Rocking With The Bratva Brat

Sneaking In

"Hadlee, if your father catches us, we’re dead meat.” Shamia squawked at her like the chicken Hadlee was convinced she was.

“Seriously, Shamia, if you’re going to keep being such a scaredy cat go home.” Gabriella grunted at her. “I swear to God the more time you spend in college the nerdier and more chicken-s**t you get.”

Hadlee was unable to defend Shamia against her other best friend’s allegations. Gabby was spouting straight up facts and Hadlee was convinced it was due to the new boy Shamia was seeing. Hadlee called him a boy because there was nothing to convince her he was a man, not with the way she’d grown up to see real men behave.

“It’s not my fault. Damn it, Neville has turned into a damn maniac, and he threatens me all the time that if I get into trouble, he’s going to turn me over to Liev and one of the guys from his team.”

Case in point for Hadlee, Shamia’s brother Neville had grown into a man with a wicked temper but surrounded by men who taught him how to control it. Now he was working his way through the echelons of Hadlee’s father’s organization, and he was proving to be everything her father looked for in a guard.

“Neville is a pushover. I’ll blow him and it will be fine,” Gabby grinned when Shamia shoved her with disgust coating her face.

“Would you two shut up a minute?” Hadlee finally spoke as she peeked her head past the velvet curtain blocking the dark corridor of her father’s nightclub. Sneaking was easy. Too easy. But she was on a mission, and she would not be thwarted. “It’s too quiet.”

Gabby nodded, “it is but we know our dads are out of the country.”

“They’re due back today. God, they could even be back now. My mom also isn’t out of the country” Hadlee grumbled, “and she’s always around with her f*****g whistle. Scared the s**t out of me in my bedroom the other night when I snuck in at two in the morning. I’ll be twenty in two months. You would think by now I would have some form of freedom.”

“You have four little brothers, Hadlee. She has to keep them in line and she’s making you lead by example.”

“I heard Dad tell her he wants to try for one more. She’s pushing forty.”

“Your father is a horn dog,” Gabby grimaced and nudged Shamia, “I was at their house for dinner last weekend with my parents and Liev and Briar disappeared for twenty minutes and he gave a bullshit excuse about needing to get wine. She came back up from the wine cellar looking far rougher than she went down.”

“Ew!” Hadlee shoved her with her two hands. “You know the rules! I do not want to talk about my parents f*****g. It’s bad enough I have to hear and catch them all the time. I can’t stomach the notion outside of my house please.”

“I think its romantic,” Shamia sighed. “They’re so lovely. My parents are still the same and I want the same for me.”

“What happened to you?” Hadlee glowered at her. “You went from being my partner in crime to being a sap.” Again, she was convinced it was the weakling boyfriend.

They tiptoed down the darkened hallway towards the dressing room. “There it is.”

“Are you sure you want to do this, Hadlee?”

“Yes. I need him to know I’m still interested. I haven’t left him a present in a couple of weeks.”

“That b***h still hangs around though.”

“She’s psycho. I heard Dad offer to put her out of his misery last week.”

“He thinks you’re a kid.”

“He’s wrong. I’m twenty.”

“Nineteen and he’s twenty-eight.”

“My dad is way older than my mom. They make it work. I want him. I’m going to have him.”

Gabby yanked the squabbling pair of her friends backwards into a dark corner and covered their mouths. They all made wide eyes as heavy footsteps headed in their direction. Thank heavens Gabriella was being trained by her mother. She heard way more than they did.

“I know I locked the door. I don’t know why it’s unlocked but Liev will kick my ass if anyone is back here who shouldn’t be. Eric playing an intimate and interactive show tonight is a security nightmare.” Neville’s voice carried out.

“Who the hell wants to get back to their roots of performing in bars when they sell out stadiums all over the world?” A voice they didn’t know questioned Eric’s actions.

“I don’t know,” Neville scoffed, “must really suck to have women breaking into your hotel room and jumping out of your shower naked begging for you to f**k them.” His sarcasm wasn’t missed on the other man who laughed.

“You wouldn’t want a stranger jumping out at you. You’re into his number one’s daughter and she’ll kill you and the chick and dance in your blood.”

“Shut up,” the sound of a punch made the three girls exchange surprised glances. “Keep your mouth shut. All I f*****g need is Garold knowing I’m messing with Gabby,” he paused, “or worse, her mother. f*****g Samira will rip my balls off and feed them to me raw.”

The laughing of the two men followed them as they walked past the trio hidden in the shadows. Hadlee grinned over her shoulder at Gabby. “Messing with you?” she mouthed the words earning her a punch to the arm. She rubbed her arm smirking the same smile she mastered from her father, but she didn’t miss the glow on her friend’s face. Gabby confessed recently she didn’t like sneaking around and it was nice to see Neville wasn’t keeping her a complete secret.

They waited until the guys were around the corner and then Hadlee was yanking the hands of her two best friends down the hall. Since she’d been almost ten years old and her parents moved her from Baltimore to New York, and she’d watched Eric Byrd perform his first show at the club her father owned, she was starstruck. She’d begun her first childhood crush and longed for him from a distance.

She knew he only saw her as a little girl, the daughter to the man who helped him achieve his goals and kept him on the straight and narrow when the rest of the world wanted to tug him into every wicked direction possible. Her father, head of the biggest Russian criminal syndicate in the world, for her mother’s sake, made sure any of her students who needed the help got it, but only through legal and appropriate means. Because the students her mother coached often came from bad situations, she felt strongly they should never get sucked back into a life they were trying to escape. Personally, Hadlee thought it a bit dumb. She would do whatever it took to reach her goals.

She wasn’t above cheating, lying, or stealing to get what she wanted. Her father was Liev Orlov after all.

Tonight, she snuck into her father’s nightclub ahead of the concert her crush of ten years was going to put on. She wasn’t allowed to attend the concert. Nightclubs when she wasn’t even twenty were a huge no-no according to her mother and father ever since they caught her drinking at fifteen. They would probably both have fits if they knew she snuck out to raves and parties every time their backs were turned. She would likely get shipped to Siberia.

“Stick to the plan,” she hissed over her shoulder. “Get in. Leave my panties, the note and the USB and get out.”

“You’re sick.” Shamia snickered at Hadlee waving the bag containing worn panties.

“Hey. He appreciated the last gifts. I heard him tell my father whoever the secret admirer is, he appreciates her ingenuity and clever abilities.”

“Hadlee, you left your dildo with his name personalized on it laying on his dressing table in his room.”

She shot a wicked grin and held up her handbag, “yeah I did, and I made sure to use it first too.”

Gabby cackled while Samia sighed dramatically.

She shot Shamia a glare, “what?”

“Why can’t you do the normal thing? Walk up to him and say hey, I think you’re hot. We should date.”

“Because when he looks at me, he sees a nine-year-old and not a woman. I want him thinking woman before I reveal myself.”

“What if he tells your dad?”

“Shamia, you’re sucking the life out of this party.” Gabby grunted. “I personally love Hadlee’s drama. It’s better than any college class my parents are making me take. Why the hell I need to take a business management course when I just want to be an assassin like my mother is beyond me.”

“Because you want to be able to manage the money you get paid so can eventually move into your own place away from your parents. Do you really want your mother checking your bank balances for the rest of your life?” Hadlee grunted. “It sucks I need to use an accountant for my money because I can’t add worth s**t, not to mention sort out which investments to use and it’s only for my trust funds. If it weren’t for Shamia managing my side hustle cash I’d be broke all the time.”

“That’s why you need me,” Shamia grinned, her teeth on full display. “I might be dull and boring, but I’ll make sure you make money with your money.”

“I need you for more than that,” she smiled. “You’re my best friend and I love you. Now help me pick this damn lock so I can drop my gifts, and we can get out of here to go watch the show.”

“We can’t stay here,” Shamia hissed. “It’s already ten. If we stay until he does his set, our parents are going to know we are out.”

“Your mom is too busy sleeping from chasing the twins around and your dad is with mine and Gabby’s. We’re fine.”

“We ditched our security, Hadlee,” Shamia complained as she picked the lock with a grunt. “The last time we ditched them I got grounded for three weeks. I didn’t get to see Paul even once.”

“Paul is boring and even your mother doesn’t like him because he’s too nice.”

“He’s definitely suspicious,” Gabby nodded her agreement. “Nobody is so nice. I mean what guy in university wants to wait until marriage.”

“Serial killers and ones who should not be connected to the Russian mafia.” Hadlee grinned at Gabby as they high fived.

“Or ones who respect their girlfriends.” Shamia’s words even to them sounded half-hearted.

“Nah, that’s not it. He’s afraid of your dad. Your dad is scary when he’s pissed off.” Gabby grinned. “Remember when he beat up your prom date?”

“He spiked my drink, and I think when Dad finished with him someone else got him.” Shamia whispered as she gently pushed the door to Eric’s dressing room open. “Hurry up and do this. I’m getting out of here.”

Hadlee couldn’t believe her bad luck when she heard the girls both give a gasp and then Gabby shoved her into the room and took off. The sound of Neville and his partner coming back doing security rounds and the girls took off down the hall leaving Hadlee alone in Eric’s dressing room.