Unprotected with the Mob Boss: A Dark Mafia Romance (Alekseiev Bratva) by Fox, Nicole (ebook reader online .txt) 📕

lot more reluctant to investigate me if they know pissing me off will cut off their funds.” I sit down on the armrest of the sofa. “The amount of money I’ve donated to the NYPD could buy enough tanks to destroy all five boroughs.”

“How fascist of you,” she says. “So, why do you need me?”

“Money doesn’t work on some people. They’d rather have the glory or the legacy. I can admire the sentiment, but I’d also prefer to not waste my time or money in courtrooms.”

She looks back down at the invitation. “I get it. You have control over everything. You don’t need to keep proving that to me.”

“I didn’t show you this to prove anything to you. I’m allowed to bring one person with me. You’re going to be that one person.”

Her jaw drops. “The gala is on Wednesday. That’s three days away.”

“Plenty of time.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not going with you to the gala. You know how pissed off my parents will be if I show up with my brand-new fiancé that they’ve never met?”

“We’re not going to show up as an engaged couple. We’ll show up as two people who have been dating for a few—let’s say, six—months.”

She shakes her head. “My parents will still be pissed. After I tell them that I’m going with you, they’re going to want to—”

“You’re not going to tell them,” I interject. “Your parents won’t know that we’re arriving together until we show up.”

“That’s insane,” she blurts. “My parents need to know. They’re going to have an incredibly hard time believing I’ve kept a relationship a secret from them for six months. They’re going to be hurt if they find out that I just showed up at the gala with a long-term boyfriend that they’ve never met. We’re very close. I don’t want them to think I’ve been keeping such a big secret from them for so long.”

“I don’t care,” I say. “I need your father to find out the same time as all of his NYPD buddies and all of his rich donors. If he finds out beforehand, he could become suspicious and try to punish me for being with his little girl or he could try to do damage control before everyone else in the public eye knows we’re together. But once everyone knows, he has to accept it as a reality. This whole situation is about his reputation—he’s not going to ruin it because he doesn’t like his daughter’s boyfriend.”

“They’ll never trust me again,” she says, her voice almost breaking. There’s a twinge in my chest, but I brush it away.

“They won’t trust you if they find out that you killed someone and tried to hide the murder, either,” I say. She turns her head away from me.

“Well, it’s always good to know that I have no control over my life,” she says.

I pluck the invitation out of her hands and set it on the fireplace mantle.

“Who’s your best friend?” I ask.

“What?” Her head whips back around. “Julia. How is that relevant to anything?”

“Arrange for the two of us to have dinner with her. Preferably somewhere that she’ll be comfortable. Money isn’t a problem. We need at least one person who can say she knew we were dating before the gala. Since the gala is on Wednesday, you should call her now.”

“How about you go to hell?” she snaps. “I’m not your employee or your whore. I’m not going to jump to my feet and do whatever you want just because you say it in a demanding tone.”

“I can change my tone,” I say, taking a step closer to her. Our toes are nearly touching, showing the stark difference between her sneakers and my leather shoes. “But you won’t like it.”

We stare at each other. Her lips are slightly parted. A strand of her dark hair cuts across her face. Her gaze is steady. If we were on equal footing, she’d be a worthy foe, but she knows I hold all of the power.

She blinks before looking down. She grabs her bag and gets out her phone. She taps on the screen a couple of times before bringing the phone up to her ear and glares at me as she waits for Julia to answer.

It better be Julia she’s just called.

I look down at my empty glass, the ice slowly melting. This woman is going to drive me straight to alcoholism. She should understand at this point that she has no power in this situation.

Yet something about her resistance is hot as fuck.

Being the Bratva boss and being rich, people easily bend to my will. The people who don’t usually end up dead. But this woman keeps pushing against me, either too dumb to realize that I’d fuck her up as quickly as I’d fuck her raw, or too courageous to properly evaluate the situation.

I look behind me, toward the window. The sun is reaching its highest point. Even on a Sunday, I can’t waste time like this. Balancing the Bratva and Mariya’s Revenge has always been dependent on me keeping the same schedule and Allison has thrown a wrench in the whole thing.

“Yes. I know. It’s insane,” Allison says into the phone. She tilts her head back, revealing a sensual collarbone and an appetizing throat. “Okay. Yes. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. We’ll make something together though, I promise. Okay. I love you too. Be safe on the road.”

She gets off the phone.

“We’re having dinner at the apartment tomorrow around 6:00,” she says.

“She’s your roommate?”

“Yes,” she says. “Which you would know if you’d bothered to ask me.”

“Great. We have plenty of time for that.” I stand up. “I need you to change into some running clothes, so we can ask each other some questions. I can have my driver drop you off at your apartment and you can get what you need.”

“Why would I need running clothes?”

“Because right now is my running time, but we need to become informed about each other, so you need