Page 5 of Brooklyn Bratva

There was a flurry of motion as one of the two men with hoods pulled over their faces behind her grabbed her phone, and threw it over to his buddy, slamming her hard against the wall. I should have noticed them following her.

On any day, it was a long ride from Manhattan, but I knew she’d come a long way just to get here. I should have offered to pick her up. How could I have let her come all this way on her own? And now she was paying for it. I cursed myself for not picking her up.

A growl rumbled in my throat, and I was out of the door of the cafe in an instant, shoving it hard enough that the bell jingled madly. Mehmet let out a yell, but I was half way down the street before I realized he was waving my bill at me.

I wasted a moment to turn around, yelling back to him as I gestured towards Becca.

“Look after her!”

I barely broke a sweat as I powered down the street after the pair of muggers, zoned in on the back of their heads. A red mist descended and I could practically see a target in the middle of each hood. I didn’t care that the street was busy, that this was broad daylight. I’d finish the pair of them for touching her.

Fists clenched, my knees pumped high as I sprinted down the street, dodging pedestrians.

“Police. Get out of the way!”

My hand was already closing around the butt of my service weapon – the Glock 17 I’d had to pay for an upgrade on a few years back. It was worth it. I could aim and fire without a second thought. The thug who’d dared to lay a hand on her was going to pay for what he’d done. He and his pal were going to wish they’d picked a different mark, and a different precinct.

“Police! Freeze you piece of shit!”

Predictably, neither of them did.

Well, they’d just brought down a world of trouble on themselves.

The cop in me already had their faces committed to memory, their builds cataloged and their sneakers noted. The best thing that could happen for them right now was for me to catch up with them, otherwise the mafia man in me was going to take over, and I’d hunt them down and really get my hands wet.

This was my precinct, and my job was to keep it clean. Above suspicion. So that business could keep running smoothly for my fellow countrymen. I always did what I said I would, and punks like this had learned that, for the most part.

That was the way it had been set up when I came into the country and that was the way it was now. These two didn’t seem to have gotten the memo.

No one messed with Brighton Beach, and no one messed with the woman who was going to be mine.

And Becca was going to be mine.

Body and soul, until death do us part. That was something I knew to be true as soon as the thought went through my head. Mama would be pleased.

But first I had to annihilate any and all threats to her. Living in America was a sacrifice I’d made for the wellbeing of my family, but it was home now like it or not, and I wasn’t letting anyone think they could treat her that way in my part of town.

Becca

I hardly had time to shout out when I was slammed into the nearest shop window. Pathetically, I tripped over my own feet, and by the time I realized the jerkoff who’d shoved me had taken my phone, he’d sprinted off down the street.

I didn’t need a second longer to realize that the man who’d thundered past me, pouding down the sidewalk, face set into a snarl of fierce resolve, was Ivan. My avenger.

I grimaced as I peeled myself back up off the ground, dusting myself off, thankful that I had at least some of my dignity in tact. The palms of my hands were grazed and stinging and I’d caught the shop window hard enough that I was pretty sure my hip was going to turn purple, but I didn’t feel any of it as I watched him power down the street after them. They hadn’t taken my bag or my money, just my phone.

It’d be useless to them as soon as I reported the theft, but I already knew the first thing they’d do would be to turn it off and take out the SIM card. It would probably wind up in a whole other country where there was some wizard who could deregister it and unlock it without any of the in built security being triggered, and then it would probably end up on EBay.

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