Bound by longing a dark.., p.1
Bound by Longing: A Dark Mafia Romance, page 1
Bound by Longing
A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE
BORN IN BLOOD
BOOK THREE
IVY DAVIS
Copyright 2024 by Ivy Davis - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher.
All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Bonus Content
Chapter
One
MILA
I’m like a princess stuck in a tower.
My view consists of the beautiful backyard containing my sister’s garden. Not that my sister, Vik, had anything to do with the garden. She only owns it. But it’s still beautiful, nonetheless.
But despite its beauty, I’ve gotten tired of staring out at it every day. I’m longing for freedom. For safety.
None of that exists in Moscow. Not in the world of the Bratva.
I’ve belonged to the Bratva since I was born. My father, Denis Morozova, was in charge of the Bratva in New York until he died by a random burglar. Both he and my mother died that night.
Growing up, I was sheltered and kept in the dark. But these past few months have been the worst of all because I was kidnapped for the third time.
When my older sister, Sofiya, married Mikhail, head of the Bratva in Moscow, I came to stay with her and was kidnapped by a man named Boris who wanted to marry me.
My eldest sister, Viktoriya, and I returned to New York afterward, but then we were forced to return to Moscow when another man, Gleb, set his sights on us. Once again, I was kidnapped, but I survived, thanks to my sisters.
But now, I haven’t been allowed to leave the house in months because of it. My sisters are terrified I’ll be targeted again, and I can’t blame them. It’s just tiring staring at the same view every day. No matter how beautiful.
A knock on the door pulls my attention from the window. “Come in,” I call out.
Vik pokes her head inside. Her long, white-blonde hair shimmers in the sunlight streaming in through the window. At least it’s doing her favors. My beautiful older sister. I was once so jealous of her beauty, but now, I’ve seen all sides of Vik. I’ve seen her be mean and vindictive. I’ve seen her be brave and courageous as she saved me from my kidnappers. I’ve seen her resemble our mother when she’s patient enough to comfort me. Because of all this, I’m no longer jealous of her beauty. Now, I appreciate it because it’s her who has helped keep me safe.
“Just checking in,” she says, waltzing into the room and sitting down on my bed. I know what she’s doing. She’s checking in to make sure I haven’t been again.
“I’m all here,” I respond, patting my legs. They’ve always been a little bit on the thicker side. I’m a lot shorter than my two older sisters, so my weight tends to go straight to my hips and thighs. It helped me when I used to dance ballet. It made me strong.
But I no longer dance. It wasn’t my passion.
As I stare at Vik, I can’t help but wonder if I should do it just for her sake. Of the three of us, she was the one most in love with ballet. She had to quit when her ankle broke over a year ago, and she never quite recovered fully.
“I can see that.” She pauses. “Mila, this is strange for me to say, but … I’m glad you’re here. That you chose to live with me.”
Instead of Sofiya, she means.
Sofiya comforted me the most growing up. But now, she’s pregnant and expecting a baby, and I didn’t want to be in the way. Besides, I know Vik cares for me. She literally saved me as I was getting auctioned at the black market. I know if there’s anyone who’ll keep me safe, it’s Viktoriya Morozova.
“I’m glad to be here.” I mean it. But my eyes flick to the window once more and take in the static view. I just want more.
“I know that everything that has happened has been a lot. You’ve been more withdrawn lately.” Vik would never have made that observation a year ago. She’s become more considerate since marrying Aleksander, who’s second in command to the Bratva. She’s not as self-centered and angry at the world.
Before her marriage, she barely gave me a second thought. Now, she’s checking in on me. It warms my heart, and yet … it’s strangely stifling.
“I’m just tired of feeling scared,” I admit. “After what happened, I haven’t been allowed to leave the house.”
Vik sighs. “I know, but it’s for your own safety. I can’t risk you getting kidnapped again.”
“Is this my life now? To forever be locked in this room?”
“You have free rein of the house. Don’t be dramatic.” And there’s the Vik I know.
I can’t help but laugh. “Ok. I’ll try not to be so dramatic.”
Vik reaches over and grabs my hand. “I just want you safe. I want you happy.”
But how can I be safe and happy when I feel like I’m slowly dying?
The best memory I have of my father is when I was ten years old, and he took me out for ice cream. Denis Morozova was a busy man. He barely gave Sofiya and Vik any attention other than when they were practicing ballet.
But he attended to me.
“My little angel,” he said as we sat at the sticky table and ate our ice cream. “I want you to remain perfect and be just the way you are forever.”
I soaked up his praise. He so rarely gave it to anyone else, including my sisters and mother. There was always tension between him and Mom. Never a full love there.
But that didn’t stop me from believing in love myself.
I licked my ice cream cone. “Daddy, why didn’t Sofiya and Vik come with us?”
“Because they’re not perfect like you are, angel. Remember to always be my good girl.”
I took his words to heart. He’d cast Sofiya and Vik to the side because they weren’t good enough. Vik was too strong-willed and abrasive, whereas Sofiya bonded with our mother more than any of us.
That left my father and me.
I knew nothing of what he did for a living when I was that age. I didn’t fully become aware of it until he died and the vultures swooped in.
I didn’t know I was a part of the Bratva, and I definitely didn’t know it would never let me go.
That’s why I remember that day eating ice cream with my father. It was the first day he ever did it.
And the last.
Even though he wouldn’t die until I was eighteen, we never went for ice cream again. He still favored me and showered me with gifts, but he kept his distance. Maybe he was trying to prepare me for a world of darkness. The Bratva is a deadly and dangerous place as I’ve learned in the past year.
I cling to the memory of my father because he was the last man I ever met who truly treated me with love and respect.
Now that I’m a single woman in the world of the Bratva, I’m worried about the men who’ll come calling on me. I haven’t met a man like my father. I’m not treated like an angel.
I want my prince charming, and the longer I’m stuck in my sister’s house, the more I long for it.
“Happy birthday!”
I smile before blowing out the candles on my cake.
“How does it feel to be twenty?” Sofiya asks, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and squeezing me.
“Not that much different from nineteen, I’ll be honest.” My words get a laugh out of the other guests—well, my sisters and their husbands.
I always loved huge birthday parties when I was a girl. My father never held back from throwing them for me. But it’s the second year now I don’t have my father and mother present for my birthday. It stings. I blink back my tears and focus on Vik’s housekeeper, Nika, as she cuts the cake for all of us.
The party, of course, is taking place at Vik and Aleksander’s house. I don’t even get to go out and have fun somewhere else.
“Thank you,” I tell my sisters, who I know planned the birthday party. “I really appreciate this.” I really do. I love my sisters more than anyone else in this entire world, especially now that my dad is dead. I never want to seem ungrateful for my life. I have two sisters who have fought tooth and nail to make sure I’m all right.
I need to put my desires behind me and focus on the present. It’s ok that I can’t leave the house. There’s so much more than that.
Or so I tell myself.
“You’re very welcome,” Sofiya says, standing back up. Her pregnant belly is really showing by now.
“You better like the cake,” Vik says, “because I helped make it.”
Everyone goes silent.
“What?” she asks. “It’s true.”
Aleksander chuckles as he pats his wife’s hand. “You’re not exactly known for your baking skills, Viktoriya.”
<
“I believe you,” I tell her before taking a bite. “Mmm. This is really good.” The housekeeper, Nika, winks at me. Chances are she made it, and Vik only helped by putting the candles on the cake. I smile as I take another bite.
This is all I need in life—family. It’s ok that all I have is a view from my room to the outside garden. It’s ok that I’m not even allowed outside into the back garden. It’s almost winter anyway. The flowers are starting to die. I’m not missing anything.
“We should discuss the topic of marriage,” Mikhail, Sofiya’s husband, says.
Vik gives him a withering stare. “I don’t think we need to do that. Mila doesn’t need a husband.”
“If she wants safety and protection, she does.”
“Mila has us,” Sofiya reminds him. “We’ll keep her safe.”
There’s a moment of silence for the unspoken fact—I’ve been kidnapped more times since coming to Moscow than I ever was back in New York. I’m not exactly safe being so close to the head of the Bratva. Mikhail and Aleksander have enemies, and those enemies could easily come after me.
A knock at the front door makes me jump.
“You ok?” Sofiya asks.
I nod and smile, but I’m not. I’ve become much more jumpy since being kidnapped. Growing up, I used to dance around my house for fun, and now, the thought of dancing is foreign to me—like some other girl has my past. I’m both stuck in my new home and stuck in my mind despite being desperate to escape both.
Nika answers the door and returns to inform us about a visitor. “His name is Damien Petrov.”
The air in the room chills.
I’ve heard of Damien Petrov. His father killed Mikhail’s son twenty years ago. Damien was just a kid at the time, so he had nothing to do with it, but I can see the anger on Mikhail’s face. He hates Damien on principle.
I’ve never actually met him. Only seen him from a distance at a dinner party a few months ago when he showed up. I wonder why he’s here now.
“Tell him to leave,” is Mikhail’s gruff response.
Nika nods and heads back to the door. After a moment, she comes back into the dining room. “He’s refusing to leave. He says he wishes to say ‘happy birthday’ to Mila.”
My heart drops into my stomach. How does Damien know of me? We’ve never met.
“No,” Vik says curtly. “I hate him. Make him leave.”
Nika shrugs helplessly. “He won’t leave.”
“I’ll make him go,” Mikhail growls, standing up from the table. Out of curiosity, I follow him to the front door.
“Mila,” Vik hisses, scrambling after. Within minutes, all five of us are standing crowded around the front door, looking at Damien Petrov.
He’s scarily handsome in that he’s so handsome, it’s intimidating. Black hair, striking brown eyes, stubble. He’s in a suit that makes his figure even more imposing.
“Leave,” Mikhail tells him.
Damien’s gaze flit to mine. “I heard it was your birthday today.”
“Don’t talk to him,” Vik tells me. I bristle slightly at her telling me what to do. But I listen. Damien is obviously a dangerous man. All Bratva men are. I know better than to engage with them.
“Leave,” Aleksander says, standing shoulder to shoulder with Mikhail as a united front.
Damien nods at Vik. “I’m still mad from that time you slapped me.”
I do a double-take. “What is he talking about?”
Vik flushes as everyone turns their eyes on her. “It was nothing. A few months ago, Damien talked to me. I got angry, so I slapped him across the face. Not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” Mikhail asks through gritted teeth.
It obviously is a big deal. Hurting a Bratva man is never a smart idea. If you’re going to hurt one, then you should kill him. That’s the only way not to face the consequences. I wouldn’t know, though, since I’ve never killed anyone.
But both Sofiya and Vik have.
And they did it to save my life.
Aleksander sighs, shaking his head. “You and I are going to talk about this later.”
Vik tosses her hair over her shoulder. It’s her signature I don’t give a damn look. “Damien is being dramatic. It didn’t hurt, did it?” she asks him.
Damien doesn’t reply. Instead, he focuses his gaze back on me. For some reason, it sends a shiver over my body. It’s not unpleasant.
“I just wanted to wish the birthday girl congratulations on another year older. How old are you now?”
“Twenty,” I whisper.
He looks very pleased with my answer.
“Leave, Damien,” Mikhail growls. “I don’t want to have to hurt you. Don’t make me.”
Damien stares Mikhail down, and for a moment, I think they’re going to fight.
Then Damien smirks and nods. “All right. I’ll go. Have a good night.” With one last look at me, he walks away.
“How did he even know we were having a party tonight?” Sofiya asks.
Mikhail draws her closer to him. Even though Damien is gone, he’s silently trying to protect her. “Damien is becoming a more powerful man. He has eyes and ears everywhere. We need to be careful.”
“You don’t think he’d try something?” Vik asks.
“I wanted his father dead,” Mikhail says.
Aleksander shakes his head. “But you didn’t kill his father. He died of a heart attack.”
“I know. But Damien has grown into a formidable foe. We need to be careful.” Mikhail glances at me. What he’s saying is I need to be careful. Damien showed up tonight for me. Not for my sisters.
For me.
I don’t even know why a man like him would want me. I’m not as strikingly beautiful as Vik or as sweetly beautiful as Sofiya. I’ve always been the shortest of my sisters. My blonde curls make me look even younger than I am. I’m not a striking vixen or a classy woman.
I’m just … me. Mila.
And yet, men are drawn to me, and I know why. It’s because of my innocence. The innocence I haven’t managed to lose even after losing my parents and getting kidnapped. I’ve always been saved, either by my sisters or their husbands. I’ve never known true unhappiness like they’ve experienced.
My innocence is a beacon, calling out to dangerous men of the Bratva.
If Damien is sniffing around, it makes me wonder—who’s next?
Chapter
Two
SOFIYA
“I’m worried about Mila,” I say to Mikhail once we return home.
“You’re always worried.” He gently touches my arms. “She seemed fine to me.”
Ever since I got pregnant, Mikhail has been even gentler with me. Sometimes, it makes me miss our intimate time together, and other times, I appreciate seeing his softer side. As the head of the Bratva, he’s under a lot of pressure.
“You didn’t know Mila before we married. She used to be so bubbly and open. Now, she’s much more withdrawn. And now, with Damien showing up …”
He makes a low growl deep in his throat. “Don’t mention him. I don’t want to think about that bastard.”
“But what if he does something to Mila?”
“He won’t.”
“He showed up at Vik’s house to wish Mila a happy birthday!” I cry out. Mikhail leads me to the couch and helps me sit down. “He might try something. Mila is a target. She’s young, beautiful, and rich. She’s the youngest daughter of Denis Morozova. There are men who will want her. She’s already been hurt by others who wanted her. We can’t let that happen again.”
Mikhail runs his hand along my back, easing some tension. “We won’t. I won’t. Unlike Viktoriya, I actually like Mila. She’s sweet. I don’t want to see her hurt any more than you do. And if Damien tries anything …” A vicious grin covers his face, sending shivers over me. “Then it’ll give me the perfect excuse to hurt him.”
“I thought you were putting your anger toward him and his father behind you? Damien didn’t hurt your son, Mikhail.”
“I know he didn’t. That’s why I’ve never tried to hurt him. But if he gives me a reason, I won’t hesitate to take it. Mila will be fine. I know you’ll make sure of it.”
