Obeying the Russian Mafia Boss: A Mob Romance (17 page)

She kept her back turned to him, but his low voice wrapped comfortingly around her. For some reason, she wondered what it would be like under different circumstances. If they weren’t running for their lives, if he were a family man, would he wrap his arms around her and nuzzle her neck while she cooked?

Pushing the insane fantasy away, she shook her head. “I didn’t really fit in there. My boyfriend was wealthy, and all of his friends were wealthy. They always looked down on me. I would love to finish my degree, but at the time it just wasn’t the right place for me. I was too concerned about what other people thought about me.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m sleeping with the mob so I can pay for my mother’s surgery,” Ella snapped.

“For the love of God,” he said through gritted teeth. Gripping her shoulders, he pulled her away from the stove and spun her around. “Is it the money? Is that what you’re hung up on? I’ll write you a check right now for the rest of the money. All you have to do is answer me one thing.”

“What?”

“Are you really sleeping with me because of the money? Do you really feel like my whore?”

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Staring into his face, she knew that she couldn’t lie to him. He’d be able to see the truth. “I let you seduce me because I wanted you, but we both know that you aren’t giving me this money out of the goodness of your heart. You may not be paying me to sleep with you, but you paid me to be near you. And if you’re not going to tell me why, I’ll just have to draw my own conclusions.”

The pot began to boil over, and she wrenched out of his grip to turn the burner down. Adding the pasta to the water, she tried to ignore his hard stare.

“I liked you,” he said finally. “You don’t hide things. You heard the code blue in the hospital that day, and you were hysterical. It was the head of a local drug ring, but you thought it was your mother. Even at my mother’s funeral, I’d never seen that kind of emotion. My father loves me. I know that, but he’ll always put his business first. But you show all of your joy and all of your pain. It’s beautiful.”

He tucked a flyaway strand behind her ear and pressed his lips to her neck. “It was unnatural to me. I wanted to see you tarnished. I wanted to prove to myself that you could be tarnished, but I no longer think it’s possible.”

Ella busied herself with stirring the pasta. “When did your mother die?”

“I was seven. She was killed in a drive-by shooting. She wasn’t even the target, but my father spilled a lot of blood over her death.”

“Okay,” she blinked. “That’s the kind of information that I didn’t need to know, but it shows emotion. Inappropriate reactions to grief, but emotion nonetheless.”

Erik moved away from her, and she felt the loss of his warmth. “I can’t change my past, Ella,” he said coldly. “I come from a violent family. I can’t apologize for that, and even if I could, I wouldn’t. This is who I am.”

Turning off the stove, she did her best to drain the pasta without a colander. “Do we have any plates or bowls?”

He opened the top cabinet and handed her two paper bowls. She separated the pasta and poured the marinara sauce on top.

“You can’t change your past, but you could change your future.” Taking a deep breath, she turned around and handed him the food. “The only reason you’d keep doing it is because you enjoy hurting people. You have enough money to last you the rest of your life, and you’re too old to give a damn what you father thinks. I’d never ask you to apologize for your past, but the decisions that you make now are entirely your own.”

“You think I enjoy hurting people?” he asked coolly.

“You’re selling more than just alcohol and a good time at that club. Drugs. Sex. Money laundering. Extortion.”

“My women are well taken care of. I launder my own dirty money. I only extort the wealthy who deserve it, and those who buy my drugs deserve everything that’s coming to them.”

Ella shook her head as she sat at the kitchen table. “How can you say that? You can pay for those women to get an education and follow their dreams. They can’t sell their bodies forever. You have no idea what goes on in their head.”

“If I didn’t hire them, they’d sell themselves on the streets.”

“So don’t hire them to be whores. Hire them to tend bar or dance. Hire them to market for you or help out behind the desk. And those drug addicts that deserve what’s coming to them? You have no idea their past. You have no idea how they got hooked. When I was growing up, there was this kid in my neighborhood. He started shooting up when he was twelve because his mother was a junkie, and she told him it was food. He died when he was fourteen.”

Erik twirled the pasta around his fork and gazed steadily at her. “I’m sure you’re going to give me a reason why extortion is wrong.”

“You chose them because they were already corrupt. Simply rerouting their corruption to meet your needs is just as bad. You’re not helping society by exposing them. You’re using them to get what you want.”

“Ella Davis, are you trying to turn me into an honest man?”

She rolled her eyes. “The only person who can do that is you. Of course, we could die tomorrow, so it probably doesn’t even matter. Had you agreed to marry Valeria, could all of this been avoided?”

“No. The Yashin family decided to screw me long ago.”

Ella snorted. “Please. She wants you. If you had married her, you would have been just fine. Hell, if you slept with her, you probably would have been fine.”

“She killed my man before I even made the decision,” Erik argued.

Shrugging, Ella took another bite of pasta. “You probably did something to convince her that you were never going to marry her. Women know these things.”

“Really?” he asked, interested. “And what do you know about me?”

“I know that you’re a control freak. You don’t like the thought of anyone using you, and you hate showing emotion. And apparently, you like pasta.” She grabbed his empty bowl and stood up. Pushing her own uneaten pasta his way, she left him to finish cleaning up. “I’m going to bed. Is there a plan for tomorrow?”

“Lay low for forty-eight hours. Once my father’s backup gets here, we can make our move.”

“Fine.” She gave him a tight smile. “Good night.” Heading upstairs, she mentally apologized for lying to him. Forty-eight hours was too long. She was leaving tonight.

Turning out the light, she slipped into the strange bed and tried to listen for Erik’s footsteps. When the door to her room opened, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to regulate her breathing. There were three other bedrooms, but of course he would choose hers.

The bed dipped beside he pushed the covers back and moved close to her. “Ella?” he asked softly.

She so desperately wanted to turn around and put her arms around him, but he’d made their non-relationship clear. He’d just leave her when he got tired of her, and she had obligations. She couldn’t get distracted by him. Squeezing her fist around the sheet, she tried to push the pain away and pretend to sleep.

“You’re not wrong,” he whispered in the darkness. “But I don’t know how to be anything else.”

As Erik wrapped his arms around her, he snuggled in close, but he didn’t try to wake her up. When his breathing finally evened out, she relaxed. For a few minutes, she just enjoyed the intimacy. At least in his sleep, he couldn’t lie to her.

Finally, she slowly inched her way out of his grasp. He stirred but didn’t wake. Quietly creeping across the floor, she grabbed her shoes and eased out the door. When she closed it, she turned around and pressed her hand to the wood. “I know you’ll never change. Not for me. Maybe one day, you’ll change for yourself, but I can’t stand by and watch you live this life. Not even for the limited time that I’m allowed to have you,” she murmured. Biting back an expletive, she hurried down the stairs and grabbed the keys on the counter. With one last look behind her, she escaped the safe house and slipped out into the night.

Traffic was light as she drove to the hospital. Aware that she had a borrowed car, she stayed just under the speed limit. Normally, she’d welcome the police, but it would take too long to explain everything. By then, anyone could get to her mother.

Visiting hours would be over, but she didn’t actually have to be in her mother’s room. She would camp out in the waiting room and keep an eye on things.

There were still plenty of cars in the parking lot. That was the thing about hospitals. They never closed.

Pulling into a parking spot, she killed the engine and took a deep breath. For the past few hours, adrenaline had kept her going. First the guns, and then Erik. Now that she’d put all of that behind her, exhaustion was setting in. Forcing herself to her feet, she climbed out the car and yawned. Shutting the door behind her, she leaned against the car and closed her eyes. Guns and kidnapping and strip clubs and mobs. This wasn’t her life. She had absolutely no idea how she’d gotten into this mess.

You wanted an adventure
, a little voice whispered in her head. Ella had wanted the money, but she’d longed for a chance to do something different with her life. Even being a maid to a wealthy and sexy Russian was more exciting than her job at the grocery store.

“See where adventure got you?” she muttered to herself. “Just stick with what you know.”

There was a distinctive sound of heels striking the concrete ground behind here. “Talking to yourself, Ella dear?”

The familiar Russian voice froze her to the bone. “Valeria, is it?” she said with fake bravado. “Visiting someone at the hospital?”

She and two of her henchmen rounded the corner of the car. “Well, I thought with you on the run, your mother might get lonely. I was just on my way to say hello and chat. I’m just dying to know all about the woman who stole my man.”

“You leave my mother alone,” she hissed. “If you want me, you can have me, but you don’t touch her.”

Valeria clicked her tongue against her teeth and shook her head. “Oh, my dear Ella. I think you have the wrong impression of me. I’m not a cruel woman. In fact, if you come with me, we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”

Her men moved their hands to grip their guns, and Ella pushed her shoulders back. “Fine,” she muttered.

“I knew you were a smart woman.” Valeria smiled at her and shuffled to the side. As Ella passed her, the Russian woman grabbed her hand and wrenched her arm behind her back. Ella cried out in pain, but Valeria only shoved her against the car. “It makes me sick that I have to use you to draw Erik out, but don’t mistake me. I don’t give a damn about you. I’m just disgusted he’s so weak that he would care about someone like you.”

“You’re wrong,” Ella gasped. Sharp pain raced across her shoulders. “His business means more than anything. He won’t come for me.”

“You better hope you’re wrong,” Valeria snarled as she released her. “Because if he doesn’t, you and your mother are dead.”

“My mother has nothing to do with this,” Ella said through gritted teeth. “Threatening to kill her will do you no good.”

The Russian woman merely smiled coldly. “On the contrary. It would give me great pleasure to see the pain it will cause you.”

Chapter Eighteen

Panic settled in the pit of Erik’s stomach when he woke up and reached for Ella. The space next to him was cold and empty. With a start, he sat up and stared at the clock. He’d been sleeping for hours, so she could be long gone.

Anger washed over him. Whether it was fear or disgust driving her away, she was going to get herself killed. There was only one place he could imagine that she’d go, and if Yashin had done his homework, he would have men—or a woman—waiting for her.

With shaking fingers, he grabbed the phone and dialed the hospital. “I need to be connected with your long-term care ward.”

“Is there a specific patient you’d like to speak with?” the operator asked.

“The nurse’s station. I need to see if Heather Davis has had any visitors in the last couple of hours.”

“On moment, please.”

The dreadful hold music started playing, and Erik slipped off the bed and began grabbing his clothes. Peering out the window, he felt his heart sink. She’d taken the car.

Finding another wouldn’t be a problem for him, but stealing cars around the safe house wasn’t the smartest thing to do. The last thing he needed was the police sniffing around his property.

“Long-term care,” a woman said, her voice dripping with impatience.

“I need to know if Heather Davis has had any visitors.”

“Sir, I can’t give out that kind of information.”

Damn it.
“Her daughter was on her way to see her this morning, and I’m unable to get ahold of her now. I’m concerned that she may have been in a car accident,” he lied.

“Hold on.” Erik listened the to the muffled sounds of the PA system and the chatter of the nurses while he waited. “I’m sorry, sir, Mrs. Davis has had no visitors this morning.”

No visitors. Ella never made it. “Thank you. Please don’t tell Mrs. Davis. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”

“Of course,” the woman said. She sounded more sympathetic. “Please let us know if there are any updates.” Erik hung up the phone and raced down the stairs. Grabbing a gun from the small weapons stash hidden in one of the closets, he checked the magazine before slipping it into his back pocket.

Peering out the window again, he called Matvei. “Boss, I was worried.”

“How is everyone?”

“Fine. They’re just waiting for instructions.”

“Good. I’ve notified my father. He’s sending reinforcements, so we should be able to go home in a couple of days.” Erik hesitated. Normally he would ask either Matvei or Leonid to stand guard at the hospital, but one was dead and the other was watching his staff. That left only one other option. “I need you to send Danil to the hospital to watch over Heather Davis.”

“Danil?” Matvei growled. “Damn man doesn’t even know how to shoot a gun.”

“I can’t send you, can I? Ella is gone, and I’m fairly certain they’ve taken her. They’ll use her mother as leverage against her and get any information they want from her.”