Page 45 of The Umarova Crime Family

The old man wanted to trick me. He wanted me to believe he was throwing me off my game, but I knew he had slipped up. I saw the fear in his eyes when he realized he’d ratted out the whereabouts of his true leader. He knew he wasn’t valuable anymore, but worse than that, he knew that I knew he fucked up.

Some days, I regret not keeping him alive. Sometimes I wanted to know what other information he had, but I was growing tired of his bullshit. I was tired of the games he was playing with me, the games he was playing with my family. I wanted to send a message to anyone who needed it: When you fuck with the Umarovas, you die.

I hope I get a hit on Anzor soon. I want to leave Boston, but not just because I’m not too fond of the city. I want to lay my eyes on the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. I want to see her thick brown curly hair. I want to wrap my hands in her locks, the same locks that stop on her mid-back. I want nothing more than to reunite my lips with hers, even if I know better. Even if I know getting involved with her could create a problem with my brother.

The woman I adore is none other than my brother’s girlfriend’s cousin. My brother, Ruslan, adores his woman. He adores her so much I think he just might murder me if I was the reason Emily ended up with a broken heart.

I’ve flirted with her time and time again, and every time I see her, I can barely tear my eyes away from her. She’s a vision, yes, but she has an intelligence I haven’t found in most women.

I told myself not to cross a line with her because I knew the threat she posed to my relationship with my brother. I know if I hurt her, my brother will never forgive me because, in extension, it’ll hurt Amelia too.

I’ve had her within my grasp when she was in Grozny with Amelia when Ruslan was rescued from the bastard I just put in the ground. I somehow managed to control myself for the most part. I kissed her, but I didn’t dive deep into that sweet place between her legs like I wanted to. I controlled myself, but I didn’t want to control myself any longer.

Emily is the type of woman you don’t find too often, and I’m taking what I want.

Chapter One

Emily

Present Day

I slept through my alarm, which isn’t usual for me at all. In fact, I’m notorious for being a light sleeper. If the wind blows the wrong way, I’m awake, and I’m frustrated I slept this late. I was supposed to be video chatting with Amelia and Karim thirty minutes ago, so as I’m running around the apartment, I tap the button on my phone to call her.

“Well, you’re late. What’s going on with you?” Amelia cackles in the background, and I glance down at the screen.

“I overslept. Slept right through my alarm, actually. As you can tell, I’m not ready at all, so you and sweet Karim are going through my morning routine with me,” I tell her as I have my hair in a messy bun on the top of my head. I’m still in my pajamas.

I dart over to the coffee maker and clean out the old coffee filter with saturated grounds from yesterday, then put a new filter and coffee grounds in. There’s not enough water in the reservoir, so I fill the pot up to the four-cup line, pour it in, and put the pot back. Once that’s done, I press the “brew now” button, and the coffee pot comes to life.

Finally, I take a moment to look down at the screen. My cousin’s baby, Karim, looks better by the day. I don’t know how most people call baby’s cute when they’re newborns. They’re babies, so I guess they’re cute in their own sense, but they all look like baby monkeys to me. Since he’s older now, I see how he’s the perfect combination of Ruslan and Amelia. He has her eyes, and he has his father’s dark hair.

“Oh my goodness, he’s getting so big!” I exclaim, and Amelia laughs, nodding in agreement.

“He is. I think he grows like a weed every single day. I just don’t want him to grow up too fast. I love having a baby,” Amelia pouts a bit, and I wave my hand at her.

“Stop it. One day you’re going to be wishing for the days when he’s walking around with you and talking.”

“You act like that’s a long way away. Another year and he could be doing both of those things,” Amelia points out.

One thing I can say about my cousin is that she’s so happy being a mother. It’s beautiful, really. I don’t know if I’d be the type who’s so in awe of her child. I’d like to think I would be, but I never got to experience that.

When I was fifteen, I got pregnant by my boyfriend at the time. A boy who claimed he “loved” me, but the moment I told him I was pregnant, he ran for the hills. I guess being a dad by the time he turned sixteen wasn’t in his five-year plan. Being a mom at sixteen wasn’t in mine either, and the baby wasn’t something I could’ve financially contributed to. I grew up in a lower-middle-class household, so my parents lived paycheck to paycheck a lot of the time.

I knew then that having my baby stay with me would be a bad decision, not only for me but for my child. I knew the baby wouldn’t be able to go out on vacations once a year or even weekend trips. They would’ve gotten a mediocre education in bumfuck nowhere Alabama, and they would’ve been known as the “teenage whore’s” child. I know what growing up in a small town is like, and I know the subjections they would’ve had to endure. I didn’t want that for my child. I didn’t want that for me, either. All I wanted was to provide for her, so that’s why I gave her up for adoption, privately.

A lot of the time, I wonder what my life would’ve been like if I had kept my daughter with me, but I know it would’ve been a disservice to both of us. She needed parents who were completely ready to welcome a bundle of joy into their lives. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that person.

“Anyway, since you’re rushing around the apartment like a madwoman. How’s the internship going?”

The internship at the corporate commercial real estate firm I got while finishing my master’s program. It’s not just a real estate firm since they deal with design and developmental projects as well. “It’s going good. My internship’s going to be coming up soon.”

“Oh, cool. Then you can move to Grozny, huh?” Amelia’s been pressuring me about moving to Grozny for ages now. We’re pretty much the only decent family the two of us have. Her mother’s a hot wreck, and my parents only want to talk to me when I can do something that benefits them. My brother, on the other hand, doesn’t give a shit about me, and as sad as it is, I know it’s true. He doesn’t even wish me a happy birthday.

“Very funny. I’m actually waiting to see if I get a job offer. From what I’ve heard from others, some of the interns get job offers when the end of their internship is coming up. I’m not sure if I’m going to get it, but I’d like to hope I am.”

“You’ve got to be joking, right? You bust your ass for that place every day. I won’t be shocked if they give you a job at all!”

“I’d love to have your optimism, but I’m not trying to get my dreams completely shattered when my hopes get as high as yours are,” I tell Amelia, and she scoffs in the background.

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