Page 11 of Luca
LUCA
THE SAME NIGHT – FINALLY ARRIVED
Ifinally got to the party several hours late, and after a brief word with the guys on the door, I headed into the VIP lounge.
“We were beginning to worry about you,” Anton said.
“The situation at Platinum took me longer than expected and then I got stuck for a while in traffic,” I replied.
“Have you checked in with the guys yet?” he asked.
“Not yet, I’ll catch them later,” I told him. “How is Suzie handling things?”
“Great. There have been no issues. Are you still planning on opening your own business?”
“Yeah. I’ve been discussing things with Trent and hopefully we’ll be able to launch in a few months,” I said, grinning.
“How is Miki taking the fact you won’t be around as much to be his errand boy?” he teased.
“Ha, fucking, ha!”
“He’s fine about it. I’ll still be acting as Head of Entertainments, I’ll just be delegating more and promoting some new managers to take over where needed. Got to keep everything in the family. But now things with our enemies have died down, and we’ve started offloading some of the problem areas of our business, he is more than happy for me to branchout. Besides, if things go dark again, he knows I’ll always have his back. Just like you,” I replied, and he nodded.
“Where’s the birthday girl?” I asked.
Anton pointed over to the table where Marcie and Claire were slurping on cocktails. My heart skipped a beat as I stared, letting my eyes feast on the woman who was the star of all of my fantasies. She was fucking gorgeous! The soft curls of her long blond hair made me want to wrap my fist around them as I slammed my mouth down on hers and ran my other hand over that delectable bum while grinding her against my cock.
“Those two have been knocking them back tonight. Tequila shots and now cocktails. It’s a wonder they’re still standing,” he said with a smirk.
“Headaches all around in the morning then.” I chuckled unable to take my eyes off Claire. I gulped and ran shaky fingers through my hair. God, the effect that woman had on me should be illegal. Bloody hell, I needed a drink.
“Yeah, they are both going to have one hell of a hangover. Especially Marcie. You missed her thank you speech and the buffet, but there are still some leftovers at the back of the room, if you want any. And you can leave your gift over there too,” Anton said, taking a swig of my beer.
“If you are lucky, maybe Claire will be inebriated enough to let you kiss her,” he teased.
“Fuck you. Maybe that’s what Marcie needs to do with you then. Get you drunk and you’ll finally admit how much you want her!” I taunted in return.
“I’m heading to the bar. I’ll grab you a beer while I’m there,” I called over my shoulder chuckling as he muttered “Arsehole.” One of these days, the guy was going to have to admit that he was as obsessed with Marcie, as I was of Claire.
As I placed the gift bag next to the already large pile of presents on the table, I couldn’t help but chuckle at Marcie’s birthday cake. It was shaped like a chiselled male torso, with a tight shirt clearly meant to be part of a military uniform—one that revealed a very defined chest, the kind a male stripper might wear.
That was so Marcie. She’d made it no secret that she had a thing for military men. Or ex-military men, and one in particular. My gaze settled on Anton, still standing at the balcony pretending he was watching the dancefloor below and not Marcie. For a man who had been in the Special Forces and was used to subterfuge, he was doing a piss-poor job at hiding it.
He had it bad for her, too. Unfortunately, something had been holding him back. I wasn’t sure what. None of us guys could figure it out.
Anton had a troubled past, having grown up with an alcoholic father. His mother had died when he was young, leaving him and his twin sister with their dad who couldn’t cope without her. He had taken to drinking, and although he wasn’t a mean drunk, he had been neglectful. So, he and his sister Louisa had generally had to fend for themselves and Anton quickly took on the role of her protector.
Just after we had moved to the UK, Anton and Ash met at school and became inseparable. As a result, he and Louisa spent a lot of time hanging out with us at the Rominov estate where we all lived.
We’d seen how hard things were for them and how seriously he took his role and wanted to help. With no other family to help him, we’d created one for him, forming a pact so that he would know we all had his back and would protect him and his sister. Of course, Anton’s pride wouldn’t have allowed him to accept our help directly. So, Miki and I created the Bratva Blood Brothers with him, Ash, Romi, and Marko. We cut our fingersand merged our blood and formed a pact in which we all pledged to protect each other, our families and especially our sisters.
In that way, whenever Anton or Louisa needed help with anything, we did whatever was required and just said it was our duty as part of the pact.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work quite as well as we’d hoped and when he was in his last year of school, Louisa got in with the wrong crowd and became distant. She started seeing an older guy behind our back and he was bad news. Within a few weeks, she had gone missing.
By the time we tracked her down, she was already an addict, living in Manchester and selling herself for her next fix. The asshole had been pimping her out.
We had killed the fucker; he was one of our first kills, and we had brought her home. Miki’s dad paid for her to go to rehab. She had been successful, and later ended up going to college to study graphic design. We’d all believed her when she said she was doing fine. But sadly, the lure of heroin was too much and Anton found her in the bathroom of her flat, having taken an overdose.