Chapter Three
The following day, Jane looked at her reflection in the mirror and couldn’t help but groan.
She was not a pretty woman. She accepted that.
Long ago, she would stand in the mirror and wish she looked pretty, just so someone would want her.
Parents would always look at her and immediately forget her.
She would beg and pray someone would look at her and want her, for her.
It never happened. And she stopped praying. This is who she was. Plain.
Now, one of her eyes was slightly swollen, and had some lovely purple bruising.
Purple was one of her favorite colors, but right now, it didn’t appeal.
There was mottled bruising across her face and cheek.
She pulled Alexey’s shirt off her body and saw the bruising, as well as the boot print from her attacker slamming his foot on her.
It had been a painful beating, possibly even the worst she had ever experienced, certainly as an adult. As a child, there hadn’t been any boots. There had been belts, bottles, sometimes cigarettes. Life hadn’t been easy.
Stepping into the shower, she turned on the nozzle and let out a gasp as the cold water blasted her and took her completely by surprise.
After only a few seconds, it warmed up, and she sighed in relief.
The warm water felt so good against her bruised body.
She should have trusted her gut. She couldn’t believe she even attempted to answer the door, when everything in her gut told her not to.
Trusting her gut was what helped her survive all these years.
There were some shampoo and conditioner, and it smelled like vanilla, which was nice.
She lathered up her hair, and she didn’t want to take up too much hot water.
Also, this was not her apartment. She didn’t know how long Alexey’s hospitality would last. She finished washing her hair, soaped up her body, and climbed out.
Wrapping a towel around herself, she wrapped a second one around her hair.
She was going to get it cut at the first opportunity.
Long hair fucking sucked, or at least it did when it was constantly being pulled.
She was pretty sure her attacker might have taken a couple of chunks.
Stepping into the room, she saw a pair of jeans and a shirt had been left for her. They didn’t look like men’s jeans, and she also noticed the lingerie waiting for her. The bed had also been made. Had Alexey been in her room? He must have been. He was the only person here.
Pulling on her clothes, she quickly dried her hair as best she could by hand. There was a brush on the dresser, and she used it.
The small bedroom was nicer than any room she had ever been in her life. That was sad and possibly even pathetic, but it was true. Alexey was clearly a wealthy man, and she struggled from paycheck to paycheck.
She stepped out of the bedroom and made her way down the hall, noting how nice his place was. Alexey clearly liked things clean. There were cream-colored walls, dark furniture, and she didn’t see a speck of dust anywhere. It gave her a whole new level of respect for him.
She hated dirty things. Living in filth when she couldn’t do anything about it was one thing. Now, everything had to be clean. The first thing she did when she rented an apartment was clean it. She couldn’t stand mess.
The scent of bacon assailed her senses and she followed the smell, walking out to an open-plan apartment.
It was stunning. The windows were large, and she saw they overlooked the city and made it look beautiful, but she knew the city held a lot of darkness.
He had a large dining room table, and from there the sitting room that led into an open kitchen. It was a sizeable apartment.
“You’re awake,” he said. “Coffee?”
She nodded her head, because words right now failed her. Jane was not known for talking, but she was also rarely speechless. This was a new feeling for her.
“Cream? Sugar?”
She nodded her head for both, because once again, words failed her. This was not a good feeling. In all her life, no one had served her coffee.
Within seconds, Alexey had placed the coffee in front of her, and it looked so good. At first, she just stared at the cup, kind of treating it as if it was some kind of monster.
“Do you want some bacon and eggs?” he asked.
Once again, she gave a simple head nod. What more could she do? She felt ... stuck. She grabbed the coffee and blew across the surface, more for something to do rather than knowing what to do.
Maybe this was some bizarre dream she was going to wake up from. She pinched the inside of her thigh and found she was very much awake.
“You’re so quiet. Not much of a morning person?” he asked.
Usually, she was very much a morning person. This is not what she was used to. “I’m a morning person,” she said, finally finding her voice.
“What’s wrong then?” he asked.
She lifted her head, looked at him, and didn’t have a clue what to say, so she just blurted out, “I’m not used to this.” She pointed between herself and him, then toward the stove, followed by lifting her cup. “All of this is new to me.”
She took a sip of her coffee, and of course he’d made it to perfection.
Alexey chuckled. “I’m not used to cooking breakfast or making coffee for someone.”
“You don’t have a girlfriend or a wife?” Jane asked.
He laughed. “No, I don’t, and if I did, I wouldn’t have brought you to my home.”
“I’m sure you have more homes than this.”
“That is true.”
He served up the bacon and eggs. “Do you want to come?”
She still held her mug of coffee like her life depended on it and followed him through to the dining room.
Her body was still incredibly sore, and she knew it was going to be a couple of weeks, if not longer, before she started to feel like her old self again. She was going to have to find a job, leave the city behind, and figure something out.
Jane couldn’t help but watch as Alexey took a sip of his coffee, then scooped up a large forkful of eggs and shoved them in his mouth. He was so confident.
“What’s the plan?” Jane asked.
“Plan?”
“You’re not going to be able to keep me locked away here. Do you intend to give me to Morello for some kind of deal?”
She was not going to get her hopes up. She had killed a mafia king’s son. She was not an idiot, even if she had never run in the circles of mafia or Bratva. She knew the streets. She knew how shit worked, even if she didn’t want to know it.
“I’m not giving you to Morello.”
“If you’re not giving me to him, what is your plan?” she asked.
“Right now, it’s to eat my breakfast. Enjoy my coffee. Then I’m going to work.”
“What about me?”
“Simple, you stay here until I figure something out, and you don’t leave.”
“You can’t keep me locked up.”
“Babe, I hate to break this to you, but you’ve got absolutely no chance of escaping. Until I say, your ass will remain here.”
Jane looked at him, and he seemed so incredibly sure of himself. It kind of pissed her off. She glared at him, and he smirked right back. What kind of man was this? It was starting to grate on her nerves.
“I can take care of myself,” she said.
“Look in the mirror, sweetheart, I saw otherwise.”
She continued to glare at him, because he was a giant pain in the ass.
****
“Are you going to reach out to Morello?” Igor asked.
“No.” Alexey looked at the man hanging upside down.
It would seem little Ronaldo thought it was good to run his mouth about supposed operations.
The man ran a launderette, which Alexey liked to use as a front for other business.
The launderette was in front of a large warehouse he liked to use for fights.
It brought in a lot of people, and it was easy to get them in and feed them out. It brought in a lot of money.
For a good few years, Ronaldo had been the front of the shop, and for a percentage of the profits, he had a very happy life.
Alexey had been told by some that Ronaldo was now running his mouth off, claiming Alexey took advice from him and that Ronaldo was practically running the Bratva. This pissed Alexey off.
Anyone attempting to claim ownership of the Bratva was a personal affront to him, seeing as he had even killed his own father when he realized what he was doing to the Bratva.
He refused to bow down to any mafia, Italian or Irish.
He also didn’t answer to any MC. His father wanted to become wealthy, but he was also a fucking coward, so little by little, he had given pieces of their land and businesses away.
People started to mock him, but he put them all in their place.
Once he took out his father, all traitors were handled, and he put people in place he knew he could trust, including his friends, Igor, Nikolai, and Makar. They were his true brothers.
His real brother, Hans, the son of a bitch, had attempted to kill him when they were kids. That hadn’t ended well for his older brother. Alexey was not into living with a target on his back.
“What do you plan to do?” Igor asked, as Ronaldo continued to scream and shout, and beg for mercy.
“She’s safe for now.” Although, he did have word that Jane had attempted to escape twice. Both times, she had failed.
There was no chance of her ever leaving the building, nor any chance of Morello getting anyone past security downstairs. His building was tight, which is why some of the other residents paid a fortune to rent apartments from him. No one got past his security system.
“But you and I both know there is no way she will be able to make it out alive. Morello has put a target on her back, offered several hundred thousand in reward for someone to take her out.” Igor held up his cell phone, and all he did was smile.
“Morello can offer whatever he wishes. I already have a plan for him.” He glanced down at his watch and smirked. “Which will begin right now.”
Igor frowned. “Is there something happening that I’m not aware of?”