Booze and Bullets (Brooklyn Brothers #3)

by Melanie Munton

  I could only imagine how good that man was going to look cradling a tiny little baby against his bare chest, swaying her in a gentle dance in the middle of the night, his deep voice lulling her back to sleep.

  Talk about ovary overdrive.

  Maybe I should start referring to him as a her.

  “When will you start showing?”

  The oars continued to slice through the water as we drifted closer to a rock face along the coastline. Wherever Nico was giddily taking us in this motorless boat was a secret. He’d been adamant about that from the moment he started rowing us away from the dock.

  “It’s different for every woman. They say around the third or fourth month for your first child.”

  He grinned. “Is it weird that I can’t wait to see you in maternity clothes?”

  I quirked an eyebrow. “You say that now. But believe me, you’re going to miss this in seven months.” I waved down at my body.

  He tsked his tongue as his arms continued to pump. “Still have so much to learn about me, wife. While I love your little teacup breasts, how could I not love them even more when they plump up with milk? How could I not still love your ass when I’m pounding into it from behind after sex gets too uncomfortable for you on your back? And how the hell could I not love seeing your belly grow as your perfect body works to literally create our child?”

  My heart tripped over itself. “Well, when you put it like that…”

  He made the boat rock precariously when he lurched across the space between us and stamped his mouth over mine in one of his trademark displays of ownership. These kisses were distinct in the way his tongue moved to claim every inch of my mouth, leaving no corner unexplored or unmarked.

  His grin was knowing and smug after he pulled away. And had every right to be. The man knew what he did to me, and it made him devious.

  “Have you spoken to your father?” he asked once he moved back to his side of the boat and resumed his rowing.

  I nodded. “He sounds more rested, but the healing is still going to take some time.”

  Not healing from his physical injuries.

  From his emotional ones.

  Batya had been devastated to learn that his beloved Claudia had not only hidden their child from him, but that Dimitri—his son—had been under his nose all that time and he never knew. More, that his only son had hated him so vehemently, enough to revolt against him and threaten his life. And now, in another cruel twist of fate, that son was gone. Batya felt both guilty and betrayed at the same time, and I couldn’t begin to imagine what he was going through.

  Part of me wished he’d never learned of Dimitri’s true identity.

  His heart had never fully mended after Claudia left him, so for this to happen… He had a long, painful road ahead of him.

  But at least the old syndicate was back to rights. Dimitri’s death had more or less balanced the scales in the Russian organization. Effectively cutting the head off the snake, the Voiny were no more.

  Batya was back to ruling as the unequivocal vor.

  Not to mention, he was exuberant about being a grandfather. He hadn’t acted the least bit surprised when I’d informed him that Nico and I were staying married and that I would not be returning to Russia. The distance between us saddened me, of course, but Nico assured me that after the baby was born, we could visit Moscow as often as I wanted.

  It would also give me the opportunity to check in on my kids at the Red Gate Orphanage. With Nico’s financial assistance, I’d commissioned an entirely new facility to be constructed in a nicer, safer part of Moscow. The building was now across the street from a park with a playground and had comforts and luxuries, the likes of which those kids had probably never seen. And it was large enough to take on as many kids as it needed.

  As much as I wished I could see those kids every day and missed them terribly, I took solace in the fact that they were comfortable and being well taken care of. Plus, I had the children’s center in Brooklyn. Val and I had been hard at work developing new programs and expanding.

  Not to mention…I’d soon have a child of my own.

  Which was why this surprise trip to Capri was the last time I’d be flying for a while. At least, that’s what Nico had said when he’d announced where we were going.

  “You know doctors say pregnant women can fly up until their seventh month,” I’d informed him, amused.

  He’d shaken his head hard. “Something only has to happen once for them to change their minds. Why take the chance?”

  I shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised that Nico was already proving to be the extreme in overprotective fathers.

  “What about the distillery renovations?” I asked, steadying myself when the boat tilted on a larger wave. “Are we still on schedule to open in two weeks?”

  He nodded. “The company I hired to install all the exterior signs should be finished by the end of this week. Then it’s just getting the staff ready.”

  The fire from a month ago had ravaged the interior of the Brooklyn Armor House, but thankfully hadn’t caused unrepairable structural damage to the building itself. Nico certainly hadn’t wasted any time in cleaning and renovating the place. In fact, he’d gone through four different contractors when each had tried telling Nico that he couldn’t meet his narrow time frame.

  Nico’s motive had been clear.

  He didn’t want the reminder of what had taken place inside that building. Both of us had nearly lost our lives. My father had nearly lost his. We had nearly lost our baby. So much blood and violence, and that place was supposed to be about friends and family and making memories. The first time I went back inside, I’d worried that everything from that night would come rushing back.

  But somehow, it didn’t. I couldn’t explain it, but the place just had a sense of new beginnings about it now.

  Much like the rest of my life. I stared down at my hand as it slid over my still mostly flat stomach.

  I was completely in awe of my good fortune.

  When I lifted my head, I was shocked to see that we’d entered a…cave?

  My breath caught. “Oh…my.”

  It was spectacular.

  I’d never seen anything like it. The water we floated on top of could not have been bluer. It reflected off the cave walls that were well above our heads—at least ten feet high.

  “They call it the Blue Grotto,” Nico explained, pulling the oars inside the boat to let us drift. “You can see why. There’s an underwater cavity that allows sunlight to pass through, which creates this blue reflection.”

  The whole cavern was illuminated in blue.

  “Nico—” He’d rendered me speechless. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I felt his eyes on me, but I couldn’t take mine off the splendor of that breathtaking blue water.

  “That’s what I thought when I first saw it as a kid,” he mused. “Our parents saved for years to take a family vacation to Italy. We spent a couple of days on Capri, and they brought us here. I remember thinking I would never forget this color as long as I lived.”

  Something in his voice drew my attention. There was a spark in his amber eyes I couldn’t read.

  He tilted his head. “Are you happy, legs?”

  I choked back laughter. I was near sobbing from happiness. “You mean you can’t tell?” I tsked my tongue, just as he had. “Still so much to learn about me, husband.”

  His mouth twitched, though his eyes narrowed. “Do you still consider me your husband?”

  What an odd question. At this point, he should have known better. “Aren’t you?”

  He slowly nodded his head. “And I plan to stay that way. But I’m sure you’ve thought about the kind of wedding you always wanted. And what you got was nowhere in the realm of what you dreamed about, nor what you deserved. You didn’t get to wear a dress or be walked down the aisle by your father or—”

  I placed my finger over his mouth, silencing him. “I don’t need a
ny of that, Nico. Weddings, aside from being a giant party for both families, are all about joining two people for the rest of their lives. How could I regret our ceremony when that’s exactly what it did? In the end, it still gave me you. Even without a dress or a cake or—”

  “A ring?”

  Words escaped me when he held up a black ring box with the most exquisitely stunning sapphire shining up at me. On a single, diamond-studded band, the sapphire stone was pear-shaped and surrounded by another row of sparkling diamonds.

  “You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to find the right one,” he said. “It had to match the color of your eyes perfectly. After days and days of looking, I realized what the problem was.”

  I met his eyes. “What?”

  His amber ones softened. “No blue gem on earth could outshine the ones in your eyes, legs.” He shrugged. “This was the closest match I could get. When I first came to this cave, I thought I’d never seen a more beautiful color. Then I met you and saw your blue…” He shook his head. “There is no comparison.”

  I swallowed against the rise of tears. “It’s gorgeous, Nico. I love it.”

  “I bought it over a month ago.”

  My lips parted in shock. “You mean…?”

  “Before the night you walked out of our home. Before I drove you to leave,” he amended self-deprecatingly. “I was ready to give it to you when I got home, before everything happened. It was in my pocket.” He chuckled. “I’d been nervous as hell all day.”

  “Are you nervous now?”

  He shook his head, grinning. “Just eager.” He scooted closer and frowned. “I hadn’t thought about this part.” He huffed in frustration. “Pretend I’m down on one knee.

  Stifling a laugh, I nodded.

  “I’m ready to start my life with you, Alexia Kozlov. Everything I’ve felt ever since we met has seemed like one giant cliché after another. But then I realized that clichés exist because they’re true. My life was empty before I met you. It didn’t even begin until you said ‘I do.’ It was black and white before you brought color into it. You’ve made me a better man than I ever thought I was capable of. You shined a beam of light in my sea of darkness. It all sounds corny and clichéd, but that’s because it’s all true. You did all of those things, legs.”

  He removed the ring from the box and slipped it onto my finger.

  Damn, he’d chosen well.

  “And the biggest cliché of all?” He interlaced our fingers, his thumb caressing the sapphire. “You taught me what it was like to fall in love. You taught me how to love better. I never knew how much life I was missing out on before you. I thought I’d had it all at one point. Thought I was living my best possible life. But I was an ignorant mudak.” Asshole.

  Laughter bubbled out of me as the first tear fell.

  “The last thing I ever thought would happen to me did. I fell in love with my wife. I didn’t realize how long I’d been going through the motions of life instead of really living it. I was watching countless opportunities to find happiness pass me by every single day, and I didn’t even know it. Not until I met you. And my eyes weren’t just opened that day. When you blew into my world, you pried my eyes open with goddamn pliers.”

  More laughter.

  “But I needed that. And I think on some level, you knew it, even if you didn’t realize it in the moment. My dad once told me that the right person shouldn’t expect you to change for them. But you should want to improve for them.”

  We both smiled because we both knew how much he had improved as a person over the last few months. How much I had, too.

  “You deserve only the best in life, legs. And even though I’m far from that, I hope that you’ll agree to stay my wife. Because I need to stay your husband. I don’t even know where my life would go anymore without you in it. Hell, it wouldn’t go anywhere. I’d be lost in my black and white existence, searching for my blue light.”

  I sniffed. Damn hormones.

  “You’ve become everything I not only want in life, but everything I need. Let me keep improving for you, and I promise I’ll make you and our child the happiest you could ever be. Will you, Alexia “Lexi” “Legs” Kozlov, stay married to me?”

  “God, yes,” I blurted out. “But it’s Alexia Rossetti.”

  I lunged for his mouth, nearly tipping us right into the water.

  His instant chuckle soon turned into a guttural groan, which soon turned into the most carefully balanced sex we’d ever had.

  Afterwards, he placed his mouth against my temple as we fought to catch our breaths. “I now pronounce us true husband and wife.”

  “Are you absolutely sure?” Dad asked me.

  I nodded solemnly. “One hundred percent. Raphael Esposito started the fire at the Brooklyn Armor House.”

  He was the shadowy figure I’d seen staring at us from the alley across the street, right before I’d run inside the building after Lexi. He was the one who threw the Molotov cocktail through the window and set the whole place ablaze. Once I’d had time to reflect on what I’d seen outside the context of gripping panic and fear, I’d immediately recognized him.

  Dad blew out a heavy breath as he fell into his chair.

  We were the only two in his den present for this meeting. I’d wanted to share this information with him before we took it to everyone else, knowing how heated their reactions—especially Cris’s—were bound to be.

  “Why would he do that?” Dad pondered. “He and Dimitri were supposed to be working together. Why take out the guy who helped him escape prison?”

  I propped my ankle on my knee. “My guess is Dimitri knew too much and Raphael turned on him. He’d gotten what he needed and had no further use for him. Dimitri no doubt knew about Raphael’s plans, and Raphael didn’t want the man spilling his guts to anyone.”

  “Which means that Raphael does have a plan. And it’s big. If he’s willing to kill his allies to protect his secrets, then he’s got something major in the works.”

  I shot Dad a look. “Would you expect anything less from him? I don’t think it’s any coincidence that he waited to make his move against Dimitri until he thought there was an opportunity to take one or more of us out with him.”

  Dad pursed his lips. “You’re saying he’s still coming for us.”

  “He could have put a bullet between Dimitri’s eyes anytime. Yet he chooses to burn down my distillery, knowing that I would come for Lexi.” I shook my head. “He’s not through with us.”

  Dad swiped a hand down his face. “Hell, I don’t think he’s even begun.”

  “I don’t want you to worry about this,” I said in a low voice, taking note of his tired appearance. “I’ll handle the situation.”

  His eyes darted to mine. Realization had them crinkling in the corners. “You think I’ve become weak, Niccolò?”

  Never.

  “Not at all. I’m just saying that I’m finally going to be here to help you take care of this family the way I should have been doing all along.”

  His brow furrowed. “Do you think… Do you think I’ve been disappointed in you all these years?”

  I cleared my throat, shifting around in the wingback chair. “I didn’t accept the responsibilities and duties that fell on my shoulders like I know you wanted me to. Like you expected me to. I just want you to know that everything is different now. Whatever you need, I’m here.”

  Appearing disturbed by my words, Dad rose from his chair and came around the desk. Facing me, he leaned against it and pierced me with the most intent look I’d ever seen from him.

  “I need you to understand, Nico, that I have never been disappointed in you. When you chose your own path all those years ago, I respected you for it. I’ve always tried to raise my children to think for themselves and make their own way in this world. I would have been disappointed if you hadn’t had the courage to tell me what you really wanted.”

  “But I was an irresponsible jackass for over a decade,” I sputtered. “Tha
t couldn’t have made you proud.”

  He chuckled. “All my children are their own people, and that makes me proud. Luka’s a smartass most of the time and can’t control his temper. Cris tends to be too rigid and controlling. Ace can be an overly-analytical know-it-all when he wants to be. And Rome’s solitude can sometimes come off as indifferent or rude. We all have our frustrating quirks.”

  I smirked. “What about Gia?”

  He snorted. “Gia still wants her papa to believe that she’s sweet and guileless and doesn’t possess a single conniving bone in her body. So, that’s what I choose to believe. You’ll understand when you have daughter.”

  My chest swelled with love for that daughter who hadn’t even been born—yet. Boy or girl, all I wanted was a healthy baby. But I couldn’t deny harboring some hope that Lexi carried our daughter.

  “I’m extremely proud of you, son.”

  My eyes flew up to Dad’s.

  “You say you were an irresponsible jackass, yet you’re the first of my children to get married and have a baby. You’ve built a thriving enterprise over the last ten years, and you’ve taken care of this family in more ways than you want to acknowledge. I couldn’t be prouder of my first-born son.”

  Emotion clogged my throat. I sensed it in him, too, and well, neither of us wanted the other to witness it. The only person who ever got to see me cry was Lexi, and it was only on rare occasions.

  Instead, I rose to my feet, shook his hand, and hugged him. “Thank you, Dad.”

  After a prolonged series of back slaps, he pulled away with a grin and produced a bottle of whiskey from one of his desk drawers.

  “I’ve been meaning to try this,” he said, popping the cork. “But I wanted to wait for the right moment.” He got out two glasses. “And I think it’s time.”

  It was a bottle of my Saluzzo Reserve.

  Jab. Cross.

  Jab. Cross. Uppercut.

  Cross. Jab. Hook.

  Straight kick. Jab.

  Roundhouse kick. Uppercut.

  Cross. Her—

  Fuck.

  Not this bullshit again.