Trapped with the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Petrov Bratva)

by Nicole Fox

  “What is that?” I ask.

  Bella shakes her head. “I was always hounding him about cleaning up his home page. He saved every file to his desktop and it was impossible to find anything.”

  “Are you going to open it?” Before I can even get the words out, she’s double-clicking on the file. A Word document pops up. It’s a letter.

  Dear whomever it may concern,

  If you are reading this, then the shit has officially hit the fan. I can’t be too upset. It has been a long time coming. Everything started when I was studying abroad in college. I met a few men in a bar—Russian men could drink me under the table—and they liked my political aspirations and career trajectory. One drink led to another, and the next thing I knew, I had agreed to use my power to help them out. To me, it was no more than a drunken empty promise, but to them, it was a binding agreement. When I came back to the States and rose to power, they called in their favor. I’ve been bowing to their wishes ever since. I made more criminal connections to try and undo the first and most dangerous of them all, but no one seemed capable of untethering me from The Society. And now, it appears it’s too late.

  Bella pushes the computer away and spins around in the chair, swiping her arm across her teary eyes. “I can’t read this.”

  “He’s confessing to everything,” I say, pushing back the screen so I can finish the letter. “It reads like a—”

  “A suicide note,” Bella sobs. “What else could it be?”

  I shake my head and then stand up, gesturing widely. “I don’t know if you noticed, but there isn’t a body.”

  “Because he didn’t commit suicide,” she says, wiping away tears once again and standing up. “He would never. But he’d let people think he did.”

  I raise my eyebrows. “You think he’s faking his own death?”

  She nods. “And confessing to crimes he didn’t commit to avoid too much of a police inquiry.”

  Bella isn’t crying anymore, though her eyes are still glassy. Rather than looking petrified as she did when we arrived, she looks at ease. Maybe a little angry.

  “You don’t think he’s guilty of any of these things?” I ask, looking back at the screen and scrolling down the long list of payments he accepted in exchange for sending security codes to government buildings, falsifying voting records, and making his own vote nothing more than an arm of The Society. If he was lying, it was a very elaborate and strange lie. “This is a written confession.”

  “I won’t believe it until I hear it from his mouth,” she says firmly. “All of this could be a trick to keep me from looking for him. I don’t know anything about this secret society, but I know my father, and I’m going to do my best to trust the man I knew until he tells me otherwise.”

  I want to tell her that she might never get to hear the truth from his mouth, but I decide now isn’t the time. Bella is putting on a strong face, but I can tell she’s exhausted and stressed, and there’s no sense in pushing her when I’m not sure of the truth myself.

  Though, unlike Bella, I do have knowledge of The Society. Many important men have stories similar to her father’s. Americans both in the country and abroad have been recruited in the same way, not realizing how deep they’re involved until it’s too late to back out. Her father’s story, while shocking to Bella, is far too common.

  “The house seems secure enough,” I say, closing the computer and laying a hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t we get a bit of sleep and regroup in the morning?”

  Bella takes a deep breath and then stands up, grabs my hand, and pulls me down the hallway towards her bedroom. Without speaking, we arrange the blankets back on her bed, curl up next to one another, and do our best to fall asleep.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bella

  I know something woke me up as soon as I open my tired, burning eyes. Left to my own devices, I would have slept for hours more. But something pulled me out of my sleep, and it takes me a few seconds to realize it’s the vibration in my pocket.

  My phone.

  Yuri rolls over and says something to me, but I don’t register it, and I’m so tired, I don’t even look to see who is calling. I just answer the phone and mumble out a “Hello?”

  “Bella? Bella!”

  Suddenly, it’s like an adrenaline shot has been pumped directly into my heart. I recognize that voice. I would know it anywhere. “Dad?”

  Yuri shoots up, eyes wide. “What is it? Who is it?”

  “Dad, is that you?”

  “Bella, listen,” he says, voice low. “Get out.”

  “Dad, where are you?” I ask, my throat constricting with unshed tears. When I drifted off to sleep, the last thing I thought was that I didn’t know if I’d ever speak to him again. But here he is. On the other end of the phone line. I have a million questions. “Tell me where you are and we can—”

  “Bella,” he snaps. “Listen to me. You have to get out of the house. Right now.”

  Yuri must be able to hear him because he stands up and moves to the window, looking over the backyard for any sign of anything amiss. He turns around and shakes his head. Nothing.

  “Why? What is going on? Where are you?”

  “Get out right now. There isn’t time for anything else.”

  I slide out of bed and stand up, but then a horrible thought hits me. “Is this a trap?”

  Yuri moves closer so he can hear the answer, and I know he has the same question. As much as I want to try and trust my dad, now that both mine and Yuri’s lives are at stake, I have to doubt him. I have to ask tough questions.

  “No, Bella,” he says, voice soft but urgent. “I know you have no reason to trust me right now, but please, baby girl, get out. Please.”

  I can hear the anguish in his voice, the fear and urgency, and some innate part of me—the part of me that still belongs to the little girl he raised—knows he’s telling the truth.

  “Okay, Dad. We’re going. We’re leaving now,” I say, grabbing Yuri’s hand and pulling him towards the door. But before we can even open it, the world explodes.

  The glass from my bedroom window shatters inwards and the house shakes and sways from the force of the explosion. I drop to my knees instantly, but Yuri grabs my arm and pulls me up. “It came from the front of the house. We have to go out the back.”

  I have no idea how he’s able to be so rational moments after an explosion, but I’m grateful for it. The phone is still in my hand, but the call is disconnected. I don’t know if I did it or my dad did, but I shove the phone in my back pocket and help Yuri break out the rest of the glass from my window frame. He leans out the window and then shakes his head.

  “We’ll have to climb out onto the roof and then use the wooden overhang to get down to the ground. Can you do it?”

  The overhang is nothing more than four wooden posts and horizontal slats across the top, so it doesn’t offer much help in terms of getting down to the ground. “Is there another option?”

  Yuri gives me a nervous smile. “Stay here and explode?”

  I stretch onto my toes and kiss him before throwing one leg over the windowsill. “Then, I can do it.”

  I scramble out onto the roof and dig the toe of my sneaker into the slope while I wait for Yuri to follow me out. As he’s coming through the window, I notice the smoke billowing into my room behind him.

  “Yuri,” I said, tipping my head forward, too afraid of falling off the roof to use my hands.

  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 of his desk. “This has gone too far. I have allowed The Society too much room to grow. They have become cocky and dangerous and it’s high time we plucked them out, root and stem.”

  “Do you still want me to go alone?” I ask. Yesterday, I was willing to make that sacrifice, but now there is a kernel of doubt where there was once only blind loyalty. I hear Bella’s voice in my head. You know, there are other solutions to saving your family than sacrificing yourself. You don’t have to die to prove your loyalty.

  My father thinks for a moment and then shakes his head. “No, I’m afraid we’re beyond that. It’s time for the Petrov family to declare where we all stand and finish this fight once and for all.”

  “I thought they were a secret society,” Bella says. “You can’t exactly walk up and kick their door down if you don’t know where it is.”

  I would have warned Bella to stay quiet, but she has a point. I look at my father and shrug.

  “I just recently received information about where their headquarters may be located,” he says. “It’s still a guess, but an educated one.”

  “How many men are going?” I ask.

  “All of them.” My father walks to the closet in the corner of his office, unlocks his gun safe, and straps a weapon to his waist. “I sent out the call as soon as you arrived. They’ll be here in ten minutes.”

  I turn to Bella, no longer caring what my father thinks is going on between the two of us. “Take the car and get out of here.”

  “No,” she says, reaching out and grabbing my hand. “I’m staying with you.”

  I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a moment, trying to keep myself centered. If I’m going to walk into another fight within the hour, I need to conserve my energy. “I’ll come find you when it’s over. It isn’t like yesterday. I’ll come back.”

  “You might not,” she argues. “You could die.”

  “So could you,” I spit back.

  “Enough,” my father groans, throwing up his hands in annoyance. “The girl could be useful.”

  “How?” Bella and I ask at the same time. She shoots me a dirty look, and I almost laugh. Almost.

  “I still have unfinished business with her father,” he says, moving across the room and opening the door. “And she could be just what we need to convince him that it’s safe to come with us.”

  Bella glances at me and then stares at my father, brows pinched. “And is it safe for him to come with you?”

  My father grins at her, showing off each of his teeth. “Of course it is.”

  Whether she’s convinced or not, I can’t tell, but Bella nods once and then stands up to follow him out of the office.

  As soon as my dad steps into the hallway, I grab her arm and try to pull her back to convince her not to go, but she slips out of my grip and rushes into the hallway before I can say anything. So, I follow after her, having no idea what awaits us.

  Chapter Twenty

  Yuri

  The Society’s headquarters looks lik
e an old dentist’s office from the outside, and when we step through the front door, it’s confirmed. There’s a semicircle receptionist’s desk along the back wall, moth-eaten chairs in the waiting room, and a diagram of a human tooth hanging above an empty watercooler.

  “Not quite what I expected,” Bella says from behind me.

  “You don’t stay secret by having an obvious hideout,” my father says. He’s standing in the doorway, looking out at the parking lot nervously.

  “Is everyone else coming?” I ask.

  He nods. “The plan is for them to show up a bit later as reinforcements. We can go ahead.”

  Bella snaps her attention to me. “By ourselves?”

  My father glares at her, annoyed at being questioned. “Yuri took out five gunmen by himself yesterday while protecting you. Do you still doubt his abilities?”

  Bella looks up at me, eyes pleading. I shake my head. “If you think we can take them alone, then I trust you.”

  My father claps a hand on my shoulder. “My son.”

  We walk through the lobby and down a long hallway, past exam rooms with dentist chairs, until we reach a door to the basement.

  “Another basement hideout?” Bella groans quietly in my ear.

  I squeeze her fingers in a silent promise that everything will be okay. She clutches my hand the entire way down the stairs.

  I keep expecting my father to stop and peer down hallways for any signs of danger, but he seems confident that we’re alone. And since he has never led me astray, I follow him blindly.

  The basement hallway is shorter than the one upstairs, and when my father pushes the metal door inwards, we’re met with darkness. He ushers me inside, and I stumble in blindly, Bella’s hand clammy and nervous in mine. When the lights turn on—fluorescents humming and flickering to life—I’m too busy blinking against the sudden brightness to notice the movement around the edge of the room. Bella sees it, though.