Page 5 of Savage Boss

“I am the Boss and my word is law in this town.” He paused, allowing her to feel the strength in his body and the steel in his resolve. “This is the last time you will insult me like this, I promise you, wife.”

Vlad stood, lifting her by the neck. She choked a little, but he let her go right away, gripping her arm and dragging her toward the bunker. She didn’t fight him this time, perhaps understanding that he was deadly serious. He was at the end of his tolerance with her.

He punched a ten-digit code into the security panel next to the solid blast proof door. He could feel her gaze on the panel, but she wasn’t quick enough to catch it before he yanked her inside, slamming the door shut behind them. He dragged her past row after row of wine bottles, deeper into his prison. The last time he brought her here, Jane had fought him tooth and nail to escape. The fight had been exhilarating. It was at that moment when he realized how much his match she really was. He was the cold mobster to her fiery detective. Together they were explosive, unstoppable.

But this was different. It was no longer about the two of them. It was the child nestled deep within her. It was Jane’s never-ending fight with Vlad that was causing her to place his child in danger and that was something he simply couldn’t allow.

He took her directly to the same cell as before and opened the door. She gaped in surprise as he shoved her inside. It was completely different. Slowly she turned to face him, accusation burning bright in her eyes. “You were planning this.”

Instead of the single plank cot and toilet she remembered from her previous stay, the space had been transformed into a lovely room with a four-poster bed, a bookshelf, a dresser, a vanity and a private washroom.

He nodded sharply and stepped back, preparing to leave. “I knew you wouldn’t settle into this pregnancy. I knew you would put yourself and our unborn child in danger. I am sorry, malysh. This is the only way I know how to protect you. You will remain here until our child is born.”

He slammed the door shut and left her alone in the place that was to be her prison for the next five months.

Chapter Three

3 weeks later

The moment Vlad set the tray of food down, Jane picked it up and flung it at him. He moved fast, but not quick enough. Mashed potatoes dribbled down the front of his dress shirt. He flicked them away and gave his wife a cool stare.

“This is not helping,” he said, unable to contain the edge to his voice. “You’re still showing me that you cannot control your impulses and until I’m convinced you can control yourself, you’ll stay here.”

He glanced around her new ‘home’ and shook his head. She’d torn the place apart in mini fits of rage. He’d had a camera installed so he could watch her when he wasn’t with her. At first, she’d tried to remain calm, to convince him he could let her out, but as the days passed with no indication that he would relent, her temper got the better of her.

“Where the fuck have you been?” she demanded, her arms crossed tightly in front of her chest, just over her tiny baby bump. “You promised you’d spend more time with me. I’m going insane down here.”

Vlad tried to remain tough, but it was hard in the face of her distress. It didn’t help that she looked quite young in a pair of pajama shorts with an old T-shirt of his, threadbare and grey. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her face was freshly scrubbed. Her tiny feet were stuffed into a pair of fuzzy unicorn slippers.

“I do have several businesses to run, malysh,” he said chidingly. “Now that Boris has left my employ, I am swamped by the day-to-day details of running everything.”

He must have let some of his exhaustion show because her face softened, and she knelt on the floor next to his feet and started tossing food back onto the tray. He couldn’t entirely blame her for her temper. He wouldn’t be in a good mood either if he’d been locked up.

He bent and took her shoulders in his hands, marveling once more at how delicate she was compared to him. He often forgot when her fiery temper sparked, and she started an argument with him.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, without looking at him. “I should’ve realized you would have more on your plate with Boris in Russia.”

A few months earlier they’d gone to Moscow to attend Boris and Laney’s wedding. It’d been a wrench losing his second-in-command, but he’d proudly stood next to the man he considered a brother as Boris married a woman worthy of his strength and compassion.

Vlad pulled Jane to her feet, his long fingers caressing her shoulders. “You do not kneel to me.”

She looked up at him, an intimate glow in her eyes. She was looking at him with love. It was an expression that he wanted to snatch to his chest and hold on to forever. It was a look she didn’t often give him.

Perhaps Vlad was a selfish man. His desire to keep Jane to himself and keep her safe at all times ran counter to her desire to live a free life. It’d been a miracle when she finally admitted to loving him, the criminal mob boss she’d sworn to put in prison. She’d stopped trying to bury him, but she never lost her desire to hunt bad guys.

And that was the crux of their marital issues. Jane wanted to live her life the way she wanted, which included working as a private detective. Vlad wanted to keep her safe and healthy.

“Please let me out,” she whispered, her face creasing with earnestness.

Vlad’s heart cracked a little more. He dropped his hands and stepped away from her, remaining silent. He couldn’t bring himself to verbally deny her request, but he wasn’t going to let her out. Her temper was too short, too quick to take flight. She would immediately run full tilt into the first dangerous situation she found, and he wouldn’t allow that anymore. She would stay in the bunker until she learned to control herself.

“How is the child?” he asked mildly, trying to keep his emotions from his voice. If she knew how badly he did want to let her out, to allow her to take her place at his side once more in his bed and in his life, she would pounce like a sociopathic kitten, shredding away at his vulnerability.

She hunched her shoulders and cradled her belly which was becoming more prominent by the day. She was now approaching her sixth month of pregnancy. He’d been worried about her small bump but the private obstetrician he’d hired had assured Vlad that the baby was growing at a fine rate, that not all women developed the same during pregnancy.

“As if you care,” Jane mumbled.

Vlad rubbed the bridge of his nose and called on a higher power for more patience. “We’ve gone over this Jane. If you don’t tell me how your health is, then I will be forced to bring a doctor in for an examination.”

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