Page 85 of Brooklyn Bratva

“I’m going to ask you one more time, asshole. That’s one more time than you deserve. Put the gun down and give me the kid.”

“Fuck you Koval-”

The solid kickback of my Glock reminded me why I’d chosen it. I breathed out, watching Ruslan slump to the ground, face fixed in open-mouthed shock as the rosette blossomed out in the center of his forehead, leaking blood down the center of his nose.

“Look at me!” I yelled at the girl, dropping to my knees, gun holstered, arms wide to encourage her focus. “Don’t look at him. Look at me. Come right here. You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

The last thing any kid needed was the image of the back of Ruslan’s head splattered out behind him, or the blood leaching from the hole in the centre of his forehead between his sightless, staring eyes.

I was the only one who could keep that from her.

It was something I could live with, knowing I’d protected Becca from a man who’d tried to ruin her career. A man who’d tried to get my family to work against me. Now the whole of Brighton Beach would know that if you tried to fuck around with Russians, you’d get burnt.

One of my officers took the kid off me. A couple of my boys secured the scene.

I pushed my way out through the crowd massing at the bottom of the subway steps.

Mama was standing a little way back with Katja and Jerome by her side, and she waved at me, smiling more widely than I’d seen her in a long time. I pulled her into a hug, but the empty pit in my stomach was still there.

“Is over now Vanya. I’m sorry I caused you trouble. Don’t be angry with Becya. She is good girl.”

The sound of Mama’s name for her twisted something in my gut. Becca was the only one I wanted to see, but her face was absent, even among all the people I had to push through to get to them. Of course she was. I’d locked her in the back of a patrol car.

And I was an idiot. She’d come back to help me out, and I’d yelled at her and arrested her all because she’d made a mistake.

“Where’s Becca?”

Jerome shrugged. “Your friend kind of let her go?”

CHAPTER 44

Ivan

Before I could fully form another thought, I turned around, and there she was, flying into my arms as though I’d never said a bad word to her.

“Becca, how-?”

My heart clenched as her arms gripped tight around my neck, squeezing me so hard I had no doubt of the strength of her feelings for me. Still stunned, it was a struggle to focus on anything else but the woman in my arms, but behind her, I realized, was Max, standing waving my cuffs in my face with that thin smile of his.

Becca dropped down to her feet, cupping my face in her hands and drawing me into a series of kisses.

“Oh my God. I heard gunshots. Are you okay?”

I looked at her, realizing I’d been staring at her without saying a word. Hardly hugging her back at all. She hadn’t been so full of confidence to begin with and now she was looking at me like I was about to break her heart.

“Ivan?”

I could practically feel the pulse of it in my hand, fluttering like a little baby bird, and she was trusting me not to crush it.

How could she think I would? We were meant to be together.

My hand slid along her neck and I leaned down to catch my mouth with hers. She stretched up to reach me, on her toes again, her small frame arching into mine. She was featherlight, and delicate and every part of me was driven to protect her. This was all that mattered. Only her.

My cock throbbed when her lips parted to grant me access, despite the way I’d treated her, and I thrust my tongue into her mouth, kissing her with every ounce of the animal desire in me that she had forever awoken in me.

The moan she let out was the most exquisite thing I’d ever heard and her hands settled lightly on my arms as though she didn’t know where to touch.

All this time she’d been dreaming about me, as though she’d known the whole time what I could only just see now. I was only just waking up.

“Damn it, Ivan. Aren’t you going to say something?”

I nodded against her shoulder, letting my smile curl in, and she squeezed me so tight it felt like she thought I was going to disappear.

“I’m sorry, Becca. I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”

“I should have told you though. You’re right. I know that. It won’t ever happen again.”

I stilled her lips with my thumb. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s over.”

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