Mira Castellano arrives in Boston after thirty-one hours on a Greyhound bus, carrying a duffel bag and a folded knife in her pocket. She has run from Chicago. She has run from a man named Vincent. She is going to her cousin's bakery on Hanover Street because Romy is the only person left in her life who has known her longer than the worst eighteen months of it.
Dmitri Vasiliev is at the counter when she walks in.
He is the second son of the Vasiliev Bratva. He is the still one. He has not, in twelve years, allowed himself to want anything. When the bell over the door jangles at 6:14 a.m. on a Saturday in February, he does not turn his head.
He waits.
He will wait for eleven weeks. He will not press her. He will not push her. He will set up an apartment for her she did not ask for, with a navy couch the color of the only dress she ever liked, and a phone in the second drawer that rings him if she presses one. She will not press it. She will, on her own time, in her own way, walk into the bakery on a Saturday morning and order her coffee.
He will order three of his.
Mira does not need a man to save her. She needs a man who will wait until she chooses. Dmitri Vasiliev has been preparing — for twelve years, for eleven weeks, for one more night — to be that man.
And when Vincent Marchetti walks into the bakery on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:11 p.m., Dmitri Vasiliev has, very privately, been ready.
HIS QUIET WAR is Book Two of The Vasiliev Reign — a slow-burn, dark Bratva romance with a wounded heroine, a patient hero, and a Boston Russian mafia family that has decided, in their own quiet way, to call her family. Standalone HEA. No cliffhanger. No on-page violence against women.
Dmitri Vasiliev is at the counter when she walks in.
He is the second son of the Vasiliev Bratva. He is the still one. He has not, in twelve years, allowed himself to want anything. When the bell over the door jangles at 6:14 a.m. on a Saturday in February, he does not turn his head.
He waits.
He will wait for eleven weeks. He will not press her. He will not push her. He will set up an apartment for her she did not ask for, with a navy couch the color of the only dress she ever liked, and a phone in the second drawer that rings him if she presses one. She will not press it. She will, on her own time, in her own way, walk into the bakery on a Saturday morning and order her coffee.
He will order three of his.
Mira does not need a man to save her. She needs a man who will wait until she chooses. Dmitri Vasiliev has been preparing — for twelve years, for eleven weeks, for one more night — to be that man.
And when Vincent Marchetti walks into the bakery on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:11 p.m., Dmitri Vasiliev has, very privately, been ready.
HIS QUIET WAR is Book Two of The Vasiliev Reign — a slow-burn, dark Bratva romance with a wounded heroine, a patient hero, and a Boston Russian mafia family that has decided, in their own quiet way, to call her family. Standalone HEA. No cliffhanger. No on-page violence against women.
Used availability for Cora J Riley's His Quiet War