Bratva Boss’ Baby by Winter Sloane
Chapter Eight
Viktor could tell Ava still had doubts about his offer. She was a cautious one, but he knew she wouldn’t refuse him. He read the report Sergio had dug up on her. Ava had been raised by her mother in some small town he’d never heard of. According to Sergio, Ava still sent money to her mother on a monthly basis. Knowing that about her made Viktor like her even more. She was tough, resilient. Not weak.
“Well?” he asked. “We can start on a trial basis. If you don’t like working for me in a month, three months, whatever, then quit.”
Ava bit her bottom lip. Viktor was tempted to yank her to his lap, to kiss that pouty mouth of hers. To touch those splendid tits still concealed under her white blouse. They only fucked once and yet being in her presence stoked a fire deep inside him. Viktor wanted to have her again. To bend her over the coffee table and yank up that sensible pencil skirt she wore. He wanted to find out what kind of underwear she wore.
“It’s hard to think, especially when you’re looking at me like a hungry wolf.”
He chuckled.
“Okay, I have one condition.”
Viktor leaned forward in his seat. Ava’s cat jumped from his lap and settled on the space next to him on the sofa. He grazed her soft cheek with his inked fingers, watching for her reaction. Ava froze like a deer caught in the headlights.
“You don’t make the rules. I do,” he told her simply. He stopped touching her. She rose to her feet. Viktor almost thought she finally gathered the nerve to kick him out, but she only slapped her cheeks. The sound took him by surprise.
“No. You can’t do this. You can’t offer me a job and still want me. If I agree to work for you, it’ll just be purely business between us. No hanky-panky.”
“What?” He couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Who still uses that word?”
She scowled at him, then crossed her arms over the generous swell of her breasts, breasts he would like to suck and sink his teeth into. The hickey he’d given her seven nights ago was already gone, of course, but he wanted to mark her again.
What Ava was proposing was smart. With the looming threat from the Mogilevich Bratva, Viktor couldn’t afford distractions. It didn’t help she was all he’d thought about the entire week. Pavel thought hiring her would be a mistake. His father would’ve said the same thing if he were still alive, but Viktor had trouble letting go.
“Fine. I agree to your terms,” he said. Viktor stood up and held out his hand. She stared at it for a few seconds, then closed her fingers over his.
“We have a deal then.”
“Yes. I’ll have my assistant, Katya, draw up a contract. She’ll email it to you by the end of tonight. Once you apply your electronic signature, it’s done. I expect you to start work this Monday. Katya will give you all the details.”
“Okay.”
Viktor padded to the door. He paused. “You better have your locks fixed. Change them to better ones.”
“They were working just fine before you broke them. God. I must be insane for doing this.”
Viktor shut the door behind him. She’d been so surprised to find him in her apartment. It was easy getting in. All Viktor had to do was avoid going through the front door. He exited via the emergency staircase. Dust clung to the walls, telling him it was seldom used. He emerged in a back alley. Viktor’s car was exactly where he left it.
“Viktor Kotov?” a voice asked.
Viktor declined to answer. He raised his left arm in time as a knife slashed right through the sleeve of his suit jacket and the shirt underneath. Viktor grunted, backing away as the crazed guy wearing a dirty oversized army coat and baseball cap came at him again. He reached for his gun just as his assailant reached for something inside his coat. Metal flashed under the afternoon light. Viktor had a silencer on his firearm, so it would draw less attention. He doubted his attacker would bother with a silencer.
He fired first, aiming for his attacker’s arm. Viktor missed and hit the guy’s shoulder instead. It was enough for the man to drop his gun. Viktor kicked his weapon away, then delivered another kick to the guy’s injured shoulder. The man howled. Viktor leveled his gun between the bastard’s eyes, but he’d underestimated his opponent.
Viktor’s attacker gripped his knife and drove it right into Viktor’s left thigh. Pain lanced up his body. Gritting his teeth, Viktor smashed the silencer over the guy’s head. He grunted in agony as Viktor did it again and again until his attacker dropped the knife. Viktor kicked him away. This time, he stayed down.
He swore, then studied his surroundings. No one else came after him. It alarmed him that this fucker had followed him all the way to Ava’s apartment. Viktor walked up to the body on the ground. The bastard looked up at him, bloodshot eyes full of fear and hate. Once again, Viktor spotted the Mogilevich Bratva crest inked on the side of the man’s neck. Another disposable junkie assassin. Then again, the Mogileviches had plenty of spares.
Viktor took out his phone and dialed Pavel. “Send over two men to Cross and Diamond Street.”
“Did something happen?”
“Another junkie assassin.”
Pavel swore. “This is getting fucking ridiculous. I told you plenty of times to take backup. You still refuse to listen.”
Viktor wasn’t in the mood to be admonished by his brother. Fire still emanated from his thigh. He was bleeding out, but he had a feeling the junkie managed to miss any major arteries. Lucky him.
He continued, “He’s still alive. I want Andrei to work on him.”
“It’ll be hard to get anything solid from a junkie.”
“I know but we might get something.”
“Okay. I’ll send Motya and Olaf over.”
It didn’t take long for his men to arrive. They stowed away Viktor’s assassin in the trunk of their car. Viktor confiscated his assailant’s gun and knife. “Disinfect this area. Make sure there’s no evidence left behind,” he ordered Motya.
“Boss, you’re hurt,” Motya said, looking at his bleeding leg.
Since his suit jacket was ruined anyway, Viktor tore the fabric into strips to contain the bleeding in his leg. He’d gotten into worse scrapes before. He’d live.
“I’ll ride with you and Olaf back to headquarters. Get someone to drive my car,” Viktor said, fishing out his keys.
Viktor wasn’t invincible or stupid. He knew when to accept help. As he rode with Olaf and Motya back to headquarters, a headache started in the back of his skull. What a fucking annoying moment to be injured. His meeting with Fernandez would be in a few days. He couldn’t appear weak, but he couldn’t postpone the meeting either. His thoughts eventually circled back to Ava.
He wanted to know if the junkie who attacked him knew about Ava. She was just a woman he slept with once. A future employee. Hell, she even made it clear she didn’t want anything sexual between them. She meant nothing to him. Liar, liar, a voice in his head said. Still, the junkie would make presumptions. He’d assume Ava was important to Viktor.
If Viktor’s attacker somehow managed to tell Goran Mogilevich about his attachment to Ava, then she would be in danger. Viktor shook his head. He’d get Sergio to hack this guy’s phone. Sergio would know if he made any calls or sent any messages to Goran.
Fuck. His father would be laughing at him from his grave if he knew Viktor was starting to get all sentimental over a woman. Whatever. It was good Ava had made that ultimatum. It would be a lot safer for both of them if they maintained certain boundaries anyway. Either way, she would be working for him. Viktor would be able to keep a closer eye on her. Maybe he’d even send out a man to watch her, just in case.