AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After the server left the vodka bottle on the table, I poured each of us a stiff drink. We tapped our shot glasses and swallowed the alcohol down in swift gulps, both of us glad the meeting was over and had gone relatively well. The fact none of us were delighted was just the nature of compromise, and since we had agreed not to obliterate them off the face of the earth for daring to enter our city, then they had to agree to keep their fingers out of our pies.
Aleksei made a face at the cheap vodka. “We should go back to your place where you have the good stuff from home,” he said.
I snickered. “You were eight when we came here, I was ten. This is our home, Aleks. What do you really think about this nonsense with the Balakins?”
He poured himself another shot of the swill and shrugged. “I think it’s just that. Nonsense. But I’ve grown tired of killing. I just want to make money hand over fist and find a wife like you did. What’s it like to have someone at home every night that you can count on to have your back?”
I raised my eyebrows at that. “You’re saying you want to settle down?”
My younger brother had a different woman every night of the week. The ones who didn’t know his reputation went for his good looks, and the ones who did want a taste of his money and power. I could see why he might want someone he could count on. After all, I didn’t miss my old life one bit. If only I was certain I could count on Reina. Sometimes it seemed like she cared, like the worry she showed when I left for this meeting, but if I gave her back her freedom, would she stay? Or would she be gone faster than a startled rabbit?
“Maybe in a year or two or five,” he said, smiling when the pretty red-haired server came back to see if we wanted anything else.
I left him to flirt, wanting to get out of the dark bar. I promised Reina I’d get back as soon as I could and now that the tensions revolving around the truce were lessened, I could let my mind wonder what I wanted to do with her when I got home. I told my driver to meet me at the end of the block, since there was a jewelry shop a little way down the road. I’d been affected by the story of her father and wanted to do whatever I could to take her mind off of it. She had looked so lovely in the emerald bracelet I chose for her for our failed date night that I decided to get her matching earrings.
Inside the shop, I loitered near the engagement rings. The one she wore now had been chosen in haste and angrily shoved onto her finger, and I had no idea if she even liked it or not. She knew she’d face my wrath if she ever took it off, though. While I waited for the owner to bring his selection of antique jewels from the safe, I tapped out a few messages to my contacts in the mid-west. I didn’t have much hope, because random crime was sadly a reality, but if there was anything I could do to put her mind at ease about her father’s case, then I would do it.
“These should suit your needs very well, Mr. Morozov.” The jeweler returned with several gold and emerald pieces on a velvet pad, explaining their worth and provenance.
There was a pair of eighty-year-old emerald and pearl earrings with a matching necklace I could picture against my wife’s fair skin and bought them, making the shop owner a very happy man. I only hoped Reina’s smile would be as big and I could hardly wait until she was naked on her bed so I could drape them across her soft skin.
On my way out, I noticed a kid’s clothing store across the street, and hurried across, thinking a pair of baby booties would be sure to bring a smile to her face. Any one of my brothers would have rightfully rolled their eyes at me at how eager I was to please her. My little queen was making me ridiculously soft. Yes, I had to be getting soft, because as soon as I was surrounded by the tiny clothes, I felt a warm tug in my chest. I couldn’t wait to hold my heir in my arms.
My phone buzzed annoyingly in my pocket as soon as both hands were filled with little outfits. I transferred them under my arm to see who was bugging me then let them flutter to the floor when I saw it was my home security number.
“What is it?” I marched outside, all thoughts of buying baby clothes gone in an instant. They wouldn’t call me for no reason. My heart seized when I heard screaming in the background, and I raced toward my car. But no, it wasn’t Reina’s voice; it was Hetty, her maid. She was hysterical, and I could hardly hear what my head of security was saying.
“Can’t you shut her up?” I snarled. “I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
“Get home, sir,” he yelled over the shrieks in the background.
I yanked my driver out of his seat, telling him he could hop in the back or find his own way back to the house. There was no way he’d get me there fast enough. I laid on the horn and barreled through every red light, my foot jamming the gas pedal to the floor. It still seemed like I was traveling in slow motion. What had made Reina’s maid so upset? Finally, I screeched into my driveway, flying out of the car before it was fully stopped, and leaving the poor driver to lurch forward from the back to try to keep it from crashing into the fountain. Upstairs, my head of security and several of his men were searching the rooms. I found Hetty in a heap on Reina’s living room floor, tearing at her clothes as she sobbed uncontrollably.
Blood. Blood on the floor, a trail of it leading to the balcony.
“Reina!” I bellowed. She’d come to me. She wouldn’t dare defy such a shout.
Hetty pointed a shaking hand toward the balcony, one of Reina’s favorite places to sit and watch the water. I hurried out there to see more splashes of red all over the marble rail and everything went quiet and still. I could barely see or hear or move. I’d seen the aftermath of violence plenty of times. I’d been the cause of it plenty more. But this time was different.
The security head caught up to me and everything jerked back to normal. “Where is Reina?” I reached to shake the man, who looked like he might be sick. Useless. “Where is Maksim, if you can’t answer me?”
He brushed past me and pointed over the edge of the balcony. “Maksim is dead, sir.”
I didn’t believe it. I’d chosen him to guard Reina because he was as tough and strong as me, and I trusted him almost as much as one of my brothers. I looked over the side to see him hanging half off the concrete bird of paradise planter, his throat gaping open like a bright red jack-o-lantern’s grin.
“Reina,” I gasped. I didn’t want to know.
“We can’t find her, sir.”
I glared at him to tell me the truth, to admit he was lying, then looked over the balcony again, expecting Maksim to jump up and tell me this was a very poor joke. But Maksim never moved. He was dead and now Reyna was gone.
Chapter 15 - Reina
I was reading a book on the balcony, probably the tenth one that week, whiling away the time until I could talk to Lynn on the phone or Ivan came back, whichever came first. I wasn’t as unhappy as I was that morning and while I wished I at least had the freedom to roam around the property, I was pleased that Ivan was finally telling me where he was going and not just treating me like a sex object. That was progress, right?
I put the book down and closed my eyes, dreamily conjuring up ideas for when he got back. To be fair, I didn’t one hundred percent mind the sex object part of our strange relationship. My daydream started to get pretty spicy when I was shaken out of it by a loud thump right below the balcony. No sooner had my eyes opened than a big, metal hook came flying over the edge, and seconds later, two men dressed in khaki fatigues with masks covering most of their faces climbed over the side.
I let out a shrill screech as one of them slammed me against the wall. “This will go better for you if you don’t fight,” he said menacingly.
