Stolen by the Mob Boss : A Russian Mafia Romance (Bratva Hitman) by Nicole Fox (classic fiction TXT) 📗

me meeting a man is enough to make her forget that I’ve been missing for twenty-four hours. “Maybe,” I say bashfully.

“What’s he like?” she asks.

“He’s ... a mystery. But so far, he’s been nice to me. It’s good getting to know him ... again.”

“Well, I for one am so happy that you’re starting to date again. I’m sure your boss won’t be happy that you blew off work for this, but ...”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” I say. “This new guy offered me a job, a writing gig, and I really want to do it. I know Rudy is going to be mad, but I think I should follow through with this. This’ll be my first big project.”

I need an excuse for why I won’t be home for the foreseeable future, otherwise I’ll be in another situation with the people that love me sending the police to come and find me. “Sweetheart, what is your heart telling you to do?”

I choose my words carefully. “It says that I’m exactly where I need to be. That I should take this job because it’s the only opportunity I’ll have to do this.”

“Then that’s what you should do,” she says. One thing I’ve always loved about Nana is how easily her opinions come. She follows her heart a lot of the time, trusting her gut over everyone else, and all her life, she’s been right to do so.

“Okay,” I say, leaning against the wall. “I promise I’ll call you back and keep you updated on everything, okay?”

“All right, sweetheart. You be safe, and you two have fun. I love you.”

“I love you too, Nana.”

When I end the call, I place the phone to my heart and take a deep breath. It hurts having to keep her in the dark, but I know if she ever found out what I was planning to do with Roman, she’d try and talk me out of it. I know that she wants justice, but she’s moved on from what happened to Mom and Dad. I haven’t.

And now I finally have the chance to do something. I’m not just sitting around, waiting for someone to finally make Konstantin take responsibility. With Roman, I have the chance to play an active role in getting revenge. It may hurt being away from Nana and Madeline for so long, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

I won’t let anything stop me from doing this.

Chapter Eight

Roman

There’s a voice in the back of my head telling me how stupid this is. How fucked everything is going to be. Lucy is a distraction, especially when she looks at me like she did when I told her that I’d let her help. If Mr. X finds out about this, he’ll probably send someone after me the way he’s sent me after people that upset him.

I can already hear him now. Telling me what a fucking idiot I am. How unprofessional this is. That he should’ve killed me when he had the chance a long time ago. I put my head in my hands and take a deep breath, trying not to lose it.

Everything in me says that this is wrong, yet here I am. Sitting in this rundown diner with a girl I tied to the bathroom sink, like we’re on some kind of date. That is one thing I swore off permanently, one thing I need to keep reminding myself of.

No attachments.

I don’t make bonds. I don’t make friends. I don’t fall in love. I learned from childhood that love is dangerous. It keeps you off your game. It makes you feel secure, and then when it’s taken from you, you’re fucked. I won’t let Lucy be another lesson I learn the hard way.

But saying that is one thing. Executing it is another.

I’m not blind. She’s attractive, the exact kind of woman I would normally go for. She’s small, easy enough to lift off the bed and throw around. Easy enough to have my way with. And pinning her to the bed last night made me realize exactly that. I could practically hear her thoughts. Those wide blue eyes staring up at me hid a dark side, and if I weren’t me and it wasn’t such a shitty idea, I just might have wanted to see that side of her.

But this is strictly business. I didn’t agree to let Lucy work with me because I want to fuck her. If I wanted to do that, I could’ve just said so. I agreed to let her on this assignment with me because it’s been years since I’ve seen that kind of blind rage and hatred for another living person.

The last time I recognized it was when it was looking back at me in the mirror.

I know what she’s feeling. I know how self-destructive this shit is. It can tear a person apart from the inside if they learn to channel it. Lucy’s channeling it into hurting my next target, and I’ve never been one to pass up the chance for revenge. That’s the sick part about me. There aren’t many things I feel nowadays, but that fire that I saw burning in Lucy’s eyes?

I could feel it on her skin.

So, I’ll let her help. Maybe she has information about Konstantin that Mr. X doesn’t. She said she’s been researching him since she was young, watching him the same way I do when it comes to assignments. That kind of information can be useful, so long as she knows that after this, we’ll never see each other again.

After this assignment, she’ll go back to writing her books and I’ll disappear, cleaning up Mr. X’s business in the shadows where I belong. Anything more than that is how a guy gets killed, and in this business, I’m the only one that gets to do the killing.

Lucy’s taking a while to get back, so I survey the room, scanning. You never know when something can happen, and I need to be aware of