16. Mila
MILA
Ifinally had a job.
Being a Mafia man’s “assistant” didn’t seem appropriate, but I accepted it as a stand-in for what Lev didn’t want to say. He wasn’t labeling me as any one type of employee. He struggled on getting past the detail that I was his. That he owned me.
As his what, though?
After that meeting, I knew I wasn’t the only one wondering about it.
I was glad to have some direction. It helped to know that I’d have a task and something to do. Because while Lev was unerringly good at making me feel good, I did not relish the idea of being his fuck toy.
That brought back too many memories of that nasty old man who’d seen me and planned on the same thing.
It’s different.
They are different.
I followed Lev to his car and realized that he was just different. And probably just as stubborn as I could be. He got behind the wheel, and I climbed into the passenger seat.
As soon as pulled away, he blurted, “Do I still have anything on my face?”
I gawked at him again. “No!” Embarrassment filled me with the fact that a remnant of what he’d done to me could be visible. “I checked.”
“Alexei said I had something on my face.” He turned, lifting his chin and showing me, but I saw nothing.
Nothing but a sexy man who was almost being disarmingly goofy and playful.
“I think he was saying it just to fuck with me. Typical older brother stuff.”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know how that works.”
“Only child?”
I nodded. “Only child to sell.”
He was quiet for a moment. “You seem to fit in well with my brother and cousins, though.”
I dipped my chin and held in a growl of frustration. “Lev, I’m not just any other employee to fit in with any of you.”
“You fit wrapped around my dick last night.”
I pressed my lips shut and damned the spike of arousal at his candid reminder. I had. He fit well in me. “I’m not an employee of my own will.” Every time he acted like he had forgotten that, it was a blade twisting in my heart. I still wanted to be free. To choose my fate for once.
He had nothing to say about that. I dared him to deny it. When he opened his cocky mouth again, several long minutes later as he returned to his house, I braced for another line of defense that he’d spout. “Say something.”
I rolled my eyes since he couldn’t see. If I asked him to let me go free, his answer would be no, and that was all I wanted to ask or say.
But he was deferring to me. He wanted me to stay engaged with him, and I realized that sticking with the silent treatment and acting like he was like any other man who’d owned me wasn’t fair.
Because he wasn’t. The visceral need he’d let me witness when he told me that he wanted a taste of me for his birthday put him in a league of his own.
It wouldn’t kill me to see him as more of… well, I didn’t know what. But he had to trust me and value me if he wanted to personally select me to go on this mission with him tonight.
“Who is Gregori?” I asked at last. That was something I’d been wondering about. I still felt like I was the outsider who didn’t belong, sitting with the Volkov leaders, but I wasn’t going to ask not to be there. Maybe I’d learn something that would enable me to escape.
I winced.
I hadn’t really been focusing on that much lately, too busy learning and improving my skills and fitness. Too busy sleeping well and having my basic needs met.
Having my sexual needs met, too.
I winced again while I waited for him to answer. It seemed that my question touched on a sensitive topic.
How am I supposed to know that, though? It was clear from that meeting that Gregori and this Yusef guy were enemies of the Volkovs, but I hadn’t been privy to any specialized intel yet. Those names meant nothing to me from my time as the Cartels’ runner.
“I’ve never heard of him before,” I added, in case that took the sting out of my asking that.
He let out a deep breath. Without taking his attention off the road as he pulled into his driveway, he said, with reluctance, “Gregori is an enemy of the family. He was once a trusted and close member and confidante, but he betrayed us all. He represents a global network that he has been forming for many years, all to use against us and attack us.”
I wasn’t new to this lifestyle. I’d been owned by Cartels versus a Bratva, but I was no stranger to this world of violence. Enemies would be waiting for all of them at any given time.
“Is that what that intruder was about at Adrik’s house? When I noticed someone sneaking close?”
“No. That was actually just a random moron who tried to break in.”
Moron was right. All the Volkov family residences and buildings were heavily guarded.
“Who is Gregori affiliated with, then?”
I was hesitant to ask any question, but the concept of getting some answers that pertained to an assignment was part of my “job”.
Even when I was just an expendable pawn as a runner, it was dangerous work.
The Cartel would do the bare minimum of telling me who to look out for and who to avoid.
That was the lowest form of common courtesy they ever extended to me.
So it shouldn’t have been out of the norm for me to ask Lev this.
He paused, though, as he turned off the engine and we sat there for a second.
“Gregori is affiliated with new groups that he’s trying to take over.
Yusef Antonov is his right-hand man.” He got out, and I followed suit.
Instead of talking any further about Gregori, he updated me more about who Yusef Antonov was.
He described what the man had tried to do in meddling with the Cartels in the region.
He listed how he was wanted in several countries for war crimes.
In other words, bad news. For the rest of the day, we prepared for heading out, just the two of us.
It would be a limited mission, tracking a location for Gregori and Yusef, or one of them.
Most of what Lev showed me for getting ready were the pieces of equipment I’d need to use.
The scopes, cameras, and recorders. He went over the map of the route we’d use to try to spy on them.
All throughout the day and into the evening, I was by his side. It gave me ample time to realize that he trusted me. He really trusted me to ask that I accompany him over any other member of the family. That realization stunned me. It unsettled me. Because it made the stakes that much higher.
We headed out before dark, but on the ride, I felt tossed up and churned to pieces.
My stomach tensed. My heart picked up its pace.
And that apprehensive mood kicked in. The adrenaline ramped up, heightening my senses.
I was finally tasked with a job, and that was different from the vacation-like feel of the last few weeks since he’d taken me.
The proximity to him made me more aware of every little move he made, but he didn’t make a move on me.
It was go time.
He was focused as the dangerous, lethal enforcer he was.
But despite it all, being alone with him on this ride—while knowing he trusted me to have his back—every second that passed added to the undeniable tension that never fizzled out between us.
Just focus.
Concentrate.
Pay attention.
It was easier said than done. My nerves were frayed as I tried to reconcile my attraction with the resentment of still being owned.
Just do what is expected.
I frowned, knowing I’d failed at that already.
I wasn’t supposed to have let him touch me like he did. To make me come—twice.
Stop.
Don’t even think about that now.
It was time to prove my worth. As a spy. Soldier. Guard or lookout. Whatever he wanted to classify me as. Yet in the back of my mind, I wished I could be greedy to slip another label in that list as a valid contender.
I wished that he could see me as a woman he desired again, too.