Assigned to the Bratva Heir (Forbidden Mile High #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Amy

Nothing quite said Fall like rain blowing into my face and soaking me before I even got to work.

Not that it really made any difference. I wasn’t going to win any beauty pageants anyway.

I couldn’t even remember the last time I had a haircut that wasn’t done with scissors in my own kitchen.

Plus, I sighed, I wasn’t employed to look pretty but to do a job, and I was good at the job. No one could deny that.

Pushing open the retirement home’s door, I shook the raindrops from my shoulders, and an icy droplet made its way under my hood and down my back. I cried out, shrugging my heavy coat off and grimacing.

“You look like a drowned rat, Amy,” the receptionist, Clara, said with a laugh. I scowled at her but only for a second before I joined her laugh.

She was right, of course. I did look like I’d walked through a typhoon. Hanging my soaking wet coat up in the closet, I made short work of taming my slightly curly dark hair into a bun and turned back to her.

“How is everything today?” I asked.

“Quiet.” From behind her, a shout went up. Someone demanded their breakfast and more coffee. “Well, apart from him,” she said pointedly. “He’s a serious piece of work.”

My smile faded. I knew who she meant, but I didn’t like the way she said it. It wasn’t any of our residents’ fault that they got overwhelmed.

“I heard, “her voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper, “that he was some kind of Russian gangster. Like really dangerous.” Her eyes widened.

Shaking my head, I eyed her. “He’s just an old Russian man, dragged away from his home and dumped here. It’s overwhelming for him. I don’t think we have to make him into some sort of monster just because he’s a little difficult.”

Clara’s smile faded to nothing. “You’re probably right, and I’m glad you think so because—” she passed over a sheet of neatly printed paper. On it were my tasks for the day, the residents I would be in charge of, and, like always, it was the most awkward, challenging ones.

They always did that since I was a nursing student before coming here. I didn’t mind, really, but today I was tired and—

Another shout went up, and I lost my train of thought. “I’d best get on with everything.” Giving her a cheery wave, I headed back to where the residents were, saying hello to staff as I headed towards the kitchen.

Usually, I just worked my way down the list, but today, because of all the shouting, I was going to start with him.

Pushing open the door, I found someone had already sat him up in his bed and changed him into fresh clothes, so at least I wouldn’t have to do that.

“Where have you been?” He demanded the second I walked through the door with the tray. “I’ve been waiting for hours.”

“It’s not quite been hours. I pulled over a chair. “Well, in that case, Nikolai, let’s get you fed. What would you like to start with?”

He eyed the tray with blatant disgust. “It looks like slop.”

“It’s porridge, fruit and a yogurt. If you would prefer toast, I can make that happen.” I winked at him playfully and was rewarded with a slight smile.

“You know I was a powerful man, right?” he asked, pointing to the yogurt like it was the lesser of two evils.

“I did hear something like that.”

“You don’t believe them?” He opened his mouth for me to slip the spoon inside.

“It’s not my place to judge your past, Nikolai. I’m just here to look after you.”

He fell silent. Swallowing when he needed to and opening his mouth when I needed him to.

“People here think I am trouble. They don’t like looking after me.” He blinked. “But you don’t mind it. You come in here and you,” he swallowed, “talk to me. It doesn’t feel like a job to you, does it?”

He was looking at me strangely. And I fidgeted uncomfortably. He wasn’t overly threatening. Today, he seemed like he was in a good mood now that he had food in his stomach, but sometimes when he looked at me, it was like he could read my mind.

“I like taking care of people,” I said slowly. “I was going to train as a nurse. Well, I started anyway.”

From down the hall, something crashed, and a loud shout went out.

“Why didn’t you finish?”

“My sister is sick with heart problems.

Another boom, this time it wasn’t a crash, and unease rippled up my back. In the bed, Nikolai stiffened, his head shooting around to the door.

More shouting started, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Scraping back the chair, I smiled down at him.

“I’ll just be a minute, and then, you can tell me some more of your stories.”

He lashed out, much faster than his stroke should have let him and his weathered fingers closed around my wrists almost painfully tight.

I glanced down at them in shock.

“Don’t go out there,” he ordered.

“It’s nothing to worry about.”

There was panic in his voice, and it was making me uneasy. A trickle of dread went down my spine like the raindrop from earlier.

“You need to shut the door and get us—”

I shook his hand away. “It’s just an unruly resident. I’ll be back in no time at all.”

Heading towards the door, I straightened my shoulders and put the dread to the back of my mind. Nikolai wasn’t our only difficult guest, not by any stretch of the imagination, and this was clearly what I was hearing.

I’d got halfway down the small side corridor when I heard it again. Only this time, there could be no denying what I was hearing.

Pop pop pop.

I froze.

Was that? I sucked in a breath that seemed to shake my whole body. Was that gunfire? I knew the sound from TV and movies, but I’d never heard it in real life before, and I didn’t want to believe I was hearing it now.

It had to be my imagination or a TV up too loud.

Only I could hear Carla screaming from the front desk. She was begging for her life.

I had a split second to make a decision. Carla was my friend. Lots of the people who worked here were. But if there was an active shooter in the building, my first priority should be the patients.

Spinning around, my rubber-soled shoes squeaked as I sprinted towards Nikolai’s room.

Quickly checking the open doors on either side of the hallway, I closed each one as I went.

There was no one else on this floor. All the residents had been moved down to the day room, so that just left me and… I skidded to a halt in the doorway.

“They are coming for me,” he said, and there wasn’t one ounce of fear in his voice, just a weary sort of acceptance.

I had a split second to take him in, shoulder his door closed, and fumble with the lock.

“Leave the lock.” He barked out an order. “Unless you have locked every other door in the hallway. It will give us away.”

I hadn’t, so I left the key unturned and rushed over the bed to him. “It’s OK.” Damn, my voice shook so much that my words came out all garbled.

Pop pop pop.

The sound was coming closer now, but my heartbeat was even louder than the gunfire. It was all I could hear, and it was deafening.

“It’s going to be OK. Just stay quiet. I won’t let anything happen to you. I bit back a sob.

I’d been scared before. When my sister got her diagnosis, I had felt fear, but it was nothing like this. This was all-consuming, like I couldn’t breathe. I had a lump in my throat and an open pit in my chest.

“Get me off of the bed, Amy,” he hissed.

I stared at him in shock. “W-what?”

His eyes flashed, and for a second, I remembered the rumors about him. The stories said he was a gangster and connected to a very powerful Russian bratva family. I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but it sounded bad.

Could the rumors be true? There was a gunman, or maybe more than one, in the building. Could they be after him?

Plus, there was the fact that he seemed oddly calm.

Could he really be a gangster?

“Amy,” he snapped, and I blinked away the confusion. “You need to pull yourself together and get me off the bed. I’m too big of a target here. Can you do that?”

Mutely, I nodded. Flipping back the blankets, I hooked my arms around him. He was heavier than he looked, and my back screamed in protest.

“Where?”

“Bathroom,” he began to say, and a round of loud pops filled my ears, scaring me so much I almost dropped him. Catching him at the last minute, I turned towards the door.

The shooter was in this wing now.

“Put me down, Amy,” Nikolai ordered. I dropped into a protective crouch next to him as he sagged against the wall. I was shaking so hard it was hard to keep my feet.

“Amy?”

I turned to him.

“It’s OK to be scared,” he said softly. “Fear is normal, but you need to be brave now.” His old lips slipped into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Braver than you already are.”

“I should get a weapon. Maybe there’s a knife on the—”

“A knife won’t win a gun fight. Just stay quiet.”

Biting my lip to stop myself from crying out at the sounds playing out behind the closed door, I wrapped my arms around the frail man, putting myself between him and the door.

If someone wanted him, they would have to get through me first, which they probably would, but this was my job.

I’d always wanted to save people and—

Silence.

Suddenly, there was nothing but silence, and it was even more terrifying than the gunfire.

I tightened my arms around him.

I desperately wanted to tell him it would be OK, but the slightest noise would give us away if I did.

That’s when I heard it, the smallest of clicks. My body went rigid. They were opening the door.

More than likely, I was about to be shot and killed, which would leave my sister alone.

She couldn’t be alone, not now, but what choice did I have?

“Is someone—” the voice was male and gravelly. Anger made it into a lower growl.

I moved my body over the old man’s, shielding as much of his much bigger frame as I could, and waited for death because I knew it was coming.

A shot to the back wasn’t the way I had wanted to go, but I would still die protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves.

“Alexei,” The man under me whispered. He pushed lightly on my shoulders. “It’s OK, Amy. It’s just my grandson, Alexei. It’s all over now.”

Reluctantly, I turned, and my mouth fell open.

From my place on the floor, he looked impossibly tall. A giant of a man with wide shoulders and sweeping dark hair.

Slowly, my eyes climbed until they clashed with the most devastatingly handsome man I had ever seen.