Fall (Romanian Mob Chronicles Book 2)

F
all Copyright ©
2015 by Kaye Blue

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any similarities to real people, locales, businesses, or events are unintentional. This work is intended for mature audiences only. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

W
hen my best
friend fell in love with a mobster, I thought she’d lost her mind. Until I met his brother…

Love is a lie, a fairy tale.

In my world, all that matters is staying alive, protecting my clan. There’s no room for normal people. No room for people like her.
Especially
people like her. She’s pushy, nosy, talks way too much, but I can’t make myself stay away.

But I have to. Because if I don’t, it might kill both of us.

B
e
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E
sther

“
D
ick
,”
I whispered
under my breath, but still loud enough for Sorin to hear me. I was standing right next to him after all.

“Bitch,” he replied, not bothering with the whisper.

“Smile!” Fawn said, the bubbly excitement in her voice more suited for a party than the battle that was about to break out in front of her.

I shook my head. Smile? Here I was standing in Vasile Petran’s foyer like he wasn’t a secretive, dangerous Romanian mobster and Fawn wanted me to smile?

Of course, Vasile wouldn’t harm me, and in fact went out of his way to humor me since I was his woman’s best friend and his daughter’s godmother. So as crazy as it was, Vasile wasn’t the problem.

His brother Sorin on the other hand…

I felt my face squelching into a scowl at the very thought of my newest and most despised nemesis.

A squirming baby Maria brought me back to the present, and I looked up at my best friend, smile plastered on her face and her eyes screaming at me to smile with her or else. But I ignored Fawn’s demand, ignored the silent admonishment to behave. Ignored everything except
him
.

Well, him and the near-dizzying rage that pounded at the base of my skull.

How could something so simple—a picture with a baby for God’s sake!—end up with me in a homicidal rage and him looking as if he felt much the same way? I shouldn’t have been surprised, though. Sorin Petran had a way of making me want to murder someone, and today was no exception.

“I said smile. And no more name-calling. Either of you,” Fawn repeated, this time dropping her overly bright voice into one of threatening.

I turned my gaze to Sorin, waited for him to react.

And waited more, but he kept those laser-blue eyes on me, normally fullish lips—not that I’d noticed—set in a grim line, chiseled face stark with his flat expression. His body was at ease, the huge, loping muscles seemingly relaxed, but I wasn’t fooled. His right hand was clenched tight, and if he clamped his jaws together any harder, he’d break a tooth.

Bastard.

He had no right to be pissed. He was the one who treated me like a nuisance, an
outsider
, like I didn’t belong in Fawn’s life or Maria’s, while I went out of my way to keep the peace. Or rather, didn’t go out of my way to
not
keep the peace, something I easily could have done. And my thanks for it was being ignored at best, or facing his completely unrestrained scorn at worse.

My gaze caught on the flex of his jaw as he gnashed his teeth, which only emphasized his strong jaw, the rough-looking stubble that covered his cheek, the kind that would add just the right amount of friction as he—

I dropped my gaze quickly, trying to redirect the train of my thoughts, but instead landed on the strong column of his neck. Looking at the wide breadth of his shoulders didn’t help either, and by the time I’d settled on the middle of his chest, my pulse was pounding, and not with the anger that still roiled inside me.

Double bastard.

It was so fucking unfair. My nemesis, the only storm cloud in my and Fawn’s newly rekindled friendship, and he had to be the hottest, sexiest, most delectable man I’d seen in ages, hot enough to make me question my vow to only chase nice, decent guys.

Like I said, it was so unfair. Something that was reinforced when I finally looked at his face again, saw those shocking blue eyes, the angry little flair of his nostril. After the fresh stab of anger, a thought struck. If he was going to be pissed, I might as well give him a reason.

Quick as lightning, I closed the space between us and pressed my lips against his, my eyes open as I watched his anger shift to shock and then back to anger before making its way back to shock.

“Fawn said smile, Sorin,” I said in a candy-sweet voice as I stepped back, my own smile lifting into overdrive when he narrowed those lethal eyes at me.

Then I turned to Fawn, shifting Maria so she was between Sorin and me, knowing I had a goofy expression tacked on my face and not caring one bit.

I would have had to look away eventually, would have had to show that his intensity could get to me, but this, this was perfect. However temporarily, I had gotten the upper hand and managed to wipe that smug smirk off his face for the first time.

“I guess this will do,” Fawn said as she snapped the picture and then looked down at the camera. “Now give me my baby.”

Without a word, Sorin lifted Maria from my grasp into his huge hands and arms, the tattoos that covered both making quite a contrast when he held the small bundle wrapped in pretty pink against his chest. He whispered something to her that I didn’t understand and then hummed quietly, voice soothing, safe, so not like the Sorin he showed me.

But Maria had that effect on people, and if nothing else, I couldn’t doubt the depth of love we all felt for her.

“No one can ever see that picture, Fawn. Erase it,” he said as he handed the baby to her. Then he quickly kissed the top of Maria’s head and left, all without acknowledging my presence.

Fawn eyed me, but didn’t speak as she walked toward the living room, me in tow. She fussed with Maria and got her settled in her bassinet before she turned to me.

“I want to hold her,” I said with a pout, ignoring Fawn’s pointed expression.

“No. Between Vasile, Sorin, and you, she gets held plenty.”

She kept her eyes on me, waiting. Her expression was neutral, but I could tell she was expecting an explanation. But what could I say?

I deployed the most convenient weapon I had on hand to win a victory in the not so cold war that rages between me and your man’s brother.
That would have sounded crazy, even for me, so I chose distraction.

“What did the doctor say?” I asked as I moved closer.

My plan had worked. She brightened, her face taking on that reflective expression she always got when she talked about Maria. “He said she’s looking good. She gained three pounds, and he says she is catching up nicely after her setbacks.”

“That’s good!”

“Yeah with her being a preemie and then those issues she had with swallowing, it’s all going great. But he said we have to watch her for,” she swallowed, “potential developmental issues, but she’s doing good,” Fawn said.

My heart squeezed as I watched her rub Maria’s soft little arm, saw the love and concern in her expression. After Fawn’s attack and Maria’s early birth, the baby’s survival had been far from certain. But she was tough like her mother, and I knew she’d be fine.

Fawn smiled down at her daughter and then looked at me, eyes sharp, expectant.

I waited, now convinced my distraction had only been short-lived, and wondered if maybe, for the first time, Fawn would cut me slack and buy into my attempt to avoid the subject.

No such luck.

“I’m gonna sit on you if you keep looking at me like that, shorty,” I said after a moment. It was a common threat, one I’d used since we were kids when Fawn was a short little thing to my tall and heavy. That much hadn’t changed, nor had the fact that Fawn always ignored me.

“What was that about, Esther?”

“What?” I said as I plopped on the couch and faced Fawn when she followed.

“Fine. Play that game. Why do you insist on antagonizing my brother-in-law?”

“Brother-in-law?” I said eyes widening. “Have you been holding out on me?” I exclaimed.

I’d seen the love and affection between her and Vasile, knew that he cherished her and Maria, and though there had been a few bumps in the road, I’d never doubted that they would be together, and marriage felt like the logical next step. I’d even considered the possibility that they’d done it in secret.

Her expression deflated, and her shoulders slumped, and I wanted to punch myself in the face. Though Fawn had never said so, I knew this was a thorny subject, Vasile’s position and her past making theirs more complicated than boy meets girl. And of course I’d gone and put my big foot in my bigger mouth.

“Sorry, Fawn,” I said. “Maria can beat me up if you want.”

She gave a slightly pained smile and then sat next to me and sighed. “No, don’t worry about it. I haven’t even brought it up to him. I just thought…”

As she trailed off, she looked toward the closed door, no doubt thinking of Vasile. “It’s complicated, and I know he loves me, so maybe in time…”

“If you want it, you should tell him,” I said.

She scoffed. “You’ve met him, right?”

I laughed. “Yeah, once or twice. Besides, you probably shouldn’t take relationship advice from me. I’m better at keeping jobs than I am at keeping men. And I suck at keeping jobs.”

Fawn smiled, then sighed. “I don’t know why I even care. I mean, he loves me, and I know we’ll be together.”

“But there’s something to having it official. You’re not wrong for wanting that,” I said.

“Maybe, maybe not. But we’re not talking about me.” She turned sharp eyes on me again. “You were saying?”

“I wasn’t saying anything.”

“Esther…”

“It’s not my fault! Sorin’s a douche. He fucking stares at me like I’m scum or like he wants to shove my dead body that he deaded into a barrel filled with lye.”

She laughed out loud. “Esther, that’s not true.”

“You’re right. He probably has people who do that for him,” I said.

“You’re ridiculous, Esther. Sorin can be…intense. But that doesn’t explain why you act like that.”

Her brows dropped and she tilted her head and then a slow smile spread across her face. “Esther Jordan, you want to fuck him.”

“You kiss your baby with that mouth?” I said, trying for all the world to sound shocked at the very implication, like the very idea of running my hands over Sorin’s inked skin while he scraped that ever-present beard against my most sensitive places had never occurred to me.

And it hadn’t, not
that
often, anyway. How could it have? I didn’t even like him.

Fawn just nodded. “Mmm-hmm. I do kiss my baby with this mouth. And it makes sense now. All that clucking and those insults and generally churlish behavior. You’re trying to cover up.”

“I do
not
cluck. And your baby brain is showing, Fawn,” I said. My voice was strong, but the way I withered under her glare gave me away. Still…

“Come on. I’m not in elementary school anymore. I’m not going to be mean to a boy because I like him. Be for real.”

I scoffed and waved a hand dismissively, turning my head at the same time. I kept an eye on Fawn, though, waiting to see if she’d bought it.

No dice.

“Look,” I said, scrambling to come up with a reasonable story, one that didn’t involve me confessing that a certain Sorin had played prominently in my dreams for months now. “He’s…attractive.” Nuclear hot, but that was semantics. “But he’s also a psycho and a giant tool, always scowling at me, asking why I’m around. It’s annoying as hell.”

She gave a sympathetic nod. “They can be uncomfortable around newcomers.”

She didn’t expand on that point, but she didn’t need too. The Petrans were well known enough that their ties to organized crime were an open secret, one that left me uneasy, more than uneasy. But in one of the few moments of reticence I’d ever had, I didn’t ask for details and Fawn didn’t provide them. I didn’t care who Vasile was, what he’d done. He’d brought my friend back to me, and that was all that mattered.

“It’s cool, I get it, but the dude needs to take it down a few notches and relax.”

Her lifted eyebrow stood in place of the unspoken,
And you need to do the same.

“You have to admit, though,” I said, “the look on his face when I kissed him was priceless.”

“Yes it was,” she said on a laugh, “and I’m not deleting that picture. Maria can look at it when she gets older and try to figure out why her uncle and TiTi looked like they want to murder each other. Or, you know, someone else.”

“Whatever,” I said, looking away again and feeling something far too close to embarrassment for my liking. Stupid Sorin.

“Don’t you have to work today?”

I smiled, looked back at her. “No.”

“Esther, did you quit?” she said, narrowing her eyes at me again.

I glanced away, that embarrassment increasing. “No, I got fired. But it’s not my fault this time, Fawn! What happened was…”

S
orin

“
D
oes she ever go home
?” I asked, looking at the closed door when I heard the muffled sound of women’s laughter.

“Is that why you’re in here instead of with Maria? Hiding from a woman, Sorin?” Vasile asked.

“Trying to respect my brother’s home, something that”—I stopped short at his frown—“
she
makes difficult.”

It was too hard to even choke out her name. Even thinking it, thinking of her, sent a rush of annoyance through me.

“Esther’s a good friend, kind, loyal. You saw how she fought for Fawn,” he said.

“I saw her butting in where she had no place.”

Vasile shrugged casually. “Maybe, but not many would stick their neck out for a friend like she did, something I thought you’d appreciate.”

I looked at him, noting the difference as I considered my response. He was happier than I’d ever seen him, smiled more, seemed freer. But there was also a weight that hadn’t been there before. Both of us had accepted out eventual fates, knew that jail or death were the most likely places we’d end up. But he carried the burden of seeing after his woman and child now, and though they weren’t mine, I knew that it was heavy because I carried it too, knew that I would do anything to protect both of them.

I slammed out of my seat, frustrated as always seemed to be the case when Esther was even mentioned.

“It’s good that she’s loyal, but she’s also…unruly. And an outsider.”

“Since when has a little unruliness bothered you, brother?” he asked.

“Are you fucking with me?” I said, spinning to look at him and the smile that he didn’t even try to hide.

“Maybe a little,” he replied, laughing then, the expression on his face reminding me of a time so very long ago when he’d been free, had been just Vasile, my big brother, and not Vasile Petran, leader of Clan Petran, weighted by all that came with it.