Page 64 of Sexting My Bratva Boss

I stand in the shadows and watch her.

Like a fuckingpodonok,a creep.

But a reverent one.

She shifts, murmurs something in her sleep, then stills.

That’s how Lev finds me. I hear him approach before I see him. His tread is familiar. Purposeful.

“How has she been?”

He types quickly, flashes the screen in my direction instead of using the audio.Fine. Sleeping mostly. Left the office early.

Movement flashes behind the window. Kashmere; she’s here late, walking the house. She looks innocent, like someone’s mother, like a maid. Only I and a few other, including Olena, know that Kashmere has killed her fair share of men to get where she is.

Which is why I have her watching the mother of my child.

“Why are you still here?”

Lev pauses. I don’t like that.

This time, he concentrates on his words before turning the phone toward me.I was going to check on the perimeter. But it looks like I’m not the only one who had that idea.

Meeting his gaze, I don’t break eye contact. He knows what I want; he knows thatIknow that something is off.

She was followed, he adds quickly.From the office.

The blood in my veins turns to ice.

Lev gestures toward the cars up the street, but I don’t want to move. It takes Kashmere glancing toward us quickly, trying to mask a look of exasperation, for me to move away from the window. At the edge of the yard, Lev’s phone sounds out:We caught him two blocks from here. Alone. Unarmed. Stupid. Definitely not one of Sartorre’s top men—just some kid. I think they’re probing. Seeing how easy she’d be to grab.

I inhale slowly, evenly.

“And now?”

He’s in a bag. Probably halfway down the Hudson.

I nod once.

“Good,” I say. “But next time? Kill them sooner.”

The kid shouldn’t have even made it this far. I stride slowly back to the window. Audrey stirs again, pressing her hand to her stomach in her sleep.

A protective gesture.

I wonder if the baby knows. If it feels that. An ache forms in my chest; did my mother curve a hand over her belly like that? Something in me doubts it. And then another thought follows quickly after: How can I make sure the baby knows that it’s protected byme?That I’ll protect them both?

“More men,” I say. “Discreet. But everywhere. Cameras too. Inside and out.”

Lev nods.

“If anything happens to her…”

His silence is absolute. He understands. It doesn’t matter that he’s led my men for years now, that I’d trust him with my life.

If he loses hers…

“If anything happens to her or the child,” I continue, voice low and lethal, “burn the city down. I want them all dead. Italians, allies, messengers, middlemen. I don’t care. I want them erased.”