Captivated by the deadly mafia boss

Micah

I’m an asshole. It’s just a fact, and I’ve never denied it. But when Lena’s body sagged in reaction to finding out about her father’s actions, I felt it in my soul. Branding Asshole right across my deepest self.

Nothing happening now is her doing. Everything is because of the actions of other people, but here she is taking the brunt of the punishment. She’s angry, it vibrates off of her, but she’s holding herself together, either to show me her strength or because she doesn’t think she’s safe enough to unravel.

I’ve done my homework and Lena Staszek has reason to hold her chin high when she walks into a room. And it has nothing to do with her father’s station in his family, although to the outsider it seems that way. This woman of mine has more to her than she lets anyone see, more than I think her father knows about. I wasn’t just bullshitting her when I said I won’t have secrets. But after witnessing a few stones crumble from her exterior this afternoon, I’m willing to give her more time.

“The stuff from the closet is boxed up, can you help me bring it out here for the guys?” Lena asks while heading to her room once we’re home.

“Lena, wait.”

She pauses at the door, her hand already poised over the handle.

“Your things will be moved into my room.” I announce my decision even as I’m making it.

She drops her hand and turns to me; shocked eyes line up with mine. “What? Why?”

“We’ll be married in a few days and your things will have to be moved then anyway. Why bother unpacking only to repeat the process.” I shrug off the decision as practical, but the truth, if I’m brave enough to admit it to at least myself, is I want her in my room. In my bed.

“I don’t think we need to share a room.” She gestures to the open spacing of our home. “There’s plenty of space here for both of us. Once we say the vows, we can avoid each other as much as we want.”

There’s a shimmer of hope in her eyes even as the moments tick by with my silence.

“You don’t really believe that do you, Lena?” I move to her side in case she decides she wants to bolt into her room. I’ve told her never to lock the door against me, but she hasn’t proven to be the most obedient girl so far. A fact I’m not at all surprised or saddened by.

“Married couples live separate lives all the time.” She keeps up the pretense, but the truth fades the light in her eyes. She knows it’s an empty attempt.

But she’s not wrong either. It’s not as if my father and mother lived one life. My father and his many girlfriends had a life of parties and luxury while my mother stayed home with Igor and me playing the doting wife. She had her own circle of friends, wives of my father’s associates but it wasn’t the same life as my father’s.

“We aren’t going to be that sort of couple,” I say.

Her eyes narrow as though she’s trying to see past my clothing and into my heart. “What is it you really want, Micah? You’re being forced into this just as much as me, so why won’t you take the easy road here. I’ll stay here, you stay there.” She points at the double doors leading to my rooms. “And we’ll say hi at the breakfast table now and then.”

“And children?”

She blinks. Evidently, she hadn’t figured them into her little equation.

“I’ll need a son, preferably two, and I wouldn’t mind a daughter.”

Her cheeks burst into a blush, but I won’t pretend I’ve triggered her sensibilities. It’s a fresh bout of anger that’s bringing the life to her cheeks. And she’s gorgeous for it.

“A daughter so you can use her as a pawn, like me? Like my brother’s wife was used?”

When I lean toward her, she presses her hands against my chest.

“Children, Lena,” I whisper into her ear. Her breath catches, and she turns her face away. “You’ll give me children, and to do that you’ll need to be in my bed.”

“I don’t need to stay in your room for that to happen.”

I laugh. “Are you always so practical?”

“When it serves my purpose, yes.”

“I’m the same.” I cradle her face in my hand and caress her cheekbone with my thumb. “And it serves my purpose for you to be in my bed, every night from now on.”

“But we aren’t married.”

“You know as well as I do that the ceremony is a formality at this point. You’re mine, Lena. Our families know it, the other families know it. It seems the only person who hasn’t accepted it yet is you. But by the end of the night, you will too.”

Her pretty pink lips part but she says nothing. She doesn’t need to; her pupils have pushed all of her silver blue irises out of the way.

The elevator doors chime then slide open from down the hall.

“Boss, where do you want these?” one of my men calls to me. Three boxes are stacked on a rolling cart and he’s bringing them toward us.

I bring my gaze back to hers.

“My room. All of them.”

I’ve left Lena in my room unpacking her clothing. The closet in my room is the size of a small bedroom. She’ll have plenty of space. Once she saw the closet and the bathroom, she didn’t have much more fight in her about where she’d be spending her nights.

If only my father would budge so easily from his hopeless ambitions.

Niko paces my office. “I’ve never seen him so obsessed,” he says, marching straight for the liquor.

“You had a nice chat with him then?” Any conversation with my father these days would make anyone take a nosedive into a bottle. But Niko handles him better than most. He worked close with Igor and now that he’s my right-hand man, my father trusts him, respects him.

“Double the girls? Why would he put us in jeopardy like that? It’s not that easy to turn the other way with fifty to sixty women being carted off through the train yard. Security is going to double; more hands will need to be greased.”

Everything he says, I agree with, and he knows it. “I had hoped when he saw the profits from the legitimate businesses, he’d be open to phasing out the girls altogether and sticking to the drug line for extra revenue streams. The coke makes him more money than the girls, with less risk, less overhead. But he’s got it in his head he can expand what Igor created.”

Niko scoffs then downs a finger of vodka.

“What?” I ask, catching the little shake of his head. “What do you know that you aren’t telling me?”

He pours another drink, downs it. After a long pause he turns a serious stare on me. “Igor hated that fucking train,” Niko says flatly. “Hated it.”

“What?” I press him. Niko was closer to my brother than anyone in our family. Igor didn’t like the business approach I took. Roman coached him well while we were growing up on how to be the head of a family. Our family. It was never lost on me that I was the backup. It’s the only reason I was allowed to get a full education. I was never meant to be the one in power. But Niko worked by Igor’s side. He knew us both well growing up, but his work demanded that he stick by Igor.

Niko studies me as though assessing the risk of saying what’s on his mind.

“Before the accident, Igor told me he was going to talk to Roman about closing the stables and expanding the drug line.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Igor never mentioned it to me, but I wasn’t working the business as hard as Niko and him. I oversaw a small crew and focused on my business studies. The backup son has more freedom to pursue other avenues than being the heir. That is until the backup becomes the primary.

“Did he have the conversation?”

Niko finishes his drink. “I don’t know. I didn’t talk to him after that. A few days later is when he had the accident.”

An accident that involved him and a traffic light. Igor held his liquor like it was just part of his bloodstream, but that night he’d been out of it. Not fit to drive, the bartender had said. Igor wouldn’t be talked into handing over his keys but did promise not to drive home. He didn’t make it two blocks before he wrapped his car and himself around the pole.

“Roman never said anything.” I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. Even if Igor did have that sit down, Roman wouldn’t have gone along with it. But Igor would have pushed harder; he would have stood up for what he wanted.

“It’s been two years now. Maybe you can talk with him. You’ve proven yourself. He trusts you.”

Igor was larger than life to my father; his death only made the shadow that much larger for me to get lost in. Roman trusts me, yes, but have I proven to him that I can lead this family into the next phase of prosperity?

Nothing indicates that’s true.

“I tried to warn him about this expansion, but he won’t listen.” I get up from my chair and shake out of my jacket. “I’ll try again after the wedding. Once this whole Staszek mess is behind us, maybe he’ll be more clear-minded.”

“Let’s hope.” Niko puts his empty glass on the bar. “I need to get over there. The doctor is coming tonight to check out the girls in the stables.”

“You know, you don’t have to do that anymore. Roman has his own men to do that. I’m sure Dimitri would be happy to take it over.”

Niko pauses a beat. “Yeah, but I don’t mind. Besides there’s two new girls being brought in.”

What does that have to do with anything? We have men for the small jobs and watching over the doctor while he checks over the girls is one of them.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the restaurant?” Niko says as he heads for the door.

“Yeah. I’m planning to be there all afternoon. The accountant is coming, and I want to meet with a broker about another location.”

“You’re expanding already?”

“Maybe. I want to see what the numbers are first. The sooner I get the restaurant booming, the easier it will be to get Roman’s mind off the girls.”

“I’m not sure steak and potatoes is going to bring as much profits as those girls but keep trying.” Niko winks and leaves, closing the door behind him.

I sink into my office chair and power up my computer, ready to dive into more numbers. My email loads first and the top subject line erases my interest in work.

Subject: Lena Staszek School Transcripts & misc.

One click, and I jump headfirst down a rabbit hole.