by Bella Rose
One of the shift managers walked up beside Toni and heaved a sigh. “We’re out of blini, again,” she said wearily. “We sell so much of that stuff I fully expect the health department to slap us with a fine for ruining people’s cholesterol levels.”
“We aren’t responsible for other people’s food choices,” Toni commented. “Which is probably a good thing given the Russian coffee, the Tiramisu, and those flaky donuts Annelle makes every morning.”
“Ummm,” the manager moaned. “Annelle’s donuts…”
Toni laughed. “Get back to work before I have to fire you.”
“Oh whatever, like you’d ever fire anyone.”
The manager hustled off to check on a few orders for coffee at the bar, and to lend a hand to the barista. Toni reflected that the only reason she never fired anyone had to do with being so careful to only hire the best, and pay better than anyone else in the city. She had walked away from her father’s mafiya ways completely. There were no deals going on out the back door. Everything was legal. And even though her boyfriend was a straight up Russian gangster, he respected her too much to try and change her mind about how she ran her business.
Speak of the devil.
DIMITRI WATCHED TONI talking to her employees. He watched her smiling at her customers, and mostly he admired how incredibly beautiful she was when she was happy. He had never regretted his decision to step back and let Toni run Maria’s on her own, in her own way, and making her own choices. The café was hers and he wanted no part of it other than to support her whenever she asked him to.
She finally caught his eye, smiling and giving a little wave. Then she held up one finger to tell him she’d be just a minute more. Dimitri had to laugh at that. One minute usually turned into ten. Toni wasn’t just an owner or a manager. She worked a shift every single day. She worked nights when it was busy, and weekends whenever she needed to. She loved this place. She’d told him one time that every time she walked into Maria’s, she felt her mother smiling down on her.
Two young women walked up behind him. They were headed for the hostess stand, which covered both the outdoor and indoor dining areas and was placed in a little bit of both. The one girl nudged the other, obviously looking at him.
“I heard the owner of this place is in the mafia. Supposedly she was like a mafia princess or something,” one of the girls whispered to her friend. “Do you think that’s her boyfriend?”
“I don’t know.” The other young woman raked Dimitri with a brazen look of appreciation. “He looks like a gangster. Don’t you think?”
Dimitri stared right at them, not even bothering to hide his smirk. Toni kept telling him not to argue when people said this kind of nonsense. She called it advertising. He called it blatant stupidity. So for good measure he gave the women a cool stare before turning his back.
Toni walked up right then, standing on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Are you teasing those poor little girls?”
Dimitri grabbed her around the waist and hauled her in for a more satisfactory kiss. He took her lips passionately, moving his mouth against hers until they both forgot the silly girls, the café, and anything else but each other.
“Damn,” she whispered once they broke apart. “You can turn my brain to much in a millisecond!”
“I hope not,” he teased. “Because we still have one more place to go tonight.”
“I would never forget that!” Toni exclaimed. She linked her arm through his and began dragging him away from the café. “Even though it’s a little tough to believe that it’s been an entire year.”
“In this family, timing is the least of the weird things going on,” Dimitri commented wryly.
Toni was moving toward his car, which he’s parked just across the street. “What? You mean it’s strange that my boyfriend’s niece is also my baby sister?” She gave him a wide eyed look of exaggerated innocence. “I thought that was just how we roll around here.”
Dimitri opened the door and helped her into the car. “I think as long as everyone is loved for who and what they are, it doesn’t matter how we’re all related.”
“I think that’s the most insightful thing you’ve ever said,” Toni told him with a warm smile. “Now get in and drive before we’re late!”
***
The dining room at The Samovar was packed with friends, family, and those who might as well have been family. Toni went right in and greeted her uncles, kissing their cheeks and giving each a warm hug.
“Thank you so much for letting us use the restaurant for Maria’s party,” Toni told them both. “It means a lot that you would actually close down for the night.”
“She might not be our niece,” Viktor told Toni, “But she’s our baby sister’s namesake and that means a lot.”
Toni gave Viktor a squeeze. “She’s one lucky little girl to have so many loving people to protect her.”
Nikolai snorted. “Until the poor girl wants to start dating. Can you imagine? Between us, and Dimitri, and you and Katya, the girl won’t date until her mid thirties!”
“Sounds about right,” Toni quipped. “By then we’ll all be too old to put up much of a fuss.”
Viktor was staring at Katya. In fact, Toni had seen her uncle staring at Katya a lot of late. “Ahem.” Toni made an exaggerated noise to clear her throat. “Is there something you need to talk to Katya about Viktor?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m old enough to be her father.”
“But you’re not,” Toni pointed out. “And she’s not your typical woman either. She’s raising a tiny girl on her own. She’s not looking for the dashing hot blooded young stud anymore.”
“I think I resent the notion that I’m not a stud,” Viktor muttered.
Toni made a gagging noise. “Ew. When I want to think about my uncle’s sex life, I’ll ask. Really.”
“Oh,” Nikolai teased. “But you’ll set him up with your friend on a date? Right?”
“They’re two of my favorite people in the world,” Toni insisted. “If they made each other happy that would just be the proverbial icing on the cake, don’t you think?”
Nikolai slapped his brother on the shoulder. “At least go talk to her. Maybe she’ll take pity on you and ask you out.”
“So sad,” Toni agreed, her voice grave.
Dimitri approached her from behind. “What are you talking about? It looks like you’ve been teasing the shit out of Viktor.”
“He’s got a crush on your sister,” Toni said bluntly.
Dimitri looked mystified. “Katya?”
“Yes. Did you have other sisters I have yet to meet?” Toni reached up and tapped the end of his nose.
“No, but my brother actually showed up tonight.”
Toni turned, gazing at Dimitri and forgetting all of the silliness of only a moment ago. “Are you all right with that?”
“Yes. I think I am.”
“Good. Because I think it might be time to at least open the lines of communication.” Toni made a face. “Believe me, I’m not asking you to forgive and forget. I have a hard time with that myself.”
“You’re a good woman, Toni,” Dimitri murmured. “You really are. Have I told you yet today how much I love you?”
“Yes, but I would happily hear it again,” she teased.
DIMITRI GAZED AROUND them at the assembled family and friends and knew that there was no better place than here and now to do this. He didn’t want to upstage his niece’s first birthday, but the birthday girl was being passed around from friends to relatives, and she was almost drunk with excitement and sugar.
Then Katya started banging on her wineglass and the big, echoing room got silent. “A year ago today we were mourning the loss of someone who was both a blessing and a curse to us all,” Katya said in a loud, clear voice.
There was a round of agreement through the room and a few “hear hears” from those assembled. Everyone remembered Boris Rustikov’s funeral.
“That was the day I think I truly
gained my family.” Katya gestured to Toni, to Dimitri, and even to Viktor and Nikolai Kabalevsky. “All of you have been such a vital piece of Maria’s first year of life. You’ve supported us, loved us, and taught us to be tough. I love you all, and I want everyone to know that I couldn’t have done it without you!”
Dimitri gazed around. His men were here—even Ivan—Anatoli’s glowering presence was here, the uncles, some of their extended family, Katya, and now he knew it was the time. He raised his hand and caught his sister’s eye. She raised a brow, and he nodded.
Katya lifted her hands to calm things down before it got completely out of hand. “My brother, Dimitri, wants to say a few words everyone.”
Dimitri sucked in a deep breath and took Toni’s hand. She looked up at him, obviously expecting him to say something else about baby Maria. Instead, he went down on one knee. There was a collective gasp followed by more than a few good natured shouts in both Russian and English.
“Last year this time we were mourning your father. So many things happened all at once, that I told myself I would wait to do this until things had settled down.” Dimitri reached inside his pocket and pulled out a velvet box. “But the truth is that things will never settle down.” There was another round of shouts and cheers. People were getting excited. “So I’m going to do this now because I don’t want to wait another second!”
Toni seemed frozen, but Dimitri decided to charge on.
“Antonina Rustikov,” he began. “Will you marry me and make me the happiest man on earth?”
The room went dead silent. Even baby Maria seemed to catch on. She was wide eyed and silent with her fingers stuck in her mouth. Then Toni started crying. She began nodding, and then she flung her arms around his neck and squeezed so hard he nearly toppled over. Standing up, he twirled her around and around.
“Yes!” she shouted. “Yes. Yes. Yes! I’ll marry you. I was beginning to think you were never going to ask!”
“My love, I was only waiting for the perfect moment,” he said only for her ears. “Shall I make you mad now? Or later?”
“If I’m mad, it’s because I’m madly in love with you.” Toni’s eyes sparkled. “So now. Later. It doesn’t matter. We’ve got the rest of our lives to have fun and make each other crazy.”
THE END
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Russian Mobster’s Revenge
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Russian Mobster’s Revenge
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Chapter One
The tidy corner office on the fourth floor of the Volkov Real Estate building was quiet. It was after hours and only the cleaning people were still around. The mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, rental managers, maintenance crews, and building contractors had all gone home for the night. Emily liked working late. She got a lot more done when there was nobody pestering her about the day-to-day running of her brother’s real-estate empire.
“And how was the meeting?” Emily barely looked up when her brother, Sergei, walked into her office. She was trying to figure out why the numbers on her screen didn’t seem to match up.
Then Sergei stomped over to her desk and flopped into one of the overstuffed leather chairs she kept on hand for business meetings. “It was bullshit!” Sergei fumed. “Seriously, it was all a load of crap! I’ve had better numbers this quarter than I have for the last three and all I hear is, ‘Ivan is doing three times that amount of business,’ and ‘Ivan is moving twice that much product.’ Ivan this and Ivan that. It’s enough to make me want to drown him in the river!”
Emily turned her attention away from her computer screen. She swallowed the immediate lump that had appeared in her throat at the mention of Ivan Dedov. “Was Ivan there?” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “At the meeting, I mean?”
“Of course!” Sergei swept his hand through his blond hair. “The smug bastard was sitting across the table the whole meeting, smirking at me. What gives that upstart bastard the right to look at me like that? Huh? I’m a made man!”
Emily had to tread carefully here. Sergei had always been completely unreasonable about Ivan. She had never understood why her brother had hated him so much. Although, to be fair, Ivan was charismatic, handsome, and intelligent. Things seemed to come so easily for him, while Sergei had to really work to make things happen. Yet Sergei was the one who had managed to win the right to take over their father’s businesses for the mafia. There were three bosses who ran the Russian mafia in their region. Each boss had four made men underneath them, and each of those men had a dozen or more enforcers or lieutenants, dependent upon what their business portfolio looked like.
Speaking of business portfolio, Emily still needed to figure out why the numbers didn’t match. “Sergei, why do the books show so much overhead in the real-estate office? I know we didn’t spend that much on office rent. And there’s no way our expenses were that high this quarter. It’s like our profits just disappeared.”
“I needed some extra cash to pad the numbers from the street business,” Sergei admitted. “So I fudged the numbers a bit and then took the profits and made them look like they came from my side of the business.” Sergei said this as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“You took legitimate, legal income and made it look like you had gotten it from drug sales?” Emily asked incredulously. “Why would you do that? Do you have any idea what that looks like from a business standpoint? It’s ridiculous! You made a ton of legal money this quarter!” The truth was that Emily was responsible for running all of the legitimate businesses in their umbrella. Sergei was the one who chose the risks to take, made big decisions, and schmoozed with clients. He had little patience for day-to-day drudgery.
Sergei jumped to his feet. “I don’t care about legitimate, legal business! I need the boss to know that I can pull my own weight and make the sales. Yuri won’t front me any more product if I can’t prove I can move a minimum quota every month.”
“So stop selling drugs and start brokering more mortgages,” Emily said irritably. “Seems obvious to me.”
“Because you’re not the one who has to answer to the organization!” Sergei protested. “And you’re not the one who has to listen to that bastard Ivan crow because he broke the organization’s record for sales last quarter!” Sergei started pacing energetically around Emily’s office. He flung his hands up in the air. “That smug bastard needs to go, Emily!”
“Don’t look at me. You’re the one who fired him eight years ago and turned him loose to make his fortune on his own.”
“I turned him loose?” Sergei’s tone turned hard and angry. He pointed at Emily. “I was trying to protect you! I saw the way the two of you looked at each other. You had a thing for Ivan Dedov, and there was no way I was going to let that bastard worm his way into the organization by marrying my sister! You’re going to make a good marriage that helps us up the mafia ladder, and that wasn’t going to happen if you married that loser.”
“Ivan is not a loser!” Emily argued. “You’ve just stood here and whined to me about how successful he is. Maybe you should have kept him on so he could make money for you instead of himself.”
“He didn’t care about money when he was here.” Sergei put his hands flat on her desk and glared down his nose at her. “He cared about getting you into bed.”
“Ivan’s not like that!” she protested. “He’s a good guy, Sergei. Just like you’re a good guy when you don’t have your head stuck up your butt!”
“I did you a favor!” Sergei insisted. “We need to be finding you some organization-appropriate marriage!”
“I’m not going to marry some guy that the bosses want me
to just because he’s loyal to them or he’s someone’s idiot son! I want to marry because I’m in love or not at all. I’m not your pawn, Sergei.”
“You’ll do what you’re told,” Sergei said hotly.
“And if you don’t watch it, you’ll be managing your own real-estate company. Understand?” Emily shot her brother a look of disgust. “I love you, Sergei. I do. I think you’re a good man, but sometimes you’re such an ass that I just can’t understand how we can even be related.”
“Are you threatening to leave my company?” Sergei’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Really? You think you can survive out there without me? I’ve been taking care of you since you were a kid.”
“I’m sorry, big brother, but that ship sailed when I picked up the reins of the legal side of your businesses.” Emily gestured to the computer on her desk. “I’ve been running this side of the things since I was just out of high school. Hell, I had to go to night school at community college just to get my business degree! I’m not some helpless female with no skills, brother.”
Sergei sighed and sank back into the chair. He muttered a Russian proverb beneath his breath that had been one of their mother’s favorites. Something about paying attention to where your arrow is pointed before you shoot. “Look, Em. I don’t want to fight with you.”
“Really?” Emily raised her eyebrows. “Because you sort of came in here acting like you did.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry, okay? It’s just that Ivan is making me look incompetent as hell, and I wish I knew what to do about it. It just pisses me off. I shouldn’t take it out on you, though. Never you, Emily.”
She gazed at her brother. They were only two years apart, but they could have been twins. Emily kept her long blond tresses pulled back into a no-nonsense bun, but they had the same dark complexion and brilliant dark eyes that set off their light hair. She often wondered why her brother never seemed interested in women. Except Sergei wasn’t any different than Emily. She had no time for men, but that was really because she’d given her heart away once already.
