Page 17 of Caught By the Bratva Beast

Nicolo claps his hands, shaking his head. His dark hair scatters across his forehead before he pushes it back. “I rely on you to do your job.”

“You do want me to go with him to Russia then?” I sigh.

“It's going to be a risk, but it's one we need to take.”

I store the gun back in the locker on the wall. “We've been working long and hard on this and I don't want to mess this plan up. Will I be able to contact you if something starts going wrong while I'm over there?”

“Yes. If you suspect the mission starts going sideways, get a message to me. You know how.”

“Okay. I'll do it. I'll go to Russia. I'll string him along and keep his interest, and I'll keep him close until you give the word.”

Nicolo leads the way out to the parking lot. “Good girl. I promise he'll pay for the crimes he's committed against your family. But we need the right timing.”

“Well, I hope that the right timing comes sooner rather than later. He can't continue to walk this earth and hurt people the same way he's hurt my family.”

“He won't.” Nicolo stops beside a little red sports car. He pulls out the keys and tosses them to me. “This is your reward for a job well done with the date. Keep up the excellent work in Russia and there will be a vacation home with your name waiting for you. Just pick the country.”

“I've always wanted to spend some time in Turkey. “

“Done.” He leans forward and presses a kiss to my temple before ruffling my hair the way he used to when I was a child. “Remember Pearl, nobody can know about our arrangement, and not a single soul ever finds out about the plan.”

“I remember.”

He gives me one last look before walking away, disappearing to the other side of the parking lot, and getting into an SUV waiting for him.

I take a deep breath, keys jiggling in my hands as they jitter with nerves.

Well Russia, here I come.

Chapter 7 - Maxim

Once Pearl sees the black jet with the shiny stairs that lead up to it, she looks at me like I have three heads. Awe soon takes over as she eyes it again.

“You own a jet that looks like this?” She shakes her head in disbelief, getting closer to the stairs, running her fingers up the thin metal railing. “I don't think I've ever seen anything this expensive in my life. This is stunning.”

Noah Hearst and those other men would’ve never been able to give her an experience like this one.

I knew she would appreciate it. “I have another which is slightly smaller, but the flight to Russia is long and you should be as comfortable as possible. The windows on this plane are slightly larger, too. You'll want to look out over the landscape as we fly into the country. There's nothing quite like it in the world.”

“You love Russia then?” she asks, turning to look at me with those big puppy eyes. Her cute little dimples deepen as a man walks over to her, taking her bags with a slight bow before heading toward the conveyor belt to load the bags into the plane.

“I do, it was home when I was a boy before my family moved here.”

“How old were you when you moved here?” She reaches down, taking off one heel and then her other, dangling them in her fingers before climbing the stairs and into the jet.

I follow her up, hanging back just enough to get a good look at her round ass in those tight jeans. The expression on her face, when she sees the creamy leather seats and the glossy wooden furniture, is priceless. She runs her fingers over the textured linen wallpaper.

There's something right about seeing her in a place like this that makes me wonder how she reacts when she sees my home in Russia.

“Couldn’t have been more than a teenager. Maybe thirteen?” I try to remember when the move became official, but it was long ago. “I went back and forth a lot for those first few years before I got older. My father had business overseas to manage and I traveled a lot.”

“Which do you prefer, New York or Russia?”

“If I never had to set foot in New York again, I would be happy.” I gestured to the rear of the plane, where two doors were waiting.

Pearl wiggles her red-painted toes against the soft carpet before heading to the back and pushing open the door.

When she sees the king bed in the middle of the room, she spins to face me with crinkled eyes, merriment dancing across her vision. “I thought I told you there wasn't going to be any sex on this trip. And here you are already wanting me to join the mile-high club?”

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