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

The first shot he fires my way is off, but the second is closer. Too close for comfort. I dive behind the bar and press my back to it, catching my breath. The room is filled with screams and shouts, but I block it out, listening for the other masked man. I glance to my left and see a shiny napkin dispenser. In the reflection, the man is approaching, gun drawn.

Moving quickly, I throw myself to the other end of the bar and pop my head out, gun drawn. He leans over the counter where I was, ready to shoot, and that gives the woman in his arms enough time to squirm away. She runs to her husband, and I point my gun at the assailant, firing once. He collapses in a slump, the hole in his head leaking onto the counter.

The customers have all cowered into the corners, holding each other, watching. Amber looks at me with terror on her face. That confidence from before is gone. Distracted, I almost miss a third man running from the kitchen down the hall. Towards the bathroom.

Lucy is still in there.

He’s a few steps ahead of me and I’m terrified that I won’t be able to close the gap. I spring forward after him, rounding the corner just as the man crosses through the open door and comes face-to-face with Lucy. I hear her scream, and my world narrows to just that noise.

If he touches her, I’m going to make him suffer.

But I don’t get that chance. She screams again, he lunges forward, and a moment later, there’s another loud pop. The man stops in his tracks, knees buckling. He holds onto the wall as he slides down to his knees. Lucy’s face is peppered with speckles of blood, and she drops the gun, stunned. She did it. She fucking shot him. I’m stunned and impressed and relieved and on high alert, all at once. A million thoughts race through my head at the same time like a swarm of bees.

“Lucy,” I say, but it’s like she can’t hear me. She stares back at the man, watching as he clutches his bleeding chest. He gasps infrequently, mouth opening and closing aimlessly. She doesn’t look at me when I call her name again.

She’s in shock. I don’t have time to comfort her right now, not with this man bleeding out at my feet. Instead of dealing with her, I grab the man Lucy shot and tear his mask off. He doesn’t look familiar. I have no idea who he is, but he clearly knew me. Time to find out why.

Without hesitation, I press my gun against the oozing hole in his chest. He cries out in pain and struggles to pull away. “You’re going to die here on this floor,” I tell him, leaning in close. “Either you make this easy on yourself and tell me what you know, or I let you bleed out and suffer longer.”

He squints and looks up at me, disdain on his face. “Fuck you,” he spits. His blood lands on my shirt.

Taking a slow, controlled breath, I push the barrel of my gun against him harder, causing him to whimper again in agony. “I’m not going to offer you mercy again. Who sent you?”

He doesn’t reply immediately. I twist the gun deeper. He groans and finally says, “I don’t know his name. Some rich motherfucker that wanted you gone. Didn’t say why. Just that you’d be with a blonde girl. He paid us twice what anyone else would have. Said that if we couldn’t get you, someone else would. For a price that high, anyone would be willing to take a shot at you.”

I look to the side, cursing. This is just what I need right now. More distraction. More problems on my plate. Whoever this person is, he knows about Lucy, too. I wonder if Konstantin got the drop on Mr. X’s hit and sent out his guys to stop me before I could execute the job. If that’s the case, we need to get the hell out of here, immediately. More men could be coming to finish what these bastards started. I stand up and put my gun in the holster, grabbing the one Lucy dropped, too.

“Let’s go,” I say to her.

She looks through me, somewhere far away. I can see the panic has her in its claws. When I try to move her, she doesn’t even react. Frustrated, I lift her off the ground and throw her over my shoulder. She doesn’t resist in the slightest. I turn to exit the bathroom. The man’s voice stops me. It’s a low, sick laugh.

“What happened to mercy?” he rasps.

I pivot back around slowly to face him. It’s obvious that he won’t last much longer. Not even paramedics could stop the bleeding from his chest and stomach. But his eyes are hopeful. He wants me to put him out of his misery. I could do that. But I won’t.

“I don’t show mercy to anyone who lays a hand on me or my woman.” I draw my gun and fire once into his foot. His screams echo against the tile as I leave.

We make our way out to the car. I settle Lucy into the passenger seat. In the distance, police sirens go off. They’ll be here any minute.

“Buckle up,” I order her. To my surprise, she listens. When we’re both ready, I pull out and whip the car around, peeling off in the opposite direction. We have to get out of town. If there are people coming after me and Lucy, I need to get off the grid for a little while. Disappear. And I know the perfect place. Somewhere Lucy will be safe.

But for how long?

Chapter Nine

Roman

“Lucy.”

She doesn’t look at me. All she does is stare straight ahead, shuddering occasionally. Her lack of response is unsettling.

“Lucy, look at me, goddamn it.” The sharpness in my voice makes her