mess that covered Felix.
She did manage a small smile when she was introduced to Sinclair’s wife, the glowingly lovely Remy, that glow no doubt due to her obvious baby bump.
Brianna became lost in her own thoughts as the four members of the Kingston family talked softly together. She only forced herself to rejoin the conversation when she heard them discussing Felix escorting her upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms.
“I want to stay with Felix,” she told them abruptly, unable to even bear the thought of being on her own right now.
She had just spent three days and nights with nothing for company but the tortuous thoughts of what her future held. She didn’t want to be alone with only those for company again now.
“I think that’s probably for the best,” Felix told his family after a brief glance at the stubborn determination on her face.
“Of course,” Remy agreed softly. “I’ll have more towels brought up so you can both take a shower.”
Which, Brianna realized slightly hysterically, was probably Remy Kingston’s polite way of saying they both needed to take off their bloody clothing and then wash the blood off themselves. Brianna had to admit, the other woman sounded very calm about it if that was the case.
“I think the clothing is unsalvageable.” Remy’s next comment confirmed that was exactly what she’d meant. “If you’d like to throw it all out into the hallway, I’ll arrange to have them taken away and burned. I’ll find you some things to wear from my wardrobe.” She glanced down at herself. “They obviously aren’t going to fit me for a while,” she added dryly.
Brianna was sure they were all aware that by destroying her own and Felix’s clothes, it would also get rid of the evidence connecting them to the bloodbath the police had no doubt found by now at Bart’s home.
She attempted another smile. “Thank you. Although thanks really aren’t enough for what you’ve all done for me today.” Her gaze encompassed all the Kingston men.
“It’s what family does,” Casper, the youngest brother assured lightly.
“But I’m not—”
“Time for that shower,” Felix announced brightly. “If either of you feel like bringing us some coffee and toast, I’d appreciate it.” He looked expectantly at his two brothers.
“Yes, Master. Of course, Master,” Casper lisped in an over-the-top obsequious manner. “It’s not enough we just fought with him,” he announced to no one in particular. “Now we have to bring him coffee and toast while he gets to shower with the beautiful woman we just rescued!”
Brianna felt her cheeks burning at the compliment, although she was pretty sure she looked a complete mess right now rather than beautiful. “I did remember to say thank you,” she teased back.
“And because you did, you will be brought coffee and toast.” Casper gave her a courtly bow. “I’ll need to think about whether or not Felix deserves some too.”
“I think he does,” Brianna encouraged huskily.
Casper glanced at Felix. “Wow, no wonder you fell so hard, big brother”
“Sorry?” Brianna frowned as she felt Felix’s sudden tension in the way his fingers tightened about hers.
“Your smile along with that sexy accent are impossible to resist,” Casper complimented.
“Behave.” Sinclair gave Casper a slight smack to the back of his head.
One that Brianna recognized as a gesture of affection rather than containing any real heat or reprimand behind it.
Something else that was different between herself and Felix; when her brother Connor hit her, he did it with the intention of inflicting as much pain as possible, a pain he enjoyed bestowing.
* * *
“Yes, behave,” Felix’s warning to his youngest brother was accompanied by a silencing glare. The last thing he wanted was for Casper to reveal Felix’s feelings for Brianna before he had the opportunity to do so himself.
Although quite when that would be, he had no idea. Right now, Brianna was very grateful to him and his brothers for removing her from an unacceptable situation. But gratitude wasn’t love, and Felix very much wanted Brianna to learn to love him in the same way he already loved her.
“Coffee and toast for two,” he reiterated firmly to Casper before turning on his heel, keeping Brianna’s hand still securely in his own as he took the stairs two at a time until he reached the top landing.
From there, he marched them down the hallway to where his suite of rooms was situated. He’d slept in clean sheets last night, but he couldn’t remember what state he’d left the bathroom in this morning in his rush to get out of the house and rescue Brianna.
Not that he’d be sleeping in the bed tonight. He’d already decided Brianna would be the one to sleep there. She deserved so much more than a comfortable bed after the betrayal of her own brothers had landed her in such a dangerous situation. Even thinking of her being married to a monster like Terry Bart, of being forced to live her life with him, brought back Felix’s need for violence.
“Would you like a shower or a bath?” he prompted once they’d entered his very tidy bathroom. The cleaning lady must have been in after he left this morning.
“Which are you having?” Brianna asked.
“A shower.” The last thing he wanted was to have to sit in the same water he’d used to wash the blood off his body and from his hair. “But I’ll happily run a bath for you.”
She shook her head. “If you’re having a shower, then I am too.”
“Brianna…?” He studied her closely, worried by the flatness of her tone and the way she continued to avoid his gaze.
He placed his hand under her chin so he could see all of her face. His concern deepened when he saw her pupils were blown, leaving only a thin surrounding ring of green. Her cheeks were pale beneath the streaks of blood she’d acquired from his clothing when he held her. The grip he had maintained on her hand told him she was also trembling.
Giving every indication she was going into shock.
Which wasn’t surprising after what Brianna had been through since she was abducted from Ireland just days ago.
Felix didn’t hesitate before lowering his head and claiming her lips with his own. The second he did, the rest of the world and its problems faded away. All that mattered in that moment was the softness and taste of Brianna’s lips beneath his own.
* * *
This kiss was just as all-consuming and fierce as the first time.
It centered Brianna to a place where nothing else existed but the two of them. Not for her, at least, and she was pretty sure Felix felt the same way as his lips fiercely devoured hers and his heated arousal pressed against her.
Brianna admitted that she’d thought he was just a charming and very handsome man in a bespoke suit when she’d first met him. But she’d learned since that he couldn’t ever be anything so bland and without depth.
He’d already proven that he wasn’t when he had completely held his own at dinner the previous evening with Anthony Bart.
Then kept his promise and came back for her the following day, bringing several of his brothers and their men with him, along with the legendary Russian Wolf and a group of his men from the bratva.
According to Nikolai Volkov, Felix was actually responsible for killing Anthony Bart!
All making Felix an enigma within a puzzle inside a labyrinth.
One that was now kissing her as if she was the only other person in the world. The only person who mattered to him, at least.
She gave a murmur of encouragement as she entwined her arms about his neck and held on as he easily lifted her into his arms and carried her across the room before laying her on the bed. She groaned her encouragement as he followed her down to support his weight on his elbows as he lay between her parted thighs. The evidence of his arousal throbbed long and hard against her, pressing against her clit, igniting bursts of fiery need.
She felt wild, primitive, that feeling added to by the evidence of a battle fought on their clothes and faces.
Felix’s hands cradled each side of her face, his gaze holding hers as he lowered his head to once again take possession of her mouth with his lips and tongue.
Kissing.
Possessing.
Claiming.
Brianna twined her fingers in the hair at his nape as she kissed him back just as passionately. Wanting, needing to lose herself in the wild desire raging inside and through her, from her fingertips to her toes.
Nothing else existed in this moment but Felix and the surge of pleasure that coursed through her as one of his hands began to slowly caress downward, lighting a fire wherever he touched. The vulnerability of her throat. The sensitivity of her breast. The dip of her waist. The curve of her hip.
“Please!” Brianna moved his hand to the fastening at the waistband her jeans as she rubbed up against the throbbing hardness pressing against her clit. “Touch me,” she pleaded. “Please.”
* * *
Felix raised his head to look at her. “I’m going to touch you everywhere,” he promised. “Claim you everywhere,” he added huskily.
“Then do it,” she encouraged huskily.
Much as it pained him to do so, Felix shook his head. “Believe me, I want that too. So much. But we both need to shower, then you need to hydrate and have something to eat before we can think of doing anything else.”
“But—”
“Brianna, I don’t ever want you to look back on us being together and regret that it happened.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that whether you choose to be with me or not, you will always be completely safe here,” he assured gruffly. “No one can get through our high-tech security.”
Except Nikolai Volkov, it seemed.
But Felix was starting to think that Nikolai was a law unto himself. A ghost in an Armani suit. A legend. A man as mystical as the creatures who lived in the wilds of Wales whom he claimed as friends. He was, Felix acknowledged with admiration, the man who stood behind the curtain pulling the strings.
Gregori Markovic was lucky to have him as his friend and loyal second.
Brianna gave a shake of her head. “I thought I was safe in my little cottage in Southern Ireland, but Connor knew where I was all the time. I have no doubt he enjoyed letting me think that he didn’t,” she added bitterly. “Once he discovers I’m here—and he will find out, believe me—he’s going to come looking for me. And I very much doubt he’s going to just politely knock on the front door.”
“Let him come.” Felix looked forward to meeting the other man face-to-face. He relished the idea of then making Connor Doyle pay for what he’d put Brianna through.
She gave a shudder. “I shouldn’t have brought my troubles here to your family home.”
“You didn’t. I did.” Felix’s arms tightened about her. “You’re going to continue to stay right here. With me,” he added firmly.
Something in his voice seemed to puzzle Brianna as she blinked up at him. “I am…?”
Felix weighed his options. Mainly, he tried to decide whether telling Brianna the truth about his feelings for her would encourage her to stay or make her even more determined to leave.
Considering how she had been treated by her brothers and then Anthony Bart, he didn’t think lying to her was an option. But he didn’t want to talk to her about this when they both looked as if they had been inside an abattoir.
“We’re going to both take a shower, separately,” he stated. “Have something to eat and drink. And then you’re going to come and lie back down on the bed with me.”
A blush colored her cheeks. “I am?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we need to talk.”
“Just talk?”
“For now.”
“About?”
“What happens next.”
“I already know what happens next,” she assured bleakly.
“And what is that?”
“Connor will threaten your family, not giving you a choice when he demands you hand me over. Then he’s going to marry me off to someone else who’s in a position to give him the power he craves. I’m nothing more than a bargaining chip to him,” she acknowledged heavily.
“I assure you that isn’t what’s going to happen,” Felix stated firmly.
“I know you mean well, Felix, but I doubt you would be able to stop him. He—he’s cruel and vicious, and he hates anyone who even attempts to thwart him.” There were tears in her eyes as she gave a shake of her head. “If I try to stay here, he’ll kill me and then he’ll kill you and your family. Or perhaps the other way around, so that he can hurt me as much as possible before putting me out of my misery. Either way, we would all be dead.”
Felix smiled slightly. “I don’t intend letting him anywhere near you, and today should have shown you I’m really not that easy to kill.”
“I doubt my father thought so either.”
His gaze sharpened. “What do you mean?”
She winced. “I’ve always believed Connor killed him. Or at the very least, arranged to have him killed.”
“What?” Felix stared at her incredulously.
Brianna avoided meeting his gaze. “I’ve thought about it so much since it happened. When Da died, Connor stepped into his position as an underboss to Ronan Murphy. Which took him a step closer to the top position. Six months ago, he killed Ronan Murphy, along with anyone who opposed his coup, before taking his place at the head of the Irish Mob in London.”
“You really think he killed his own father to start that process?”
She nodded. “Da was totally loyal to Ronan Murphy. He would never have gone along with Connor killing him before taking over.”
Felix had heard some fucked-up things about Connor Doyle in the past few days, but adding committing patricide to his tally of crimes took things to a whole new, and sick, level. Had Liam Doyle been involved in their father’s death too? Did Nikolai know about this?
Of course he fucking did. The Russian knew everything. No doubt Nikolai hadn’t done anything about the killings at the time because the uncertainty it had produced in the leadership of the Irish Mob had suited his own purposes.
Felix scowled. “How did your father die?”
Brianna swallowed. “The official story was that my father walked into a shop to buy some cigarettes at the same time as it was being robbed. Da was shot and killed. The shopkeeper was shot too, but he had the good sense to disappear after he was released from hospital.” She shrugged. “If Connor has found him since then, he’ll be dead too by now.”
“What happened to the man who was robbing the shop and did the shooting?”
“His body was later found in a dumpster.”
This really didn’t sound good. In fact, it sounded as if Connor Doyle had eliminated the one person who could confirm he was the one who had ordered the hit. “What makes you think Connor is responsible?”
“Two things. One, my father rarely smoked.”
Felix frowned. “But he could have just felt the need for a cigarette that day.”
“He could have, yes.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“No.” Brianna chewed on her bottom lip. “Da had made me a promise, you see, the last time we’d seen each other. It was that he would stop smoking. I don’t believe he would have broken that promise to me.”
“You and he were close?”
Her expression softened. “I know what he was and the things he had to do, but to me, he was always just my Da who I loved and who loved me.”
“Did anyone else know about his promise to you?”
“Not as far as I’m aware, no.”
It was starting to sound as if Brianna’s suspicion had substance. “Your second reason?”
“Da wouldn’t have gone into the shop on his own. He would have had his bodyguards with him.”
“Where are those bodyguards now? Perhaps you could ask them what happened?”
She shook her head. “They disappeared the same night, and neither they nor their bodies have ever been found. But I’m pretty sure Connor had the two of them killed and disposed of at the pig farm.”
Felix had heard from Casper how the different factions of the criminal underworld liked to dispose of the bodies of the people they killed. The Irish Mob favored a pig farm. “Didn’t Ronan Murphy investigate the murder of his second and the disappearance of Aiden’s two bodyguards?”
“I’m sure he did, but no doubt Connor had already eliminated anyone who knew the truth. I don’t know any of this for certain, Felix,” she said, her voice trembling. “But I can take a pretty accurate guess on Connor being responsible, even if he didn’t pull the trigger himself, for at least three people’s deaths that day. Including our father.”
Felix had already known what a bastard Connor Doyle was for having traded his own sister off to the Barts in order to form an alliance between the two criminal factions. Adding the death of Aiden Doyle, Connor’s own father, to his crimes, needed further discussion with Nikolai Volkov.
As the man was fond of saying, “Nothing happens in my city that I don’t know about.” If Connor had killed Aiden and his bodyguards, then Nikolai had definitely known about it, but hadn’t felt it necessary to share that knowledge.
Brianna pulled out of his arms. “I think I’d like to go and take that shower now.”
“But—”
“I just need some time alone.” She hurried into the bathroom to close and lock the door behind her.
As far as Felix was concerned, Brianna had already been alone for far too long, with or without her thoughts.
Kissing her had only confirmed what he already knew. Brianna was his.
She might not realize it yet, or be willing to acknowledge it once she did, but he now belonged to her too.
She would always have Felix.
Always.