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Valerie is somewhat used to my theatrics by now, but this isn’t acting. The truth is exactly how I state it. If she’s not pregnant with my baby soon, I’m going to lose everything. Falling onto concrete from a hundred stories up is a dream compared to the way I’ll be ripped apart by my enemies if I’m cast off my throne.
“But… why?” Valerie asks, clutching the edge of the bed in terror. I feel bad for putting her through this much stress, but she wanted the truth, and I owe her nothing less.
“It was part of the oath I took when I inherited this position from my father. Anatoly wasn’t able to live up to what my father wanted, so I was chosen. The rewards are obviously immense, more power and wealth than most people could even conceive of, but the price is high and the punishment for failure is death.”
Her eyes are so wide that they reflect the entire room, but all I see is how small I look in them. How human. How ungodly I amnow that she knows the truth. Even I, the lawless freak without morals or limits, is bound by laws as heavy and unyielding as titanium chains.
In this moment, I admit that I’m just a man. Not a hero. Not her knight in shining armor. I need her more than she needs me, and it’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever spoken to someone.
“So, you see, I need to have a child with you, but I like you. It’s not just about who you are or what you can do for me. I really am crazy about you,” I explain.
She frowns, tilting her head to the side and studying me like with a newfound interest. I feel like a tiny little worm under a laboratory microscope. How peculiar I must seem to her now. I’m not anything like the beast she thought me to be.
But she doesn’t dig into my insecurities. In fact, she doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by this new revelation. She smiles instead, jumping up off the bed and coming toward me with open arms. “I’m glad you chose me, Pasha,” she says.
I hug her, stumbling back a bit in surprise. But then I realize I haven’t told her the full story. She might not feel so glad once she realizes she’s one of theonlypeople I could’ve chosen.
I clear my throat. “Well, it’s not exactly like that. You see, I had to do a little research to find someone who met the requirements.”
She looks up at me, pressing her chin into my chest. “What requirements?”
“You probably don’t know this, but you’re over one-eighth Russian, according to your DNA. Specifically, the Amur region,”I explain through a forced smile. I’m trying to hold it together, but I fear she’s going to take this the wrong way.
She frowns. “You mean, you had to have a baby with someone Russian?”
“The requirements state that you have to have at least one-eighth of your lineage from the Amur region of Russia. You fit the bill, and I’m being honest when I say there are very few matches like that in the United States.”
She laughs. “You’re lucky I’m so beautiful then.”
I breathe out a cautious sigh of relief, laughing with her as I rub the back of my neck. “Uh, yeah… I am. I thought I might have to go back to Russia and give up what I had built in Texas, but when I found you, I realized you were the perfect fit.”
“Convenient,” she says, rolling her tongue over her teeth as she narrows her eyes. “And you’re sure you really like me for who I am? Or is it still just about the baby?”
“I would die for you,” I profess.
“Wow,” she says with another laugh. “I guess I can’t argue with that.”
I hold her tighter, feeling her glowing warmth in my arms and realizing that I’m the luckiest man alive. How can it be that I’ve done everything wrong from start to finish and I still have the most precious person in my arms?
She deserves the world for what she’s been through, and I intend to give it to her, starting with her sister’s lost emerald necklace.
“Thank you for being so understanding,” I say, giving her a squeeze before loosening my grip.
She beams up at me. “Are you kidding me? This is the most fun I’ve had in ages, and it’s not the guilty fun that gets you sent to rehab. I’ve grown as a person because of you. I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t met you. Or rather, if you hadn’t hunted me down.”
I feel a tinge of embarrassment that we met that way. There were probably a hundred ways that I could’ve convinced her to be with me, and I took the most drastic and aggressive option like it was my only one.
But I was a different person then, too. I have to cut myself some slack for that. As long as I approach the future differently, we should be okay.
My focus is broken by a buzz from the bedside table. My phone is there with Boris’s name flashing across the screen.
I sigh. I hope this isn’t anything to do with Anatoly. If that fucker hasn’t learned his lesson since the shooting, I doubt he ever will.
I leave Valerie’s comforting embrace and reenter my role as the Bratva’s commander. “What’s the trouble?” I ask Boris as I answer.
“Who said anything about trouble?” he counters, but I can hear the stress in his voice.
“If you’re calling me about anything else, I’m going to be annoyed.”
