Bratva Sinner (A Possessive Mafia Romance)

“Yeah, fuck, all right.” Captain Melino squeezed his eyes shut then opened them again. Bright blue and shining with intensity. “What do you want me to do?”

“Talk to your chief. Tell him I want arrests. I’ll hear as soon as the doors start getting kicked in, and then I’ll know you didn’t fuck me.”

“And if I can’t convince him to play along?”

“Then convince someone else to take initiative. I don’t care, so long as you start hamstringing the Lionettis. Don’t act like you haven’t been thinking about this for a very long time.”

Captain Melino’s smile was the grin of a predator hanging around a watering hole. “A very long time,” he echoed.

“Good man.” Luke patted his shoulder and stood up. “I’ll be waiting with bated breath.”

Captain Melino grunted and stooped over his drink again. He transformed from the confident, angry cop back into the quiet, pathetic drunk in the space of a few seconds. I wondered if maybe Luke was wrong about this guy, but then it didn’t matter—so long as we got results.

I followed Luke back out to the car. “Rain stopped,” I said softly as I put on my seatbelt.

He turned on the engine. “We’ll give him a week,” he said. “Then we’ll try the next guy on this list.”

“Are you really going to destroy the dossier when this is all over?”

He hesitated, squinting into traffic, then pulled out. “The Morozov family isn’t in the blackmail business. If these guys can help take a bite out of the Lionettis, that’s fine with me.”

I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder and let him cruise along the streets, already thinking about what it would feel like to have him strip my clothes off and bite every inch of my skin.

21

Luke

They were waiting as soon as we got back to my place.

They probably tailed me from the bar. I must’ve missed them in the shit weather, or maybe I was distracted by the way Cara looked at me like as soon as we got inside she was going to rip off her clothes and let me do whatever I wanted with her—which was probably not far from the truth.

I parked out in front of my house and went to open my door, and the scream of tires at the end of the block made my hands go numb with sudden shock.

Cara said something. I didn’t hear. I leaned over her, grabbed my gun from the glove box, and opened her door. I shoved her out as the gunfire started and jumped across with her, covering her with my body.

Glass shattered all over. I felt something bite into my shoulder, my arm, my leg. More gunshots, more screams, and it took me a few moments to realize it was Cara, shouting in terror.

I rolled off her, buzzing with pain, and came up firing. Two black cars filled with men with submachine guns blazed at my car, wrecking it. German was on the far side of the block, and Yuri came running, both of them on guard duty for the day.

“Stay down,” I shouted at Cara as I returned fire. Doors opened and more stepped out.

I recognized a couple faces.

They were Lionettis, finally here to end me.

German flanked them from the opposite end. He fired rapidly, killed one, but had to duck into cover as they returned fire. Yuri staggered sideways as two guys opened up on him. I shot one, winging him enough to make him back down, but the other pressed his advantage. I screamed for Yuri to drop down, but Yuri was a brave piece of shit, and he tried to return fire.

The bullet took him in the forehead. His skull snapped back and he crumpled down, dead in an instant, his brains splattered across the car.

I shouted wordless rage and charged his murderer. I shot him three times before I had to duck back into cover. Cara was pinned down between the curb and my car’s wheels, curled up in a ball and hiding. She was safe enough, and I reloaded my gun, grimacing as pain washed over me.

Blood drenched my arm and my leg. I was hit at least twice, maybe three times, I couldn’t be sure. I felt dizzy with adrenaline and fear as I squeezed off a few shots at the guys hovering around their car, shooting back at German and trying to keep me pinned. Two of them were dead and four were left standing.

I wanted them all. I wanted their blood and guts for Yuri. I was supposed to protect my men and keep them safe, not throw them into the middle of a firefight and get their brains blown out. They knew the risks, but this was too much.

I threw myself sideways and shot one guy in the calf. He gasped, dropping down to his knees, and I shot him in the head. I rolled under a car as they returned fire, and German took the opportunity to make a break for it, getting a better angle. He killed one guy, leaving only two standing. One tried to get back into their SUV but I crawled out from under the car, leaving a trail of blood behind me, and charged.