Gilded Cage
A Russian Mafia Romance
Nicole Fox
Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Fox
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
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Gilded Cage
1. Esme
2. Esme
3. Artem
4. Esme
5. Esme
6. Esme
7. Esme
8. Artem
9. Artem
10. Esme
11. Esme
12. Artem
13. Artem
14. Esme
15. Artem
16. Esme
17. Esme
18. Artem
19. Esme
20. Esme
21. Artem
22. Artem
23. Artem
24. Esme
25. Esme
26. Esme
27. Artem
28. Artem
29. Artem
30. Esme
31. Artem
32. Artem
33. Esme
34. Artem
35. Esme
36. Esme
37. Artem
38. Artem
39. Esme
40. Artem
41. Esme
42. Esme
43. Artem
44. Artem
45. Artem
46. Esme
47. Esme
48. Esme
49. Artem
50. Artem
51. Esme
52. Esme
53. Artem
54. Artem
55. Esme
56. Esme
57. Artem
58. Esme
59. Esme
60. Artem
61. Artem
62. Artem
63. Esme
64. Esme
65. Artem
66. Artem
67. Artem
68. Esme
69. Artem
70. Esme
71. Artem
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Also by Nicole Fox
Kovalyov Bratva Duet
Gilded Cage (Book 1)
Gilded Tears (Book 2)
Princes of Ravenlake Academy (Bully Romance)
*Can be read as standalones!
Cruel Prep
Cruel Academy
Cruel Elite
Bratva Crime Syndicate
*Can be read in any order!
Lies He Told Me
Scars He Gave Me
Sins He Taught Me
Belluci Mafia Trilogy
Corrupted Angel (Book 1)
Corrupted Queen (Book 2)
Corrupted Empire (Book 3)
De Maggio Mafia Duet
Devil in a Suit (Book 1)
Devil at the Altar (Book 2)
Kornilov Bratva Duet
Married to the Don (Book 1)
Til Death Do Us Part (Book 2)
Heirs to the Bratva Empire
*Can be read in any order!
Kostya
Maksim
Andrei
Tsezar Bratva
Nightfall (Book 1)
Daybreak (Book 2)
Russian Crime Brotherhood
*Can be read in any order!
Owned by the Mob Boss
Unprotected with the Mob Boss
Knocked Up by the Mob Boss
Sold to the Mob Boss
Stolen by the Mob Boss
Trapped with the Mob Boss
Volkov Bratva
Broken Vows (Book 1)
Broken Hope (Book 2)
Broken Sins (standalone)
Other Standalones
Vin: A Mafia Romance
Box Sets
Bratva Mob Bosses (Russian Crime Brotherhood Books 1-6)
Tsezar Bratva (Tsezar Bratva Duet Books 1-2)
Heirs to the Bratva Empire
The Mafia Dons Collection
The Don’s Corruption
Gilded Cage
Book One of the Kovalyov Bratva Duet
I’LL LOCK HER IN A GILDED CAGE AND THROW AWAY THE KEY.
The night we met, she thought she was tasting freedom.
I devoured her once and left before I even knew her name.
Four months later, Bratva business leads me to the house of my enemy with one objective:
Burn it down and kill everyone inside.
That’s exactly what I plan to do…
Until I find her cowering before me.
The innocent girl from the club.
My beautiful caged bird.
I’m not here to save her—I’m here to ruin her.
But something stops me in my tracks.
Something I never expected.
Did she say that’s my baby in her womb?
1
Esme
A SECRET LOCATION ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF MEXICO
I look around at my bedroom and fight the urge to scream.
It’s beautiful by any measure. The finest furniture. The most expensive art.
But I see it for what it really is: a gilded fucking cage.
My eyes settle on the picture board I set up when I was fifteen years old. I still remember the first thing I stuck up there—a glossy postcard of Florence, Italy.
Seven years have passed since I first pinned it up. The postcard is no longer glossy. It stares back at me, old and faded, a constant reminder of the invisible steel bars that surround my life.
The board shows all the places I’ve always wanted to go. The Coliseum in Rome. The Great Wall of China. The pyramids in Egypt.
But they’re all just fantasies. I’ve only left my father’s home once.
The picture of that lone trip is up there, too. I reach up and take it down.
In the photograph, my older brother, Cesar, stands beside me, his arm wrapped protectively around my shoulders. The Eiffel Tower pierces the low clouds behind us.
We’re both smiling.
Oblivious to the future.
Oblivious to how little time he and I had left together.
It’s been years since Cesar’s death and yet it still hurts to think about him.
You should be here with me, I think. Maybe then things would be different.
My fingers caress Cesar’s face for a moment. But when tears start to prick at the corners of my eyes, I pin the picture back up on the bulletin board—facedown, so I don’t have to look at it and remember everything I’ve lost.
A knock on my door interrupts my thoughts.
I turn to face the door. “Yes?”
“Señorita Esme, your father requests your presence downstairs in the formal sitting room.”
The muffled voice belongs to Sofia, one of the maids who works here at my father’s compound. I close my eyes for a moment and breathe deeply.
The only reason Papa would “request” my presence in the formal sitting room is so I can be his show pony.
My father likes to flaunt his possessions.
And unfortunately for me, I’m his crown jewel.
I open the door and come face to face with the woman. She’s small, Mexican, shy, beautiful.
“I guess I shouldn’t ‘request’ that he go fuck himself, should I?” I drawl.
Sofia flinches like I slapped her.
It’s just a joke, of course. But she’s seen what my father is capable of.
We both know that saying that to his face would earn me a month in the cellar.
I sigh. “Never mind. Gracias, Sofia. Tell Papa I’ll be down soon.”
I expect her to nod in her usual respectful manner and walk away, but she continues to stand there in her black and white maid’s uniform, wringing her hands together nervously.
Not a good sign.
“Is there something else, Sofia?”
“Señorita…” Her tone is apologetic already.
I frown. “What else does he want?”
Sofia raises her brown eyes up to meet mine. She is a little paler than usual, which is pretty standard when my father is in the house. We all walk on eggshells whenever he is around.
“He also said would like you to wear a dress,” she finishes, lowering her eyes again. “‘Something a man would like,’ he said.”
So he wants to impress some unspecified male guest or guests.
That’s not a good sign at all.
I offer Sofia a forced smile. “As Papa wishes, he shall
