Russian Mobster's Obsession by Bella Rose Page A

her dog. Feeling desperate, she used the only weapon she happened to have—her muffins. She gripped both sides of the muffin pan with her mitt-protected hands and swung it sideways. The pan bounced off the first man’s face. He instantly let out a scream so high it nearly shattered her eardrums. The pan had scorched a mark into his cheeks.
    Hot muffins flew everywhere. Katie changed the trajectory of her weapon, swinging it backhanded to smack the guy on the top of his head. Dazed, he fell to the floor. Max let go and turned to the next guy crowding into the kitchen through the narrow door. Katie grabbed a couple of wooden spoons and prepared to battle.
    “Enough!” Sasha shouted. He shoved his way into her kitchen holding a gun in his hand. He leveled the barrel at Max. “You do what we say or the dog dies. Your choice.”
    “No!” Katie screamed. She grabbed Max’s collar, hauling him back behind her. “If you hurt him I will hunt you down and rip off your balls one by one. Do you understand? I will sauté them in butter and force you to eat them.”
    Sasha’s eyebrows shot up. Beside him, the other two men—the ones not half unconscious on the floor—were chuckling. They started babbling in Russian. Whatever they said made Sasha even madder, because he yelled back and started waving his gun around in midair. Katie took the opportunity to shut Max in the bathroom. She locked the door from the inside to make it harder to get at him.
    “You stupid cunt!” Sasha made an ugly face at her. “Why did you ever have to come back to this city?”
    “You didn’t grow up here,” she told him, throwing her jaw out aggressively. “Why did you ever have to show up?”
    There was more laughing, and Katie realized that Sasha was having a tough time really making an impression on these men. He acted like he was in charge, but they certainly didn’t seem to have much respect for him. That was a bad thing, for her at least.
    “Grab her!” Sasha shouted to one of the other men. “Put her in the car. Hurry! Karkoff wants a word with our Miss McClellan.”
    One of the big men gave her an apologetic look before scooping her up into a fireman’s carry and flinging her over his shoulder. Katie gave an indignant shriek. It was horribly uncomfortable, not to mention demeaning, to be carried in such a way. Then she saw the other man do the same with his buddy that she had laid out on the floor with her muffin pan. Katie felt a smidge better.
    She realized that she had no idea where she was going. They carried her outside into the darkness. An SUV waited in front of her house. The windows were tinted the same dark black as the paint job. Her captor opened the rear hatch and tossed her inside. He took considerably more care with his fallen comrade. Katie had a moment’s satisfaction when she spotted a muffin-shaped burn on the man’s face. It really served him right for barging into her kitchen without even knocking.
    The drive was jarring. Katie tried to use her legs to press her body up against the edge of the SUV to keep from rolling around. When they finally arrived, her captor returned to the back of the SUV and again threw her over his shoulder like a big sack of potatoes.
    “Can you please put me down?” she asked irritably. “I’m getting a headache. Where are we anyway?”
    “Karkoff wants a word with you.” Sasha’s arrogant tone was a far cry from the vulnerable man who could barely make a decision on his own.
    Katie smirked at him from her place hanging upside down on some man’s shoulder. “I think you took too much pain medication. It’s screwed with your brain.”
    “Shut up!” he snapped.
    She made a face at him. “You shut up. What are we? Ten? I know you are, but what am I?”
    It was obvious that she had already pushed Sasha too far. She just wasn’t certain she cared anymore. The guy had pushed her too far as well. Was he really acting on the orders of someone else, or did he have his own