Unwilling Pawn by Measha Stone

Chapter 7

Christian

“And what are you going to do with her once you’re married?” Lukas asked as he sank into my office couch.

“Well, what does a man do with his wife?” I shuffled through the papers on the desk.

“Yes, I get that part.” Lukas hooked his foot over his opposite knee. “But after that? Are you going to bring her back to New York? Is she going to play nice with the people back home? We need to keep a clean nose if we’re going to make stronger connections with the Mayor’s office.”

I found the paper I wanted and pulled it from the bottom of the stack. “Piotr was not only a shitty commander, but he also kept every record out in the open.” I splayed my hands over the mess my cousin had left behind in the wake of his death.

Lukas raised his brows. “Uncle Stanislaw thought he would do good here.”

“Uncle Stanislaw was trying to appease Piotr by splitting the family the way he did,” I argued. Stanislaw Kaczmarek had been the head of our family, supervising both our New York and Chicago interests with the strength needed to be able to do so effectively. But he had borne too much guilt over the deaths of his brothers, both taken away by illnesses gone undiagnosed for too long. To make himself feel better, he’d split the family between me and my cousin, Piotr. We had each taken a city.

But Piotr fucked everything up and got himself killed. With no heir or siblings, I had stepped up. Both cities belonged to me.

“Well, turns out Piotr couldn’t handle it, huh?” Lukas frowned.

“We need to clean up this shit. Get everything that has any incriminating information and burn it. Thankfully, the idiot didn’t understand computers, so at least we don’t have to worry about that.”

“Okay, but back to the woman you’ve gotten yourself engaged to. You know Sebastian Gorecki isn’t going to take this news quietly. He’s going to come at us for this.”

I raised my eyes to my younger brother. “I welcome the opportunity.”

Lukas’s frown deepened. “We can’t touch him, Christian.”

“If he comes at us, we can defend ourselves. It’s up to him if he wants to start a war or not.”

“You’ve effectively stifled his casino business. He might think that’s worthy of it.”

I lifted a shoulder. “Then so be it. We’re stronger now. Our strength covers from Chicago to New York. His reach barely hits Navy Pier.”

“Where are you with the Staszek family?” Lukas changed the topic. We both understood even though Sebastian was the last of his line and had few connections he remained untouchable. If we made a wrong move, he could easily stir up sympathy with families that could cause trouble for us.

“I saw Jakub last night. He was civil. Piotr’s death healed the strain between our families. You’ll be able to move forward with your plans here once I go back home.” I stacked two piles together and sat back in my chair. “Any issues with the men?”

“They are loyal to the Kaczmarek family name. Piotr was as much of a prick to them as he was to everyone else. They’ll be glad for the new arrangement.”

“Good.”

The door opened and Darek, one of my most trusted men, stepped inside holding a phone in his right hand.

“What is it?” I asked, noting the worry wrinkling his face.

“You might have a problem with your…with Dudek’s daughter,” Darek said. “She’s at the Union station with a suitcase.”

“Union station?” I turned to Lukas; he knew the city better than I did.

“The train station. She could just be taking the Metra out to the burbs,” he said, but Darek was already shaking his head.

“She’s got an Amtrak ticket. Our man saw her buy it and called right away.”

Anger rose in my chest. My sister’s puppies were more obedient than this woman.

“Tell him to stop her.” I pointed at Darek, getting up from my chair. “Have her brought here, straight away. Do not take her home, she comes here.” I grabbed my own phone.

“We don’t know that she’s trying to leave town, she could—”

“She has a bag and a train ticket; do you think she’s just coasting up to Wisconsin for the afternoon?” I shot at my brother.

“What will you do once she’s here?” Lukas didn’t bother trying to hide the smug grin on his damn lips. He knew, like everyone else, an act like this required discipline. She would not be getting away from this little tantrum lightly.

Darek walked out into the hall with his phone pressed to his ear, rattling off instructions. Within an hour she’d be in my house. Under my roof, and under my authority.

“Send three men to Dudek’s house. I want her room boxed up and brought here. Tell that asshole his daughter will be staying here until the wedding, and if I find out he had anything to do with this little stunt of hers, I’ll be making a visit.”

Lukas already had his phone out and was texting. “I’ll take care of it. You want her stuff here or should I have it all shipped to New York?”

“Her clothing can come here; the rest gets put in a storage container. If she wanted to pick and choose what she kept, she should have damn well done what I told her to.”

Darek stepped back in the room. “It’s done. She’s in the car now. Pissed as all hell, too.”

I went to my bar and poured a drink. “She hasn’t seen pissed,” I muttered.

“We’re sending men to talk with the security crew down there. One of our guys is talking with them now, but he’s going to need some grease to make it go away.”

I waved a hand in the air. “Whatever, just get it done. When she gets here, put her upstairs in the room next to mine. Piotr, for whatever sick reason, had locks put on the adjoining door. Make sure she’s secured inside.”

“If she asks questions?” Darek asked, but he was just playing with my irritation. When you’re friends and brothers for as long as we were, we could sense the emotions of each other. He found it amusing to piss me off when I was already teetering on the edge.

“Questions?” I narrowed my eyes. “No one is to say a damn word to her. Tell her nothing. She gets dumped in that room and left there until I’m ready to deal with her.”

Lukas joined Darek at the doorway. “I’m meeting the guys at Dudek’s house. I’ll let you know if there’s any trouble.”

I pressed my fisted knuckles into the top of my desk. “For his sake, there better not be any.”

Once alone, I let the images from the night before dance into my mind. How beautiful Amelia’s eyes shone with tears dancing on her eyelids, and how hard my cock grew with each of her whimpers from my belt. Her ass bounced so sweetly beneath the strong leather. Bright red streaks covered her soft cream skin by the time I was finished with her. It had taken every ounce of resolve I could find to keep me from sinking my cock between those thighs and into her hot, wet pussy.

She would have been mortified if I’d mentioned it, and I regretted not using that to my advantage at the time, but as I whipped her ass, her legs parted enough to reveal the thin fabric covering her pussy. The soft pink had darkened with her juices.

But as much as I wanted to sink into her, I could not and would not allow her to think her punishment would morph into pleasure. At least for her. In the future, once my ring was settled on her finger, I would use her body for my gain at my own discretion. But until I had her vow, I would not cross that line.

Just thinking about it made my cock hard. And now my disobedient little pianist was on her way to my house.

And she’d been a very naughty girl.