Used by the Russian Mafia Boss: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (21 page)

Emily turned her attention away from her computer screen. She swallowed the immediate lump that had appeared in her throat at the mention of Ivan Dedov. “Was Ivan there?” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “At the meeting, I mean?”

“Of course!” Sergei swept his hand through his blond hair. “The smug bastard was sitting across the table the whole meeting,
smirking
at me. What gives that upstart bastard the right to look at me like that? Huh? I’m a made man!”

Emily had to tread carefully here. Sergei had always been completely unreasonable about Ivan. She had never understood why her brother had hated him so much. Although, to be fair, Ivan was charismatic, handsome, and intelligent. Things seemed to come so easily for him, while Sergei had to really work to make things happen. Yet Sergei was the one who had managed to win the right to take over their father’s businesses for the mafia. There were three bosses who ran the Russian mafia in their region. Each boss had four made men underneath them, and each of those men had a dozen or more enforcers or lieutenants, dependent upon what their business portfolio looked like.

Speaking of business portfolio, Emily still needed to figure out why the numbers didn’t match. “Sergei, why do the books show so much overhead in the real-estate office? I know we didn’t spend that much on office rent. And there’s no way our expenses were that high this quarter. It’s like our profits just disappeared.”

“I needed some extra cash to pad the numbers from the street business,” Sergei admitted. “So I fudged the numbers a bit and then took the profits and made them look like they came from my side of the business.” Sergei said this as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

“You took legitimate, legal income and made it look like you had gotten it from drug sales?” Emily asked incredulously. “Why would you do that? Do you have any idea what that looks like from a business standpoint? It’s ridiculous! You made a ton of legal money this quarter!” The truth was that Emily was responsible for running all of the legitimate businesses in their umbrella. Sergei was the one who chose the risks to take, made big decisions, and schmoozed with clients. He had little patience for day-to-day drudgery.

Sergei jumped to his feet. “I don’t care about legitimate, legal business! I need the boss to know that I can pull my own weight and make the sales. Yuri won’t front me any more product if I can’t prove I can move a minimum quota every month.”

“So stop selling drugs and start brokering more mortgages,” Emily said irritably. “Seems obvious to me.”

“Because you’re not the one who has to answer to the organization!” Sergei protested. “And you’re not the one who has to listen to that bastard Ivan crow because he broke the organization’s record for sales last quarter!” Sergei started pacing energetically around Emily’s office. He flung his hands up in the air. “That smug bastard needs to go, Emily!”

“Don’t look at me. You’re the one who fired him eight years ago and turned him loose to make his fortune on his own.”

“I turned him loose?” Sergei’s tone turned hard and angry. He pointed at Emily. “I was trying to protect you! I saw the way the two of you looked at each other. You had a thing for Ivan Dedov, and there was no
way
I was going to let that bastard worm his way into the organization by marrying my sister! You’re going to make a good marriage that helps us up the mafia ladder, and that wasn’t going to happen if you married that loser.”

“Ivan is
not
a loser!” Emily argued. “You’ve just stood here and whined to me about how successful he is. Maybe you should have kept him on so he could make money for
you
instead of himself.”

“He didn’t care about money when he was here.” Sergei put his hands flat on her desk and glared down his nose at her. “He cared about getting you into bed.”

“Ivan’s not like that!” she protested. “He’s a good guy, Sergei. Just like you’re a good guy when you don’t have your head stuck up your butt!”

“I did you a
favor
!” Sergei insisted. “We need to be finding you some organization-appropriate marriage!”

“I’m not going to marry some guy that the bosses want me to just because he’s loyal to them or he’s someone’s idiot son! I want to marry because I’m in love or not at all. I’m not your pawn, Sergei.”

“You’ll do what you’re told,” Sergei said hotly.

“And if you don’t watch it, you’ll be managing your own real-estate company. Understand?” Emily shot her brother a look of disgust. “I love you, Sergei. I do. I think you’re a good man, but sometimes you’re such an ass that I just can’t understand how we can even be related.”

“Are you threatening to leave my company?” Sergei’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Really? You think you can survive out there without me? I’ve been taking care of you since you were a kid.”

“I’m sorry, big brother, but that ship sailed when I picked up the reins of the legal side of your businesses.” Emily gestured to the computer on her desk. “I’ve been running this side of the things since I was just out of high school. Hell, I had to go to night school at community college just to get my business degree! I’m not some helpless female with no skills, brother.”

Sergei sighed and sank back into the chair. He muttered a Russian proverb beneath his breath that had been one of their mother’s favorites. Something about paying attention to where your arrow is pointed before you shoot. “Look, Em. I don’t want to fight with you.”

“Really?” Emily raised her eyebrows. “Because you sort of came in here acting like you did.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry, okay? It’s just that Ivan is making me look incompetent as hell, and I wish I knew what to do about it. It just pisses me off. I shouldn’t take it out on you, though. Never you, Emily.”

She gazed at her brother. They were only two years apart, but they could have been twins. Emily kept her long blond tresses pulled back into a no-nonsense bun, but they had the same dark complexion and brilliant dark eyes that set off their light hair. She often wondered why her brother never seemed interested in women. Except Sergei wasn’t any different than Emily. She had no time for men, but that was really because she’d given her heart away once already.

***

“You should have seen the little bastard sweat,” Ivan Dedov told his friend Samantha. “I’ve never enjoyed a quarterly meeting so much in my life!”

Samantha Bristo didn’t seem to share Ivan’s appreciation for the humiliation of Ivan’s long-time rival. “You know you waste a crazy amount of time obsessing over Sergei Volkov, right?” Samantha picked up a French fry and dragged it through the ketchup on her plate. “I agreed to come have dinner with you because I thought you would have a new lead for me on one of the mafia bosses, not because I wanted to hear a play by play of your continued campaign to put Sergei out of business.”

“I have a lead for you,” Ivan promised her. “But the same rules apply. I will give you leads on the low-level activity. A brothel here, a gambling house here, and other things to help you keep the streets from becoming too much of a cesspool.”

“So basically I’m cutting a ten-acre lawn with scissors. Lovely,” Samantha grumbled. “Why won’t you help me take down one of the bosses?”

“Because that would make it obvious that someone was tipping off the Feds.” Ivan knew Samantha was chomping at the bit to go after a really big target, but he didn’t intend to give her one. Not really. “How about if I give you Sergei Volkov?”

“Of Volkov Real Estate?” Samantha looked dubious. “That real-estate corporation makes millions every year, pays its taxes, and has zero need for illegal activities. Why would I even bother?”

“Because Ivan is up to his ears in the drug trade,” Ivan told her. “Don’t you want to take down a made man?”

“Ivan Volkov is a
made man
?” Samantha leaned forward, her blue eyes bright with interest. “I didn’t realize he was that high up.”

“Oh yeah. He’s a hereditary member of the mafia. His papa was a made man before he was given that rank.”

Samantha pulled out her notebook. “Tell me what you know.”

“Not yet.” Ivan leaned back in his chair. His food was half finished on the table in front of him, but he wasn’t really hungry anymore. “I’m working on a plan to pay Ivan back for humiliating me a few years ago.”

Samantha rolled her eyes and slammed her notebook closed. “Are we back to that
again
? Yes. You were in love with Emily Volkov. Then her big bad brother decided you were a loser and put you out on your ass.”

“It’s an insult I can’t let slide,” Ivan blustered.

Samantha rolled her eyes. “No. You just refuse to admit that you still carry a torch for that woman.”

“No. I don’t.” Ivan was adamant. “In fact, she’s part of my plan to take down her brother.”

“Oh?” Samantha snorted. “Do tell, Casanova.”

“You know, sometimes I think I should have just let those bullies have you back in the third grade,” he grumbled.

“You wouldn’t have done that,” Samantha told him. “You’re too much of a soft-hearted good guy even though you pretend to be a badass.”

“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” he told her grimly. “And neither does Emily Volkov.”

“So your plan is to what?” Samantha prodded. “Do some eighties romance routine and steal her back?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Ivan wrapped his arrogance around him like armor. “I’m going to offer her a choice. Either she comes and works for me, or I’ll put her brother out of business.”

“Can you even
do
that?” Samantha wanted to know. “This all seems really pointless. Just give me the info and I can take him down.”

“But I want him to know that I’m with his sister. I want him to know that the man he didn’t think was good enough for her, is the one who enticed her away from him.” In fact, Ivan had never wanted anything so badly. “And when she falls in love with me, because she will, I’m going to turn my back on her and take her brother down anyway. I’ll dismantle his businesses, buy him out, and sell his company off in tiny pieces. Then I’ll watch him cry because I turned his sister into a whore and made him the laughingstock of the mafia.”

“That’s demented,” Samantha mused. “But I certainly give you points for creativity and villainous style. And I still don’t see how any of this helps me.”

“To hurt Sergei Volkov’s businesses, his dealers have to start getting picked up and his product has to be seized.”

“Ah,” Samantha said agreeably. “
That
is what I want to hear more about.”

“Well,” Ivan told her, “this is how we’re going to start.”

Chapter Two

Emily tried not to be too annoyed when her assistant knocked on the door between them at ten o’clock the following morning. It wasn’t Carrie’s fault that Emily was consumed with the task of hiding the huge chunk of change her brother had funneled from one side of their business to the other. It wasn’t like she was going to get any help, either. Sergei hadn’t even shown up to work yet. Although some days she didn’t see her brother at all if he was consumed with the problems that seemed to plague the illegal half of his activities.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt,” Carrie said apologetically. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder and then stepped the rest of the way inside Emily’s office and shut the door. “Ivan Dedov is here.”

“What?” Emily blinked, feeling a wave of shock wash over her. “Ivan is here. Now?”

“Yes. I thought you would want to know,” Carrie offered. “I know…well I know the two of you were close when he worked for us several years ago.”

“Something like that,” Emily murmured. “Give me a few minutes and then send him in.”

“Okay.”

“Wait!” Emily held up a hand. “Did he say what he wanted?”

Carrie shrugged. “He just said he has a proposition for you.”

“A proposition,” Emily repeated. “Why on earth would he have a proposition for
me
?”

“I couldn’t say, but I’m sure he’ll explain.” Carrie pursed her lips. “I’ll wait five minutes and then send him in.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Emily couldn’t help it. She jumped up from her desk and tried to straighten her pantsuit. Now she was wishing that she’d worn something other than her usual black attire, except she really didn’t have anything else. She patted her hair. Should she take it down? Ivan had always loved her hair. But she didn’t want to seem as though she were trying too hard. That would be a disaster, and Ivan had always been so handsome with almost no effort at all. He was just blessed like that.

The lucky bastard.

Her mind spun in a thousand different directions, wondering what he could possibly want. Could he be here on business for the organization? But why would he come to her and not to Sergei? So many questions!

There was a knock on her door and Emily turned. She put her hand on her hip and then let it drop. She felt so awkward. It had been so long since she’d actually worried what someone of the opposite sex thought of her.

Carrie walked into the office, with Ivan following in her wake. “Ms. Volkov? Ivan Dedov is here to see you.”

“Yes, thank you, Carrie.”

Ivan strode in looking like a movie character come to life. He was over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His thighs were powerful, his legs looking more like a couple of tree trunks as he entered her office. His black hair was given to curl and his eyes were a brilliant shade of cobalt. With a few days stubble on his face, he looked rather rakish. Then he spoke and she remembered that it had always been that low, delicious voice that had drawn her in from the start.

“Hello, Emily.”

“Ivan.” She allowed herself to give him a bare hint of a smile. There was no use fawning all over him, especially when she didn’t know why he was here.

“I can hardly believe it’s been eight years,” Ivan mused in a friendly tone. “And yet here you are in the same office, likely doing the same job.”

Okay, she did not appreciate that little dig. Emily drew herself up and tried to remember that this man was her brother’s rival, not her old flame. “What can I do for you, Ivan?”