Russian Killer's Baby by Bella Rose Read Free Book Online Page A

woman you hardly know?”
    “That’s harsh.”
    “It’s the truth!”
    “You have a family.”
    Pyotr snorted. “I am not a trained assassin. I am a businessman.”
    “Perhaps you need to grow a set of balls then.”
    The older man laughed, raising his hands and waving them as though surrendering. “Calm down, Feliks. Please. Sit down and tell me one more time about Yuri’s involvement in this situation.”
    Feliks perched on the edge of Pyotr’s couch. He sat with his legs spread and his elbows resting on his knees. He was too wound up to relax. “He was following us practically the entire way from Annika’s apartment to the convenience store. After we left the store, two vehicles in the city attacked us. Neither was the car Yuri had been driving earlier.”
    “Damn that bastard Orlov!  He must be trying to give Yuri a place on the council.”
    “That would be a disaster. The man can hardly spell, let alone run a business.”
    “Yes, but we are all blind and stupid when it comes to the talents or intelligence of our children.” Pyotr sighed.
    “Yuri is certainly an idiot. But he is a bloodthirsty one.”
    “Yes. Which is why I cannot allow you and your unauthorized passenger to stay here in my home.” There was a hint of censure in Pyotr’s expression.
    “I didn’t expect you to harbor us. I simply wanted to know if there was anything you could tell me about Yuri’s involvement.”
    “And you needed to let things cool down as well. I wasn’t born yesterday, young man.”
    “Nobody would guess that,” Feliks joked.
    Pyotr wagged his finger at him. “You’d best watch yourself. One of these days you’re going to get in over your head.”
    “Do you think the others question my right to sit on the council?” Feliks wondered if the old man would give him an honest answer. Still, he had to try.
    “I cannot say.” Pyotr scratched his beard. “No one has said anything within my hearing, but it is possible that they would not, given my close relationship to you and to Vasily.”
    “I wish Vasily were still here,” Feliks muttered.
    Pyotr grimaced. “As do I.”

Chapter Seven
    Annika paced the floor of the small sitting room where Feliks had told her to stay put. She hated staying put. She was used to doing her own thing. Being told to wait for someone else to make decisions on her behalf was irritating.
    A tiny little face peeked around the edge of the doorway. Annika smiled and got a gap-toothed grin in return. Then Annika waved to her little visitor. There was a giggle, but no return wave.
    “You can come in,” Annika told the little girl.
    No response, although the child leaned a little farther around the door to get a better look at the interloper.
    Annika tried again, this time in Russian. “Don’t be afraid. You can come in and talk to me if you want.”
    The little girl took a few hesitant steps into the room. She wore a pretty pink dress with matching bows on the ends of her blonde braids. Annika guessed her to be no more than five or six.
    The little one cocked her head to the right like a tiny bird. “My mother says you’re supposed to be dead.”
    “So I’ve heard.” Annika paused in her pacing and opted to take a seat on an ugly green settee. “I’m pretty glad I’m not dead though.”
    “Papa Pyotr says your papa makes lots of people mad and that’s why you’re supposed to be dead.” The quizzical look grew more pronounced.
    Did nobody censor what was said in front of this kid? Annika wondered what she should say in return. She couldn’t very well call the kid’s papa a bastard, could she?
    Annika had just taken a breath to answer when a woman appeared in the doorway. “Oksana, get to your room immediately,” she snapped in clipped Russian, and the precocious little girl bolted from the room.
    “Don’t talk to my daughter,” the woman said in heavily accented English.
    “I wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know,” Annika explained. “In