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

He looks over his shoulder, curses, and then climbs through the window. The house is on fire.

“What if they’re just smoking us out?”

“Then they’re doing a good job,” Yuri says, glancing up at the smoke starting to pour from my window. The fire is spreading fast. “We’ll die in there. We have to get out.”

“What if they shoot us as soon as we hit the ground?” I haven’t turned around to look down at the ground and see if anyone is waiting for us because I’m afraid I’ll freeze in terror and slide off the roof.

“One problem at a time,” Yuri says calmly. “We have to get off the roof and figure everything else out later. Do you want to go first or do you—”

“You,” I say before he can finish.

He nods and begins a controlled slide down the slope towards where the wooden overhang meets the gutter. Yuri looks practiced and capable. I have a feeling I won’t look so graceful.

Yuri kicks the overhang once and then again, testing to see how sturdy it is, before he balances himself on one of the wooden crossbars like a bird. Effortlessly, he grabs hold of one of the bars and then pitches himself over the side. I yelp in surprise, but of course he doesn’t fall. He walks his hands to the corner post where he grabs it with his feet like a monkey and begins inch worming his way down to the ground. His feet are on the ground in no time.

“Your turn,” he says, looking up at me, eyes squinting against the smoky haze.

My fingers already hurt from gripping the shingles, and they’re throbbing by the time I make it to the edge of the roof.

“That’s it,” Yuri encourages from the ground. “The overhang held my weight, so it will hold ten of you.”

I ease my toes down onto one of the wooden slats and then slide the rest of my body down until I’m almost crouching on the overhang. I feel like a superhero, and I’m about to tell Yuri as much in an effort to lighten the mood when my foot slips. I go from superhero to damsel in distress in point four seconds flat.

My leg slips between the bars, and I scramble to grab onto another bar to stop myself from falling between the gap, but I bash my ribs against the wood during the struggle and cry out. Then I hear a crunch on the ground below.

“Are you okay? Are you okay?” Yuri repeats, standing underneath me with his arms stretched over his head.

“Yeah,” I whimper, gritting my teeth against the pain in my groin. “Just a few scrapes and bruises.”

“And a shattered phone screen.” He holds up my phone. The screen is black with an intricate spiderweb of cracks across the front. On any normal day, a cracked phone screen would be one of the worst things I could imagine. Today, however, it doesn’t even make it into the top ten. Cracking my head open on the cement patio is currently number one. “It looks like you’re small enough to fit through the gaps. Just slip down, and I’ll catch you.”

“Catch me?” I ask, looking down at him between the wooden slats. His arms are strong and sturdy, and I trust him, but I don’t trust myself. I don’t trust that I won’t flail as I’m falling and kick him in the teeth.

“You weigh next to nothing. I can catch you,” he says, beckoning me with both hands. “Come on.”

“Yuri, I don’t know,” I say, starting to argue.

“Bella, we don’t have time.”

I look up at the house, and he’s right. Flames are starting to shoot out of the roof, and it won’t be long until the patio and wooden overhang are engulfed as well. So, I slide both legs through the same gap, grip the crossbar with my blistered fingers, and dangle down. “Are you ready?”

Even at full reach, Yuri’s hands can barely touch my toes. “Ready.”

I close my eyes, count down from three, and drop.

There’s maybe half a second of falling before Yuri’s strong arms are wrapped around my hips and thighs. He lets my body slide down his until my feet are on top of his, and we’re pressed together entirely. We pause for a moment, looking at one another, breathing heavily, and then he grabs my hand and we run for the car.

Chapter Nineteen

Yuri

The only place I can think to go is my family’s headquarters. Whatever is going on, it’s bigger than me and Bella. We need help, and I know my dad can tell me what to do.

He’s pacing in front of us, hands folded behind his back as I recount the firefight at the hotel and the actual fire at her dad’s house. I tell him about the explosion and the phone call from the senator.

“What did he say?” he asks sharply, eyes narrowed.

“To get out of the house,” Bella says nervously. Her fingers twitch like she wants to reach out and grab my hand, but she doesn’t. I told her not to. Not while my father is around.

“Nothing else?”

I shake my head. “No. Just the warning.”

He nods and then sighs. “You two are lucky you made it out alive.” Then he turns to me. “Though, if you had followed orders, you wouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

“If he’d followed orders, he would have been dead,” Bella spits, blue eyes flaming.

“Bella,” I warn. My father’s nostrils are flared, his cheeks rosy. He’s one comment away from ending her life. He’s already told me he doesn’t care what happens to her, and now she is putting me in danger and talking back to him. I will have to teach Bella about how and how not to speak to my father once this is all over.

Bella relaxes back in her chair, arms still crossed over her chest, and my father begins his pacing again. Then he leans against the edge