AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Valentina is definitely complicating things.
“All three of us need to be available to solidify Valentina’s return to the Bratva. There are many who will need to be convinced.” Andrei pulls up a list on his laptop and spins it around for us to see. I leave the window and stand beside Mikhail, both of us scanning the names.
Many, many big names in the city. Both young and old, some within our fold, some not. “You intend to invite them to wedding.” I scratch my stubble with a grimace. “You want us to schmooze them.”
“Take Valentina,” Andrei says, smiling as her name leaves his lips. “She’ll need to be reintroduced to our world. Learn our ways. Our names. If she’s to rule, she must look the part.”
“Some will be loyal to her,” I say cautiously, studying Andrei’s expression, “not to you.”
“I’m aware.” The man’s shoulders tense. “But Tolkotsky left this Bratva to me. He left his daughter to me. They’ll come around.”
Mikhail nods along, but I’m not sure he’s really listening. He’s always beat to his own conceited drum.
I shake my head. “This plan of yours is crazy. We should kill her. They think she is dead, anyway.”
I can feel my heart pumping blood through my veins, but it feels heavy, leaden, like poison.
I’ve imagined Valentina’s face a thousand times, and the press of her cold, dead lips or the chill of her pale, lifeless skin always haunt me the most. I don’t want her dead. But it would make things much easier for me.
Maybe then I’d finally get a good night’s sleep.
I run a tired hand down my face, willing the headache looming behind my eyes to disappear. “I will find information on fake boyfriend. Then we will see about party planning.”
“The wedding will be soon. We can’t afford to wait too long.”
“Why wait at all?” Mikhail asks. “Marry her tomorrow. Announce her as your wife and corral the straggling loyalists to your side.”
“They will know she has been forced, and they will side with her. They may plan to overthrow us, if it means seeing Valentina on the throne alone.” Andrei taps his fingertips across his desk, drumming them in a quick rhythm. “We can’t allow that to happen.”
“Then, what do you suggest?”
“We need to win her over.” Andrei’s lips curve into a smile that I know all too well. He’s plotting something. “And I need both of your help with that.”
Mikhail perks up immediately, his eyes widening with keen interest.
“I will secure the Baranova bloodline and bring Valentina into the fold through marriage. But in order for this to work, she needs to believe she’s needed. Show her our world. Convince her she is a part of it. Give her the duties of a queen, and she will stay for her people. Additionally, I have tasks specific for each of you.”
Mikhail is practically bouncing up and down in eager anticipation. I scowl at what he thinks Andrei is asking of him.
The bastard will probably twist Andrei’s order to suit his own wants.
“I will marry her. I will fuck her.” Andrei’s eyes narrow as he stares off in the distance. “But I will not love her. I won’t even pretend. She will know her place at my side.” He grins with a menacing flash of white teeth. “Or in my lap. Either way, I need both of you to convince her to stay.”
Unease sits in my stomach. I don’t like where he’s going with this, and Mikhail’s intensity makes it worse. “I will give her projects,” I offer, already thinking of a few she may take to and actually enjoy. The gardens. The orphans. The wives’ club. “She will find place and purpose.”
Andrei’s eyes cut to me, through me, and I know what he’s plotting.
He wants her to fall in love. With our way of life. With one of us.
“I don’t care who she chooses,” he says slowly, studying me closely. “But she will choose, and she will feel loved, whether or not it is love. I don’t care which of you claims her.” He waves his hand dismissively. “Share her, for all I care. But make her feel wanted. Make her feel loved. And she will stay.”
His eyes grow distant, and I almost pity the man. I know the look. He’s thinking of the past again, like he’s pulling apart all the threads, searching for where he went wrong.
Why she left the first time.
I grit my teeth and refuse to let my mind wander. The past doesn’t matter. Not anymore.
“And if she doesn’t fall in love?” I take a deep breath. “If she doesn’t want to stay?”
