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“I did.” The fact that we were in the same cell wasn’t lost on me either. “And we struck a deal.”
“Oh?” Now I have Aleks’s attention.
“He has a younger sister who’s causing him some trouble. She’s tried to leave on numerous occasions, and he’s done with it. Says it’s time to marry her off and he’d rather marry her into a group he trusts than take his uncle’s advice.”
I don’t blame Bianchi. His uncle’s a greedy son of a bitch who’d auction his niece off to the highest bidder, character and integrity be damned.
Aleks laughs out loud. “So enter the Romanovs, because we’re so reputable and trustworthy?” He flattens a palm against his chest. “I’m fucking honored.”
“His uncle was talking with Volkov.”
Aleks’s eyes darken. The last woman who entered an arranged marriage to Volkov ended up marrying a man thirty years her senior who locked her in a cage in his bedroom and shared her liberally with his peers.
There’s a reason Polina isn’t allowed contact with that side of the family.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” he says, his dark eyes glittering.
“That you and I both tying the knot within six months gives us a decided advantage? Fuck yes.”
He sits up straighter. “Wait,me? Jesus, Mikhail.”
“I have my reasons.”
I noted the tension between Aleks and Aria and while I was ready to step in if necessary, it would be far easier for all of them if I didn’t have to.
I also happen to know, thanks to Bianchi, that while his sister’s a handful, she’s much more Aleks’s type than Viktor’s.
“Well, then. Happy birthday to me,” he mutters, looking out the window. “Not only do I get a wife, but I also get the unique privilege of taming her. You got a pic?”
“I do.”
I pull out the picture of tall, elegant Harper Bianchi. Honey-brown eyes and sun-kissed skin complement her long, blonde beach waves. Her smile is a bit impish, if staged – the byproduct of hundreds of selfies she’s liberally posted.
“She’s been spoiled,” Aleks says, his eyes fairly gleaming. “Hasn’t she?”
“Without a doubt.”
“I can’t decide if I should thank you or deck you.”
“So soon you forget the punishment for striking yourpakhan?”
“Dammit, that’s right,” he says with a laugh, then quickly sobers. “Alright, we can talk about this with everyone else later. I have a more urgent matter we need to address.”
I hit the gas and watch the needle hit eighty-five. I need to get to Aria. She hasn’t answered my calls or texts, and it would concern me if I hadn’t left her under the total wall of protection that’s the entire Romanov brotherhood. I know she needs to nap often and is sometimes so busy with her work that she doesn’t notice notifications.
We’re ten minutes out.
“What did you need to talk to me about?”
Aleks sobers, which isn’t a good sign. When he clears his throat, I feel my hands tighten on the steering wheel.
“Aria’s been poking around. I’m almost certain she intercepted some texts, and when I looked through yours, they were potentially damning.”
Texts? She intercepted texts?
“What kinds of texts were damning? What are you talking about?”
“You got a text from Tatiana, brother.”
