Page 88 of Sexting My Bratva Boss
I say nothing.
He hums. “And how is your family?”
The silence stretches.
“I’m not going to threaten you,” he adds. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?”
“A warning.”
“Go on.”
He exhales. “When I was younger, I thought having a family would be a liability. I kept everything separate. Wife in the countryside, kids in boarding school. I thought I was protecting them.”
“And?”
“They grew up strangers. Afraid of me. Of my name. My business. That’s why Rocco is such an ass. But Fia, we pulled her out of school, had her taught in private. After… well, you don’t need to hear about that. There are some things you can’t protect your children from Konstantin. The point is, Fia was the only one around to see my work. I was scared when she was with me, yes, but I’d seen what the world would do to them even if I wasn’t there. So, I brought the boys home. There’s still a rift... a chasm we can’t seem to span…”
I let that hang in the air.
He chuckles bitterly. “You have a chance to do something different. Don’t waste it.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I know what it’s like to live in a penthouse full of ghosts.”
The line goes dead.
I stand in the dark long after the call ends.
The vodka bottle is half-empty. My soul feels the same.
I want to call Audrey. I want to beg her to come here, to see this place. To sit in that chair, to lie in that bed, to let me worship her swollen belly and promise I’ll be better. Safer. Smarter. That I’ll walk away from it all.
But I can’t promise that.
I’m a man soaked in blood. Anything I touch will eventually drown.
I walk to the bedroom, strip down, and climb into a bed that still smells like packaging plastic and bleach. Sleep doesn’t come, and I don’t expect it to.
Instead, with my eyes closed, all I can picture is Audrey in a dress soft as sunlight. Holding our child against her chest.
And me—watching from the outside.
I don’t know if I’m strong enough to stay away.
But I know I have to try, for them. For once in my goddamn life—something other than vengeance.
Chapter 27
Audrey
It’s been six weeks since the night everything changed. Six weeks since Sal's body was found in a shipping container off the Brooklyn docks, his face almost unrecognizable. No suspects, no witnesses or leads. The cops didn’t bother tracking me down; I was just an ex-girlfriend.
Or maybe Martynov Global Holdings requested a favor. Maybe there’s no question, for the NYPD, who did it, and they know pursuit is pointless.
It’s been six weeks since I saw Konstantin Martynov. Since I felt his hands on my waist, his voice in my ear, the heat of his gaze burning through me like truth.
