Page 126 of The Mafia Enforcer's Temptation

“I can’t stay here,” she cries. “I need to do something. I have until three a.m. tomorrow to get Tatiana back.”

She shakes me off and continues walking.

Fucking Cal told me I’ve got it bad, and the fucker has no idea. But knowing that and doing something about it are very different things.

She isn’t my biggest fan, and at times I want to string her the fuck up. It’s been a wild journey and here we are, back where we started. I snatch her arm and drag her to the nearest car. Inside, one of Romanov’s men is on the phone. I don’t know who he’s talking to and I don’t care.

“Get the fuck out. I’m taking this car.”

“But—”

“Look me in the eye. Look her in the eye and think about whether arguing with me or just doing what you’re told is better for your health and general breathing situation.”

He’s a big guy, a tough son of a bitch. But thankfully, he gets the fuck out of the car and moves out of our way.

“Go up there and help your Pakhan.” That’s my bride.

I shove her in the car, unlock my phone, then toss it to her. “Tell Cal we’ll see him at home.”

She slides me a glare but texts him and tosses the phone back at me as I start the engine.

We’re halfway to our destination before I can even figure out what to say. I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, okay. I’m… sorry. I had to make it real. Get you upset, make you think we were taking the damn bratva.”

But she just presses her lips together. “Give me the papers you took.”

“I don’t have them.”

“You do.”

“Tor has them,” I say, which is the truth. I wanted copies, I want everything checked and verified. There are ways to play this hand, and with the Estevez Cartel involved in all of this, we need to be careful about our next moves.

“What did Hanlon say to you?”

“He… He has a bomb he wants me to use to kill you all, and I just might.”

For some reason, her petulant, snappy tone makes me smile. “Maybe I’ll let you. What did he say?”

“He said a lot of shit,” she mutters. “About the cause and freedom and how he doesn’t want the Murphy clan dead, but you know, I’m sure he’ll learn to live with it.”

“Ava…” I take a breath, gripping the steering wheel tight, the nightline of Manhattan growing larger as we approach the city.

“He said other things, too.” She looks at me, her eyes flaring with pent-up rage. “That he’ll kill my sister if he doesn’t get those papers about the cartel.”

“If he gets them, he’ll likely burn you down, too. He’ll wreak havoc and start wars. He’s got a cause all right, and he doesn’t care if most of it is moved to political grounds. He’s the type ofzealot my da warned us about, the kind we should never turn into. Da was never like that, but he did believe in a free Ireland. And he also believed in doing what was right, even when it was wrong. He’s in prison for keeping his mouth shut and taking the brunt of things for the higher-ups. He’s a good man.”

“He sounds like the rest of you. Dangerous as fuck.”

I start laughing. “You’re no lamb, sweet thing.”

“You annoy the shit out of me.”

“Look, we need to find a way to end this. We’ll get your sister back and?—”

“You’ll take my bratva. I only have the bratva and Tatiana. And she isn’t even really mine. She’s more Romanov’s than mine, now. I’m not her sister. I’m just someone she sees sometimes.” She stops talking.

There are things I could say. And while some of them might be true, like the fact that she could have given up that dream of running the bratva and just taken the kid and run, or that she could have just handed everything to Romanov and got to share her little sister’s life, she didn’t do any of those things.

I keep forgetting that Ava’s young. She stopped being a kid when her mom died. When she took her first life.