Chapter One

It wasn't long ago when he knocked on the front door in the middle of the night looking for work. How he'd gotten past the guards at the gate had been a mystery but it was probably the only reason her father had hired him. His ability to do something like that. Of course, this was after a gun was held to his head, he was threatened repeatedly, and slapped around a bit because they'd thought he was tricking them. When it became apparent he was kind of stupid and didn't know much, it was then decided that he'd make a perfect courier. At least to start. It was discussed that if he was any good at it, maybe they'd give him a better job. This was done in front of him, just in Italian, and he stood there looking blissfully ignorant to the entire situation. She had been there, in the doorway, watching. He waited, patiently, until he was given a box and told an address to deliver it to. Just as secretly as he'd gotten to the door there. He was not to question what was in the box, open it, or do anything other than deliver it to the assigned area. He didn't question this, at all, and due to that, she knew her father was going to like him. A lot. Stupid and took orders easy.

"Galina, darling, show him out so he doesn't get lost." Her father told her. She didn't really like being part of this family, this entire situation, and the occupation of 'waste management' but she knew she didn't have much of a choice. There was really only one way out of this and it wasn't anything that would keep her alive. This guy was harmless and she already felt bad for him, knowing that he wasn't going to make it very far.

"Come on," She sighed, "Mikey was it?"

"Mickey," He said. “Just a nickname, my real name is-”

"Right don’t care," She muttered and headed away from her father's office, amazed that he'd survived in the first place. Either he actually was dumb or just very good at playing dumb. "You shouldn't have come here. This is very dangerous."

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that." He chuckled, turning and grabbing her cheek to pinch it. He only managed to actually do this because she was stunned that he had the balls to try that on the cheek of the Mafia Don's daughter. She slapped his hand away from her quickly and backed up.

"You realize who I am right? Who that man is? What this is....the house you just walked into? All of that?" She asked.

"Sure but, pay is good so not going to turn down work where I can get it. No matter what it is." He told her and continued to head down the hall. She had to hurry to catch up with him because he was irrationally tall. Size alone would get him far in this if he actually knew how to fight or worse than that. She just didn't think he did.

"Is that what you think or do you actually think you're going to somehow work your way up to a better position here because let me tell you that-"

"What do you know about any of this?" He asked, sparing a short glance over his shoulder without pausing.

"Idiot, I'm the daughter of the...the guy you just talked to." She snapped, since it had been well trained into her not to use words like "mafia" or "mob" or "Don" if she could absolutely prevent it. He definitely knew why he was there, he'd gotten the calling card and he'd gone out of his way to get in and not get his ass shot. He stopped walking then turned to look at her, a blank look on his face as it looked like his brain was trying to connect one wire to the other and put it all together.

"Uh...oh...OH! Yeah right, that...you're hot." He smiled then turned and started to walk again.

"You're going to get your dumb ass shot you know, I give it a week. A month at most." She told him as they reached the door. He opened it up and turned back to look at her.

"I've heard that before, bet I'll surprise you." He said before leaving with a bit of a bounce in his step. Typically, before anyone arrived there or tried to get work she also tried to warn them about what they were entering into. Some of them were straight up psychopaths and she gave up easily enough on those types. Some were just very desperate and she was at least able to remind them that selling your soul to the mob wasn't the answer, prompting them to leave. This guy was stupid, didn't seem desperate, and she doubted he was a psychopath. A useful idiot, as her father would say, and because of that, she knew this wouldn't be the last time she'd be having to deal with him either.

*****

The night of her twenty first birthday was supposed to be a fun night and for the most part it was. Her boyfriend Lucas had gotten her an amazing set of diamond earrings for the occasion and her father had rented out the hottest club in the city just for her. Everyone who was anyone had shown up. Even though most of the time she really wanted nothing to do with the family business it was nights like these that reminded her how great things could potentially be. It was nearly two in the morning when she headed back to the vacation home in the Hampton's to be alone with Lucas. Not twenty minutes after they got there, were they interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Just ignore it," Lucas muttered, "No one is supposed to be here anyway."

"That's what concerns me," Galina sighed, reaching to grab his shirt to pull it on. She got out of bed and walked to the dresser, pulling a gun from the top drawer. "I'll handle this, it won't take a minute."

"Yeah, I'm sure..." He sighed and she knew he didn't believe her but he really had no reason to. If they were being interrupted this late in this house then it was going to be business. There were very few people who even knew where this location was. Men got sent to her, a lot, because she could take care of them. She was very close to graduating from nursing school and she was the best they had in way of care where someone also didn't have to go to an ER and report their injuries. There was another one available, a doctor, but if he wasn't around or couldn't be reached everything defaulted to her. She had a feeling she knew exactly what this would be considering that it had been exactly a month since she met Mickey.

She checked her gun to make sure a bullet was racked into the chamber before opening the door and aiming it right in front of her confidently. She was somewhat small, at least smaller than most of the men she knew and dealt with but she was expecting whoever it was to be considerably injured. She wasn't wrong about that either. There he was, right on schedule, and he had a bullet wound to his shoulder. His hand was clasped over it tightly and he was leaning against the side of the house with a grimace on his face.

"Hey so uh...they sent me here and...fuck it's you." He muttered.

"Yeah it's me." She sighed and lowered the gun, "Really? On my birthday?"

"Oh I'm sorry maybe I should have told them it was your birthday and they'd have waited to shoot at me until tomorrow." He hissed at her.

"Just...get your ass inside please." She growled. He glared at her and shoved his way into the house stumbling until he was in the kitchen and sitting down at the table. She stuck her head outside to look around, trying to make sure he wasn't followed, and then shut the door and locked it. "In the kitchen?"

"I'm not going to make it much further than this unless you can carry me and you definitely can't." He said. She rolled her eyes and started to turn on lights.

"Give me a second I need to get some supplies. I'm not exactly a nurse yet but I'm close so this is the best you're going to get if you are trying to avoid the ER." She told him.

"I'm sure those little fingers can dig a bullet out just fine." He muttered and rested back in the chair heavily. She grumbled under her breath about him being an idiot, again, and walked through the house. Once upstairs, she replaced the gun in the dresser drawer and went into the bathroom to grab her supplies. She'd done this a shocking number of times since she'd gone into nursing school. At first it was very unnerving but now she was used to it. The good news was that it looked like the bullet was lodged higher up in his shoulder and wouldn't affect anything vital. It would be a process of removing it and stitching up the wound. Something she could do even if legally she shouldn't be doing it. The only reason she'd agreed to staying and working for the family was if she could help people instead of hurt them. It was a blessing and a curse.

"What is it?" Lucas asked.

"Some idiot who got shot because he's a fucking moron." She said, "You know the routine."

"I do," He replied and reached for the remote to the TV, "Just wish it didn't cock block me so much."

"You think I like it? And I told you that you are entirely free to break up with me if you want but my father will probably have you taken care of for breaking my heart if you do." She told him with a smug look, because she was joking about that. He laughed and turned the TV on before starting to skim through the channels.

"Your father already doesn't like me so don't be too sure that won't happen anyway." He said, "Already check the brakes on my car consistently."

"Then he's probably not going to get you by having someone cut your brakes." She replied. "It'll only take a bit then I'll kick him out or shove him into the guest room, whatever is easier and we can finish our night in here."

"If you say so." He muttered.

"Alright then you can fuck me as hard as you want in the morning. You can even do it in front of this shit head for all I care." She told him and headed for the door.

"I'm holding you to that!" He called after her. She laughed and headed down the hall and down the stairs into the kitchen. Mickey was still sitting at the table looking dazed. There wasn't a ton of blood dripping at that point so she could only assume the bleeding had stopped, for the most part. She set her bag of stuff on the kitchen table and started to get things out of it. The very first thing she got out was a clean syringe and a vial of morphine.

"You allergic to anything?" She asked him.

"Not that I know of," He muttered, "Please tell me those are painkillers, good ones."

"Yeah, morphine." She said and loaded up the needle with a dose that was a bit high but wouldn't be dangerous for a guy his size. It would just pacify him enough that she could get the bullet out and usually that meant making at least a small cut in his skin to be able to get it free. She did not like being grabbed or slapped away while she was doing something like that. It just made her more likely to stab someone.

"Good." He whispered.

"Take off your jacket." She told him. He let out a pathetic whine then moved to do as she asked, wincing and groaning as he did. He was in a short sleeve shirt under that so it made finding a vein and cleaning his arm off easy. "This is going to make you-"

"I know, I've had morphine just hurry it up already." He snapped.

"Fine, whatever," She told him and shoved the needle into his arm, being painful about it on purpose. She injected him as quickly as she could, only being careful because she didn't need him to have such a rush from it that he puked on her, then pulled the needle back out. After that she went into the kitchen to wash her hands and make sure they were as sterile as possible before putting her gloves on.

"Oh fuck...that was...a lot of morphine." He moaned about a minute later.

"Going to complain even more now?" She called.

"No...oh no...no complaints this is...awesome." He laughed. She snickered softly, she had to admit he was kind of cute, at least when he was stoned. She wasn't sure she wanted to deal with him any longer while he was sober. She finished washing her hands and came back to the table. She pulled on her gloves and took her scalpel from the case.

"Take your shirt off." She said.

"Not going to buy me dinner first?" He muttered.

"Yeah not worth my time." She said, "Do something about whatever the facial hair is you are trying to pass off as a beard and we'll talk."

"Bitch," He grumbled and pulled off his shirt. She pulled a lamp over there to light up the area more easily and shoved him back into the chair before cleaning the area around the wound as best she could, and as fast as she could, before moving in to make the incision.

"Hold still and if you hit me or grab me so help me god I will jam this into your balls." She told him, holding up the scalpel so he could clearly see it.

"Kinky...I like that," He joked.

"You won't like it when I castrate you." She warned and pulled at the skin a bit to make the incision. Once she had, she grabbed some tweezers and yanked out the bullet. It was a small one. Looked like a .22 caliber. That made this much easier than had it been bigger. She grabbed some gauze and held it tightly over the wound, amazed that he hadn't made so much as a peep while she had done all that. Either he was trying to be tough, it was the massive dose of morphine, or both. She didn't know or care. All she wanted was for this to be over with so that she could get back to her boyfriend. "Hold that there I'll need to stitch you up."

"Yes, Mistress." He grumbled putting his hand over the gauze to press it into the wound tightly. She quickly changed her gloves, washed her hands again, and put on a new pair. She opened the suture kit that she had and slapped his hand away to begin stitching him up once he had moved enough to get in close. He did yelp and whine a bit as she did this, keeping his eyes closed tightly and head turned away. It was a longer process than getting the bullet out and she probably hadn't done a great job cleaning the area like she should have but she figured that she could get him antibiotics or just refer him to the actual doctor in the morning. She wasn't sure she cared at the moment. Her job was to make sure one of the men didn't die immediately, not long term care.

"There you go," She said when she finished. She cleaned up the area again and put a loose bandage over it.

"Thanks so...I'm crashing here." He said in the way that it wasn't a request or even a question. She didn't see how he was in any condition to drive or walk somewhere with how banged up and stoned he was so she just nodded in agreement.

"Couch is in the other room, guestroom is down the hall, do not come upstairs or I will shoot you in the face." She warned.

"Is that a promise?" He asked.

"You bet your ass it is." She told him. "Don't go in any room with a locked door and don't bother me for the rest of the night. If you aren't annoying I'll give you more morphine when I get up and probably breakfast, I guess."

"Thanks, you're pretty okay when you're saving someone's life." He replied then smiled stupidly at her.

"Sleep it off." She told him and patted his cheek. He got up and stumbled out of there, clearly headed for the other room. It was hard to tell if he was going to end up in the guest room or on the couch but it didn't matter to her either way. She cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and on the table then tossed out anything unsanitary or bio-hazardous. As she was headed towards the stairs she saw that he had, miraculously, made it to the doorway of the guest bedroom and was leaning against the frame heavily. "Sweet dreams."

"Galina....was it?" He asked after a moment as she made her way up the stairs. She paused and looked over at him.

"Yes?" She asked.

"A month and a day...so you were wrong." He laughed and opened the door to the guest room.

"No, it's been a-"

"One month...one day." He insisted and stumbled into the room. A moment later, the door slammed shut behind him. She paused as she thought about it. She could have sworn that it had been exactly a month but as she counted back to when they'd actually met, it had technically been after midnight. Just like it was now. He was just barely right about that. It wasn't a month and a day but it was over one month by just a few hours. She rolled her eyes and headed up the stairs anyway. So what if he was kind of right and he'd made it longer than she'd predicted? It was her birthday and she was going to finish off the night with a bang. He wasn't going to get in her way anymore. At least, she certainly hoped that was the case.