Gilded Cage: A Russian Mafia Romance (Kovalyov Bratva Book 1) by Nicole Fox (free novel 24 .txt) 📗

Gilded Cage

A Russian Mafia Romance

Nicole Fox

Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Fox

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Contents

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Gilded Cage

1. Esme

2. Esme

3. Artem

4. Esme

5. Esme

6. Esme

7. Esme

8. Artem

9. Artem

10. Esme

11. Esme

12. Artem

13. Artem

14. Esme

15. Artem

16. Esme

17. Esme

18. Artem

19. Esme

20. Esme

21. Artem

22. Artem

23. Artem

24. Esme

25. Esme

26. Esme

27. Artem

28. Artem

29. Artem

30. Esme

31. Artem

32. Artem

33. Esme

34. Artem

35. Esme

36. Esme

37. Artem

38. Artem

39. Esme

40. Artem

41. Esme

42. Esme

43. Artem

44. Artem

45. Artem

46. Esme

47. Esme

48. Esme

49. Artem

50. Artem

51. Esme

52. Esme

53. Artem

54. Artem

55. Esme

56. Esme

57. Artem

58. Esme

59. Esme

60. Artem

61. Artem

62. Artem

63. Esme

64. Esme

65. Artem

66. Artem

67. Artem

68. Esme

69. Artem

70. Esme

71. Artem

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Also by Nicole Fox

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Also by Nicole Fox

Kovalyov Bratva Duet

Gilded Cage (Book 1)

Gilded Tears (Book 2)

Princes of Ravenlake Academy (Bully Romance)

*Can be read as standalones!

Cruel Prep

Cruel Academy

Cruel Elite

Bratva Crime Syndicate

*Can be read in any order!

Lies He Told Me

Scars He Gave Me

Sins He Taught Me

Belluci Mafia Trilogy

Corrupted Angel (Book 1)

Corrupted Queen (Book 2)

Corrupted Empire (Book 3)

De Maggio Mafia Duet

Devil in a Suit (Book 1)

Devil at the Altar (Book 2)

Kornilov Bratva Duet

Married to the Don (Book 1)

Til Death Do Us Part (Book 2)

Heirs to the Bratva Empire

*Can be read in any order!

Kostya

Maksim

Andrei

Tsezar Bratva

Nightfall (Book 1)

Daybreak (Book 2)

Russian Crime Brotherhood

*Can be read in any order!

Owned by the Mob Boss

Unprotected with the Mob Boss

Knocked Up by the Mob Boss

Sold to the Mob Boss

Stolen by the Mob Boss

Trapped with the Mob Boss

Volkov Bratva

Broken Vows (Book 1)

Broken Hope (Book 2)

Broken Sins (standalone)

Other Standalones

Vin: A Mafia Romance

Box Sets

Bratva Mob Bosses (Russian Crime Brotherhood Books 1-6)

Tsezar Bratva (Tsezar Bratva Duet Books 1-2)

Heirs to the Bratva Empire

The Mafia Dons Collection

The Don’s Corruption

Gilded Cage

Book One of the Kovalyov Bratva Duet

I’LL LOCK HER IN A GILDED CAGE AND THROW AWAY THE KEY.

The night we met, she thought she was tasting freedom.

I devoured her once and left before I even knew her name.

Four months later, Bratva business leads me to the house of my enemy with one objective:

Burn it down and kill everyone inside.

That’s exactly what I plan to do…

Until I find her cowering before me.

The innocent girl from the club.

My beautiful caged bird.

I’m not here to save her—I’m here to ruin her.

But something stops me in my tracks.

Something I never expected.

Did she say that’s my baby in her womb?

1

Esme

A SECRET LOCATION ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF MEXICO

I look around at my bedroom and fight the urge to scream.

It’s beautiful by any measure. The finest furniture. The most expensive art.

But I see it for what it really is: a gilded fucking cage.

My eyes settle on the picture board I set up when I was fifteen years old. I still remember the first thing I stuck up there—a glossy postcard of Florence, Italy.

Seven years have passed since I first pinned it up. The postcard is no longer glossy. It stares back at me, old and faded, a constant reminder of the invisible steel bars that surround my life.

The board shows all the places I’ve always wanted to go. The Coliseum in Rome. The Great Wall of China. The pyramids in Egypt.

But they’re all just fantasies. I’ve only left my father’s home once.

The picture of that lone trip is up there, too. I reach up and take it down.

In the photograph, my older brother, Cesar, stands beside me, his arm wrapped protectively around my shoulders. The Eiffel Tower pierces the low clouds behind us.

We’re both smiling.

Oblivious to the future.

Oblivious to how little time he and I had left together.

It’s been years since Cesar’s death and yet it still hurts to think about him.

You should be here with me, I think. Maybe then things would be different.

My fingers caress Cesar’s face for a moment. But when tears start to prick at the corners of my eyes, I pin the picture back up on the bulletin board—facedown, so I don’t have to look at it and remember everything I’ve lost.

A knock on my door interrupts my thoughts.

I turn to face the door. “Yes?”

“Señorita Esme, your father requests your presence downstairs in the formal sitting room.”

The muffled voice belongs to Sofia, one of the maids who works here at my father’s compound. I close my eyes for a moment and breathe deeply.

The only reason Papa would “request” my presence in the formal sitting room is so I can be his show pony.

My father likes to flaunt his possessions.

And unfortunately for me, I’m his crown jewel.

I open the door and come face to face with the woman. She’s small, Mexican, shy, beautiful.

“I guess I shouldn’t ‘request’ that he go fuck himself, should I?” I drawl.

Sofia flinches like I slapped her.

It’s just a joke, of course. But she’s seen what my father is capable of.

We both know that saying that to his face would earn me a month in the cellar.

I sigh. “Never mind. Gracias, Sofia. Tell Papa I’ll be down soon.”

I expect her to nod in her usual respectful manner and walk away, but she continues to stand there in her black and white maid’s uniform, wringing her hands together nervously.

Not a good sign.

“Is there something else, Sofia?”

“Señorita…” Her tone is apologetic already.

I frown. “What else does he want?”

Sofia raises her brown eyes up to meet mine. She is a little paler than usual, which is pretty standard when my father is in the house. We all walk on eggshells whenever he is around.

“He also said would like you to wear a dress,” she finishes, lowering her eyes again. “‘Something a man would like,’ he said.”

So he wants to impress some unspecified male guest or guests.

That’s not a good sign at all.

I offer Sofia a forced smile. “As Papa wishes, he shall