Rocking With The Bratva Brat

Going Home

Eric rubbed his forehead frustratedly as he watched the girl he’d known since she was seven or eight climb the stairs to the second floor. He was stunned she was making the wide strides up the stairs two at a time given how short her satin shorts were, her ass was clearly on display. If he really looked up, he was sure he’d see more than ass cheeks and it made him look away worriedly.

He knew from Liev she’d been giving them a tough time lately about the lack of her freedom but tonight was the first time he’d witnessed it firsthand. Now he looked at Tina who was careening towards him like he was her next meal, and he gave an involuntary shudder. He experienced a moment of understanding of what it felt to be cornered and trapped as Hadlee said she felt.

He gave a shake of his head and walked towards the living area where the group were all seated. He pulled his arm away from Tina who reached for him and gave a look of irritation at Liev who caught the movement and raised an eyebrow. He walked straight to him.

“I’m heading out.”

“What Hadlee said –”

“Liev, man, I love you like a father but nothing short of my d**k having fallen off and I have no need to ever f**k again, would make me look at your cousin twice.” He tried to keep his voice low, and he didn’t miss the way his mentor grinned.

“I thought not. Her father was really pushing me to introduce you both. Briar and I bet on how long it would take before you bailed and whether you’d be blunt or fake an illness. For the record, I win. I knew you’d not last long after dinner finished, and you’d tell me the truth. Briar was confident you would be more polite.”

“Not with you or Briar. If I can’t be myself with you two, I can’t be myself anywhere. Nobody knows me the way you two do.”

He appreciated the way the man clapped his shoulder and squeezed it. In front of these people the man wouldn’t hug him openly, but he felt the affection in the touch, and he gripped his bicep. Eric walked to Briar and kissed her cheek, “I’m off. I told Liev I’d rather never be with a woman again than her.” He whispered in her ear knowing she could hear him.

“Damn. He wins.”

“You give me too much credit, Briar.” He teased her. He gave a shake of his head to the woman who was watching him hungrily from across the room and then left the house. He waved to the driver of the car who brought him and walked towards it. He looked up and noted Hadlee watching out the window eating off the plate she’d taken up to her room. He gave a wave, and she responded with a flip of her finger.

He raised his eyebrow at the action. What the hell? He folded his arms over his chest and glared at her, but she spun away, the curtains falling back as she disappeared. He climbed into the car and shook his head at her antics.

Lately every encounter with her she was angry and belligerent. It was new behavior for him because he’d always known her to be sweet and accommodating. She used to come to choir practice and wait for her mom when her mother was his choir director at school. In his senior year of high school, Hadlee’s father Liev intervened in his life in a way which changed it forever. He would never be able to repay the man for the things he’d done for him.

He knew Briar was not keen on the extracurricular activities he did for Liev. Initially, Liev kept him working as entertainment in the club on the weekends. One night, a girl was getting assaulted in the back room by a patron of the club and Eric wasn’t one to stand by and see such things happen. He laid a beating on the man which knocked him unconscious, bleeding and barely breathing.

When Liev and his men began to haul him away, Eric heard the guy was identified as someone who was wanted for assaulting women in multiple clubs in the area, he’d grabbed a gun from one of Liev’s guards and put a bullet in his head. Liev had been shocked, but Eric stared at the dead man with a sense of justice, shrugged at his mentor and said, “for Briony.”

When his sister was only a pre-teen, she’d been violated by their stepfather. Eric hadn’t been able to protect her until the night he’d beat the man but even then, the pervert got away with only the equivalent of a restraining order. It took years for his sister to heal and feel safe and even now twelve years later, Briony still struggled with intimacy, but she’d come a long way under the care of friends and family like the Orlovs.

As if Liev understood his need to regain the control in protecting his sister from those who would violate her, any time there was a situation which warranted handling of someone who hurt one of the women under the care of the Orlov family, Eric was one of his first calls. If a stripper from one of the clubs got forced to do more than take off her clothes during a private dance, his face became Eric’s punching bag. A server in one of the restaurants got groped by a customer, well, Eric would break his hands. Each time he hurt someone who hurt a woman, he felt he was slowly healing the guilt he felt for not being able to protect his little sister better.

He realized when the car pulled up to the building where his condo was located, he’d been lost in thoughts a long time. He gave his head a shake, patted the driver on the back and headed inside. He got into the elevator and then instead of heading up to his condo, he opted to go for a ride. Descending to the underground parking, he tossed his keys in his pocket and nodded to himself. Between Hadlee’s drama, Tina’s vulture behavior and his own trip down memory lane, he needed to blow off steam.

He reached for his helmet which was stacked on his bike and frowned when a small venetian mask fell out of the helmet and landed on his seat. He lifted it into his hands and turned it over and found a note stuck to it.

“One day I’ll meet you wearing only this.”

His d**k immediately grew hard, and he grabbed his phone, plunking his rear end on the side of his bike and began typing.

“How do you know where I live, ghost?”

He waited for her to answer and tapped his phone on his chin and then called Liev. “Hey, someone dropped me a present at my bike.”

“Your ghost?”

“Yeah.”

“She sounds insane.” Liev’s voice was worried.

“Can you get me the surveillance for my garage?”

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll have it emailed to you. Do you have security with you right now?”

“No. I was going to go for a ride. She left me a note.” He didn’t mention the mask he was a hundred percent sure the woman wore in her strip tease routine he’d been watching on repeat for the last week and a half.

“I don’t like this, Eric. I’d rather you went back into your condo.”

“No. I’m going for my ride. She’s not dangerous, Liev. She wants to have s*x with a rock star and she’s trying to get my attention to do it. She stands out from a groupie this way.”

“She is a stalker.”

“Fine. I can’t argue. I’m going for a ride though. Send me the CCTV footage though because I’m hoping to finally get her face.”

“Will do. Be safe, please.”

“I will.” He hung up the phone and swung his leg over the bike and watched his phone waiting for her to respond. Usually when she left him a gift, she was almost sitting on her phone when he messaged her. It was odd she wasn’t responding.

“You do know my garage has CCTV, right?” he tried to provoke her to respond. He knew she was gorgeous from the neck down. Every video he’d ever gotten from her hid her face carefully.

When there was still no message back, he sighed and rubbed his head. All the women in his life were making him nuts. He frowned as he thought of Hadlee again and the barely there pjs she’d worn downstairs and pale pink flesh of her ass as she’d bent over to retrieve her water bottle. He couldn’t believe she’d been so bold with Dima right there. Eric admitted his own eyes had been glued to her legs and her exposed flesh until he’d caught himself and realized he was perving out on the girl he considered a second sister.

He couldn’t go there. He wouldn’t go there. He rolled out his shoulders and put his bike into gear. Time to clear his head.