Stolen by the Mob Boss : A Russian Mafia Romance (Bratva Hitman) by Nicole Fox (first color ebook reader txt) 📕

my surroundings at all times. I take note of the three exits. The front door, the side door, and almost certainly a back exit in the kitchen that leads to the trash cans. The diner is relatively empty. There’s a couple in the back corner, maybe in their sixties, whispering and laughing over eggs and bacon. Two men sit at the bar, a few seats apart, while one reads the newspaper. Two waitresses, a cook, and a man wiping down the empty tables and picking up trash.

The news plays in the background, but I focus on my coffee, finishing off the cup of bitter black liquid. A moment later, there’s a waitress at the table. She wears a plastic smile and bats her lashes as she offers to fill my cup again.

“What happened to your girlfriend?” she asks. She reaches for the mug and fills it to the top for a second time.

“Not my girlfriend,” I grunt, looking out the window. For a moment, I worry that she left me here. It’s an irrational flash of panic, I know. I tell myself to calm down. She’s still out there. She’s just taking a while on the phone.

“Sorry,” the waitress giggles. “I just assumed you guys were together. Do you have a girlfriend?”

I look back at the woman with a blank expression. Is she really trying this shit right now? I’m sure if she knew what Lucy and I are planning on doing, she’d run screaming. That, or she’d call the police. From just this small interaction, I can already tell she’s not built the same way Lucy is. She’s probably never experienced heartbreak a day in her life. What I wouldn’t give to be that vapid.

“I don’t have a girlfriend.”

She puts her hand on her hip and tilts her head, chewing her gum as she says, “Now, I just find that so hard to believe. A handsome guy like you, all alone without a woman to keep him company at night?”

“Terrible, isn’t?” I mutter sarcastically. If only she knew that I had someone in my bed last night, and she was tied up with me on top of her.

“Well, if you’re ever looking to fix that problem, my name is Amber.” She leans forward and scribbles her name and number down on a napkin, sliding it toward me. “Give me a call and I’ll come running.”

I fold the napkin and put it in my pocket. “I’m sure you will.”

With a wink and switch of her hips, Amber sashays off to help the next customer. It’s almost amusing how wrong she’s read me. Even if I were looking for a quick fuck with no strings attached, she wouldn’t be high on my priority list.

When she’s gone, I sit back in my chair and shake my head. This whole thing is ridiculous. I need to stop kidding myself. I’m sitting here in a goddamn diner, getting hit on by overly confident waitresses, waiting for the girl I kidnapped to come back with my cell phone.

And just like that, I change my mind. This has to stop now. Lucy can’t come with me. I need to retreat, reassess, reassert control. And I need to leave her behind.

Right then, Lucy walks back in with a smile on her face. She takes a seat and returns my phone, folding her hands on the table. “Okay,” she says, smiling. “What now?”

“Nothing. I’ve changed my mind. You’re not helping me.”

In an instant, that smile drops. Her face falls, and she looks at me with a blank expression. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“But ...”

“I changed my mind. This isn’t something you need to be doing. You should go back to your normal life and pretend none of this happened.” The more I speak, the more upset she gets. Her shock turns to anger, and she glares at me like a child.

“You’re such an asshole,” she says through gritted teeth. “You’re an asshole and a liar!”

The people sitting in the booth across the room look over at us. I can feel their judgmental stares without even turning to see them. I lower my voice and lean forward so that only Lucy can hear me. “Stop it.”

“No!” she cries. “You told me I could help you, and now you want to go back on your word. I could’ve run away so many times, but I stayed because I wanted to prove that you could trust me. This whole time, I should’ve been the one wondering about whether or not I could trust you!” She stands up from the table, knocking a glass over. It shatters to the floor loudly.

The air in the diner shifts, and I can feel everyone staring at us now.

I push myself up too, trying my hardest to control my temper. Goddamn her for doing this right now. Does she know how dangerous this is to talk about in public? Does she know that anyone could overhear and we’d both be in jail by the end of the day?

“Lower your voice,” I warn her.

Lucy glances around self-consciously, and then does what I say. “You’re a douchebag and a liar, Roman. You’re a fucking liar.”

“I’m not involving an amateur in this shit. I’m going to take you home and drop you off and you can go back to living your life exactly how you were living before you ever met me.” Saying it feels wrong, but I know it’s right. This has to end before I make any other stupid mistakes. Not killing her was the first. Thinking I could trust her with something important was the second. There won’t be a third. Fuck no.

Telling her this only makes her angrier, but I’m tired of this.

“Liar! Fucking liar!” she hisses again. I can hear the sizzle of food in the kitchen, the creak of the eaves on the roof. Everyone is pretending not to listen, but I know full well that they haven’t missed a word. I feel an overwhelming itch to escape. I was born for the shadows, not