I nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll find her.” I turned to go.
“Angelo?”
I looked back over my shoulder.
“Please get her back.”
I nodded once and strode off into the night, already
pulling out my phone.
Finding out where Mikhail lived would have been easy if
I was still the boss. Without my old connections, it
would take too long. Irina would be out of the country
before I tracked him down.
I needed help. And there was only one person who
could help me.
43
Irina
Mikhail had one of his thugs drive us to the mansion,
which meant Mikhail was free to lounge in the back seat
with me. He no longer had to make it look accidental
when he touched me. The whole journey, his thigh had
been pressed up against mine, his arm possessively
around my shoulders. I let my head rest submissively
against his thick, flabby neck but I knew he must be
able to feel how tense I was.
“I’d fuck you right here,” he rasped in my ear. “Bounce
you in my lap like a toy. But then the driver might want
to join in and I’m not ready to share you. Yet.”
I tried not to scream. I knew that the more I showed
fear, the more he’d taunt me.
It was a relief when we pulled up outside his mansion
with a scrunch of gravel. It really was a mansion, not
much smaller than the one Heinwell, the property
developer, owned. But that had at least been tastefuclass="underline"
this was hideous, a mess of pillars, elaborate fountains
and statues.
Mikhail led me inside and up to the master bedroom. I
sat numbly on the huge bed while he started to throw
clothes into several big suitcases. When he turned and
saw me sitting there, he shook his head and then
snapped his fingers in the air, as if I was a dog. “Make
yourself useful,” he said. “Go and empty that closet into
a case.”
I walked over to it and opened the doors. It was a large
closet but it was full, end to end, with women’s lingerie.
Only lingerie was too polite a term for it. Tiny outfits
made of skintight latex and leather. Masks and
blindfolds and stockings. Ridiculous heels no one could
walk in. All things that he’d bought for his prostitutes to
wear. All things that had been worn. That he expected
me to now wear. I wanted to throw up.
I could feel his eyes on me. “Hurry along, Irina,” he
chided. He seemed to get off on using my name. “Or
should I make a phone call to Vasiliy?”
I took the first few items and tossed them in the case,
shaking with silent rage and humiliation.
“We have a few hours before our flight,” said Mikhail. I
could hear the growing lust in his voice—seeing me
angry and powerless seemed to be a turn on for him.
“When you’re done packing, we’ll have some fun.”
44
Angelo
Rico had the bar on lockdown. Eddie, one of our best,
was guarding the door and he drew his gun as soon as
he saw me moving in the shadows. “Hey!” he called.
“Who is that?”
I stepped into the light. I’d gotten a cab back to my
apartment to pick up a gun, and I’d taken a few minutes
to wash off the blood and put on a suit and overcoat. I
looked like me again.
Eddie balked. His gun wavered. “I thought you were
gone!”
I looked him right in the eye. “I’m back. Is Rico inside?”
I stepped forward and he put his hand on his gun. I
could see the indecision in his eyes: he’d probably heard
all sorts of shit about me in the last twenty-four hours.
The poor guy didn’t know what to think or who to
respect.
I put my face inches from his. “Eddie,” I said quietly,
“I’m walking through that door. You want to shoot me,
then shoot me. But know exactly who you’re shooting.
I’m the guy who brought you in when you were a skinny
kid stealing cars. I’m the guy who made you a made
man. This is my territory and nobody else’s.” My lips
drew back into a snarl. “I’m Angelo fucking Baroni.”
Eddie withdrew his hand from his jacket. “Sorry, boss.”
I slapped him on the shoulder and went inside.
I found Rico in my office, sitting at my desk. When he
saw me, he reached one hand under the desk, where I
kept a loaded Beretta in a little pouch made of duct
tape.
I didn’t try to stop him. I just stood there, our eyes
locked on each other.
I saw his arm tense once, twice, ready to pull the gun…
then he sighed and his arm went limp. He brought his
other fist down on the desk so hard that the whole
room shook “Goddammit, Angelo!”
“I need your help.” I told him what had happened to
Irina. “I just need to make sure she’s safe. Then I’m
gone. You can keep the job.”
He glared at me for another few seconds and then his
gaze slowly softened. He stood up and came around the
desk. “I don’t want the fucking job,” he muttered. “I
never did. I just—I want things back how they were.”
He stopped a few feet from me and looked me up and
down. “Nothing’s been the same since she came along!”
I nodded. He was right, it hadn’t.
“But now I see how you are without her.” He stared at
me. “You need her. Don’t you?”
I nodded again. Nodding would have to do because I
couldn’t put into words how much I needed her.
Rico gave a long, despairing sigh. “Then let’s get her
back, you mad son of a bitch.” And he pulled me into a
hug. Every second he held it made my cracked rib
scream but I welcomed the pain: it meant we were
back.
Rico made some calls. Ten minutes later, we had a
couple of crooked cops, half the cab drivers in the city
and a hacker all searching for the same information. The
cab drivers got there first: a guy knew a guy who
worked part-time as a limo driver and he’d driven
Mikhail to his mansion a couple of times.
“Get the car,” I told Rico. “And let’s go.”
45
Irina
I made the packing go as slow as possible, removing
each scrap of the obscene lingerie from the closet as if it
was a treasured wedding dress. But all too quickly, I
was staring at nothing but empty hangers.
Behind me, Mikhail made a show of closing his suitcases
one by one with heavy, victorious thumps. I didn’t turn
around. Not even when he came right up behind me,
slid his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. I
could feel his cock hardening against my ass.
“You didn’t leave one to wear?” he asked, sounding
disappointed. “No matter. I will pick for you.” His mouth
was almost touching my ear, his breath hot and horribly
moist. “Or perhaps I’ll just have you naked, this time.”
He brushed a lock of my hair back from my face and I
forced myself not to tremble, still staring fixedly at the
empty closet. “There’s no need to be shy, Irina. I’ve
seen what you can do in bed. I studied those photos of
you for a long time. And now you’re going to be just as
enthusiastic when it’s me f—”
The sound of metal being torn apart cut him off. We
both looked towards the front of the mansion. Shouting.
Tires on gravel.
Angelo. It could only be Angelo. My stomach lurched.
Part of me was overjoyed he’d come for me. Part of me
was terrified he’d be killed.
Mikhail pulled his gun, ran to the bedroom door and
looked out just as the mansion’s front door was kicked
in. There was gunfire outside: handguns and the boom