Free Russian Roulette (Russkaya Mafiya) by Sapphire Knight

Avery, Cameron and this is Tate. Guys, this is my best friend, London Layla Traverson.” I beam at London as I say her full name.
    “Oh, bitch! You had to bust out the middle name?” She glares at me briefly, then turns a charming smile on everyone else. “Hi everyone and don’t listen to this loser, my name’s just London.”
    I start giggling loudly because this reminds me of third grade when I got all the boys to sing ‘Layla’ to her. She was so furious she didn’t talk to me for two whole days. After those two days I gave in and apologized. She admitted that she couldn’t hold out any longer either.
    Now after all these years I still enjoy teasing her any chance I get. London is loud and has a bad mouth, but I wouldn’t change her for the world. She’s been there for me when I needed her my entire life and has never left my side.
    That is until I had to leave hers; but I had to run away from that psycho.
    Avery turns to me and smiles mischievously back at me. “Actually this is perfect. Tate and Cameron her, were just asking me if we all wanted to do something tonight. I was saying food, but now that Miss London is here, maybe she’d like to go out tonight?”
    Avery turns her playful smile at London and London returns a playful smile of her own.. Oh great, tonight is going to be crazy, I already know.
    “Of course, we would love to go out! Do you boys have a hot friend that can come too, so I have a dance partner? If not, I’ll have to steal these two ladies to dance with me all night.”
    Of course she just agrees without asking me. London has dragged me to so much stuff over the years. It’s miraculous we didn’t end up in jail half the time.
    Tate gazes at me while he answers London, “Of course we have someone, tell me your type and we will pick you girls up tonight at 9:30.”

SIX
    EMILY
    We make it back to my apartment and a fewhours later, London has finally woken up from a nap.
    I turn to her, “So, don’t take this the wrong way. I’m super happy you’re here and I love seeing your lovely face, but why exactly are you here?”
    I feel bad for asking, but it’s driving me crazy. I keep picturing worst-case scenarios in my head over and over. I need a little bit of reassurance that I’m being irrational.
    We continued getting dressed for our night out with the boys. Of course London and Avery dressed me up like a hooker after London saw Tate staring at me. It was pretty much cemented in her head to hook me up. They keep telling me the dress is hot, and I look great but I think I appear almost naked in it.
    I guess we were supposed to check out some club called ‘Tainted’ tonight, but Avery won London over with the OO7 theme. Now it’s back to OO7 for us. I swear Avery would go to OO7 every time she’s off, if we were up for it. That girl loves to dance and have some fun.
    I hope it’s not another drama-filled night. I don’t know if I can handle Tate on an Alpha kick again. I’m not going to hold my breath, knowing London’s shenanigans.
    London mumbles, “Look, Emily, let’s have a little fun tonight. I just got here and want to have a good time with you guys. We can talk about all the serious stuff tomorrow, okay?”
    She has looked pretty stressed out since I first saw her at the university. It looks like she could use some more sleep too, which is weird for my friend. At least she got in a short nap today.
    I nod and smile; it’s fake but I want to reassure her, “Okay, that sounds like a plan, and don’t forget we are checking out one of the lakes this weekend. I don’t care if both of you are rocking hangovers or not! It’ll be even more fun now that you are going with Avery and me.”
    I’m so happy London and Avery have hit it off and have become fast friends.
    She chuckles, “Us hungover? Oh no, girly, I’m in town, you can relax for a night or two or three. It will be perfectly fine to have some drinks and cut loose with all of us around you.”
    London’s