Beast (Creatures of the Mafia Book 1)

by Eva K. More

  This was not a conversation she had wanted to have with Gabriel, aka Beast of all people. Peering at him from between her fingers, she frowned at the amusement glinting in his eyes.

  “You’re right.” He retorted.

  Gabriel pushed off the wall and sauntered over to her. His black, slightly longish hair was disheveled, and the daylight made the harsh lines on his face and sharp angles of his body much softer.

  He pried her hands away with his own and peered into her face. The warm contact of his skin spread a tingling sensation into the rest of her body.

  “Let’s just forget it.” Her mind protested at his simple words. That’s not exactly what she had planned to do. “I wasn’t in a very good mood yesterday, to begin with…” Gabriel said, and his rough fingers gently grasped her chin. As if hypnotized, his thumb stroked her mouth sweetly. Kat didn’t dare move. “And you were just so...”

  “Persuasive?” She offered, trotting through dangerous territory.

  “Yeah… and responsive.” He complimented with a solemn, low voice. A shiver ran down her back at his whispered admission.

  His eyes followed her tongue as she wetted her lower lip after his teasing touch had tickled it. If sexual tension ever needed a cover, somebody should have captured that moment only.

  Gabriel’s heavy-lidded gaze and Kat’s misty eyes spoke volumes. So, hit with a realization about how intimate his touch had become, Gabriel cleared his throat and let go.

  “Actually, I think I might have good news for you,” he said as he stepped back and created a small distance between them.

  Those words were like a wake-up call. Blinking away her stupor, Kat narrowed her eyes in concentration, trying to ignore his heady scent and blazing glare.

  “What do you mean?” she asked and took her cup of coffee before she moved into the living room when Gabriel motioned for her to follow him. He instructed her to sit on the couch, and he sat down on the table in front of her. The atmosphere had changed from electrically charged to strictly serious.

  “Ivo should be history soon, and Anton will have other things to worry about.”

  “What?” Her forehead creased in frustration. “Wait a minute. Ivo is your boss. Why should he be history and not me?”

  Silence.

  “My wording was off.”

  Kat narrowed her eyes at him. “No, it wasn’t. You never behaved like he was your boss, and yet you told me he is someone very powerful and important. But why does it feel like you are pulling all the strings?”

  “I’m not.” He deadpanned.

  “Obviously, or else you could have just ordered him to leave me alone.” Her eyes widened. “Wait! You couldn’t have, could you? Because then this…” widening her arms, she indicated everything around her, “would have been a complete farce. And what would you have to gain?” But the more she thought about it, the more it felt like a brick had hit her.

  Gabriel had always talked about Ivo like he was no better than the dirt on his shoes. And Ivo had caved to the Beast’s demands. But why would Gabriel do this to her?

  She lifted her eyes to see Gabriel regarding her calmly, and by his expression, Kat knew that her racing thoughts were easily noticeable.

  “I can’t order Ivo. Kapov can.”

  That name again. The Big Boss of all the ‘gangsters’ inside the mafia. Well, at least that was what she thought.

  “And does he know that Ivo’s going to be history or have you decided that on your own?” she remembered when she had first seen Anton, it hadn’t seemed like he was a fan of this ominous Kapov.

  Gabriel pinched the visible bridge of his nose above the mask. “Kapov’s not exactly fond of Ivo.”

  “Then why not fire him or order you to kill him?” Her voice had turned small, almost afraid of the answer.

  She was not panicking. But it did not make any sense, and her head was hurting. And maybe she was panicking a little.

  “Calm down,” it was a harsh command, but it helped her center herself a tiny bit. Gabriel sighed. “And it had not been so easy to get rid of him, but it will be soon.”

  Swaying a little, Kat leaned back against the backrest of the couch. “So, your boss is Kapov and not Ivo?” She sensed it because of the way he talked about that other man.

  His response was a shrug. “He’s always been my boss.”

  “You know what I mean, Gabriel.” Kat scolded. “I still don’t get it. Why keep me in this cabin if he’s going to be ‘history’?”

  Kat flinched when she caught his stern gaze. The Beast could intimidate her, but he couldn’t scare her off.

  “Listen, this has nothing to do with you, little bird. What I told you is the truth. I didn’t know how long we would have needed to put up with Ivo; he could have found you in that time easily. It is not over yet.”

  She didn’t comment on his use of ‘we’ because she knew he meant Kapov and him.

  It sounded like whatever plan they had, Gabriel was more than just an operator, so maybe he was more than just an employee of Kapov, perhaps he was the mob boss, hiding behind this Kapov persona.

  Kat fiddled with her hands when she looked at him and noticed that he was steady, calm, controlled. Now, in front of her, was the business Beast. He hadn’t acknowledged her allegations; he was self-assured and entirely at ease. And he didn’t appear smug about it either.

  “Why is it that you needed to put up with Ivo?” she asked, honestly curious about all of this business with that awful man.

  “That’s none of our business.”

  “Except that I’m caught up in the middle of it,” Kat pointed out.

  “Yes, apart from that, it’s none of your business. But-” he lifted a hand to halt her protest, “I know how your mind works, and you won’t give up until you get some information.”

  Kat hid her satisfied little smile by taking a sip of her almost cold coffee.

  “Let’s say that Kapov has an enemy he wants to see six feet under, but he also wants their business to disappear without the possibility of someone else taking over as a successor. And let’s say this enemy has partners who have vast interests in the business, partners that can’t be trusted or underestimated, partners that need to be dealt with too. For all this to happen, we needed a person made of the same mold, someone to get us inside. A person like Ivo.” He finished his hypothetical explanation, and Kat saw that he was waiting for her to follow.

  “Basically, this means that Ivo is your decoy.”

  He nodded.

  “And that enemy is Anton, right?”

  Gabriel lifted one eyebrow. “Perceptive little thing,” he murmured.

  Kat rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t so hard to guess. But…” she furrowed her brows. “Ivo is responsible for the only brothel that belongs to Kapov, as far as I know, so does this mean,” her shrewd eyes met his, “that Anton’s business is prostitution?”

  The laugh that left Gabriel was surprising and short. “You don’t look to be this smart, little bird.”

  “Well, looks can be deceiving.” She said as she tried to hide a smirk, and rolled her eyes.

  That’s when Gabriel’s gaze flickered at her form, heating up instantly. “They sure can,” he drawled.

  Kat cleared her voice as her hands started feeling clammy. “So, why would you like to destroy a prostitution business?”

  Gabriel leaned forward and rubbed one of his knees. “It’s more of a human trafficking ring than just simple prostitution.”

  Kat regarded Gabriel’s lazy posture with open interest. “That’s very noble of you. Helping innocent girls, trying to-”

  Abruptly, he leaned forward. “Stop making it sound romantic, Kat. We each have our reasons, and there’s nothing noble about it. Kapov is the big boss, and whatever I do is part of my job. Every business beyond the boundaries of legality is bloody and dirty, and Kapov does what he needs to stay on top. You don’t get out alive. We are not heroes.”

  Her mouth went suddenly dry, and she tried to
swallow to moisten it up again. “Okay. I understand. You’re a criminal with a heart,” she said, trying to make the tension lighter.

  And really, he had been nothing but a hero for her; how could she not believe it deep in her heart?

  Okay, so she had seen him kill a man. But maybe that man deserved to be dealt with harshly? That man had been involved with Ivo, so perhaps he had been involved with human trafficking, too. Didn’t this make it somehow okay?

  Gabriel stared at her before eventually cocking an eyebrow. “Remember, I’m still a wolf, little bird.”

  And she had been a little red riding hood yesterday, not a little bird. Kat pushed that thought away, violently.

  “Because you’re from the mafia?”

  “You shouldn’t underestimate the mob,” Gabriel warned. “Or me.”

  “I don’t.” Looking at his menacing mask, she suppressed a shiver. “But you have been nice to me, so…” She shrugged, not bothering to complete her sentence.

  Gabriel took a deep breath beneath the metal piece. “I wasn’t exactly nice to you yesterday.”

  That made Kat fiddle with her fingers as she stared down at her lap. “No,” she whispered. “But it was still… nice.”

  “Focus, Kat,” he ordered harshly. “It’s important that you always remember on what side of the law we are on. Nobody can cross us and survive.”

  Kat pursed her lips and regarded him with slightly blushing cheeks. She’d drop the matter for the moment, as it appeared that Gabriel did not like talking about his good sides. Maybe he didn’t even believe that there was anything good and admirable about him.

  “Fine. Why is it that Ivo will be history soon? Have you found all the information you needed?”

  Gabriel nodded. “Mostly. That, and the meeting I’m having tomorrow.”

  “What meeting?”

  His eyes turned to steel. “With Anton and his friends,” he growled. “And that’s as far as this conversation can go. But, I suppose, now that it’s all coming to an end, I should give you some credit for it.”

  Puzzled, she gaped at him. “How… why?”

  “Because of your disappearance act, Ivo has been more ready than ever to crawl into Anton’s ass. Both have been blindsided by looking for you, wanting to exert their revenge. It made them less wary. Soon I should know all about Anton’s alliances. Thanks to you, it has come to this stage much faster.”

  “Somehow, I’m not that delighted about my role in this fiasco.” Kat murmured.

  Gabriel’s eyes softened. “Neither am I…”

  In the comfortable silence that followed after, Kat’s brain jumped from thought to thought. She leaned back into the soft backrest and decided to use his unusual openness to pursue the subject further.

  “How does Maryan fit into this picture?” Her big eyes were a picture of innocence.

  “No dice, little bird,” he said dryly and closed his eyes.

  “But-”

  “No.” He deadpanned and opened his relentless grey pools.

  “Fine.” She conceded. After everything he had been open about, she decided not to press her luck anymore.

  Gabriel propped up his hands on his thighs that were just a small space away from the couch she was sitting on and watched her a bit warily.

  Kat had been completely absorbed with his talking, but her sub-consciousness had been aware of his proximity the whole time. “I never thought I’d sleep with somebody without kissing him first.”

  The bold statement floated in the room and stopped above their heads, like a slowly dissipating cloud. She saw the material of his shirt stretching as Gabriel inhaled deeply.

  He acknowledged her words with a speculative gaze. “Was that a question?”

  “No,” Kat replied.

  She had said it because she liked riling him up, keeping him on his toes, just like she had enjoyed him losing control yesterday. And yes, she did have a question following that statement. But that answer depended on him being confused.

  “Is it because-” Strengthening her courage, she aligned her shoulders and sat adequately, then took a deep breath. “Lina told me that there is a rumor that you were in an accident and your face…” she broke eye-contact, “your face got damaged somehow.”

  The silence that followed after was heavy with tension, and unable to keep still, she twisted a big lock of her straight, blonde hair nervously between her fingers. She had started regretting opening her silly mouth when he surprised her.

  “When I was seven, I tried cooking and lit the whole kitchen on fire,” Gabriel started saying, “after that, when I was nine, a man struck me so hard that I got smacked against the wall, and my teeth left an imprint on the outside of my cheek. Then again, when I was twelve, I operated a vehicle very poorly and crashed it into a tree. It started burning.”

  Stopping her nervous movements, she lifted her gaze to his unwavering one, holding her breath. He was taunting her, she knew. Not that he was telling her lies, but he didn’t want her sympathy.

  “I’ve never had a sheltered childhood,” he added.

  He left the accusation hanging in the air, but Kat was sure that he added ‘like you’ in his head. Instead of taking offense, she took the truth for what it was, because she had had the ultimate loving family supporting her throughout her life.

  She knew he didn’t want her sympathy, so she hid it beneath her distant expression.

  “And where were your parents?” He had told her that his mother had died when he had been young, but not much more. What about his father?

  “During the kitchen incident? My mother was probably spreading her legs for some guy during working hours. During the rest? Dead.”

  Kat swallowed her initial reaction of shock. For some reason, she knew that that was what he wanted – to shock her, to push her away. Was he trying to gain back his control after losing it yesterday? Unbeknownst to him, instead of being repulsed by his stories, she became more intrigued. There was so much more to Gabriel than just the merciless beast. Somewhere inside was a child who had been badly hurt, and she intended to get to know it as well.

  Also, he had told her something that opened up her eyes concerning certain parts of his character.

  His mama had been a working girl. Obviously, Gabriel behaving somewhat distantly to that business had its roots in his childhood. She belied his earlier words. His reasoning for fighting against Ivo and Anton was noble, but maybe he didn’t know it himself.

  “How did she die?” she asked quietly. Last time he had mentioned it, he had been vague, not responding to further probing.

  “Told you, it was sort of an accident.” He hadn’t told her anything. His answer was still evasive.

  “What about your father?” she asked.

  “Could have been anyone. Add to that the poor conditions in which we lived, a bad neighborhood and no other relatives with at least a bit of a heart and you get the place where I grew up.” He kept his hands between his legs, fingers spread with the fingertips touching.

  “I’m sorry…” Kat murmured.

  “I’m not telling you because I want your sympathy,” he said sternly, his voice gruff with the lack of emotion. “But someone finally took pity on me, and I owe that man my life.”

  Tilting her head to the side, she studied him carefully. His life? What had he become? A Beast with a silver mask, trained to kill and follow other gruesome orders? In her mind, his admiring tone was misplaced. Working for the mafia was not flattering, but coming from his background, it had been probably a step in a better direction.

  “He’s also a mobster?” she checked, and he responded with a nod. “Is he the reason you wear this mask?”

  “The reason is everything about what I just told you.” He looked intently at her, daring her to read between the lines, but she was still lost. Did he really have an ominous scar on his face? Or was it only a cover, something the little, lost kid could hide behind?

  “Do you ever take it off?”

  “No
t in front of you.”

  Well, she got that; he had to be eating and drinking after all. Although it felt like he just put another wall between them, she was somehow gratified that he had opened up to her about himself. Still, she was also sad. The mask was not only a visible barrier between them, but it was also the highest wall there was to climb. Despite everything, he still refused to let her in.

  And when her stomach clenched, Kat realized that she wanted to get in. Maybe she should open up to him to coax him further out of his shell.

  “I’ve had a wonderful childhood, but I think that accident with my mother made them paranoid. They kept me on a very tight leash for most of my life. I guess it’s normal. My grandparents never told me much about the accident; I don’t even know what happened exactly. I think it still breaks their heart when they think about it.”

  “And yours?” He asked.

  She looked up. “My heart?”

  “Yeah.”

  She let herself fall back into the couch and shrugged. “I don’t remember her; I was only four at the time. I guess-” Kat looked down at her hands, “I guess I stopped wishing for her to be alive a long time ago. It’s not like she can ever come back. And my grandparents did their best to raise me.”

  Kat thought about the pictures of her mother her grandparents had placed all around the apartment. Growing up, her Baba had told her numerous stories of her mother. And when she had been younger, they had mixed with her memories.

  Thinking on it, she chuckled softly. “My grandparents made up for her loss by always involving her. Apparently, she had been just as frightened as me on her first day of school. And her hobby was reading, just like mine. Obviously, I don’t remember her bathing me for the first time or watching The Lion King with me, but when I close my mind, I can picture it.” Kat ducked her head. “I didn’t grow up missing her because my grandparents made me aware that I would always hold a piece of her. Inside me.”

  “They are good people,” Gabriel said softly.

  “Yes, they are,” she chocked, thinking about how concerned her Baba had sounded when they spoke on the phone.

  As if sensing her mood, he nudged her leg with his, sending pleasurable shockwaves up her skin. “You know we’re even, right?”