The Dark Side: A Mafia Romance Thriller (Morozov Mafia Series Book 1)

13. New Life

Jolie didn”t pack when she got home. She curled into her bed and cried herself to sleep.

Her life had been stolen from her. This stranger, Adrik, was coming in and destroying everything she worked for. She felt angry at him for making her choose. How could he take away her control so smoothly?

Jolie tried to look on the bright side. She was going to help bring down the Mafia. But that kind of evil was bigger than her. She could help the world little by little with recycling, planting trees, and joining a community service at the local church. These were conceivable actions she loved to participate in.

But taking on the Mafia?

If she had never saved Helina, she would have been left alone, struggling with PTSD like any normal person. And yet here she was, about to lose her whole life.

Jolie wanted to call her mother, but she knew what she would say. Her mom would tell her to go to the police and return home. But Jolie knew, deep down, there was nowhere to go.

He”d find me.

Jolie remembered how easy it was for him to find her house, to know all about her. He had power she couldn”t fathom.

A phone rang, forcing her awake. The noise hurt her sleep-deprived headache. She held up her own phone, which was currently off. Jolie sat up, searching, finding a small black flip phone under her pillow. She didn”t even know they made flip phones anymore.

”Hello?” Her voice was groggy and terrible.

”Is there anyone there with you?” It was Agent Mally.

”How did you get a phone here?”

”When we were inspecting your place after the attack. Is there anyone there?”

She collapsed against the pillow, too tired to care. ”No. A guy is outside the door.”

”Turn some music on so he can”t hear you.”

She hadn”t been able to find the remote for the past couple of days and glanced around lazily. She knitted her brows when it was plainly on the couch”s armrest. There was no way it had been there this whole time. ”Did you find my remote?”

Jolie attempted to get up, but there was too much pain, and she decided against it, putting a pillow on her face. ”He can”t hear.”

”After we finish this phone call, throw the phone in the trash. Bury it and then take the trash to the dumpster. Don”t wait.”

Jolie wanted to suffocate herself. Was this the kind of life she was going to have now?

”I was going over the recording last night. There isn”t anything we can use.”

That depressed her. She had wasted so much energy and nerves, and they had gotten nothing. ”I can”t do it again,” Jolie admitted breathlessly.

”You got into the ’lion’s den, Jolie,” Mally celebrated. ”This is our chance.”

Jolie was less than enthusiastic. ”They have ways to find listening devices.”

”If you get caught, just say I slipped it in, and you didn”t even know. You have the upper hand here. Adrik will believe you.”

After he learned she lied about the attack, the look on his face was enough to keep her from ever betraying him again. It wasn”t fear he provoked. But guilt.

”I believe,” Mally continued, ”Adrik really likes you.”

Those words made her sick to her stomach. Jolie stressed, ”He wants me to be a tutor.” This was complicated enough without someone putting ideas into her head.

”The conversation with him and Gil says differently.”

Jolie”s interest perked. She had listened to their Russian argument like she could interpret little sounds, but it had been impossible.

Trying to push her curiosity out of her voice, Jolie asked, ”What did he say?”

Mally hesitated. ”I don”t think you”re gonna like it.” Papers shifted, and Mally cleared her throat. ”Gil-‘You go out of your way to keep her hidden, make us eat at this odd place, and she dresses like a boy.””

Jolie sneered. Her outfit hadn”t been that bad.

”Gil-‘She’s like freaking Snow White.””

”Gil-‘You are risking your reputation by humoring this goodie-two-shoes. She is American. If you want virgin—there”s a word I”m not going to say. You can use your imagination—I can find you a—” And then Adrik cuts him off with ”Enough.””

”Khvatit,” he said.

Jolie removed the pillow from her face to breathe and stare at the ceiling. A smile was creeping on her face. He did like her, or at least Gil seemed to think so.

”Jolie, Adrik is not husband material. You know that, right?”

Jolie scoffed. ”I know.” But the words sounded pointless.

”Tell me you don”t like him.”

”Look, ma”am, I”m a grown woman. I already have a mother. Was there anything else to this phone call?”

”Be careful. When you think you”re the safest, you are in the most danger.”

What the hell does that mean?

A knock on the door stopped her from replying, and she shut the phone and shoved it under her pillow. It took an unbelievably long time for her to get to the door, as her body seemed in more pain than it had been yesterday, which was impossible. They knocked again and called for her. She slapped it open. ”Yes?”

Edik stood there. ”I thought I heard talking.”

”I was watching TV.”

He glanced at the TV, but it was off.

That doesn”t mean I wasn”t,Jolie defended mentally, hoping it was believable.

Edik didn”t care. ”Movers will be here at 9 a.m. Boss doesn”t want you to do anything, and he encourages you to rest.”

”I have a lease on this apartment.”

”Not anymore.”

Jolie hesitated. How was that possible?

”My job—”

”Has been notified, and a substitute teacher has already been selected to take your place on Monday. Plus, there was a donation of five thousand dollars for the kids to have free breakfast and lunch.”

She stood there, lost in space.

Edik grabbed the doorknob and shut the door for her.

Jolie turned around and sat at the table. She couldn”t understand how Adrik had such power. It could be seen as magic if she didn”t know that beneath the mystery and the awe, there was blood and bodies.

When the movers arrived, she was getting dressed. Edik was nice enough to open the door and let them in, and she screeched as she ran to the bathroom.

”Sorry.” His muffled Russian voice came through the door. ”I am not used to houses with no rooms.”

She glared at him through the wood, feeling the insult in his backhanded apology.

Jolie tried to help pack, but anytime she reached for anything, someone took it out of her hands. They divided her stuff into necessities and things that would be stored. The workers were primarily teenagers, young boys with tattoos on their arms. A warden was among them, keeping them moving, shouting Russian words with gusto.

The older man pointed to her collection of stuffed animals. ”I know an orphanage that would appreciate these.”

The sentence seemed rehearsed, like Adrik had talked to him. Of course, she couldn”t say no to an orphanage. She grabbed two from the pile of thirty: a panda her mother had given her as a little girl and a graduation dog her stepdad got her when she made it through college. Also in her arm was a frame of her parents, her, and Princess Cinderella at Disney World for her tenth birthday. They had saved for years to take her. She dressed up as a princess every Halloween till she was thirteen. And then, she turned to saving the planet and was a recycling bin for the following years.

Jolie turned back to her empty apartment. It hadn”t meant much to her, since she hadn”t had time to fall in love with it. Her neighbors were too loud, and the elevators were permanently broken. Homeless people hung out by the front entrance, asking for change.

But it had been a gateway to a new life.

Now, she was stepping foot into a whole new world that she didn”t want to be a part of.

So, why am I excited?