Captivated by the deadly mafia boss

“Nicole. I’m Piotr Kaczmarek.” Piotr steps toward me with his hand out in greeting. I flick a quick glimpse at Jakub who gives me a curt nod, while still not looking at me.

I take Piotr’s hand and he closes his thin, chilled fingers around mine.

“It’s good to meet you, Mr. Kaczmarek,” I say, lowering my gaze a bit to give a show of respect. My father worked for his family for as long as I can remember; to be disrespectful now would cause more damage than good.

“I understand your father worked for my cousin in New York.” He drops my hand after a gentle squeeze.

“Yes. He worked for you here in Chicago before,” I remind him. “Not directly. I mean, he worked…” I let my words trail off. Don’t answer questions I’m not asked.

“Hmm.” He rolls his shoulders back and turns around toward Jakub. “I think the terms you’ve given are reasonable.” He marches back to the table. “For now.”

Joseph pushes up to his feet. “And your men will stop pursuing the girl.”

Henry huffs from behind me.

“Unless I find she has betrayed my family, we will leave her in your capable hands.” That sounds like a big ass loophole to me, but I’m not dumb enough to get entangled with this conversation. By the sound of it, Henry will be leaving, and I won’t have to worry about finding any more of his muscle in my apartment at night.

“Good.” Joseph shakes Piotr’s hand and escorts him to the office door. I scoot out the way before they walk right into me, and I catch Henry’s angry glare waving over me as he follows his boss from the room. As his eyes sweep over me a tremor erupts in my belly. He doesn’t look like the matter is resolved.

“Well, that could have gone worse.” Dominik gets up from the table, buttoning his suit jacket back up as he does so.

I look to Jakub, trying to read his expression, but he’s tapping on his phone.

“Jakub.” I take a small step in his direction. The tension in his jaw tightens, making my stop. He’s not ready to hear from me just yet. That’s okay, I have a few more things to do in the office. Maybe by then he’ll calm down.

“You’re lucky,” Dominik continues.

“How so?” I ask since Jakub seems hell bent on deafening me with his silence.

“Turns out Piotr doesn’t care for Henry all that much, and the guy Jakub killed was on his way out anyway. Jakub did him a favor.”

“Stop talking to her, you only encourage her,” Jakub growls as he puts his phone into his back pocket.

“Jakub-” I try again, but his chilling glare shuts me right up. Okay, still not ready.

“The car is waiting for you up front. Dominik will walk you out. You will go home, get in the apartment, go into the bedroom, and wait for me until I get home. Do not sit in the living room. Do not go into the kitchen. Sit in the bedroom until I get there. Am I understood?”

By the time he’s done talking my face could light a small fire. I’m not sure what to respond to first: his unreasonable dictates or his tone or the fact his brother is standing only a few feet away listening to all of it.

“C’mon, Nicole. I’ll walk you up front.” Dominik makes his way to me.

My tongue is heavy, too many words climbing on top of each other trying to get out of my mouth and stab him.

“C’mon, Nicole,” Dominik urges me softly again.

“Yeah. I’ll go, maybe Jakub will calm the hell down by the time he gets there. Then maybe he’ll remember he has no say in my life.”

Dominik grimaces slightly as he approaches me.

“Not now, Nicole,” he whispers.

“Listen to him,” Jakub says quietly. The steadiness in his voice gets me moving. He’s not shaken in the least. He’s resolved.

“I’ll see you at the apartment then.”

Dominik lets me grab my bag from my office and turn the computer off before he hurries me to the exit. The same black sedan that took me home the other night is idling outside the front of the club.

Once I climb in, Dominik grabs the door before I can snag it.

“You being here was dangerous,” he says.

I lift my eyes up to meet his. They’re blue, just like Jakub’s. More silver, but just as serious.

“I wasn’t in any danger,” I say. “I can take care of myself.”

Dominik sighs and shakes his head.

“Being able to and having to are different. Jakub can’t protect you if you do stuff like this.”

I turn away from him and stare out the front window. “I didn’t ask for his protection.”

“That’s not going to stop him.” Dominik leans into the car to talk to the driver. “Straight to Jakub’s and walk her into the apartment. A man at the exit and another at the fire escape outside. She’s to stay inside until Jakub gets there.”

I open my mouth to argue, but Dominik turns a serious stare on me.

“If I were you, I’d start coming up with a defense.”

He shuts the door, and the driver pulls us away before I can come up with a coherent response.

In the end I decide to turn my thoughts to my next step. If Piotr has agreed to call off Henry, I can move forward. After Jakub calms down he’ll tell me what Piotr said, and I’ll have more confidence in my next move.

If I move.

* * *

Jakub

My pulse still beats in my eardrums. Nicole’s already reached the apartment. I received confirmation, she’s inside and there are men at all the exits.

I should have realized she wouldn’t just stay at the apartment. She had that tone, that little look about her that suggested she would do whatever the hell she wanted, and damn my instructions. I should have known.

It’s not like she’s new to this world. I’ve done some digging on her father. Tomas Sawicki was a low man on the totem pole, both here in Chicago and then again in New York. He was loyal to the family, but he had no aspirations about him. He kept under the radar, running his collections and busting skulls when needed. If he didn’t try to take on a crew of his own, I wonder if he was trying to protect Nicole from the world he lived in. But I see her, I see how much she understands about the inner workings. If he was trying to protect her, he didn’t do a very good job.

“Jakub, sit.” My father’s back in my office and pointing at my chair. “We need to talk.”

I look from him to Dominik.

“Did Piotr ask for more on the way out?”

My father shakes his head. “No, nothing like that. He’s happy enough with the liquor deal on the west side.” Joseph sinks into a chair with a soft groan. He’s hurting, but he’ll never admit it. Stubborn man. “And actually, the deal works well for us anyway.” We’re actually going to save a few bucks on the deal, but the drawback is we’re stuck dealing with the Kaczmareks directly.

“What then?” I pull back the sharpness just in time. Joseph may be getting older, but he’ll just have Dominik kick my ass if he feels it’s needed. And my big brother wouldn’t mind in the least, having a chance to remind me once again I’m second. That I’m on the outside.

“This girl. Nicole.” He arches his back and wiggles himself into a better position on the chair. “You’re sure she’s not behind the trouble back in New York?”

“Nicole wouldn’t talk to the cops.” I don’t hesitate a moment to back her up. “Her father’s job was to take care of guys who stepped out of line, who talked when they weren’t supposed to. She wouldn’t do that.”

Joseph nods. He didn’t doubt her; the question feels more like a test for me than an inquiry into her loyalty.

“The Kaczmareks did a lot for her when her father died. Helped her.”

“I know that. And so does she. But she never took an oath. She didn’t need to stay in New York and be with that asshole just because he couldn’t take no for an answer,” I point out. So long as Nicole is no threat, her walking away should mean nothing to anyone back in New York. Or Chicago.

“That’s true,” Dominik pipes up, taking the seat beside my father. They’re on one side of the desk staring at me together.

“I understand you want to protect her.” Joseph folds his hands in front of him and levels me with a fatherly look. The same he would use when I was a child, and he was about to lecture me about grades or watching after Lena more. “But there’s only so much we can do. She’s not our family.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” My chest fills with anger at the implication of his words.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“It means, we can’t go into a war with the Kaczmareks because you want to get your dick wet,” Dominik adds.

I tuck my bottom lip between my teeth. Throwing my fist into his face would make my entire day brighter.

“It’s not like that,” I say, although I’m not really sure what it is.

“Whatever it is, the same applies. The Kaczmareks have a longer arm then we do,” my father reminds me. We have no family presence in New York. We’ve built our empire here in Chicago. Going to war with the Kaczmareks could bring us all down.

“You want me to cut her loose?” I ask, but I won’t do it. I won’t throw her to the wolves.

“You have a decision.” Joseph points a shaky finger at me. “We can’t give her the full protection of our family unless she’s part of our family.”

Realization of what he’s talking about hits me. My arms feel heavy, my heart slows.

“Marriage? You want to use this situation to force me into a marriage?”

Joseph raises his brow. “I’m not forcing you, Jakub. It’s your decision. If you want Nicole to be safely tucked under our family name, she must have it.”

I stare at him momentarily surprised, but I shouldn’t be. The man has been on a warpath to get me down the altar for months.

“She won’t agree.”

He shrugs. “Then she’ll have to understand while you can offer her as much protection as you’d like, if the Kaczmareks decide they want further discussion, I won’t be making any more deals on her behalf. They are her problem. Not ours.”

Everything they say is true. Her connection is the Kaczmarek family. They’ve employed her father and given her aid when she needed it.

Without the family having our backs, she’s vulnerable.

I stare at them both in silence. She’s never going to say yes. It will be a fight from the very mention of the subject until I get her down the aisle.

But it’s a fight she’s going to lose.

For her own safety.

Her own protection.

I will drag her into my life, my family, and my marriage bed kicking and screaming if I have to.