by B. B. Hamel
“Thanks, Soph.”
“Don’t thank me. This is easy for me. You’re the one running away.”
I nodded. She was right.
Running was going to be the hardest thing I’d ever done.
Especially running from one dangerous situation directly into another one.
I barely knew Vincent Mori. I knew he was young, handsome, and deadly. I knew he had a bad reputation with the Russians and just about everyone wanted him dead. Our two groups were constantly on the edge of war, constantly threatening violence. And I was terrified that they would turn me away.
But Alex was Vince’s son. He couldn’t just abandon his child. I didn’t care what he thought about me, what he felt about me, as long as Alex was safe.
“Let’s do this,” I said to Soph, terrified.
I would do anything for my son, including betraying everything I knew.
Chapter 2
Vince
I rolled out of bed, a hangover buzzing in my skull.
I grunted as I got up and walked into the bathroom of my little South Side apartment. I turned on the faucet and brushed my teeth, looking into the mirror.
I looked like shit. I hadn’t been sleeping much because of the big deal happening with the Chinese, which meant a lot of fucking stress and headaches.
“Vincent?” came the girl’s voice from the other room.
I grinned at myself. I didn’t look so bad that I couldn’t pick up some random ass from the club, fortunately.
“Yeah, babe?” I asked, looking into the bedroom.
Her hair was disheveled as she sat up and looked at me, pouting. “Why are you getting dressed? You promised me breakfast.”
I laughed. “Did I?”
“Yeah. And you promised me some more fun.”
She gave me these obvious fuck-me eyes, and I just grinned at her.
“Another time, babe,” I said.
“Vince! You promised.”
“I have to get to the office.” I checked the clock and sighed. It was a little bit past eight in the morning.
“I thought you were a gangster?” she asked. “You don’t have an office.”
I walked over to her, and she crawled toward me on her hands and knees. She was wearing only a thin T-shirt that barely covered her full tits, her blond hair falling down around her.
“Guess you don’t know much about the fucking mob,” I said.
She looked up at me, smiling. She reached out and began to stoke my cock.
“Wanna teach me?” she asked.
I leaned down and put my lips against her ear. “No. Now get the fuck out.”
I straightened up as she tried to slap me. Her hand whiffed in front of my face and I laughed again.
“Fucking asshole,” she said.
“Seriously. I’m going to take a shower. If you’re still here, I will throw your ass out on the street myself.”
I turned and walked back into the bathroom, shutting the door.
“Asshole!” I heard her scream, and I heard something thump against the door.
I started the shower. “That better not have been something I cared about,” I muttered.
Just another typical fucking morning in my life. The girl would be gone soon enough, and I’d be off to the compound to start my day.
The bitch really had no clue who she was fucking with. I climbed into the shower, grinning to myself. Life wasn’t so fucking bad when you were a made man and a crew captain.
Not so fucking bad.
The compound was a sprawling mansion sitting on about fifteen acres of prime Chicago suburbs. It was the Barone crime family’s main hangout and the place where I had lived for most of my life.
These days I had my own apartment in the city. I found it more convenient to stay there when I was bringing women home from whatever club I had gone to with my crew that night, though I still spent a lot of time at the compound.
The Barone crime family was the largest mob in the city, just ahead of the Russians. The compound was the heart and soul of the mob, the place where we did our dealing, where we trained our people, counted our money, fucked and fought and lived. It was like a home to me, and the mob was my fucking family.
And I was one of the youngest captains in mob history. After my old boss, Lucas Barone, son of the head of the family, Arturo Barone, promoted me to mob captain, I quickly began to gather power and influence around me.
Lucas had taught me well, and I was using those skills to strengthen myself within the family. Arturo was barely holding on to his power, and Lucas was too busy getting his wife fucking pregnant all the time.
As I drove up the long driveway heading toward the main house, I shook my head, annoyed with Lucas. Ever since he’s gotten married to that girl Natalie, he’d been too busy pumping out babies and spending time with his family to really get deep into the politics of the mob. Sure, he was still running his crew and was still one of the best captains. He was definitely first in line to succeed his father. But he was no longer actively trying to overthrow Arturo and take control of the family.
Not like I was trying to do that, either. I liked where I was for the moment. But Lucas used to be a fucking gangster.
Since he had softened, I had gotten much, much harder.
That was our way in the mob. When someone made a little room, you took as much as you could. Since Lucas had given me my own crew and some power, I’d been slowly muscling into territory near my own, taking it street-by-street, amassing wealth and power and reputation.
I wasn’t fucking around. I wasn’t the type of man to take these things halfway. It was all or nothing, like everything in my life.
I parked my car and climbed out, tossing the key to the valet. He nodded to me and climbed in as I walked into the main foyer of the house.
The Barone mansion was fucking ridiculous. It was the epitome of wealth, with gilding and expensive paintings and million dollar chandeliers everywhere. Since the mansion was meant to be the center of the Barone power structure, it had to exude all the wealth the family had. It was like a centerpiece, meant to show exactly how the family meant business.
As I moved through the foyer, a familiar face appeared by my side.
“Morning, boss,” Rafa said.
“Morning,” I grunted. “Food?”
“In the office.”
Rafa was the second in command of my crew and, ever since Lucas went all fucking weak on me, my closest confidant. I had brought him up through the ranks back when I was promoted, and I trusted him with my life.
We moved down a few hallways, finally entering into a side room. It was my office, very literally my office. There was a desk in the back, a small table against one wall, a computer, filing cabinets, and a little desk for Rafa. There was coffee and bagels on the table.
I grabbed some coffee. It was weird for a mobster to have an office, but the mob wasn’t what it used to be. Sure, we still went around breaking knees and being violent fuckers, but it was also a business these days. We had accounts, we had investments, and I needed a place to manage all that shit, somewhere that wasn’t my piece-of-shit apartment. I could get business done in the Barone mansion, and since they had way more room than they knew what to do with, it had been easy to carve out a little spot.
Rafa sat at his desk. “You hear from Bao?”
“Not today,” I grunted.
Bao was our contact with the Chinese and the guy I was dealing with for the most part. He was a shady man but had come through for me in the past, and so I trusted him.
“Shame. I heard some boys saying they didn’t think the deal was going down.”
I raised my eyebrow at that. “Do you think that’s true?”
“Nah, boss. Of course not. But people are talking, is all.”
“It’s happening,” I said. “And when it does, our crew will be the best-armed in the whole fucking mob.”
“Damn right.”
I sat back in my desk, kicking my feet up on th
e top. I took a sip of the coffee and sighed to myself.
This fucking deal was a huge pain. Bao was supposed to sell me a bunch of old army surplus weapons and equipment, shit like rifles and body armor, but it was hard getting it into the country. We’d hit a few problems recently, and I could tell my people were starting to get concerned. We had a lot of money tied up in this, and we needed the goods.
Especially if we were going to keep expanding our territory. We’d been chipping away at the gangs around us in the past few months, but with some serious firepower, we could take it all in one fell swoop.
My mind was a stressful mess of plans and contingencies when suddenly the phone rang. I grabbed it on the third ring. “What?” I said.
“Sir,” the man said, “this is Alan at the front gate. Someone is here asking for you.”
I paused, frowning. Rafa looked up at me. “Who is it?” I asked.
“She said her name is Kaley Kozlov. She said you know her, sir.”
Kozlov? That was a Russian name. One of the more prominent bosses in the Russian mob was named Kozlov, though I’d never had dealings with him before.
“Are you sure she’s asking for me?”
“She asked for you by name, sir. What should I do?”
I paused, frowning. “I’ll be there in a second.” I hung up the phone and stood.
“What’s up?” Rafa asked.
“Follow me.”
I walked out of the office, Rafa in tow, and headed outside. We snagged a golf cart and hopped into it, riding it back down the driveway toward the front gate.
A bunch of armed men were standing around. I couldn’t see her at first since they had her surrounded, but they parted as soon as I pulled up.
I got out of the cart and stared at her.
I recognized her instantly. It was the nameless girl from months ago, the girl I never thought I’d see again. She looked exactly the same, beautiful and sensual, and the memory of that night came flooding back, making my cock hard.
Alan came up to me. “Do you know her, sir?”
“Yes,” I said. “What’s she doing here?”
He looked uncomfortable. “Sir, she has a baby with her.”
I looked closer, and sure enough, she was holding something in her arms. She stared back at me defiantly, anger and fear in her eyes.
She was holding a baby. I stared at her as shock began to rise up through my body. She was holding a baby, just about thirteen months after our night together. That kid couldn’t have been more than four months old at most.
I took a step toward her, feeling dizzy.
Chapter 3
Kaley
My heart was pounding as I walked up to the gate of the Barone family’s enormous mansion.
Earlier, I had pretended like I was getting a ride from Soph to work. I’d bundled up Alex and snuck out the back, making sure my mother and father didn’t hear me. I hated living with them, but when I’d had Alex, I knew I had to take a break from school and get some help in those early months.
Soph drove me out of the city. It was surprisingly easy; I half expected to see men chasing us down. Instead, we had zero problems.
Until she dropped me off. I kissed her goodbye and hiked the last bit up to the gate as she drove away.
“Can I help you?” asked the man sitting in the guard booth.
“Hi. I’m here to see Vince Miro.”
He stared at me. “You’re not on the list.”
“I know, but I need to speak with him. It’s urgent.”
“Sorry, ma’am. You can’t speak with him unless you’re on the list.”
I stared at the guy. “Please. Get me Vince Miro. He knows me. He’ll want to speak with me.”
The guy glanced at Alex and then got on his phone. Two minutes later, a bunch more security guards descended on me and began asking a ton of questions, none of which I wanted to answer.
And then I saw him. He climbed out of a golf cart and stared at me while the original guard said something to him.
He watched me for a minute, and I stared back defiantly. I made no attempt to hide Alex. That’s right; this is your kid, I thought.
Finally, he walked toward me. My heart was leaping in my chest. He was as handsome as I remembered, tall and broad, muscular and tattooed. I remembered that night well, remembered how he had worked my body, how dirty he’d been on the dance floor, the things he’d whispered in my ear. I remembered how incredible it had felt to give myself to him, to let his hands explore my body, his mouth on my neck, his cock deep between my legs.
A shiver ran down my spine. His gaze was intense as he walked slowly toward me.
Vince Miro. He had a bad reputation, a dangerous reputation. And here I was on his home turf, trying to get him to help me take care of a baby he didn’t even know about.
This was crazy, I realized as he came toward me. This was absolutely crazy. He wasn’t going to believe me; he was going to throw me out, and then my father was going to take Alex away.
I took a deep breath, biting back my panic. I had to stay strong, had to stick with my plan. I didn’t know anybody else in this city that could protect me from my father; there was only Vince.
He nodded to the guards as he approached, and they quickly dispersed. After a moment, Vince stood alone in front of me, staring down at me. He was wearing jeans and a tight black T-shirt. He crossed his arms, staring at me.
“I recognize you,” he said. “Miss no names.”
“My name is Kaley Kozlov.”
“Anatoli’s daughter?”
I nodded once. “That’s right.”
“So you’re a Russian mob princess.”
“No,” I said fiercely. “Not at all.”
“Who’s the kid?” he asked, nodding at Alex.
“This is Alexei. He’s the reason I’m here.”
Vince frowned. “Are you about to try and convince me that this is my kid?”
I held Alex up slightly so Vince could see him. “He is your son, Vince.”
Vince laughed and shook his head. “I’ve had a lot of crazy fucking chicks come after me, but this is by far the craziest.”
“Thirteen months ago. Remember? Alex is about four months old.”
He sighed. “So what? You could have gone home with a guy every night of that week. How do I know I’m the dad?”
“You’re the only guy I went home with that month,” I said. “And I haven’t been with another guy since.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “This is fucking crazy. You’re fucking crazy. No way that’s my fucking kid.”
“It is your kid,” I said, getting angry. Alex was squirming, and I could tell he was about to get fussy. “He’s your son, and we need your help.”
He raised an eyebrow. “How much?”
“What?”
“How much do you want?”
“I don’t want your money.”
“So what the fuck do you want then?” he asked. “I’m getting annoyed.”
“I need protection.”
He sighed, rubbing his head. “Protection from what? Spell it the fuck out, or else I’m leaving.”
“My family is very conservative, as you well know. Alex is an embarrassment to the whole mob since I’m not married. My father was going to take him away and put him up for adoption, pretend like he never existed.”
Vince frowned. “So what? Might make your life easier.”
“Nobody is taking my son away,” I said angrily. “Your son.”
“Okay. So you want me to protect you from your fucking father?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me and then burst out laughing, shaking his head. “You really are crazy.”
“He’s your son,” I said. I moved closer to him, holding Alexei up. They really did share some features, but I wasn’t sure if Vince could even see it.
He looked, though. And for a second, I thought I saw recognition flash across his face.
But it was quickly gone and hi
s cocky smile returned. “Cute kid.”
“Please. I don’t want to be here, but I have nowhere else to turn.”
Vince looked at me seriously for a second before speaking slowly. “I’ll let you inside,” he said. “For the day. If you can prove he’s my son, then we’ll talk about something longer.”
“How can I prove it?”
He shrugged. “I’m sure we can arrange a paternity test.”
“Those take weeks,” I said.
“We’ll worry about that later. This is one fucking shit morning, and I’m sick of standing out here getting yelled at. So if you want to come in, then fucking follow me. Otherwise, go away and don’t come back.”
I stared at him, not sure why he was letting me in, not sure what was happening. But he turned and started to walk back toward the golf cart, and so I quickly followed him.
The guards watched us go. I stopped in front of the cart and nodded to the other man. He was younger, with light brown hair and blue eyes. “Who’s the bitch?” he asked.
“Apparently that’s my baby’s mother,” Vince said, smirking.
“No shit? That’s your son?”
“His name is Alexei,” I said.
“Russian,” the kid said, making a face.
“Kaley, this is Rafa. Rafa, this is Kaley Kozlov.”
“Kozlov?” Rafa said and then laughed. “You’re fucking kidding.”
“No joke,” Vince grumbled, getting behind the wheel. “Come on, get on the back.”
I went to the second row and sat down. Vince turned it around and we were speeding back toward the house.
Chapter 4
Vince
I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing bringing this girl into the mansion.
There was no way what she was saying was true. Sure, I’d fucked her, and it was a good fucking night. I thought about it fondly from time to time. But there was no way that was my kid.
I’d worn a condom. I always wore a condom. I never stuck my dick in a stranger without protecting myself; I wasn’t a fucking idiot.
