Trapped with the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Petrov Bratva) by Nicole Fox (ebook smartphone TXT) 📕

the steady beat of his heart in my palm. “You know, there are other solutions to saving your family than sacrificing yourself. You don’t have to die to prove your loyalty.”

“But I would,” he says.

I sit up, resting on my elbows, and look down at his face, shadowy in the darkness. “But you don’t have to. I don’t want you to.”

He grips my chin and brings my face down to his, pressing his lips to mine. I close my eyes and sink into the kiss, enjoying every single second. “I’ll keep that in mind, but my family will always come first.”

I sigh, knowing there’s no way, in one conversation, to convince him he’s worth saving, and instead lie down next to him. “Do you want a family someday? I mean, a family of your own?”

“Yes.” He answers faster than I expect him to. “Do you?”

I nod. “Someday. When the time is right.”

“Do you mean to say that being chased by a secret Russian society is not the right time to start a family?”

I laugh. “That is exactly what I mean to say. I might wait until there aren’t assassins out looking for me before I decide to fall pregnant.”

We both laugh, mostly at the absurdity of the last few days—if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry—and then Yuri groans and sits up. “I’m not going to fall back asleep. Are you?”

“Unlikely,” I say, dragging my finger down his back, feeling the ripples of muscle underneath his skin.

Yuri shivers and then pulls away from me. “I was going to suggest we head to your family’s house, but if you keep that up, I’ll have other ideas.”

As tempting as it is to tease Yuri back into bed, I need to get to the house and find out if my dad is there. And if he isn’t, what happened to him. “I’m ready now.”

Yuri flips on the lamp beside the bed, the yellow bulb shining from beneath the dusty, cracked lampshade, and we both get dressed. With little in the way of belongings, we’re both ready in a few minutes.

Yuri hands me my phone. “Check and make sure he hasn’t moved.”

I open the app, click on my dad’s profile picture, and wait for the app to home in on him. The green circle appears on the same part of the map it was on last night. I hold it up for Yuri to see. “X marks the spot.”

He nods, grabs the car key from the laminate desk, and pushes me towards the door. “Let’s go treasure hunting.”

I smile, but silently wonder what that treasure could look like. Will it mean finding my dad safe at the house, meaning he could have come for me, but didn’t? Or will it mean finding out he is dead and was unable to rescue me? Either way, it seems like the only option is the loss of the dad I have always known, and I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for that. I follow Yuri to the car anyway.

Chapter Seventeen

Yuri

Bella strains against her seat belt when we reach the street of her family’s house, and instantly she begins to curse under her breath.

“What is it?” I scan the block, looking for any sign of trouble, but don’t see anything. All the windows are dark, which makes sense considering it isn’t even three AM yet.

“The lights are off.” Bella flops back in the seat and shakes her head. “Since we have multiple houses and apartments around the state, the entire house is rigged up to a smart-home program that turns different lights on in the main floor rooms throughout the night to deter burglars. The house is never completely dark.”

I parallel park across the street and kill the engine. “Never? Not once?”

“Once during a blackout,” she says. “But that’s it.”

“Shit,” I say, repeating her curse from before. If the lights are off, it means the power has likely been cut, and if the power has been cut, it means the senator did not go gently. If he went at all. I stare up at the modern two-story house as if I can see through the walls and detect a decaying body. If he is dead, will I smell him as soon as I get inside? “Maybe I should—”

“No.” Bella cuts me off before I can continue. “I’m going with you. I can handle it.”

“But he’s your dad, Bella.” I can still clearly see Bella’s comatose face after she found out her dad was taking money from crime rings. How will she react if she sees her father’s dead, rotting body in their family home?

“Which is exactly why I have to go inside.” She grabs her phone from the console and shoves it in her back pocket before grabbing the door handle. “Are you coming?”

I pause to try and think of something, anything I can say to change her mind, but I know it will all be futile. So, I slip my gun into my waistband and follow her across the street and up the polished cement stairs.

She tries to enter the code to the front gate, but the keypad isn’t responding. I walk over to the gate and give it a shove. It opens with a metallic squeal.

Bella closes her eyes for a moment, steadying herself, and then walks to the front door. Like the gate, it opens immediately. Not only was it not locked, it wasn’t even latched. The door was standing open. I’m sure Bella knows how bad things are looking, so I don’t point it out. We just silently walk into the black marble entrance hall.

Immediately, it’s obvious the house has been ransacked. A vase of flowers—now browned and wilting—is lying on its side in the middle of the floor, books have been thrown from the shelves, and the furniture is sitting at odd angles with the throw pillows tossed on the floor.

“Let’s just find his phone,” Bella says, walking past the doors to the sitting and dining rooms and heading straight for the stairs.