GIFT FROM THE HITMAN: The Petrov Mafia

by Zoey Parker

  “You don’t want to be late now.” My mom smiled wide. “Is there anything else you need? Anything I can get?”

  “No, Mom. I think I’m just about ready.” I fluffed the skirt of my full wedding gown. It didn’t really hide my seven-month belly, but it still made me feel beautiful. In two months, we would be a family: Andrei, myself, and our baby boy.

  “Are you ready for all of this?” Stacy whispered into my ear after Mom left the room to talk to Lucas. I didn’t need a bodyguard anymore.

  It was still an ongoing process, but true to his word, Andrei was slowly legitimizing his mob. It made us financially secure, and it made us stable, and it made us safe: safe from law enforcement, safe from other mobs since they had no reason to tangle with us, just plain safe period.

  “Of course I’m ready! I couldn’t be happier.”

  Stacy shook her head. “When I used to think about how much grief you gave me for dating Aleksey…”

  “Aleksey and Andrei are nothing like.”

  “Were,” Stacy corrected quietly. “I still can’t believe what happened to him — what happened to you!”

  “Aleksey went undercover against the man who had me kidnapped. He got in too deep. He might not have treated women with respect, but he sure had been loyal to Andrei; even I can give him credit for that.”

  “Yeah, well…” Stacy glanced toward the doorway. “You know who I have my eye on.”

  “Lucas? He’s a good guy. I can put in a good word for you, if you’d like.”

  Stacy brushed her curled hair back. “I can snag a guy without help, you know.”

  I laughed. “Of course you can.”

  “You sure you’re all right? I know your therapist cleared you, but still, that must’ve been hell to go through. You never did give me all of the details.”

  “It’s not something I want to talk about,” I said slowly.

  “And of course not today. I’m sorry. I’m not sure where my head is. I think I’m more nervous for you than you are!”

  “I don’t have a reason to be nervous. Andrei is a great guy. Fantastic in bed. Willing to change. A natural leader. He can change the world; I know he can.”

  “You too. That shelter you organized for women is absolutely amazing. So much better than your old job, huh?”

  “Which old job? The one where I was paid to sleep with the man I’m going to marry in two hours? Or the one before that? Because the sex job thing turned out to be pretty amazing, all things considering.”

  We laughed.

  My mom reentered the room carrying a bowl filled with fruit. “Eat something,” she begged. “For the baby. To settle your stomach. How are your feet?”

  “My feet? They’re perfectly warm, Mom. No cold feet here.” I popped a strawberry into my mouth.

  “You had me so worried.” Mom shook her head as she put down the bowl. “I’m so glad everything worked out for you. With the baby, with Andrei, with everything.”

  “You too, Mom.” I hugged her tight.

  She sniffled. “I’m glad to know you won’t be alone if my health takes a turn for the worse and—”

  I playfully slapped her. “Mom! Stop it. Don’t talk like that. Not today. Not ever.”

  She rubbed her nose and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t sure about Andrei at all. When you told me about the situation and then you went missing…you should’ve seen how furious Andrei was when he came here and realized you were taken. I had the phone in my hand, ready to call the police when he knocked on the door. I still don’t know why I trusted him not to call. You’re my baby girl! But there was something about him. I knew he would do anything to get you back. I knew then he loved you. And that kind of love is the kind that lasts forever.”

  “I trusted him from the start, too. It’s why I accepted his deal in the first place. There aren’t many men I would’ve agreed to that kind of arrangement, but Andrei…” I shrugged. It started out as a desperate need for money. It grew into lust. It transformed into love. It definitely hadn’t been conventional, but it had worked for us. Would make a hell of a story to tell our kids one day. When they were thirty. And maybe I’d omit a few details. They really wouldn’t want to hear about everything.

  Somehow, the two hours until the ceremony flew on by, and before I knew it, my mom was walking me down the center aisle of seats for the outdoor wedding in the park. While I had wanted a low-key wedding, Andrei wanted to spare no expense since he planned on only ever marrying just this one time. He had hired a wedding planner, and she had outdone herself. Beautiful, colorful flowers decorated the aisle, and Andrei, looking mouthwatering in a pinstripe suit, waited for me beneath an arch of cherry blossoms.

  Light flashed, and people whispered to each other as the organ played, and I floated down the aisle. Well, floated as well as a seven-month pregnant woman could. Mom hugged me and then hugged Andrei before handing me over to him and claiming her spot in the first row.

  The officiant smiled at us and began to speak, but honestly, I hardly heard him. I was too busy smiling at Andrei, who was minutes away from becoming my husband.

  When it was time for the vows, Andrei turned toward me. “Kelly, when you came into my life, I was in a bad place.” He shook his head. “My life was heading down a dark path, one I might not have been able to return from. You saved me. You helped me to realize that life could be so much more. You opened my eyes to love again. Even though I built up walls after my parents, you shattered them. You made me see the good in life again. I promise you I will always do right by you, that I will create more goodness in the world. I love you, Kelly.”

  It was no surprise I cried during his speech, and I had to take a moment to compose myself to be able to tell him my vows. “Andrei, you said I saved you, but you also saved me in more ways than one way. You’ve always been there for me. I will do anything for you. There’s no one else I want to enjoy life with than you. Love me, and I’ll love you, and nothing can ever bring us down.”

  To the cries and cheers of our friends and loved ones, we kissed before the officiant said for us to, so we had to kiss again. That didn’t bother me any. Andrei would be the last man I would ever kiss. He would be my main man until our son came along. A family — Andrei Petrov, Kelly Petrov, and baby Petrov. A mob of our own.

  THE END

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  GIFT FROM THE BAD BOY: Dark Knights MC

  By Zoey Parker

  The bad boy took everything from me.

  He came into my world and snatched it all away.

  My innocence, my purity, my sense of right and wrong.

  But he left me one special, special gift:

  A baby in my womb.

  I couldn’t resist the temptation.

  Just one night.

  I’d allow myself just one night of freedom.

  I never thought one mistake would haunt me like this.

  But how could I have said no?

  The bad boy was like something out of a romance novel.

  Tall, dark, and handsome was just scratching the surface.

  He was something else, too.

  He was powerful.

  He made me want to give him everything.

  And he wasn’t about to take no for an answer.

  But after he’d finished with me, I thought that would be the end of things.

  I didn’t know it yet, but I was dead freakin’ wrong.

  I found that out the hard way, a little while later…

  When I felt the first kick of the baby in my belly.

  The bad boy had left me a present I never asked for.

  And that’s just where our story begins
.

  Chapter One

  Carmen

  “Excuse me, miss,” came a voice from behind me.

  I spun around too fast, startled by the sudden noise breaking my silence and concentration in what had otherwise been a quiet spring day in the park. As I spun, my long blonde hair whipped out in a huge arc and smacked the man who’d spoken right in the face.

  “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” I cried immediately.

  He held a hand over his eye where the ends of my hair had hit him. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” he said, wincing but trying to hide it. “That’s what I get for sneaking up on you like that anyway.” He sounded genuinely nice and apologetic, even though I was the one who’d caused his eye to sting and water like it was doing.

  “Here,” I said, fumbling in my purse for a tissue, “take this.” I handed it to him. I felt horrible, but he was right, he did sneak up on me. I’d been so fiercely concentrated on my biology textbook that I hadn’t even noticed him approaching me.

  The boy dabbed at his eye with the tissue I’d given him. I took the time to look him up and down. He was tall, with broad, muscular shoulders and a deep tan, like he spent a lot of time outdoors. He had the easy gait of an athlete, but whereas most of the athletes I knew had horrible skin from all that time spent sweating and running around in pads and helmets, his face was smooth and unblemished. A light beard covered his cheeks and jaw, trimmed neatly, and his eyes were a glistening green. He was, I had to admit, ridiculously hot.

  I saw his mouth move and realized he was talking. I blinked hard and refocused on what he was saying. Listen, Carmen, I told myself. It was way too easy to get lost in how good-looking he was. “I’m sorry, what?” I asked.

  “I said, there goes my smooth approach.” He tucked the tissue in his pocket and straightened up. He was well over six feet tall, enough to tower over me. I was only five feet three, so it wasn’t much of an accomplishment, but next to him, I felt tiny and fragile. He could break me in half if he wanted to, I would bet. All I had to do was look at his broad hands to confirm my suspicion.

  “I don’t get it,” I said. I immediately regretted my words. In the thirty seconds since he’d walked up to me, I’d hit him in the face, ignored the first thing he said, and completely failed to understand the second thing. This interaction was off to a fantastic start, if I could say so myself.

  He grinned, and I felt an immediate lurch in my stomach. I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised that he had the world’s most beautiful white teeth and a charming, crooked slant to his smile, the kind that was off-center but all-the-more perfect for its imperfections. I could swear that someone had sculpted this boy out of my dreams and sent him here to interrupt my cramming for exams. Not that I minded, of course.

  “Well, I hope I’m not being too forward or cheesy, but I was walking past and I saw you and I thought to myself, ‘Dan, if you don’t ask that beautiful girl out, you’re going to regret it forever.’”

  Oh, man, he was really putting on the charm now. His smile was cranked up to full blast, a million megawatts of beautiful man and confidence hotter than the sun. I shifted my weight nervously side to side. Noticing I was wringing my hands in front of me, I clamped down and held them in my lap. “Oh, well, um, thank you, that’s super nice of you. I don’t, uh, really know what to say…” I stuttered. I was fully aware that I sounded like a complete idiot, but the ability to talk like a rational adult human being seemed to have utterly abandoned me. I would have thought that eighteen years of life on this planet would be sufficient to get me through this situation, but it looked like I was dead wrong about that.

  Of course, like in most aspects of my life, my father was partly to blame. When a girl was cooped up under a father’s watchful eye and forbidden from dating at all, her social skills tended to suffer a bit as a result. Most girls would probably try to rebel, to carry on secret relationships or whatever they thought they might be able to get away with, but then again, most girls weren’t the daughter of the president of the Wild Kings motorcycle club. Nope, there was only one girl in the world who fit that particular description, and it was the one stammering like a fool while the handsome, ripped boy in the park tried to ask her out on a date.

  “You say yes, of course,” he joked.

  I looked at his shirt and saw I was right about the athlete thing. The words Property of UNM Athletics were stamped in bold white block print across the chest.

  Raising my eyes to meet his, I finally found my voice again. “I… I, I want to,” I said. “But I’ll have to…” My gaze fell and my voice dropped to a pitiful squeak. I couldn’t believe what I was about to say. “…I’ll have to ask my father,” I finished lamely.

  At the upper edge of my vision, I could see a confused cloud pass over his face. “Your father?” he repeated. “But you’re in college. How on earth do you still have to ask him for his permission to go on a date?” As soon as he saw how embarrassed I was, writhing in place in front of him, his eyes grew huge. “Oh, wow, I can’t believe I said that. That was so rude, I’m sorry. You’ll have to forgive me. Now I feel like an even bigger asshole than I did before.”

  “No, no,” I tried to say. I wanted to explain the situation to him, but how could I? I’d been dealing with President James Sanders for my entire life, and even I could barely find the words to describe the situation to someone else.

  It’s not that he was a bad dad. He wasn’t, not at all. But ever since my mother had died…

  “He’s just protective,” I said simply. That was the easiest thing I could offer. It would have to do for now.

  “Gotcha,” Dan said. He was clearly flustered.

  I felt horrible. This conversation had started bad and only gotten worse since then. His calm poise had been dialed back somewhat. This was obviously not the way he had expected this whole shebang to go, but I didn’t know what else to do.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to!” I said. “I do; I really do. You’re beautiful.” I clapped my hands over my mouth as the last sentence flew out unheeded. Just when I thought I’d found the rock bottom of social interaction, I managed to dig myself a little bit deeper. I could feel my cheeks burning. Was there a boulder somewhere nearby I could crawl under and die?

  Dan laughed, but his discomfort was growing by the minute. “Um, thanks,” he said. He ran a hand through his long, curly hair. God, it was a gorgeous mane, an unbelievable chestnut color that looked flawless against his tanned skin. I saw his eyes flitting around like he was searching for an exit.

  Speak, Carmen, I urged myself. Say something. Anything. He’s just standing there. You have to talk. Use. Your. Words.

  “Maybe we can exchange numbers?” I somehow managed to squeak out into the awkward silence. It was baffling how my voice could sound so jarring and meek at the same time.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said. He pulled out his cell phone and opened up the screen to enter in a new contact. Handing it to me, he stood back and watched as I entered my information before giving it back to him. “Cool, I’ll send you a text with my name so you’ll know who I am.”

  I nodded. “Sounds good.” I tried to smile, but it felt all wrong. My cheeks were working too hard; my lips didn’t want to pull back far enough. Oy. What a mess this was.

  “Nice to meet you, er…” he said as he looked down at the screen to see what I had typed, “…Carmen.” He offered a hand to shake. I reached out and took it. His fingers swallowed mine and the bronze tone of his tan made my skin look pasty white by comparison. He smiled again.

  “You too.”

  He turned and sauntered off back towards the jogging path that ran in a meandering loop around the outer edge of the park. I sat back down on my blanket with an oomph and put my head in my hands as I muttered out loud to myself.

  “Good lord, you are an idiot,” I said. “‘You’re beautiful?’ Did you really just say that to him? They should put you in jail for how dumb you are.”

  I sighed and let my hands fall
onto the open pages of my textbook. Diagrams of the digestive system were staring back up at me, covered with hundreds of terms and descriptions of chemical reactions that I needed to know by tomorrow but had not even come close to understanding, much less memorizing. I really needed to just bury my head in the book, but that was clearly not happening, not after the train wreck I’d just been a party to. I needed to leave the scene of this social crime immediately.

  Packing up my things into my small canvas satchel, I stood and walked towards my car. The breeze was light and warm as it rustled through the treetops. The park was brimming with people walking their dogs or tossing Frisbees back and forth to each other. A few students like me were spread out under the shade of the branches, nose deep in studying for finals. But, unlike me, they looked like they were actually getting things done. What a feeling that must be.