Page 65 of Beautiful Broken Obsession

“Ms. Parker, work with us. We don’t need much more to make a case against Milos Levin. We will protect you from him and any recourse. You won’t have to marry him. You can live your life on your own terms.” It’s the voice of Agent Ryan. Agent Ryan is Summers’ partner and has been for the last six years—he easily turned for the chance of more money than he was making as an agent.

Silence that lasts for a heartbeat but feels like a fucking eternity. “I don’t need protection from Milos. While my fiancé may not love me, one thing I am not, is afraid of him. Milos will never hurt me. He will always protect me. Your case is a lot weaker than you’re willing to admit if you’re coming to me when I’ve only been engaged to him for four days. Good luck with that. Stay away from me, I’d hate to have to tell Milos you’re harassing me. He wouldn’t like that very much.”

The recording is stopped. Agent Ryan shakes his head. “She’s an easy read. The girl is in love with you and you’re not stupid, you know she is. Yet here you are scaring her. Your woman is loyal, more than you deserve.”

I hold out my hand for the recording. I don’t allow anyone to keep a recording of Celia’s voice—those belong to me alone. “Says the man who betrays his position and badge for ten thousand dollars a month.”

Neither one of them like that; Agent Summers practically slams the recorder into my hand. A muttered “fucker” follows them out the door.

My phone is ringing, it’s Celia’s ringtone. “Yes,kotyonok, is everything all right?”

“No, I got a visit from the FBI. They warned me they are building a case against you.” Her fear soothes me in a way it should not.

I despise myself for causing it. “Do not be concerned. It’s the same case they’ve been building since I was twenty-two. If they have not done it yet they never will. They went fishing for information. Did they offend you in any way?”

A sigh. “No, it was…it’s fine. I tried to pretend I wasn’t spooked about a case. I’m not sure if I did a good job or not. Of course. They’ve been trying to build a case against Carlo too, but those are the ones who don’t know better. The ones with the real power always manage to squash it. Better the Outfit they know than allowing the vacuum to be filled with the evil they don’t know. Okay, I’ll let you go. Talk later.”

It’s all said in a rush, then she hangs up. My head goes back against my chair as I rewind the recording then play Celia’s response. Once, twice, three times.

Vasily’s call disturbs the moment.

“Yes?”

“Are you really not pulling Nikita out of there?” he demands.

“No, they are seeing how far they can push him before he breaks. Nikita doesn’t want to leave either. He’s smitten with his new fiancée. Once they’re married he’ll bring the girl back with him to Chicago,” I explain.

With a muttered curse that said we were all idiots, Vasily hangs up. Vasily has always been the more cautious one of us all. Good to be aspakhan, but sometimes caution got you nowhere and nothing.

Aleksander enters my office without knocking, the only one allowed to do such a thing.

“Where the hell have you been? You missed meeting Rodriguez at the delivery and go silent for two fucking days? If I couldn’t tell you were alive by your tracker, I’d kick your ass.” I mutter.

He chuckles as he lights a cigar, inhaling deeply. “I’ve been busy with my new wife.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” I thought he was going to be the hardest one to marry off.

Blowing the smoke out through his nose, he grins. “It’s all paperwork. I didn’t bother with a judge for anything other than him to sign off on it. We owe Judge Carmello a hundred thousand for his next run to keep his seat. And ten visits to the brothel, no charge.”

I shrug, I consider it a bargain. “Who did you marry?”

He wiggles his eyebrows. “That little FBI agent I’ve been tangling with. You told me to fix it without killing her. I fixed it.”

I’m unable to contain my laughter. “The FBI agent you loathe? The one you demanded I let you kill a week ago? You married her?” I shake my head. “The wedding night must have been something else.”

Getting up, he pours us each a shot of vodka. We salute and swallow it down. “Not yet. She’s in bad shape. Came to me broken and bloody. If I hadn’t taken her in she would have died. When I left her a little bit ago with the news we were married, she said she wished I had let her die.”

“Is this in response to me asking if you would consider marrying Celia’s sister?” Despite Celia thinking the idea was absurd, I felt compelled to discuss it with him.

A shake of his head. “But it gave me the idea. What is marriage but a signature on paper? She needs the protection our name will give, to keep her alive. Little idiot went digging into things she wasn’t supposed to. I finally did what you told me to do and read through her file, as painful as it is to admit—you’re right. Killing someone like her isn’t right. Letting her die is even worse. So I married her to keep her alive. We are the bigger bad. The person she crossed won’t dare kill the wife of a Levin.”

“Who?” I’m curious who would be stupid enough to try and murder a Fed but smart enough to be afraid of us.

He exhales the cigar smoke slowly. “Richie, the Outfit member over the loop who Dom said was good. Unlike the Sabatinis, he isn’t as careful. She picked up on something that would link that heist of the edibles we did two months ago to us and him. Because she wants to destroy our family so much, she poked at Richie to get him to give info on us. Richie freaked and made a deal with Manuel Rodriguez to kill her. Manuel accepted the hit. He was going to make it look like a car accident. Richie’s men were to grab her at the meeting he set up with her and bring her to Manuel so he could kill her, put her in a car and burn the body.”

“Fuck.” I exhale the word.

Aleksander shakes his head. “The good news is Manuel never touched her so I don’t have to kill him. Richie’s men thought they were helping by beating the shit out of her then taking her to Manuel. Someone disturbed their beating and she was able to get away. I only need to kill Richie’s men and Richie.”

---