Page 21 of Chaos
“I can’t, man. I’m sorry. My babysitter said she had to bail early.” Nikolai wipes his sweaty face against his own shoulder before hoisting the stiff higher into his grasp.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to do this. Since Nikolai and I started working closely together two years ago, we’ve gotten into a rhythm.
He slams the trunk shut over our deceased cargo. “I’m looking for a new one. This girl thinks she wants to start singing at that new jazz club that opened up. I’ve heard her sing to Lily–the girl would sound better with a cock in her throat.” A touch of his Russian accent comes out as he gets agitated.
“What, like yours?” I’ve seen her. It’d take a lot of vodka.
“Funny. Not even close. There are lines you don’t cross.” Nikolai pauses as he shifts the car into drive to look at me over his sunglasses. “Well. You cross lines. I do not.” The corner of his mouth turns up in a sarcastic smile before he slams on the accelerator, pushing us both back into our seats.
He’s never going to let me live down messing around with my brother’s wife.
Half-brother.
Brody sounds like he’s kind of an ass, anyway, from what Sofia told me.
Fuck, she had the most amazing?—
“Idi na khuy!” Nikolai yells in Russian at the windshield as he slams on the brakes.
A stumbling group of college age guys bump into the front of his Hellcat. Their half-full plastic glasses of alcohol scrape against the gray hood before they navigate to the sidewalk.
“If you want to tell them to go fuck themselves, English gets through their drunk noggins a lot faster.” I slump down against the window and turn the air conditioner vent to blow on my forehead.
It’s still over a hundred degrees. The heat won’t be doing any favors to the body in the trunk.
“I get tired of how simple they are. Don’t they know that my father’s men are coming?” Nikolai’s large fist bunches over the steering wheel.
“Are you sure they are? I mean, things have been pretty quiet lately. Except for the occasional little fish.” I jerk my thumb towards the back.
“It’s always this way with him. Silence before all hell breaks loose.” His teeth grit and his hand twists on the leather.
With a sigh, he slumps back.
The buildings thin and disappear as we drive further into the desert. Reds and golds are bursting across the dusky sky when he turns us onto the secluded dirt road.
Raking my tongue bar across my teeth helps to vent out some of the nervous energy bouncing through me.
I just want to get this shit done.
“We need to hurry. We’ll just leave him for the buzzards and coyotes.” Nikolai opens the trunk.
I can smell the guy already.
Vegas has a lot of perks, but keeping a body fresh isn’t one of them.
“Nasty. Did he shit his pants?” I hope this smell doesn’t linger. “Next time, we load them alive, then bring them out here.” My stomach rolls as bile rises in my throat.
Nikolai shakes his head. “They’d just scream the whole way.” The tattoos on his knuckles stand out as he locks his hands around the chest.
We drop the body in a small ditch. Someone would have to walk right up to it to find it.
“Good enough.” He wipes his hands across his thick thighs and climbs back into his vehicle.
My rings catch the glint of the fading light as I open and close my fingers. The last hit left a twinge, but I’ve had worse.
It’s dark by the time we get back to the lines of casinos.
An ache in my chest tells me tonight is long from over. It’s hard to want to just go back to my suite and deal with the silence.