Phantom's Baby: A Mafia Secret Baby Romance (Mob City Book 3) Read Free

filthy apartment was rat free – of any kind.
    But I knew it was a false hope. The same as I knew, deep down, that nothing good would come of the letter weighing on my shoulder like a stack of bricks, instead of a tired scrap of paper.
    I looked up, eyes half-lidded, cowering from what I might see.
    Rat stood between me and my salvation: the still half-open front door. His four legs were planted wide, his ears pulled back, his snout still bloody from my failed bribe. As if in tribute to the sight of its spilled brethren that marked his fur, the blood in my ears began to thump like a pack of galloping horses.
    So I didn’t hear it when Rat barked.
    But I saw the way his body clenched, watched as a fleck of torn meat flew from his mouth to the floor as his throat spewed out hot air.
    I knew that I was done.
    “Rat!” a sleep-addled voice cried. It was gruff and angered from his broken, drunken rest. “If this isn’t important, you’re going to get a hell of a beating, boy!”
    The dog visibly cringed, and as it did, I saw beyond the heartless, vicious beast Russell had molded him into. I saw the puppy he’d once been – sweet, caring and playful. He was every bit as much a victim of the old man as I.
    It won’t stop him from tearing you apart.
    A thump echoed around the tiny apartment as Russell hurled one of his huge, trunk-like legs off the couch. Another thud soon followed, and he levered himself upright, his old, poisoned limbs responding with none of their former vigor. Still, they were strong, and no strangers to violence.
    “Come here, boy.” He ordered.
    The dog glared at me balefully, knowing that I had sealed its fate, and was blaming me for it. He slunk towards his master. I squeezed my eyes shut, just for a second. Terrifying as he was, I didn’t want to see this.
    I heard the air whoosh out of the poor animal’s lungs as Russell aimed a kick, a pathetic wheezing yowl as it struggled for breath. Then I felt the old man’s gaze fall on me. I shrank back.
    “You! Wha’ the fuck are you doin’, creepin’ aroun’ like a thief, you deceitful li’l bitch?” Russell slurred his words, but his beady, untrusting eyes – now that they turned on me, cut deep as a knife. “Wha’s inna bag? Wha’ you takin’ fra’me? You’re wors’ an your mother!”
    I pressed my body against the hallway wall. His acid tongue barely penetrated my eardrums. Even his unfounded slurs bounced off me like I was shielded. I’d heard them all before, taught myself not to care. Besides, unknowing and unthinking, he’d provided a distraction. Hitting Rat, he’d opened up a way out. The gap was small, but I was nimble.
    I went for it.

2
    Val
    “ B oss , you sure you should be here?”
    I searched for the speaker, glowering. Inside, I was impressed by his foresight, but I couldn’t let it show. Not now, not in front of the men – my men . I might praise him later, in secret, away from the half a dozen pairs of inquiring eyes now turned on me. Almost every pair was beady and distrustful, lying in wait for an opening – waiting for me to slip up. I knew I couldn’t allow that to happen. I had to act like I was in complete control, because the second the mask slipped – I was done.
    “Dimitri, right?”
    The short, stout man nodded. He had a barrel chest, and a face that suggested in a fight with a baseball bat, the bat would come off worse. But unlike the rest of the men who surrounded me, his eyes were different – soft, brown and intelligent. I paused, considering how to respond.
    “What,” I said arrestingly, slowing my speech for effect. “Makes you think for a second I’d be anywhere else?”
    Dimitri looked at me warily, aware that he was walking a fine line. After all, he was one of the very few men I’d allowed to live through my purge of his former employer’s organisation. “Nothing, boss,” he said, keeping his chin proud and high. “It’s just, the boss – the old boss – ”
    I smiled a