One of the crew, an older man, stops by the table to start picking up the numerous discarded shot glasses. He doesn’t look at me. I can see his hands nearly shaking as he is forced to get closer to where I’m sitting.
“Is it hard to work this late?” I ask quietly. He nearly jumps, but doesn’t dare to make eye contact.
“Um, no, sir. Not exactly.” He scratches at his neck. “A little bit, maybe. I have a daughter and son at home. They’re at school during the day and I get home after they’re asleep.”
I sip on a few fingers of vodka poured over ice as I examine the man. He’s thin, wrinkled, with the slightest paunch hanging over his belt. His eyes are drawn tight with exhaustion.
“What is your name?”
“Roberto, sir.”
“Are you married, Roberto?”
He nods emphatically. “Yes, sir. We celebrated our twenty-sixth anniversary a month ago.”
I take another sip. “Do you love your wife?”
A blush rises into his cheeks. “Yes, of course. She’s a good person, she’s good to me, she’s good to our kids.”
I look straight into his face. He is trembling. I wonder what he thinks I will do to him. I toy with the clasp of my watch before I ask him, “Aren’t you sick and tired of her pussy, Roberto?”
The color drains from his face immediately. He clears his throat like he’s fumbling for words, but when he draws himself up and speaks again, there’s a haughty pride in his voice. An undercurrent of strength beneath the fear. “I don’t need to go around sleeping with other women to boost my ego.”
“Is that what you think I do?” I ask. It was meant to be a joke, but there’s too much alcohol in my system to stop the sharp, icy edges from stabbing through.
The bravery that Roberto showed a moment before disappears in an instant. His hands start to quiver enough that the shot glasses clatter against each other.
Pity. I almost respected him for a moment there.
“I’m so, so sorry, sir. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that … when I was younger, I might have done that and if I—”
“Do you think I am beneath you, Roberto?”
“Of course not. Oh God. No. Sir, I’m sorry. Sometimes, it’s just so late when I work, my mouth tends to get ahead of itself and I say things that I don’t—”
“You should go,” I cut him off. “Take your coworkers with you. You can come back in an hour.”
“Yes, sir, absolutely. Again, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
He hurries away, stopping briefly to talk to his two coworkers before they all leave.
Not a single one of them looks back.
And when they’re gone, I am alone.
UNPROTECTED WITH THE MOB BOSS is available now!
Click here to get it now.
Also by Nicole Fox
Click any of the covers below to go straight to the book page!
Unprotected with the Mob Boss: A Dark Mafia Romance (Alekseiev Bratva)
My enemy’s daughter. My unprotected bride.
Allison thinks that this is a fair world, that justice exists.
I’m here to show her there is no such thing as innocence.
In my world, it’s might makes right.
Kill or be killed.
And I’ve caused my fair share of bloodshed.
But when I discover her with an innocent man’s blood on her hands,
We both know that there’s only one way out of this mess:
On her knees before me.
So I give her an offer she cannot refuse.
Become my wife.
Carry my baby.
Or prepare to suffer the consequences.
Broken Hope: A Dark Mafia Romance (Volkov Bratva)
They kidnapped my wife and baby. I’ll go through hell to get them back.
Eve was a pawn in a violent game.
Until she became the queen of my world.
She saved me from my own darkness.
But now, my past is threatening to consume us both.
I tried to keep her safe.
Locked away like a princess in a tower.
Up there, she was protected from everything…
Except for me.
Now, I’m knee-deep in the underworld.
I’ll do whatever it takes to rescue my family:
Lie.
Steal.
Kill.
And once this is all over…
Once my wife and baby are back in my arms…
I’ll slaughter every man who laid a finger on them.
No one takes what’s mine.
Broken Vows: A Dark Mafia Romance (Volkov Bratva)
She’s my fake wife, my property… and my last chance at redemption.
She’s beautiful. An angel.
I’m dangerous. A killer.
She’s my fake bride for a single reason – so I can crush her father’s resistance.
But marrying Eve brings me far more than I bargained for.
She’s fiery. Feisty. Won’t take no for an answer.
She makes me believe that I might be worth redemption.
Until I discover a past she’s been hiding from me.
One that threatens everything.
Now, I know that our wedding vows are not enough.
I need to make sure she’s mine for good.
A baby in her belly is the only way to seal the deal.
In the end, the Bratva always gets what it wants.
Knocked Up by the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Levushka Bratva)
They’re coming to take her baby. They’ll have to kill me first.
She’s an innocent maid.
I’m a ruthless Bratva boss.
She says she wants nothing to do with me.
But in my world, when I want something, I take it.
And I want her.
The problem is, Zoya is hiding a terrible secret:
A baby in her womb that was never meant to be.
And I’m not the only one who knows.
Our enemies are coming.
To hurt her.
To ruin me.
What they don’t know is this:
I’ve found what I want in this world.
And they’ll have to kill me to take it.
Sold to the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Lavrin Bratva)
An innocent girl like her… sold to a beast like me.
Nikita
As the boss of the Bratva, I live my life by a code: Always stay in control.
But I broke my own rule on the night I bought Annie.
She was so delicate and desperate up on that
