Stolen By The Bratva King (NYC Russian Royals #2)

Chapter 5

5

Leon

I pull my car back into the shadows and loiter, waiting. I won’t go until I know Emery is out of here and safely home.

Watching her comfort Dante made me seethe. A man who lays hands on any woman doesn’t deserve to breathe, but he laid his hands on her , and that’s even worse.

My phone rings, and I swipe to green. “Viktor. Got news for me?”

“Yep,” Viktor says smoothly, the sound of papers shuffling on his end. “Dr. Emery Bright is the daughter of Alec Bright—a businessman with more money than good judgment. He’s thrown his lot in with your new friend, Dante Firenze.”

“Firenze. Not a name I know.”

“Not yet, maybe. Alec’s too eager to see the best in people. I suspect the Firenze kid’s bullshitting Bright about the profits.”

Good. If he’s taking Alec for a ride, I can use that to my advantage.

“And the girl?”

“Emery’s clean,” Viktor replies. “Dedicated, smart, keeps her head down. But her father’s money is tied up in these deals with Firenze. He’ll ruin her whole family if she steps out of line.”

So she’s trapped. Well, not for long, at least, not with him.

Viktor chuckles as if he can sense my thoughts. “If you wanna teach this punk a lesson, I can find an angle.”

“That’s the attitude, tovarishch ,” I say. “I want Alec Bright on the ropes and looking for a way out of trouble. Make it happen.”

“Consider it done. A fool and his money are easily parted, but it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. Now, what about the shit that went down at the docks?”

It’s not like I went looking for trouble tonight.

I was supposed to oversee a cargo shipment from a new supplier—no big deal. But when I checked out an unfamiliar barge, all Hell broke loose.

Bastard traffickers. The gall of these assholes, plying their trade in our harbors. Two of my men are dead, as well as five of theirs, and I called in my fixers to take care of the survivors.

Except one.

The kid hurled himself from the shadows, wrapping himself around his mother. It wasn’t enough; the stray bullet that went through him also pierced his mother’s abdomen, and she died in a matter of minutes, her arms wrapped around her little boy.

He fought me like a feral cat, sobbing and clawing at my face as I peeled his skinny arms from around his mom’s neck. I wrapped my shirt around him, hurled him into the passenger seat of my car, and came straight here.

Just thinking about it makes me sick. I’ve been there like that poor kid, and I can’t even claim to have been as brave. Maybe that’s why I brought him to the hospital instead of waiting around for our bratva’s medic.

Now, it’s Dr. Emery Bright’s job to fix him up, and I know she will. I saw how she moved: decisively, with purpose, applying her expertise without second-guessing herself. The quiet strength she showed in that small exam room was like nothing I’d seen before.

The cops aren’t a problem in the long run, with I can’t buy my way out of everything. An injured kid is terrible PR, as I know all too well.

“Shake down the usual snitches and see if you can dredge up some leads,” I say. “I’m not letting gang-bangers set up shop on my territory.”

“You got it.”

Viktor hangs up, and I sit back in the seat, running over the evening’s events.

I’m not the type to obsess over a woman, but something about Emery got under my skin.

She’s worn down, yet even with a scumbag like Dante at her side, she has a unique quality that I can’t shake.

She deserves better than that bastard, and I’ll be the one to help her break free. Or free of him , at least, which will have to do.

Emery isn’t just a sweet and innocent woman in need of saving. She has something I haven’t seen in a long time; vulnerability, yes, but also a flicker of spirit. That kind of fire is rare; I can’t let it go out.

I won’t just take her from Dante. I’ll dismantle his existence until he has nothing left.

To the winner go the spoils, and I’m a man who gets what he wants, one way or another.

That beautiful angel will be mine.