by Nicole Fox
It is Irish for goodbye.
The cab driver thinks I’m a lunatic. He picks me up in the middle of the night in front of the FBI headquarters, and then I all but scream at him to drive as fast as he can.
Agent Morrison is working for the Irish mafia.
I wouldn’t have assumed that considering she is a woman of the law, but her Irish farewell at the end of our conversation meant something. It wasn’t just idle intimidation.
I only hope it didn’t mean my family was in danger.
I don’t have any money for the cab driver considering I’m shirtless in my pajama pants, so I run from the backseat as soon as he pulls up in front of my house, ignoring his cries for payment. I have more important things to worry about.
My fingers tremble as I punch in the keypad to our front door, and as soon as it opens, I throw open the door and sprint up the stairs two at a time.
The house is dark and quiet, and my heart is lodged in my throat, making it hard to breathe.
As I move down the hallway, I hear a soft murmur coming from Milaya’s room, and I stumble into the room blindly, having no regard for my own safety, but only thinking about the wellbeing of my family.
Inside, I find Eve cradling Milaya and singing to her softly. When she sees me, her eyes immediately fill with tears.
Silently, I cross the room and wrap them both in a hug, breathing in their scent.
Milaya has calmed down since the alarms startled her out of sleep, and we are able to lay her down in her crib and sneak out of the room a few minutes later. As soon as we are in the hallway, Eve throws herself at me, burying her face in my neck.
“No one would tell me where they were taking you or why,” she sobs, clinging to me as though she is afraid I’ll disappear. “I called your father, and he said he would look into it. We should call and tell him you’re fine.”
I text my father and then lead Eve down to the kitchen to explain what happened.
“I didn’t even know Cole had a sister,” she says, shocked. “Especially not one in the FBI.”
She listens intently, but I can tell the night is wearing on her. Her eyes are red and bloodshot, and she has to keep covering yawns as I’m talking.
“Go to bed, honey.” I kiss her forehead and run my hand down her thick hair. “We can talk more in the morning.”
“No, I’m fine,” she says, waving me away. “You can talk to me if you need to.”
I pick her up and lead her to the stairs. “I’m going to eat something, and then I’ll be up in a minute. Really, go to sleep. It has been a long night.”
Eve looks reluctant, but then she throws her arms around my waist, presses her face into my chest, and nods. She stops at the bottom of the stairs and looks over her shoulder at me, smiling. “I love you.”
I wink. “I love you, too.”
I pad back into the kitchen once she is gone and contemplate eating something, but my stomach is still too nervous. Instead, I grab a pack of cigarettes I’ve had hidden in a high cabinet Eve can’t reach and walk to the front door.
Out of habit, I go to disable the alarm, but I realize it is already disabled. Probably from when the FBI burst down the door and Eve turned it off to stop the alarm.
I walk onto the porch, lean my head against the cool stone, and light my cigarette.
The streetlight in front of our house is out, casting the gate at the end of the drive and half of the lawn in shadow, and I stare out at the darkness and absentmindedly smoke. Eve hates the way they smell, and I can’t blame her, but the action comforts me. More than anything, it is a stress reliever. Some people meditate. I smoke a cigarette.
I’m only outside for a few minutes—no more than ten—but it is enough to help me calm down and feel ready to go to sleep. I bend down to snub out my cigarette in a potted plant and realize with a frown that it is a pot of shamrocks.
I don’t remember seeing it when I got back to the house, but then again, I was sprinting inside to check on my family – not exactly paying attention to the foliage.
I throw the cigarette into the lawn and dig through the shamrocks. In the center of the pot, sticking out of the soil, is a card. I pull it out, and instantly, my blood runs cold.
There are no words on the card, just three printed gash marks like a lion pawed at it. Each gash is painted a different color: green, white, and orange.
The colors of the Irish flag.
With the card still in my hand, I turn and run inside to close the door and set the alarm, but before I even make it to the entryway, my head begins to swim.
My legs feel like they are filled with wet cement and my vision is blurred.
I look down at the card and then bring it to my nose. There is a strong chemical scent, and I throw it to the floor.
I’ve been drugged.
“Eve.” I try to call out, but my voice is slow and sluggish.
Struggling, I make it halfway up the stairs before I have to crawl the rest of the way, moving on my hands and knees.
When I reach the top of the stairs, I pull myself to standing and lean against the wall for balance, making my way to Milaya’s room.
The door is open, though I know it was closed when Eve and I left her. I step inside, clinging to the door frame, and see that her bed is empty.
“Eve!” I scream again, voice slurring, panic bubbling up inside of me.
I move into the hallway, my right foot dragging with every step. I know I don’t have very long before I pass out, but I can’t give up. Not until I know what happened. Not until I know where they are.
I make it to the bedroom and see that the blankets on the bed are still mussed from when we had sex earlier, but now the lamp on Eve’s side of the bed is knocked over, as well.
And Eve is nowhere to be seen.
I collapse against the side of the bed, holding myself up with the mattress, my breathing irregular and erratic. I try to calm down, but I can’t.
Eve and Milaya are gone.
My family is gone.
I pound my weak fists against the mattress and that is when I see another business card laying on the bed.
I almost throw it across the room, assuming it is dosed with whatever the other card was dosed in, but before I do, I see a familiar name written in a tight black script on the front.
Rian Morrison.
Then, everything goes black.
Luka and Eve’s story will continue in BROKEN HOPE. Click the link below to get your copy!
www.amazon.com/BrokenHope
Also by Nicole Fox
Click any of the covers below to go straight to the book page!
Knocked Up by the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Levushka Bratva)
They’re coming to take her baby. They’ll have to kill me first.
She’s an innocent maid.
I’m a ruthless Bratva boss.
She says she wants nothing to do with me.
But in my world, when I want something, I take it.
And I want her.
The problem is, Zoya is hiding a terrible secret:
A baby in her womb that was never meant to be.
And I’m not the only one who knows.
Our enemies are coming.
To hurt her.
To ruin me.
What they don’t know is this:
I’ve found what I want in this world.
And they’ll have to kill me to take it.
Sold to the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Lavrin Bratva)
An innocent girl like her… sold to a beast like me.
Nikita
As the boss of the Bratva, I live my life by a code: Always stay in control.
But I broke my own rule on the night I bought Annie.
She was so delicate and desperate up on that stage.
I’d pay any price it took to own her.
She says she can’t be bought.
But she doesn’t know how this game is played.
In my world, everything has its price.
/>
And like it or not, she’s mine now – my property, my possession.
I’ll claim her. I’ll break her. And I’ll protect her until the end…
Even if it costs me everything.
Stolen by the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Luchok Bratva)
A mob boss killed her family. Now, he’s sent me to finish the job.
Lucy is an innocent girl – orphaned by a terrible tragedy.
Then she sees me kill a man in cold blood.
I can’t let a witness roam free.
But I can’t bring myself to kill something so innocent and beautiful.
She wants revenge on the mob boss who stole her family.
I can help her… under one condition:
As long as she’s here, I’m going to make her MINE.
Trapped with the Mob Boss: A Mafia Romance (Petrov Bratva)
I kidnapped her to break her. Now, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.
YURI
In this business, you cannot afford to lose control.
No emotions. No weakness.
I’ve worked too hard building my mob empire to let one feisty little girl ruin everything.
But Bella refuses to fall in line.
I’ve pushed my prisoner to her limits, and yet she will. Not. Break.
She takes every savage kiss…
Every cruel touch…
And asks me if that’s all I have to offer.
Breaking her down will require breaking a rule of my own:
Never, ever fall in love.
But when Bella’s senator father doesn’t follow orders like we expect, things get more complicated.
I’ll need her help to take my rightful place on the throne of the city.
And more time with her by my side means unleashing something inside me that cannot be contained again.
As our fates become entwined, betrayal barrels towards us.
I’m forced to make an impossible choice:
Do I follow my destiny to become the mob boss I was raised to be?
Or do I sacrifice everything to save the woman who has stolen my heart?
Vin: A Mafia Romance
I’m caught between a mob boss and a madman.
I was drowning in debt with no way to get out.
All I had left was my body…
Until Vin took that from me, too.
He offered me protection from my abusive ex.
And saying no to Vin was never an option.
Now, I’m at the mercy of a mob boss.
A vicious killer, with a kiss as filthy as his reputation.
Nights in his bed are spent stripping bare, bending at the waist, and doing EXACTLY as I’m told.
And days by his side are spent seeing a criminal underworld I never knew existed.
For a moment, I thought this was my life now:
Existing only for the mobster’s pleasure.
But then my ex came back to finish the job he started, and I remembered:
This nightmare is far from over.
Mailing List
Sign up to my mailing list!
New subscribers receive a FREE steamy bad boy romance novel.
Click the link below to join.
http://bit.ly/NicoleFoxMailingList