Glazov (Born Bratva Book 1) Read Free Page A

perfection as if carved from stone, and his expression had been unwavering, adding to the statuesque quality of his features.
    His lips were full and looked like they were made for kissing a woman. It was his eyes, though, that were his most compelling feature. They were a startling blue, not just plain blue but a slate, bluish-grey. They pulled you in, tempting you to stare into their depths. As soon as you succumbed, though, the ice-cold temperature they held within forced you to look away in fear.
    That is exactly the way I felt in his office—like he was simultaneously drawing me in and pushing me away. I instinctively knew that he could have his pick of women. A man like Glazov had the top three things that attracted women: money, power, and a bad boy persona. Of course, this was not the typical bad boy façade some men made a pretense of possessing. No, this was a full-grown man who was a literal danger to anyone who made the mistake of crossing him.
    I pushed through the day ignoring Robin’s frequent apologies that were now, honestly, starting to get on my nerves. She had no idea of the danger her gambling addiction put me in.
    I was relieved to see her go home at five o’clock. I planned on staying late to get some extra work done. I had a penchant for burying myself in work when I’m stressed. For some reason, it always seemed to soothe me rather than stress me out more. I would just stay busy with paperwork, and hopefully, it would keep me from wringing my hands and agonizing over all the rumors I’d heard about this man. I wasn’t the type to allow my thoughts to get away from me. It just wasn’t my style to roll over and say, “Oh, woe is me.”
    I didn’t know of anyone who hadn’t heard of Glazov. It didn’t matter if you were a white-collar businessman, a garbage collector, or a woman like me who’d built her business from the ground up; you knew who Alexander Glazov was. His name was synonymous with the mafia—the Russian Bratva.
    I was angry with my assistant for putting me in a situation like this. I have always been one who believed if I followed the rules and did things the right way, then everything would be okay as far as my business was concerned.
    I started from the ground up, building my business as a copywriter and writing commercials. I worked my ass off to get to the point where I could be independent, and now I was looking at losing that freedom to a thug.
    There had to be a way to reason with the man, a way for my assistant to pay off her debt. What really infuriated me was I knew the amount she owed was nothing to a man like Alexander Glazov. Hell, he could let the debt go and never even notice the money was missing.
    I’m positive it came down to principle. The issue with a man in his line of work was he couldn’t be seen as soft. Part of me was tempted to just back off and let Robin deal with the mess she created. She made her bed; let her lie in it. The threat Glazov issued, though, was that he would kill her. Knowing the consequences, even if I wanted to back off, I couldn’t now.
    Why did I go and try to reason with him?
    Never in a million years would I have imagined he would want me as collateral. Collateral and collateral damage—things had spiraled completely out of control.
    I was shocked when I looked up at the clock and realized it was nine already. I grabbed my laptop, placed it in my briefcase, and made my way to the door.
    I fumbled with my keys and dropped them. I never heard him approach and didn’t know he was there until I felt his breath on the back of my neck and heard his growl in my ear. “Get in the fucking car.”
    I could feel the heat of his body against my back, and I couldn’t help but wonder how a man his size could move so stealthily. The horrifying thought went through my mind what it must be like for Glazov’s enemies. No doubt, it’s terrifying for them to realize he’s snuck up behind them while they’re unaware.
    I dropped the keys