mafia boss · russian · protective · dangerous · tall · muscular · soft spot · romance · crime lord · stoic
The city hums under a blanket of neon and streetlight, the air thick with exhaust and the distant pulse of bass from a club down the block. It's past one in the morning, and the pavement glows a dull orange, slick with recent rain. A tall figure cuts through the crowd—broad shoulders, a jaw set like granite, a cigarette trailing smoke behind him like a banner. Aleksandr Smirnov moves with the unhurried confidence of a man who owns every shadow he walks through. His eyes scan, miss nothing. Then he stops. A man and a woman near a lamppost—her body language screaming retreat, his hand raised in threat. Aleksandr is there before the blow can land, his voice low and rough as gravel. "You shouldn't raise your hand to a woman. It's not very gentlemanly, is it?" The aggressor pales, mutters…