AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s taking me to Ireland,” I tell Nikolai without preamble as I walk into his home office, closing the door behind me. “Tonight.”
Nikolai looks up from the files in front of him, pursing his lips. “Ireland? On a honeymoon, I suppose? It’s not the strangest thing—”
“A business trip, mostly. He says he has a meeting with the Kings there.” I don’t fully understand what that means, but I expect Nikolai will, and from the way he rubs his hand over his mouth, he does.
“I see.” Nikolai closes the file in front of him, considering. “Well, I doubt you’ll have as much of an opportunity for snooping there as you would in his actual home. But perhaps he’ll talk to you about some of what goes on in those meetings. Particularly if you keep him happy.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Not exactly what I want to hear from my brother.”
“I’m not telling you this in my capacity as your brother,” Nikolai says evenly. “I’m telling you as thepakhanof the Vasilev Bratva. I agreed to the marriage for a specific reason, and as such, we need to talk about how to achieve those ends. However distasteful talking about your marriage bed might be with me, it’s necessary—” he pauses, frowning. “He didn’t send over the sheets.”
“He said he dislikes the tradition, and he assumes that you trust me. As does he,” I add, hoping that will please Nikolai. From the expression on his face, it does.
“Well, that’s a start. I agree; it’s a barbaric tradition. Not one I intend on continuing with my own family.” Nikolai pauses, considering. “So he’s taking you to Ireland. Dublin, I assume?”
I nod, going to sit in one of the leather chairs on the other side of his desk.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “He didn’t say. Just that we’d be gone for a little while.”
Nikolai frowns. “I can’t say I love the idea that he’s taking you out of the country with no itinerary. But he’s your husband—there’s nothing I can say about it.”
The fear twists deep in my stomach again. “Do you think there’s a reason you should?”
Nikolai rubs his hand over his mouth. “I don’t think so. I think it’s likely exactly what he’s saying—a business trip, combined with a chance to take his new bride on a pseudo-honeymoon. Killing two birds with one stone, which is exactly the sort of efficient thing I would expect from a man like Theo. I wouldn’t worry, Marika,” he says, and I can hear from the way he says it that he’s trying to be reassuring.
I nod, swallowing hard, and Nikolai gives me another long look. “I’ll send some of my own security with you,” he says finally. “To ease your mind.”
My eyes widen as I look at him, startled. “But—won’t Theo see that as an insult? You all but saying you don’t trust him to keep me safe?”
Nikolai gives me a wry smile. “Well, he won’t like it, that’s for sure. But if he says no, that will be an insult too—him all but saying that he won’t allow me to ensure my sister’s safety, and it makes him look suspicious, even if he’s doing nothing wrong. So he and I will be at an impasse, and when I insist as a measure of good faith since there’s been bad blood between our families for so long, he’ll agree.”
I find, when I return back to Theo’s home—I can’t think of it as mine yet—that Nikolai is right. Mostly, at least. Theo doesn’t attempt to turn them away, but I can see the tight anger on his face when the black SUVs pull into the courtyard behind the car I’m in, and he comes down the steps to meet me.
“What the hell is this?” he asks in a low voice as I step out of the car, and my heart thuds in my chest at the sound of it—for an entirely different reason this time.
“I told Nikolai about the trip.” I try to sound as calm and careless about it as possible, as if it means nothing—as if it’s nothing for him to be upset by. “He wanted to send along some extra security.”
Theo’s jaw tightens even further, and I wonder if his teeth are going to crack from grinding them together so hard. “Because he doesn’t trust me.” The words come out like knives, each one. “He gave you to me, but he doesn’t trust me with you.”
The way he says it startles me a little. It sounds less like he’s angry on principle, and more like it personally hurts him that Nikolai doesn’t trust him. Like itmattersto him that he’s trusted with me.
Is this man ever going to start making sense?
“Theo, it’s just—”
“I’m going to speak with Nikolai.” He turns sharply on his heel, and my stomach tightens. Now that I have the promise of additional security on the trip that answers to my brother and not to Theo, I don’t want to lose it. I felt better the minute I knew that Nikolai was sending some of his men.
But Theo is already striding up the steps, shoving open the door as he walks quickly towards what I can only assume is his office, too quickly for me to catch up. He slams the door behind him, and when I reach for the knob, it’s locked.
I’ve long been good at eavesdropping, though.
I lean in, pressing my ear against the door as I listen for Theo’s voice—or footsteps that will tell me to get away before he catches me. It’s a moment before I hear anything at all, and then I hear the low, angry burr of his voice as he starts to speak.
“The fucking hell do you think you’re doing, Nikolai, sending your own security on my honeymoon—yes, it’s a business trip, too. Yes, it’s the Kings in Dublin. I won’t let anything happen to her. She won’t be a part of any of that—what the hell do you take me for? You let me marry her. If you didn’t trust me not to—oh fucking hell.”
There’s a long moment’s silence, as if Nikolai is saying something at length on the other side of the conversation.
