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It has to be.
Nothing more.
ChapterTwenty
Malik
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war. But the greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”—Art of war.
Day two is official done.
Two more to go before I greet my enemies and emerge as not just the victor, but their conqueror. I love it when people think they’ve gotten away with something and realize all they did was bide time.
I park my car in the garage and rest my head against the soft leather seat of my chair. I breathe in the cool night air flowing through the window and allow it to settle my mind.
Today has been one of those seriously long days where it's felt like a year or two have year passed. It’s almost midnight. When I left earlier, I went straight to Volkova Inc. and worked non-stop. Most of the work I had planned for the next two weeks is done now. That includes Bratva business. I just have a few things to tie up tomorrow, then the wedding is Saturday. After that I have meetings straight through until Monday morning when we meet with Diego and Esperanza.
After I meet with them and lay down the law, the next plan is to go to Mexico for the literal cartel takeover, where I’ll be meeting with the members of the cartel and their allies. Zakh will be joining me and we’ll be taking our strongest men. Desmier is contemplating coming with us, too. As we’ll be on the Navarro’s turf, we have to be prepared for retaliation by taking our best skilled in dealing with men like Diego.
Now that I’m home and I don’t have the distraction of work, my mind instantly drifts to my wife-to-be.
I imagine Gwen inside my bedroom.
Is she asleep in my bed?
Or is she up thinking about the wedding and everything else?
The latter would be understandable.
I’ve dropped several bombs on her over the last two days; everything I told her is a lot to process.
As ruthless as I am, even I know that with the promise of a billion-dollar fortune, this change to her life is going to be drastic not only for the next six months but forever, because now the Navarros will know who she is.
She knows that, too. When she told me about the threat her father was under, I understood more about why Santiago wanted to keep her secret.
I never factored in Esperanza as a threat, but it makes sense, and I get it because that’s what happened to my mother and how Desmier came to be.
My father was in love with his mother, not mine, and he had the same sort of secret relationship Santiago did with Gwen’s mother.
The fucked-up thing about that was, I knew my father didn’t love my mother even though they acted like they were in love. I could always also tell when he was with Desmier’s mother. I didn’t know her, and I didn’t know him, but by the time I was nine, I knew my father was having an affair.
Like Desmier, Gwen is the secret child born out of a forbidden romance.
The only difference between her and Desmier is, she doesn’t want this life, and right now, she belongs to me.
Those two things alone are enough to keep the goddess awake.
The thought of what I could do with Gwen awake sends a rush of hot blood to my dick. But I tamp down my lust.
I’ll admit that I took pleasure in seeing the obvious jealousy on her pretty face when she met Kelly this morning. At first, I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d assumed right by thinking Gwen was jealous, but I got confirmation when I caught her watching us at the poolside.
Judging from the look on her face, I knew she was thinking there’s something going on between Kelly and me.
There’s nothing. There never was and never will be. Even if at times I felt Kelly wanted something to happen between us.
We grew up like family and hung out because we were the youngest in my home.
She wants to move to L.A. next year and open her own dance school. Until then she’ll continue to work for me.
