Captivated by the deadly mafia boss

Jakub

My father, Joseph Staszek, head of our family here in Chicago, sits at our table in our usual private room at Micah’s restaurant, stuffing a crab cake in his mouth. My sister Lena and my brother are already present and waiting on me, when I arrive for our family get-together.

Lena’s husband owns the restaurant, otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting at a table owned by an Ivanov. We do our best to stay away from the Russians. They’re ruthless bastards who can’t be trusted. Better to stay clear than get entangled. Lena’s marriage serves as proof of the importance of staying away from the Russians’ interests.

She’s happy enough, but it still burns my belly to see her on the arm of Micah Ivanov-head of his family.

“Jakub. Finally!” Lena puts her hand up in the air and waves over the wait staff. “What do you want to eat?” she asks me as I pull out the chair beside her. I shuck off my jacket and sling it over the back before I sit down.

“I don’t care. Whatever you’re having is fine.” I pour myself a drink from the decanter. “What?” I shoot Dominik a look when I catch him staring at me.

He shrugs. “You look like hell.”

I lean back in my chair and push on a sarcastic grin. “Thanks.” I down my drink, enjoying the fresh burn of the whiskey. I’m sure I look like shit. I was up most of the night at the club for the past two nights. Not that I was needed. Nora has everything under control better than any of the five managers I hired before her.

But every time I thought of getting out of there, I remembered Nicole Sawicki was sitting at a desk in an office not five hundred feet from where I stood.

After our initial meeting, we’ve had a handful of short conversations. Mostly work related, but I managed to find out she’s living alone not far from the club. I noticed her talking with one of construction workers yesterday morning when she arrived. I have his name and his address tucked in my pocket now. I’ll have even more information on him by morning.

“What’s going on?” Lena asks with actual concern in her voice. She places her hand on my arm and lowers her brow. “You don’t have to fire another manager, do you?”

“No. Nora’s doing great.”

She arches one perfectly sculpted blonde eyebrow at me.

“It’s not like that. She’s married.”

“And she turned you down?” Dominik adds.

“I never even tried. Married women are off limits.” I pour another drink.

“How is the construction going?” my father asks while stuffing another crab cake in his mouth. Considering the amount of food I see him chomping down, he’s thinner than before. His hair has lost all of its color and even his face seems more ashen than the last time I saw him. It’s summer, and he hates the Chicago heat, but he needs to get outside more.

“Good.” I nod. “They’ll be done on time. We’ve started to get some advertising and marketing in place for the opening.” Just mentioning the subject brings my mind back to Nicole. What really has brought her back to Chicago? And, more important, what dragged her off to New York to begin with?

We weren’t together long, a month maybe, but I deserved better than a text message telling me she was going out of town. Only to have another text message a week later telling me she was staying put in New York.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Good. Once the construction’s done, we’ll send the plans over for the new warehouse,” Dominik says.

“What new warehouse?” I ask.

“Not new, really, just tearing down the old one and putting up a new one,” Dominik explains. “Now that we have the construction union on our side, we have to keep them working. If you don’t feed the machine it stops.” He doesn’t need to explain any further. As much as I hate not knowing everything that’s going on, some days I don’t envy my older brother.

“Where’s Kasia?” I only now realize she’s not here with the baby.

“Dominika’s not feeling well again. Kasia stayed home with her,” Dominik explains.

“Do you need a doctor?” my father asks, concern weighing his words. The man is in control over who lives and dies within the world we live, but it only takes his granddaughter having a sniffle to expose his weakness.

“Kasia took her. It’s an ear infection, she’ll be fine. She’s just being fussy and Kasia didn’t want to leave her with anyone tonight.”

“Hmm, maybe she’s finally seen the error of her ways and has decided to use this opportunity to pack a bag and run away,” I tease. Kasia loves my stubborn brother too much to dream of doing such a thing.

“Why do you tease him when you can’t keep a woman in your bed for longer than a week?” My father jabs me with his elbow. “Kasia has proven to be a good addition to this family.”

I stare at my brother. “You need Daddy to come to your defenses now?”

“Like children,” my father grumbles.

“Don’t listen to him, I’m sure Kasia still likes you,” Lena joins in the teasing. Between the four of us, it has always been Lena and me against them. It wasn’t hard. After our mother passed away Dominik took a more paternal role with our little sister. She didn’t need a second father; she just needed someone to have fun with. Which is exactly what the second son gets to do.

“What did I miss?” Micah enters the room from the door leading from the kitchen and makes his way to Lena. He kisses her gently on her cheek before sitting on the chair on the other side of her. Dominik tenses at his presence. Micah has proven he is to be trusted, and our little sister has come to love him, but he is still a reminder of our inability to protect Lena when she needed it most.

“Nothing.” My father waves over the waitresses that have entered the room with our dishes. “Dinner’s here.”

“You only missed Jakub making fun of Dominik.”

Micah moves his amused eyes from me to our big brother. “Oh?”

“Now that you’re here, I’m sure he’ll switch to annoying you,” Dominik assures Micah and takes his plate of bratwurst and red cabbage from the server.

“I have nothing to tease him over,” I announce as my phone buzzes from my pocket. I let it go to voicemail.

“Maybe how much he loves your little sister? How he still stares at her as though she’s hung the damn moon for him?” Dominik eggs me on, but he knows I won’t engage with Micah. Besides, tonight I’m not in the mood for much else. Nicole is working at the club right now. A private party was booked, and she wanted to be the one to oversee it, even though she’d already worked all day on the marketing plans for the cigar bar.

“Jakub needs to find himself his Lena,” my father says, pushing his plate away.

“I do not,” I announce firmly. He’s given me this lecture before, and I’m not having it now. “I am fine the way I am. Kasia and Dominik have already given you a granddaughter and by the way Micah is looking down Lena’s damn dress, I’m sure she’ll be pregnant by morning with your first grandson.”