Bram's Lullaby
The Four Series (Book One)
by EA Hunt
Genre: Mafia Urban Romance
te dua (I love you) ... the voice whispered in Albanian. Since his accident almost a year ago in New York Bram had heard the intoxicatingly sweet voice murmur I love you in his parents native tongue and sing a lullaby his mother had taught him as a child.
Problem was he didn't know the voice, couldn't place it to anyone in which he had known unless the voice which calmed and soothed him when he was on the brink belonged to someone he couldn't remember. Someone who was taken from him when he woke from his accident with his time in New York all but erased.
Who was the owner of the voice and why does it feel like finding the person it belongs to will lead to his greatest joy in life.....
Twenty minutes. Twenty more minutes and she could leave here without Luriana being upset she was ditching a party she didn’t want to be at in the first place. Sara moved when the man leading her around the dance floor changed their position. Constant, as he had introduced himself, had come up to her while she was sitting at the table with Luriana waiting for her allotted time to pass before she could leave without Luriana being too upset with her.
“I seem to be boring you.”
“You’re not boring me,” Sara told him. She just wanted to get out of there. She’d watched from across the room as the engaged couple came in to booming cheers and congratulations. When the coward started chanting for them to kiss Sara had turned from them wanting to be anywhere than here watching Bram kiss another woman.
“You’re not a very good liar,” Constant told her. When Sara walked into the room, he was drawn to her beauty, wanting to know the companion of Luriana Tartakov. “I know you only said ‘yes’ to my dance invitation because of Luriana.”
Sara would love to disagree, but she couldn’t. When Constant asked her to the dance, she’d been ready to turn him down but Luriana had said she’d love to then nudged her towards the man with a smile on her face. “I’m being a horrible dance partner.”
“No, you’re not. Just know that when someone like Luriana Tartakov tells you to do something, you really don’t have a choice,” Constant told her.
“No, you don’t, do you?” Sara replied, a smile on her face.
“I finally got you to smile.”
“Haven’t I smiled?” Sara questioned. She could have sworn she’d been wearing a small smile for most of the evening.
“Not a true smile like the one you have on your face now,” Constant told her. The woman in his arms at one point looked like this was the last place shed wanted to be.
“Not really something I would normally be at.” Sara told him
“Me neither,” Constant whispered, leaning towards her.
“Really?” She looked at the man; he was dressed in a dark suit with a pristine white shirt and dark colored tie. He looked like most of the men in the room.
“Yes. I’m here because I work for Abdyl,” he told her. He was one of the man’s accountants. “I could really go for a greasy burger over what they are serving here.”
“Hmm,” Sara moaned. “I could go for something like that.” She hadn’t really eaten since leaving the house. Her stomach had been in too many knots to keep food down.
“So, let’s go. We can leave here, get something to eat, and get to know each other,” Constant suggested.
“That won’t be happening.”
Both faced Bram’s angry voice. Sara was the first to react stepping from Constant’s arms, “If I want to go out with Constant, I can,” she replied.
“Constant is not allowed to date you,” Bram countered.
“You have no right to tell me who I can and cannot date.” Sara replied. She looked at Constant. “Thank you for the dance…I would like to go out with – “
“NO, YOU WON’T!” Bram seethed, grasping her arm and pulling her to his side. He’d been speaking with Isadore’s father Elan when he’d heard Sara’s laughter. Following the beautiful sound, he saw the dress first, admiring the way it hugged her curves, making her even more beautiful than she already was. Needing to be in her calming presence before, he had to pretend to be in love with Isadore. He’d excused himself from Elan, intending to ask Sara to dance. As he reached her, he saw Constant lowering his head, intending a kiss but instead asking her on a date. A date he would be damned if she went on. “Constant, if you will excuse us,” Bram stated, not taking his eyes off Sara.
“He doesn’t have to go anywhere,” Sara replied. She needed to end this before they caused even more of a scene then they already were.
“He does.” Bram pulled her closer to him. “He shouldn’t have had his hands on you in the first place.”
“I can dance with whomever I want.” Sara countered.
“Not when you belong to me,” Bram countered. Her scent was covering him, calming his rage some.
“I belong to no one but me,” Sara told him.
“Try again, Mrs. Tartakov.” Bram placed a hand on her cheek. “You are my wife and I own you mind, body, and soul. Those were the vows I took and those are the vows I will keep.” Bram stilled. What in the hell?
“Those were the vows you broke,” Sara said quietly.
“We’re married?” Bram ran his thumb over her cheek.
“Bram-”
“Please answer me.”
“Yes, we’re married,” Sara replied solemnly.
Seamus' Heart
The Four (Book Two)
He'd Left. Gotten Out. Given up the heir apparent "Boss" to the Miller Irish Crime Family much to his family's dismay. He was content ... until her. Until she needed him and only the "Boss" could save her. He'll go back for her. Only for her because being the "Boss" is the only way to save her and maybe himself.
It was cold. Whatever was touching her was so very, very cold. Nelle shivered slightly as she felt an arm wrap around her waist pulling her into a warm, solid form. Lifting heavy laden eyes, Nelle looked over her shoulder. Seamus was giving her a small smile. “You know your hands are cold, right?” Nelle told him, ignoring how that smile was making her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“Warm me up,” Seamus cooed as he tightened his arm around her. He kissed her shoulder. She smelled so good.
“I don’t want to warm you up, Seamus. I want you to get out of my bed,” Nelle replied pulling from his arms. After her conversation with Bram, she’d lain in bed getting pissed at herself for how she’d followed Seamus’ lead. How she’d allowed him to take over when before he’d wanted nothing to do with her. And why now he was turning into this caring person when he’d shown her he didn’t give two shits about her. Nelle scooted to the side of the bed and stood. She flipped on the beside lamp facing he man she wanted out of her room. “I’m sure Bram has another room you can stay in. There is no need for you to stay with me.”
“I have no plans on sleeping without you for the near future,” Seamus corrected. “I’ve tried and it doesn’t work. All I do is lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling wishing you were beside me.” Seamus sat up in the bed.
She was not going to look at his bare chest. She was not going to think about kissing it as she made her way down his body to his … was that a tattoo? Nelle stepped closer to the bed. When had he gotten a tattoo? Last time she’d run her fingers over his chest it’d been bare, but now she was staring at a tattoo over his heart of a Celtic knot with his name and hers intertwined! Her eyes cut to Seamus.
“Why –”
“I had it done in Ireland” he interrupted knowing she was shocked by his tattoo. Before he’d left his father’s village he’d gotten a local artist to place his family’s Celtic knot on his chest with his and Nelle’s names overlapping the knot. If he couldn’t have Nelle in his arms he’d have her over his heart.
“Why?” She shook her head “I –“
“Love you, have loved you for a long time. I pushed you away because of my past. A past I can’t run from because it is as much a part of me as you are,” Seamus told her. He moved slowly across the bed. He came to stand before her. “The night in the office was months of built up tension. You felt it as much as I did. Whenever we looked at each other, there was attraction. Whenever I touched you, all I wanted to do was hold you. That night I downed several drinks then came to seek out the woman I wanted.”
“You loving me doesn’t explain what happened next? Or why you left for a month with nothing but a damned note for me to find or why you avoided me and told me you were basically a chubby chaser,” Nelle seethed.
“I did it for you.”
“For me?” she scoffed. “You made me feel like shit for me?” Nelle stepped away from him. “Get out. Get out and –”
“I’m no good for you,” Seamus told her. He reached out to take one of her hands in his. “I’m a bastard. I’ve been a bastard for a long time. But I wanted you.”
“And you had me. Now if true confessions are over, I would like to go to bed.”
“Not until this is hashed out,” Seamus told her. He pulled her closer to him.
Ren's Redemption
The Four (Book Three)
Audra wasnt suppose to be here. She wasnt suppose to be standing before him with a stunned and pained expression on her face.
Audra hadn’t expected to see Ren ever again. No! She never wanted to see him again. He was her enemy would always be her enemy. So, why was he the first person she thought of when danger came knocking at her door?
Hurt, pain, and misunderstandings have led Ren and Audra to lose the love they once had for each other. Can they find it again or is it too late to find redemption?
Love and Redemption go hand and hand ........
Rizzie C - Beta Reader .....
enjoyable story. I gasped out loud when the villain was revealed!
For a more enjoyable read please read Book One - Bram's Lullaby and Book Two - Seamus' Heart
Audra nodded, eager to see the penthouse. Most penthouses covered the entire top floor of a building. If that bode true for this building, then she knew she would get a little moist just thinking about designing it. Stepping onto the elevator with Joanne after seeing a spacious two-bedroom condo, they rode in silence to the penthouse. The elevator would open directly into the living space with a special key only residents, building management and whomever the resident designated would have, Joanne explained. Audra wondered why a separate elevator wasn’t provided for the penthouse.
“I should put a bullet in your head for not doing your job!”
The threat came out loud and clear as the elevator doors opened. Cringing, Audra was ready to tell Joanne ‘thanks but no thanks’ when she saw Ren pacing the barren penthouse. He was pissed, meaning he was agitated and when Ren got agitated, he needed to workout. When they’d been together his workouts had included her on a flat surface with him pumping into her telling her how wonderful she was. How he hated being rough and her screaming she needed him to be even rougher. She hadn’t known she liked it rough until Ren and only Ren.
“My instructions were very clear,” Ren seethed into the phone. “You watch her. You make sure nothing happens to her and you tell me every move she makes!” Ren was talking to Audra’s former lead guard. If the man couldn’t do as instructed, he didn’t need the job anymore.
“Stop! The! Fucking! Excuses!” he hollered. He’d been hearing them for the last twenty minutes. He didn’t want to hear them anymore. He was about to tell the man he was fired when his phone was plucked from his hands.
“All is well.”
Ren looked at his Hana. What was she doing here?!
“Your job is safe,” she said into the phone, before ending the call and holding the phone out to Ren.
“You shouldn’t have done that. It makes me look weak,” Ren said, taking the phone from her.
“I wasn’t going to let you end him because I ditched him when he was following me the other day. He didn’t find me again until I was leaving the Irish Maiden,” Audra told him. She’d just wanted one afternoon where she didn’t have her detail with her. So, she’d slipped out the back of her office building when one of them had taken a smoke break and caught an Uber to her meeting with Nelle.
“Ditching your detail is not an option Hana,” Ren reminded her. If he’d had a detail on her in Japan, he wouldn’t have lost her. He wasn’t about to make that mistake again. “They are there for your protection. I will not lose you again.”
He would not lose her? Was this some sort of joke?
“Me?” Audra placed a hand on her chest, “You will not lose me?” she scoffed. “Do you hear yourself? It was because of you I was harmed!”
“Hana... Audra… there were only a few people who knew about you. And my love for you. If I thought my enemies -”
“Your enemies! Your enemies had nothing to do with what happened to me Ren. It was all you!” she poked him in the chest. “You said you loved me. Said you wanted to be with me. But you lied! You called me your blossom, your Hana, but I wasn’t, was I? No, I was just someone you wanted to bed!” she couldn’t stop, couldn’t close her mouth as everything she felt came pouring out.
“I was just some fling, some black whore for you to laugh about with the others. And when you didn’t want me, when you no longer considered me your Hana, you tried to end me. The person you said you loved. You!” she pushed at his chest. “You put three bullets in me and left me for dead.”
Audra wiped at the tears rolling down her face, “No one does that to someone they love. Someone they’d only hours earlier called their Hana,” she shook her head. “I was never yours was I Keizo? I was never truly your Hana.”
Kendrik's Temptation
The Four (Book Four)
She was a temptation like no other. Kendrik knew he shouldn’t want her but ...? Could he give into the temptation she presented? Or should he let her go? Let her live the life she wanted. A life which was not in his world. A world she had fought to leave once and for all.
She was free. Well she thought she was free but the temptation of Kendrik was too much. In one night. In one act he had shown her more care than she'd ever had in her life. But she couldn’t have him. Rouva knew she couldn’t have him. He was part of her past. A past she had fought hard to leave behind her. But what if she gave in. What if she gave into the temptation Kendrik presented. Could she go back? Could she live in his world? Or would giving into temptation destroy them both.
I think the Mafia world created by EA Hunt is one of my faves of her novellas!
It's always got an undercurrent of tension and danger in addition to the love story.
Your readers will love this novella as much as I do. Also loved all the female friendships - R Holcomb Beta Reader
“Is there somewhere where we can talk?” Kendrik asked, closing the distance between them.
Rouva nodded and headed towards the small office at the back of the café. Once inside, she stepped to the other side of the room. Plastering herself against the wall with Kendrik standing in the room, it seemed smaller than it ever was before. “I know I said I wanted to start over somewhere new but I’ve lived here all my life and I wanted to see if I could help those who used to work for my mother.”
“The two people in the kitchen…” Kendrik surmised.
Rouva nodded as she told him about Martha and Jocko. He looked so handsome. Better in person than in her dreams.
“I will have to thank them for taking such good care of you, bèl,” he said, crossing the room in two strides to come stand before her.
“Kendrik,” she breathed, stepping to the side of him. “We –”
“I know everything you’re going to say,” Kendrik said, more to the wall than to her.
“Then you know you have to walk out of this office and –”
“What, never come back?” he faced her. “I’m not sure I can do that!” he told her. “I came looking for you,” Kendrik said.
“When?” Rouva questioned, confused. Why would he come looking for her? She wasn’t a threat anymore.
“Three days after you left Bram’s, I asked my driver where he’d dropped you. Once he gave me the address, I went to the house only to be told you’d gone.”
Rouva looked at him in bewilderment. She’d had the man take her to Martha’s home after she left Bram’s. Why hadn’t Martha told her Kendrik had come looking for her?
“As to the why,” Kendrik sighed. “I wanted to make sure you were alright. That you didn’t need anything. I know your mother didn’t leave you a lot and I wanted you to know that we…” he shook his head, “… I… would help you any way I could.”
“Charity,” Rouva gave him a sad smile. “I’m not a charity case, Kendrik.”
“I never thought you were. I just –”
“Wanted to help,” Rouva interrupted.
“Yes… no,” Kendrik stepped to her. “I think you are beautiful. From the moment I met you, I’ve been drawn to you.”
“Me?” Rouva asked as she pointed to herself. “You can’t mean that. I’m not the woman you should be drawn to. I’m the woman whose mother was THE Madam of this city. The child of the woman your brother-in-arms ended. You shouldn’t want to be within ten feet of me.”
“I know,” Kendrik closed his eyes before focusing on her once again. “I know I shouldn’t. But I do. I want to be within ten feet of you, Rouva. You consume my thoughts. My dreams. You’re a temptation I can’t seem to let go of.”
Could that be true? “Kendrik –”
“One date, bèl,” Kendrik interrupted. “One date to see if anything is there. If there isn’t then we… I will know and I’ll leave you alone”
Author EA Hunt was born the youngest of William and Natlean Bills' four children. EA was raised in Joliet, IL; a suburb of Chicago, and went to college at Kentucky State University where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts and sung in the Gospel Ensemble. EA has two daughters, Tayla Elizabeth and Ava Elease.
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