Page 62 of The Bratva's Bounty

Rolling my eyes, I snorted softly as I reached over to pause the navigation, earning an angry pout from my hangry girlfriend. "Hey! You said I could pick," she snapped, balling her fists up in her lap and glowering at me.

If looks could kill, then I'd be burning in Hell already. "Empress, I just got done beating your dad bloody, and I'm covered in his blood and spit. Even if we're not going to some high-end place, I want to get decent at the very least." If it was a small splatter here and there then I wouldn't have minded, but I had it all over my arms and face. Also, dried blood was a bitch to scrub off.

Huffing in defeat, Nicole slumped in her seat with her arms crossed. "Fine, I guess you can go clean up," she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

"Baby, there's some snacks in the glove compartment and in the bag in the back." The drive home from our desert compound would be a long while, and the last thing I needed was forNicole to rip my head off halfway through the trip.

Without a peep, Nicole trifled through the glove compartment and the snack bag after snatching it up. Thankfully, her munching kept her occupied for a good portion of the drive.

After a while, I broke our peaceful silence. "So, what are we going to do with your parents now? Just keep them locked away in The Catacombs until they die? What about Igor? I mean, they were our only lead to him so far." Unfortunately, these things couldn't wait.

Sighing, Nicole ran a hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face. "We'll see if they talk once Angel or one of the twins have a go at them, then we'll figure things out further." She didn't sound too confident, which made the corner of my lips frown. "We're going to need to have another go at the people who are supposedly in cahoots with Igor, and if we're lucky, one of them will squeal sooner rather than later."

The leather seat creaked with her movement as she leaned her head against the window. "I'll have to dig around with Bao to take a look at everyone's accounts. There's bound to be one idiot who did something electronically that will give us the thread that will lead us back to Igor." Her words grew in frustration as she spoke with heavy sighs.

Reaching over, I settled my hand on her thigh, offering her a soothing rub and pat. "Don't dwell too much on it, empress. We'll handle it one day at a time." We couldn't rush it if we wanted.

Yes, the possibility of Igor fleeing and resurfacing was a huge problem, but tracking people down and capturing them took time, same with going through their electronic footprint. As good as Nicole and Bao were, their fingers could only code and scroll at a certain speed, and their programs could only process so fast.

Keeping a hand on her thigh, I continued to drive for a little bit in silence to simmer the tension out. "What were you and your mom talking about earlier? I kept hearing 'Volkovs' every now and then." We hadn't had a chance to talk about the brief conversation in the previous car ride, and my curiosity was starting to burn holes into my brain at this point.

Lifting herhead off the window, she gave a soft, questioning hum and blinked at me a few times before I saw the light bulb go off in her head. "Oh, that?" Sitting up straight, she continued to hum for a second before leaning over to me and hugging my arm. "She was going on about how there's a lot of people unhappy about the Volkov Bratva, the ones who were with Lady Qing before. Then, she tried to convince me to leave you to go marry Igor because, apparently, that was a condition of his for my parents to go fully into business with him."

Hearing the little bit about her mother telling her to leave me for Igor made my grip on the steering wheel tightened to where it squeaked under me. "Like hell are you ever leaving me for anyone." Over my dead body because I'd fight whoever tries to take her away from me or whoever she tries to leave me for.

Laughing softly, Nicole kissed my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that's my line. After all, I was the one who tattooed and collared you," she retorted, reaching up and tugging at the ring of my collar.

"Still can't believe you were thinking about cutting it off." Her voice flattened with her words, and a sharp pinch to my arm followed them. "Not that you would have been able to, but still, the fact you held those sheers to it."

Angel snitched me out to Nicole the other day about the one morning I hid out at Nikolai's place. Come to find out, if I did try to snip my collar off that morning, then I would've failed because there was metal in the damn thing.

"I said I was sorry, and it's not like I did it." I tried to defend myself, but the deadpanned expression she shot me meant I'd get nowhere. "I was confused and terrified, I told you." Still didn't make me feel less guilty about it all. Even though she waved it off back then as she did now, the hurt in her eyes was as clear as day to me.

Yeah, I was more than prepared to spend every day apologizing for almost making a huge mistake. Well, at this point, that would be the case. My sore ass served as a good reminder.

Speaking of my ass, the thought of punishment later tonight had me squirming in my seat with a slight grimace. Needless to say, Nicole definitelywasn't letting me forget her gracious gift to me, nor was she letting me forget who was in charge between us and who owned who.

Memories of the other night flooded my mind, making shivers trickle down my spine in response to the sudden heat blooming in my body. I knew what happened behind closed doors would always remain so, but it was still a little embarrassing to think about. No one would ever take me seriously if they ever found out about how I'd let Nicole—

Everything came to a screeching halt from the sudden jolt of pleasure shocking my unexpecting body. Sucking in a sharp breath, I glanced at Nicole briefly. "N-Nicole, I'm driving," I strained out through gritted teeth before letting out a trembling exhale.

"And?" she remarked smugly, and no doubt with a devious smirk etched on her face. "You don't need your dick to drive." Nicole snarked, snickering darkly as she leaned over more to my side until her upper body was all up in my lap.

Dragging out a playful sigh, she slowly worked my pants open, pulling my throbbing cock out. "Now, just what is my little lion thinking about to get this worked up? Hm?" Her soft hand squeezed my aching shaft tightly, slowly stroking and being careful to press against my piercings.

Frustrated, I let out a brief shout and pounded a fist against the steering wheel. "God damn it, you're going to make me crash." I gasped sharply and shuddered at the hot feeling of her mouth swallowing my cock. "Nicole!"

God fucking damn it! This woman!

Slamming my head back against the headrest, I let out an anguished cry as I breathed deeply.

The fuck do I do?!

My fingers went numb from how hard I gripped the steering wheel while my knuckles turned deathly pale.

Should I pull over? Keep going? Pull her off? Fucking hell!

"Focus on the road, little lion." Her voice insisted through my indecisive haze. "Just worry about getting us home safely." Her soft tongue ran along the underside of my length, starting from the base all the way to the crown of my tip, where she teasingly swirled her tongue around. "And I'll worry abouttaking care of you." She chuckled deviously before taking a good few inches into her needy mouth, causing me to shudder violently.