AllFreeNovel
Share Us
10
VIKTOR
Ihaven’t slept since the night I left Caterina in the guest bedroom.
A week passes, and then another. The stalemate between us is clear—I won’t back down, and neither will she.If I’d known how stubborn she was, I tell myself late at night, when I miss her warmth beside me in bed,I would never have married her.
Deep down, though, I know that’s not true. I wanted Caterina from the moment I laid eyes on her. No amount of fights, defiance, or even her underhanded threats can change that. I viscerally long for her, in a way that I thought I was incapable of feeling any longer.
She’s awakened things in me that I thought were dead only to snatch them away again, which makes me crave and hate her in equal measure—or at least I tell myself that too, that I hate her.
The truth is something much worse, which makes men like me weak. Something that can be used against us. And my second greatest fear, right after something happening to my children because of this situation that we’ve found ourselves in, is Alexei using Caterina against me.
Every day, I do all I can to avoid Caterina. I visit the children when she’s not in their rooms, eat my meals alone in my office, throw myself into the work that I can do so far from home and in the meetings I have with Levin, Luca, and Liam, dissecting what information we can find about Alexei’s possible whereabouts and the moves he’s making on my clients and connections. He’s contacted everyone from somewhere remote, but we’re able to find out enough about the transactions to discover that he’s completed every sale I had lined up before my trip to Moscow and taken the money for himself, as well as brokering sales for the rest of the girls who hadn’t been spoken for and taking those profits as well.
“He’s positioning himself to take over, once he tells your former clients that you’re no longer in the business and that he’s the new head,” Levin says darkly. “He’s building trust so that they’ll be more willing to break with you when the time comes, whatever the reason he gives them for your disappearance.”
I grit my teeth at that, black fury filling me. “There must be something we can do.”
“We need to leave and go back to Moscow. Talk to some of your connections there, and do what we can to flush Alexei out.” Levin looks at me. “You know that’s what needs to be done, Viktor—”
“I’m not leaving until Anika is well.” I shake my head. “I can’t do it.”
“She’s well protected here.” It’s not often that Levin pushes a point with me, and I know he must be concerned to do so now, especially on this topic. “We’ll bring either Luca or Liam with us, and the other stays here to help oversee the security guarding the women. A few days, no more. It would be worth it to eliminate the threat—”
“Anika will be well enough for me to feel comfortable leaving her soon,” I insist. “But until then—”
Levin lets out a frustrated sigh, something else unusual for him. Normally he would never let me know if he was displeased with a decision I’d made, even if he was. I can tell that he’s as concerned as I am for what this means for our future.
“How trusted is Levin in Moscow?” Luca interjects. “If we send him with enough security to keep him safe, could he seek out that same information while you stay here?”
Inwardly I can’t help but grit my teeth at Luca’s use ofwe. There was a time when he wouldn’t have been party to any of this. I haven’t yet entirely gotten accustomed to sharing decision-making with a man whose blood I once wanted to splatter across the Manhattan streets. But a truce is a truce, and part of that is recognizing that a hitch in my business dealings also affects Luca’s—and by extension, Liam’s as well.
“Do you have any input?” I shoot across the desk to the redheaded Irishman, who has been notably silent throughout the discussion.
Liam shrugs. “I trust both of you to make the appropriate decisions. You know your business, your connections, and most importantly, you know Alexei better than I do, Viktor. I’m not sure my input would be useful.”
Well, at least one of them knows when to be silent.I don’t say it aloud as I might once have, though, aware that my irritation stems from my worry about my children and my frustrations with Caterina as much as my desire to keep my business dealings close to my own chest.
“Perhaps—” I start to say, but my sentence is abruptly cut off by what sounds like nothing so much as a rattle of gunfire from outside.
“Bladya!”I leap up from the desk, moving towards the door. “Levin, where the fuck is security? Get a camera feed for me, now!”
Levin is on his feet as well, moving towards the monitor that has a security feed on it, which is right now set to the children’s rooms. He presses a button, flipping through the feeds of the rooms in the mansion before it switches abruptly to the front gates, where the scene I’ve been dreading is playing out in real-time.
A horde of men dressed in black, with flak vests and automatic weapons and their faces covered, are pouring through the broken gates, a tactical vehicle parked in the gateway where it slammed through. Several members of my security are already on the ground, and I curse aloud as I come around the desk, snatching my own gun out of the top drawer.
“Get Luca and Liam armed,” I snap at Levin. “And any other man here who isn’t already carrying a gun. Make sure the women are safe in the house somewhere—”
The slamming of the front door and another rattle of gunfire interrupts me, and I rush for the office door, throwing it open as I stride out with Levin on my heels. I can hear the click of loading pistols behind me, but I don’t bother to look. I see Max coming out of a doorway further down, his forehead creased, and I grab a pistol from Levin, holding it out to him.
“Take this,” I say sharply, but he shakes his head.
“My vows—”
I glare at him, a piercing stare that could freeze ice. “Son, I don’t give a fuck about your vows. You’ve killed one man already, and you’re under my protection for it. If you want that to continue, you’ll take this gun and defend my family.” I narrow my eyes at him. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to Sasha, would you?”
Max’s cheeks flush, but he takes the pistol. “I won’t use this unless necessary,” he says stiffly, but I’m already turning away from him.
