Ruby Mayhem: A Russian Mafia Romance (Vyronov Bratva Book 1)

The blindfold is yanked off my face.

I blink against the sudden influx of light, squinting into the van’s interior. I’m so terrified that even my teeth are chattering. I cringe, squeezing my eyes shut, and waiting for something terrible to happen. Nothing happens at all. So I look up. And stare in confusion at the people surrounding me.

The small group around me couldn’t be more than their mid to late twenties, and look like they could be straight out of an office job ad. There’s a guy hunched down on a seat next to me wearing tailored trousers and a crisp white button-down beneath a lightweight navy jacket. If I expected to be snatched away by a gang of mafiosos, this is not exactly how I imagined they would look.

The guy in the button-down leans toward me. “It’s okay, you’re safe.” He gives me a smile.

I stare at them in confusion. There are three others in the van with me; a guy in the driver’s seat is dressed much like the first guy, from what little I can see, and two more are huddled in the back with us. There’s a woman in a conservative suit, and another guy wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with the words “Institute of Technology” written across the front. The woman is discreetly made up, and the men are all clean-shaven and unassuming. Normal. Oddly normal.

What the actual hell?

I’d expected to see a bunch of burly mobsters with menacing scowls waving weapons in my face. Still, my heart hammers in my chest as I try to make sense of this bizarre situation.

“Who are you?” I ask, my voice shaking with fear in spite of my determination not to panic. “Where am I?”

“Calm down!” the guy closest to me says sharply.

“Be sensitive, Greg!” The woman interrupts him. “Remember what she’s just been through.”

“We’re here to help you, Miss Avants.” The guy softens his voice. “My name is Greg Thomson… Agent Greg Thomson.” He holds out a hand. I frown at him and he looks sheepish. “Shit. Sorry.” He jerks his head at the other two behind me, and they get to work freeing my wrists and ankles from their bonds.

I rub my wrists. His hand is still extended, so I take it and shake it awkwardly. “Agent Thomson?”

“Yes.” He nods. “FBI. Again… sorry about the uh…” He waves a hand at where they’ve dropped the cable ties that had been used to bind me. “We needed to make it look convincing in case anyone saw us take you.”

My eyebrows are so tightly pulled together that I’m sure they’re about to meet. “Convincing? I’m not sure I understand.”

Agent Thomson and the others exchange glances. “We wanted to be sure that if we were spotted, it would look like you were being taken against your will.”

“I was taken against my will!”

“Right.” He awkwardly rubs his face.

“Why?” I ask. None of this is making any damned sense.

“Well… we’ve had Kirill Vyronov under surveillance for the past few months, and we didn’t want to compromise our planning.”

My mouth drops open. “You’ve what?”

“I can’t share with you all the details… I’m sure you understand. It’s a part of an ongoing investigation into the Vyronov Bratva’s dealings. We’ve been building a case against him and his organization.”

I shake my head, trying to process this. “You’ve been watching him… us… all this time?”

“That’s right.” He nods. “We know you were taken into his compound some weeks ago. We’ve been keeping a close eye on things.”

My cheeks start to burn at the thought of what they might have seen. “Oh,” is all I manage to say.

“We’ve been looking for a way to connect with you,” the woman joins the conversation. “And we…” She stops. “I’m Cassie, by the way. Agent Cassie Miller. This is Agent Kyle Barlow,” she points at the younger man near her, “and the old guy in the driver’s seat is Agent Timothy Cruise.”

“Who you calling old you little brat?” He gives her a mock scowl. She grins back at him.

I lift a hand to stop them. “Wait. Aren’t you supposed to show me some sort of identification? Like a secret agent card or something?”

Agent Thomson reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a wallet-sized folder and flips it open for me. I scrutinize it closely so he can see that I’m paying attention. I’m obviously no expert, but it looks pretty convincing. It clearly says FBI with capital letters and it has the picture of Agent Greg Thomson on it. Right. It could be fake, though. Not that I would know.

“Good enough?” Agent Thomson asks. I slowly nod. “Anyway,” he goes on, “we were given information that you’d been taken into the Vyronov household, and-”

“Who gave you this information?” I interrupt him sharply.

There’s another exchange of glances. “Your father,” Greg tells me. “He was working with us. As an informant.”

I stare at him.

“We’re so very sorry for your loss,” Agent Cassie Miller says quickly.

“We made contact with him about a year ago. He’s been feeding us information about Vyronov’s operations,” Greg adds.

My father?

What the actual fuck?

I can’t make sense of any of this. “Are you saying he was one of you? The… good guys?”

“Well…” Agent Thomson looks awkward. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“He was a federal informant, Tiana,” Cassie says. “He exchanged information for a ticket out of here. So that… he can escape.”

“And traded me for that ticket. Gee, what a prince,” I mutter.

“He was concerned about you,” she reassures me. “He-”

“He freaking sold me!” I snap.

Greg Thomson huffs. “That was unavoidable.”

“Unavoidable?” I know my eyes are wide. “Anything could have happened to me in there!” And now, when I think about the things that did happen to me, I find myself thinking of Kirill. And my heart aches. And my private parts too.

“The plan was to get you out of there as soon as possible, Tiana,” Cassie goes on. “Your father needed to get closer. Having you in the Vyronov household gave him a way in.”

I suddenly feel sick at the thought of what they’re saying to me. “Right. So you’re saying he used me… All of you used me.”

There’s silence at that.

“You make me sick to my stomach, you know that?” I spit the words out. I’ve shuffled onto my butt to sit up now, and I glare around at them as I lean up against the wall of the van.

Agent Thomson takes over again. “It was regrettable. However, your father had already found himself in a position where he needed to do it. We simply tagged our investigation onto his… circumstances.”

“My circumstances, you mean?” I’m still glaring. “I’m the one who was in there. I’m the one who was sold at a fucking auction! I’m the one who was handed over to Kirill Vyronov on a platter!”

Yeah, I was.

And I loved pretty much everything he did to me.

I will never admit that to these people.

“Again, that was regrettable. But please be assured that your father wanted you out of there safely. We made that deal from the start. As soon as we had enough to take Vyronov down, we’d get you out.”

Take Kirill down…

I don’t say anything.

“I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through, Tiana.” Cassie puts her hand on my arm, looking into my eyes. “We’re going to make sure he goes away for a long, long time.”

I don’t realize that my teeth have closed on my bottom lip until I get a tiny tang of blood.

“I see,” I half-whisper.

“And your dad was trying to make it right too.” It’s the first time the younger guy has spoken. His voice is uncharacteristically deep for someone as lightly built as he is. “He made a big deal of that every time we saw him.”

Yeah, right.

The thought of my father trying to do right by me doesn’t ring true. But then again, I’m having a hard time believing anything he ever did was in my best interests. Could I be wrong about him? Was there at least a tiny part of him that was trying to atone for his sins? It’s so messed up that I can’t even decide what sounds true and what doesn’t.

Not that I will ever know. The last time I saw my father, he was lying on the floor with his brains blown out. I never even got to have a funeral for him. But would I have wanted one? I still have no idea what happened to his body. I suppose men like Kirill have ways of making that sort of thing go away.

The guy called Kyle is speaking again. “Miss Avants, I’ve been looking for a way to get my gear in there to wire the place for sound,” he tells me. “We’ve been hoping it would give us a way to pull you out sooner.”

“And now you’ve given us what we were looking for with that little stunt you pulled back there.” It’s the older guy up front speaking now; Timothy.

“I don’t understand.” I look around at them. “Are you saying that you’ve saved me?”

I should be dancing for joy and singing with delight. And yet, I’m not. I feel strangely deflated.

“Well, this is where things get tricky.” Greg purses his lips. “We need you to go back in there.”

I almost shoot up from where I’m sitting.

“What?” I’m staring yet again. “Why on earth would I go back? You’ve just rescued me!”

“Uhhh…” Greg rubs his jaw. “Well, not quite.”

“Not quite? How do you ‘not quite’ rescue someone?” This is not making any sense.

“Because without the information your father was going to get for us, we can’t crack this case.”

“I don’t see how that’s my problem.” I fold my arms over my chest.

“I’m afraid, that’s where you’re wrong.” Greg’s voice has grown more firm. “You are going to help us.”

“I’m going to? What if I say no?”

“I’m afraid it’s not really a matter of choice, Miss Avants. You see, our superiors have you as an accessory, and-”

“An accessory?” I snap. “Just what kind of accessory?”

“You’ve been living with Kirill Vyronov for the past several weeks. You’ve been present during at least one crime in which lives were lost. If you could just gather more evidence for us, we would-”

“Are you kidding me?” I’m shouting now. “You just told me that you knew that I’d been sent there against my will. I was sold for fuck’s sake!”

“Yeah, right. But you didn’t exactly go out of your way to escape, now did you?”

I’m breathless with rage and disbelief. “Excuse me? For your information, I couldn’t just get away! I had guards on me 24/7!”

“Really? Because from what we could tell, there weren’t any guards following you at night. When you were in Vyronov’s bedroom. For all we know, you could have been planning all sorts of shit with him. If you know what I mean.”

I gasp. Partly because of how outrageous this is. And partly because I don’t have a way to defend myself over that. I pinch my lips together and take a deep, steadying breath through my nostrils.

“So, you’re blackmailing me. You’re going to blackmail me with the law if I don’t do what you tell me to.”

“Not entirely. The case against you is flimsy at best.” Cassie seems to be trying to reassure me. I’m not buying it. I aim a malevolent stare at her. At least she has the good grace to look guilty. Unlike Agent Asshole sitting next to me.

“As Agent Miller points out, the case is flimsy,” he picks up the conversation. “However, taking the matter to court would expose you.”

“I don’t get it.” I’m still pissed.

“How do you think Vyronov and his associates will feel when they learn that you were spying on them?”

“But I’m not spying on them!”

“They don’t know that. But when they find out about your involvement with the FBI, they’ll probably make their own assumptions.”

“But that’s just nuts! Until tonight, I’d never had any involvement with the FBI. In fact, I still don’t. You’re just trying to force me into it.”

“And you’re going to say yes.” Greg sets his jaw. He’s not just Agent Asshole. He’s Agent Motherfucker.

“Because you’re going to blackmail me into doing it, huh? Did you know blackmailing someone is illegal too?.”

He shrugs. “Not if you’re the FBI, apparently. Besides the rules have to be flexible if you’re dealing with scum like Vyronov. You will do your country a great service by taking a dangerous criminal off the streets.”

Jesus Christ, this is unbelievable.

Suddenly, Kirill doesn’t feel like the most dangerous man I know.

“What if he finds out?” I ask.

“Make sure he doesn’t. I’m sure you know how to get on his good side by now?” He raises an eyebrow, his meaning clear.

“And as soon as you’ve got what we need, we’ll get you out. I swear it!” Cassie seems to have found her voice again.

“That’s right.” Kyle adds.

“And I’ll drive the getaway car.” Old Timothy waves a hand from the front.

“Great. That’s just great. You’ll drive me away just far enough for them to track me down and kill me.” Even as I say it, I can’t imagine Kirill killing me. Despite what I saw him do yesterday, I know he would never hurt me. But these people? I don’t trust them. Not with myself… and especially not with my baby.

“That won’t happen.” Greg leans back on the hard bench that he’s been sitting on. “We’ll take care of it.”

“You mean you’ll protect me? And for how long?” I roll my eyes. “Until you’ve got your conviction and decide you’ve looked after me long enough to keep your conscience clear?”

Suddenly, there’s a pang in my heart. The thought of Kirill being convicted really doesn’t sit well with me. Probably because I’m a lovestruck idiot.

Love?

I push the thought aside. What’s going on with these people right now is overshadowing my confusion about my feelings for the man.

“We’ll see to it that Vyronov can’t find you. Ever,” Cassie says firmly, dragging me from my wayward thoughts. “Once you’ve brought us what we need, you’ll go into WITSEC, and you can put this whole thing behind you.”

“WITSEC?” I ask.

“Witness protection,” Greg says. “New identity. New life. You can start out fresh. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Sure, that’s what I wanted. But is this the way I want it? Do I still want it? After all that’s happened? I don’t know what to make of it.

“Start out fresh? I’m twenty-fucking-one! My life hasn’t even started yet! And here you are telling me I’ll be starting over. Do you know how fucked up all of this sounds?”

I’d be out in a foreign country, raising my child alone with no contact with his or her father because he would be behind bars and wouldn’t even know that he has a child. I open my mouth to tell them that I’m pregnant and then immediately think better of it. They would just use it against me. I know they would.

“This is your best chance of moving forward, Tiana.” Greg levels me with a stare. “If you want immunity-”

“Immunity!” I shriek, standing up so fast that I hit my head on the roof of the van. “I wouldn’t fucking need immunity if you didn’t have some trumped-up charge against me. You people are reprehensible, you know that?”

Cassie stares at the floor, and Kyle examines his nails.

“I do what I have to do to bring lowlives like Vyronov down.” Greg looks remorseless. “If that means leveraging resources like you to get what we need, I’ll do it.”

“Resources, huh?” I scoff. “So, I’m a resource to you. Or accessory. Because I’m just a little girl who can be pushed around and intimidated, right? Meanwhile, Kirill Vyronov is a high-level badass who can beat all of you in your own game with his eyes closed. You could never take him on without doing something like this.” As I say it, I realize that I get an odd sense of satisfaction from the words. Greg looks at me strangely, and I wonder if he realizes what I’m feeling.

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, Tiana.” Cassie reaches a hand to me again, but pulls it back when I scowl at her. “This is the way it has to be. Go back in there and pick up whatever you can. Listen out for names, dates, venues. He’ll let something slip in front of you; it’s inevitable.”

“Whatever.” I sound surly.

“And if you can find a gap for me to get my surveillance equipment into the place, you might be able to get out of there sooner,” Kyle says brightly. His expression fades when I shoot daggers at him with my eyes.

“Right,” I say.

“So it’s settled, then.” Greg claps his hands on his knees and straightens. “We’ll take you back to the Vyronov place and you’ll be good to go.” He taps the back of Timothy’s seat. “Get us back on the road, Timo.”

Greg Thomson looks so damned pleased with himself that I want to punch him in the mouth. Or the nuts. I’m so angry that I remain silent for the entire trip back to where they picked me up. In the daylight, the road doesn’t look quite so scary anymore. But I know that’s not the truth of it. Everything just got a whole lot scarier.

As we pull to a halt, Greg slides open the door of the van and I step out. He grips my shoulder before I can walk away.

“Just remember the arrangement.” His eyes lock with mine. “You do this thing, and you’re free. You don’t, and the deal’s off.”

I don’t answer. I’m about to walk back into the lion’s den to gamble with my survival once more. And staying out here with my so-called saviors would be just as treacherous. I hate the idea of gathering information against Kirill, but what choice do I have?

I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.

Fuck my life.