Brutal Boss (Bratva Brothers 1)

MADISYN

One hour earlier…

“What are you doing here?” I ask, grabbing Aaron by the arm and pulling him down the hallway into an empty room.

I slam the door shut behind us.

Aaron Moore is my boss. He’s not just my boss with the FBI, he’s also every bit of a jerk, but I didn’t know that when I slept with him. It was months ago, and in truth, it led me to take this assignment so that I wouldn’t have to see him every day.

I requested a transfer out of his division, but I didn’t exactly come clean with why I wanted a change. We both would have gotten into trouble, and while he instigated the entire affair between us, I wasn’t innocent, either.

“Checking up on you,” Aaron says. His hand reaches up, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear.

I push him away, trying to accomplish better boundaries between us.

“You can’t just show up while I’m working.” My teeth are clenched, and my jaw is tight. “You need to leave, and you can’t come back here.”

Does he not realize that he could break my cover? He could endanger my life by showing up and getting me made as an FBI agent.

The nerve of him not thinking about anything but himself! Typical Aaron.

“I need to leave? I’m taking you home, Madisyn. You don’t belong here,” he says and takes a step closer, invading my personal space. “Come back to work for the FBI. Come back with me.”

Shit.

Does he not know about the undercover operation? Was he kept out of the loop and in the dark?

I open my mouth but shut it. If he doesn’t know, then he’s already on the outside, and I’m not about to ruin my career or my chance at making a supervisory agent someday.

“I can’t do that, Moore. This is my new job, my new life.” If he doesn’t know that I’m undercover, I can’t tell him. While I don’t think he has any involvement with the Russian Bratva, my orders are to keep a low profile, and I can’t do that with the FBI showing up at my new job. “You need to leave.”

“There’s a new team under my leadership, but I want you on it. They’re a bunch of new agent trainees. I need someone I can trust on my team, someone who will have my back. Whatever happened between you and Kingston, I can go over his head. I can get you cleared and back on duty.”

Supervisory Special Agent Barrett Kingston gave me the undercover assignment and he prepped me for the operation. Two of my colleagues who had worked under Moore are part of the assignment and, by the sound of it, are no longer on Moore’s team.

I’ve barely been gone, and there have been a significant number of changes. What happened? Who did Aaron piss off to end up with trainees and having his entire devoted team reassigned elsewhere?

Is it a political move? Did Aaron piss off Barrett or another boss higher up? I doubt they got wind of the affair between us, or he’d have been out of a job completely.

It had been a mistake, sleeping with my boss. I’d been drawn to his power, to the influence over me, and been naïve to think that he might have loved me.

“You need to go. Our clients pay a premium for privacy, and they won’t appreciate the FBI hanging around,” I say, trying to reiterate without spelling it out that he needs to leave and never come back.

“Fine, but this isn’t over, Madisyn.” Aaron heads for the door. Grabbing the handle, he yanks it open. He doesn’t so much as glance back at me as he stalks toward the elevator, shoulders slumped like he’s been defeated.

If he knew why I was here, would he still fight for me to come back to the FBI? Or would he be supportive of my decision to work undercover?

It doesn’t matter, he’s a ghost of my past, and I need to let him go.

* * *

I get dressed out of my scrubs and back into my outfit from this morning. It’s technically my clothes from yesterday, but the only person who seemed to notice was Hannah, and she thinks it’s because I got laid.

Well, I didn’t. But I won’t elaborate on what happened, except my car broke down.

Which just has her even more suspicious.

“Are you going to tell me about your wild night?” Hannah asks as we head down the elevator together to leave.

“It wasn’t wild. Just interesting, and no. Not right now,” I say. The girl has no sense of boundaries.

“Pretty please?” Hannah begs. “My wild nights are chasing my toddler around and cleaning up after Mark. I swear it’s like we’re married, and we skipped the wedding and honeymoon. And don’t even get me started on the diaper changes! Do not date a man who has a fear of changing a diaper.”

“Yes, another reason not to have children,” I say. “I clean enough bedpans around here. I don’t want to do that at home.”

Hannah rolls her eyes at me. “Oh, come on, it’s not all bad. And that’s not quite the same thing.”

“I don’t want to push the kid out of me!”

She chuckles at my fear. “You could always adopt?”

“Yes, I hear that puppies give wonderful kisses, and you can pay someone to clean up after your dog.”

“You could hire a nanny to clean up after the baby?” Hannah laughs at her remark. “Why are we comparing babies to puppies?”

“You started it, talking about diaper changes.” I scrunch my nose in disgust. “I’m with Mark on that one. Although on second thought, if I push a baby out of me, my husband damn well ought to change every diaper!”

“Good luck with that,” Hannah says. “First, let’s work on finding you a sexy boyfriend.” She wraps an arm around my shoulder. “And when you meet him, I want every dirty detail.”

I step out of the elevator, and the smile fades from my face.

Aaron Moore stands near the front entrance, his arms folded across his chest. The moment he lays eyes on me, he stalks toward me. I want to run, get away, but I’m not going to be that lucky. And Hannah will have a hundred new questions when she sees him.

“Madisyn, can I talk to you?” Aaron asks.