Married to the Mafia Boss

Evgenii

I’m ordering what feels like my hundredth cup of coffee. I stand at the cart waiting, annoyed that Shirley thinks speaking to Mikhail is okay. I have one of my guards stationed close to her room, keeping an eye on her in case he tries to hurt her again.

“Evgenii,” I glance over my shoulder to the right to see my sister walking toward me, waving her hand. I look at the makeshift barrister. “Double my order.”

I turn as Natalia comes up to me and hugs me. “How is Shirley? I heard from the guards that there was an explosion.”

“She’s fine,” I say grumpily, and at her questioning look, I add, “Mikhail fucking Gobulev is busy talking to her right now.”

“Isn’t that who you previously suspected of interfering with the family business?” she asks, tilting her head to the side.

I glance at her curiously, “How do you know that?”

“You talk loudly on the phone,” she grins. “But seriously, if it’s that guy, she can’t be talking to him. He shouldn’t be anywhere near Shirley. I thought you two were giving it a try?”

I pay the barrister and hand her a cup of coffee. “I can’t control who she sees and speaks to, it’ll just make me look controlling, and she won’t want anything to do with me.”

“Well, I’m here now. We have an excuse to go to her room because I want to say hey,” she smiles brightly. “I’d love to meet my big brother’s girlfriend.”

I roll my eyes. “Surely you’ve met before.”

She shakes her head. “Nope, and that’s shitty of you. You should have introduced me ages ago.”

I pause, and my mind briefly realizes that Natalia is never at church with us or at family lunches, and she doesn’t go to any events with us. I know she went to school with Kira and Tori but probably doesn’t know the rest of the family because they weren’t exactly friends. “Natalia, what do you do all day?”

“Ivan is busy helping me set up a business I can run so that I can get my own house or apartment and get on my feet and settled here in New York.” She sips her coffee. “So, are we going or not?”

I nod, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at my very private sister. I lead her back to Shirley’s room. Two doors away, my guard stops me. “He left. Nothing happened. They didn’t get too close or anything. In fact, she seemed to be giving him a hard time. Very stern.”

I smirk. “That’s my girl. Come, Nat.”

For the third time today, I knock softly on Shirley’s room door. “Hey,” I say quietly. “Uh…I’m sorry about earlier, but guess what?”

Shirley looks at me curiously as I continue, “My baby sister Natalia came to wish you well and meet you.”

Shirley looks slightly embarrassed and adjusts her hospital gown. “Oh, okay.”

Nat sticks her head in through the door. “Hey. Evgenii, move.” She forces her way between me and the door and walks over to Shirley, holding out her hand. “Everyone calls me Nat.”

“Hi, Nat, I’m Shirley,” she gives my sister a small smile, and I move further into the room, holding out the cup of coffee. “Want some?”

Shirley takes it gratefully. “Thanks. So, the doctor was here. He says I can go home tomorrow.”This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

I smile. “That’s good news, but I want you to promise you’ll rest. You were flung quite far and hard.”

Nat hushes me. “She knows she must rest. Shirley, tell me about the West Coast. It sounds fabulous.”

They talk quietly, and Shirley seems to perk up speaking to Nat. I sit in a chair nearby and listen to their idle chit-chat, nothing personal or confidential. Shirley has learned her lesson.

Nat finishes her coffee with a smack of her lips. “I also want to see Kira, so I’m going to go find her room.”

“How do you know Kira?” Shirley asks curiously.

“I went to school with her and her sister,” she smiles. “Since I’m here, I might as well check on her. We’re family and all that now.”

Shirley gives her a warm smile. “That’s very sweet. She shouldn’t be far.”

Nat waves goodbye and leaves the room, so I get up and sit on the chair she abandoned beside Shirley.

Shirley fiddles with her fingers for a moment. She doesn’t look at me, but she finally speaks, “I’m going to fall so far behind on my work. I wanted to finalize everything and get back to the things I usually do.”

I nod. “If Ettore recovers from his injuries, then we can both present our bids, and once he makes a decision, we can take it from there.” I don’t know if I’m reassuring her or myself.

“It does seem logical to bid from the bigger families,” she concedes. “I just wish we could do it and be done.”

“I know,” I say suddenly. ‘What if we made our proposals identical?”

Shirley looks at me skeptically, and I continue, “I mean it. We put through the same options, and Ettore can just pick whichever, and that way, we’re not trying to one-up each other constantly.”

She looks away thoughtfully and nods. “That isn’t a bad idea. That might actually work because then our families won’t bicker.”

She yawns, and I stand up. “Listen, you get some rest. I’ll tell the guards no more visitors except your family. Get some sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I lean down and kiss her cheek. “I’m happy you’re okay.”

“So am I,” she says, lying back and watching me through heavy-lidded eyes.

I leave the hospital with two guards escorting me out in case Mikhail tries anything. I leave two guards, with two of the Sorvino guards, outside Shirley’s room.

Once on the road home, my phone buzzes, and I answer, “Evgenii speaking.”

“Boss,” It’s Aleks. “We got some footage of who may have planted the bomb. Someone dressed as a courier on a bike. We’ve tracked him and brought him to your house for questioning.”

I feel that fiery rage building up inside me. “I’m on my way. Secure him.”

I look at my driver Gregori. “Move it. I want to be home asap.”

We push the speed limit, and we’re home in record time. I step out of the car and button my suit jacket as I walk into the house. Aleks is in the hallway. “Where is he?”

“The informal guest bedroom,” Aleks smiles.

I smirk, the only guests who end up in there are the kind that aren’t seen or heard from again. Aleks leads me into the room and shuts the door. This room is soundproof, and I can see the guy, head hanging, sweat dropping off his face. A deep black bruise is forming near his right eye, and it’s already started to swell.

I pick up a chair and place it in front of him, sitting on it. There’s enough distance that there is no way he can reach me, but I know he can hear me if I murmur.

His head sways slightly as he looks up at me with bleary eyes. I nod, I have no smile to offer this man.

“You planted a bomb today next to a bistro. Is that correct?”

He starts to shake his head, but Aleks stabs a sharpened welding rod into his leg, and I say, “We have it on camera, so really that was just to test you.”

He whimpers, tears forming in his eyes.

“Aleks, I think the dogs need something to nibble on. It doesn’t seem our guest listens very well, so I doubt he needs both ears.”

The man’s eyes widen, and he shakes his head, “No! No! No!”

He shrieks as Aleks expertly slices off his right ear, and I nod, sighing. “So I don’t need the details. I don’t care who your target was, and I might consider letting you live to send a message. What I need to know, though, before you can possibly dance your ass out of here, is who asked you to plant that bomb?”

He swallows hard, his breathing is harsh, but I lean forward. “Who put you up to planting that fucking bomb?”

He looks haggard when he looks up. “Miguel Rossi.”

I derive two things from this, this guy is an amateur, and he’s lying.

“Miguel Rossi?” I ask. “The cousin of Don Alessandro Sorvino? The don of the Rossi family?”

He glares at me and nods, and I strike him through the face sending him and his chair to the left, tipped over. “The man whose wife works at the bistro,” I raise my voice. “Who has declared if anyone so much as looks at his wife, he’ll personally carve off their cock and serve it to the lions at the New York Zoo as an appetizer?”

I walk toward him. I realize too late that I’ve made a mistake. The chair cracked when it hit the floor. Before anyone can do anything, he has an arm free. A guard approaching him pauses in surprise, and the courier grabs his gun from the holster on his hip and puts it to his head.

“Long live Don Rossi,” he spits out before he pulls the trigger.

I close my eyes and hold my hand out. Aleks hands me a handkerchief, and I wipe the blood and brains from my face. “I need to contact the Pakhan and clean up this mess.”

I leave the room, pull out my phone, and dial Ivan’s number.

“What have you got?”

“We caught the guy who planted the bomb. He’s fingering Don Rossi,” I say.

Ivan is quiet for a moment. “Is it possible?”

I snort, “He called him Miguel Rossi. No one in this situation, who works for any of the families, would be so informal with their Don, even if they’re related.”

Ivan gives a short breath in agreement. “I want to know who hurt my sister-in-law and her cousin.”

He doesn’t mention Shirley by name, but I simply say, “I’m on it.”

“I want to know which family is behind these attacks, and I want to know like yesterday.”

He hangs up.

I am at the hospital the next day, ready to collect Shirley. I was surprised when Alessandro agreed that Shirley could stay with me while she rests as my location isn’t as widely known as the heads of the families.

I also want to work on our proposals together so we’re on the same page.

I thought Shirley would be mad, but she willingly lets me help her to my car. Arianna already dropped off her things, so I take her straight home.