Bound (House of the Mafia #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Nina

Sneaking out of the house was not my sister’s best idea but I decided to follow her anyway.

“Come on, Nina,” Susanna urges, motioning me to climb out the window.

She’s already on the other side, looking confident in her silky dress.

At eighteen, she thinks she owns the world now.

At nineteen, I feel like I still don’t know anything.

But Susanna was always the one to lead us despite being the younger sister.

“It’s your birthday. We should go out and have some fun. ”

“I like that idea but Mom won’t be happy with us. She says the world out there is dangerous. And Alek will be pissed if he finds out we did something stupid. And you know Alek isn’t someone to mess with.”

She waves a dismissive hand. “Who cares what Alek thinks? He’s been caught up in his marriage for the past two years now to even think about us. He was supposed to be like a father to us and now he doesn’t even care.”

“He still cares,” I mumble. Susanna gives me a pointed look and I can’t help but sigh.

She has a point. Once Alek met his wife, Katya, she’s all he can think about.

He hasn’t had much time for me and Susanna any longer, even though he was the one to raise us after our dad died when we were only ten and eleven.

“Come on,” she says. “Mom is dead asleep this time of night. She’ll never notice us gone. We can make it back home in time. I want to have some fun. I just turned eighteen a few weeks ago. I’m officially an adult. It’s time I take this world by storm.”

Susanna being an adult is a dangerous thing. She’s always been stubborn and now that she’s legally an adult, she’ll never listen to anybody ever again.

But I know I’m expected to listen to her, even though I’m the older one. It’s always how we’ve operated.

So, because of that, I slip my leg over the windowsill and drop down onto the ground. “Happy?”

She flashes me a pretty smile. “Yes.” With her blonde hair and pretty looks, my sister is a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, her blonde hair is dyed. Mom pays a lot of money so Susanna can go bleach her hair every few months to keep it that way.

Money has never been a problem for us as our dad was rich and left behind a lot of assets after he died.

But lately, I’ve noticed a strain on our mother’s face that was never there before.

Susanna hasn’t noticed. She’s always been too caught up in her own world.

I tuck a piece of my natural brown hair behind my ear and nod. “Let’s do this.”

After technically stealing Mom’s car, we arrive at a nightclub in the heart of the city.

“It’s supposed to be one of the best nightclubs in all of New York,” Susanna tells me as she finds a spot to park the car. It’s a few blocks away from the nightclub since New York parking has always been a pain and you can never find anything close to your destination. Ever.

“And you know this… how?” I ask. I shiver when I get out of the car. It’s a chilly night. Fall is approaching and with that, change. I can feel it in my gut that something major is going to happen this year even though I have no idea what it could be.

“I looked it up,” she says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the entire world. “And the internet never lies.”

I scoff. “The internet is full of lies.”

“Nina, shush. We’re going to have a fun night tonight. Can’t you just trust me?”

“We’re not even twenty-one yet. Can we really get into this place?”

“They can stamp our hand. I don’t care about drinking. I just want to dance the night away with my sister.” She links our arms together.

“Ok,” I say slowly. “But why didn’t we go to one of Alek’s nightclubs? Wouldn’t that have been safer?”

She gives me an incredulous look. “And risk him finding we’re at a nightclub? You know he would never stand for that.”

“But you just said he doesn’t care about us any longer.”

“He still cares enough to punish us for sneaking out to a nightclub.” We start walking down the sidewalk.

Thankfully, the streetlights help illuminate everything, making the street less scary.

This is an upscale part of the town but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any dangerous people lurking in the shadows.

Our father belonged to the Bratva. That much me and Susanna know.

We also know that Alek does the same work as our father.

He’s never told us much but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s a dangerous job.

It’s why Alek is so protective of us. He has enemies that would want to hurt us. In fact, that’s already happened.

Alek kidnapped Katya Ivanov two years ago but ended up falling in love with her.

The problem was, Katya’s brother, Dimitri, was pissed.

He ended up kidnapping me and Susanna to hurt Alek.

Thankfully, Katya convinced her brother to let me and Susanna go, so we remained unhurt.

But it was still a terrifying situation.

I know things have been tense between Alek and Dimitri ever since.

They have a sort of temporary truce since Alek is married to Dimitri’s sister but things are brewing underneath.

I just know it. Every time me and Susanna have gone over to Alek’s house, there’s a strain in the way he carries himself. He’s anxious about something.

Me and Susanna were not the nicest to Katya when Alek first married her. In fact, we were pretty bitchy to her. But Katya and I have become friends over the past two years.

For Susanna, however, she’s still cold to Katya but at least she’s not as terrible to her as when they first met.

I’ve always been less stubborn then my sister. More willing to change. She’s an immovable object sometimes.

We make it to the nightclub with no problems. Well, except for one. The line outside the nightclub is so long, it wraps around the side of the building.

I groan. “Susanna, I’m not wearing enough clothing for a cold night like tonight. Maybe we should just go back home.”

“No. It’s your birthday and I’m officially eighteen now. I want us to party.”

“We can try again another night. I don’t need to party on this exact day.” I would honestly much rather be at home with a good book than out at a nightclub.

But Susanna always gets her way.

She tightens her arm around mine. “We are doing this, Nina.” She practically drags me forward so we end up in line. A man stands in front of us. Susanna taps him on the shoulder and flashes him her pretty smile. “Hello. Me and my sister are cold. Do you think you could let us get in front of you?”

He looks her up and down and smiles, but it’s in a way that makes me on edge. “Only if you give me a blow job.”

She wrinkles her nose. “You’re disgusting. Nina, come on.” She pulls me along so we walk past the line and move towards the front of it.

“Susanna, we’re cutting.”

“We’re young, pretty women. The bouncer will let us in.” She reaches the front of the line and waves at the bouncer. “Hi. We’re cold. Do you think you could let us in sooner?”

The bouncer looks us over before he sighs. “IDs.”

We hand them over and he stamps each of our hands then motions us on through.

Susanna squeals when we step into the nightclub.

It’s an elegant place. Dark green drapes cover the walls and the floor is made out of a nice material.

The music playing through the speakers isn’t typical club music. It’s more jazzy than anything else.

Despite that, people are still partying like it’s a crazy rager.

“Let’s get something to drink,” Susanna says into my ear.

I hold up my stamped hand. “We can’t drink, remember?”

“We can still get a soda or something. Come on.” Once again, she tugs on my hand and I follow like the obedient sister I am.

Susanna tries flagging down the bartender but he’s ignoring us to flirt with a pretty redhead on the other end of the bar. “Excuse me! Bartender. You’re being rude. We would like a drink. Stop ignoring us.”

He glances in our direction before turning back to the redhead, completely ignoring us.

“Asshole,” Susanna mutters. “Do you know who I am? Serve us. Now.” Susanna has never been afraid to be rude to get her way. She typically bulldozes ahead on pretty much anything.

“Maybe we should dance,” I suggest.

“No. We’re going to get a drink. Bartender.” She snaps her fingers. “Come serve us. If you don’t, I will write a bad review for this place, talking about how terrible a bartender you are. In fact, I’ll find your boss and have him fire you.”

The bartender continues to flirt with the redhead as if Susanna never even spoke.

“Unbelievable,” Susanna mutters. “Where can I speak to the manager?” She looks around the room and points toward a hallway near the bar.

“There. Come along, Nina.” She tugs me after her again as we head down the hallway.

The sounds from the club are more muffled in here, making the space feel like it’s in an entirely different world than the one we were just in.

At the end of the hallway stand two men – guards – before a door.

“Move,” Susanna orders.

One of them lifts his eyebrow like Susanna is an amusing little creature. “Move? I think you’re in the wrong place, little girl. The nightclub is out there. And judging from the stamp on your hand, you’re not even old enough to drink.”

She points to the door. “Is the manager in there?”

“The boss is.”

“Even better. Tell him that his bartender sucks. He is terrible at his job. He refused to serve us anything and instead, continued to flirt with a woman right before our very eyes. Your boss needs to be made aware of this.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him. Now run along.”

Susanna huffs. “I don’t believe you’re going to do the job you need to do so if you could just move out of the way and let me tell your boss myself, that would be great.”

“He’s busy at the moment. You need to leave now.”

“Susanna, come on,” I murmur, tugging on her arm.