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“On the contrary, your success is very important to me,” he says, smiling. But there’s a steely glint in his eyes now that I don’t like at all. Not one bit. “Because I’ve called you here to make an offer that I don’t think you’ll want to refuse.”
That’s mafia politeness for can’t. Can’t refuse. I adjust my collar, a coded signal for Niko to be ready, because just in case I do refuse, it means things will likely escalate to violence.
“Oh?” I ask, not betraying anything. Not the anger at my father for the shit mountain he left me, the worry that everything I’ve worked so hard for is about to disappear into dust, or the inner bracing for the possibility that I’m about to get shot at. “What’s your offer, Ivan?”
He raises a brow, his eyes tensing. I haven’t spoken to him in more than a year, and back then it was always Mr. Novikov. Not anymore. I’m the head of my organization now. Now we’re equals.
He leans forward, pushing aside his plate. “I want to welcome you into my family. Make you part of my legacy, Alexei.”
What the fuck? I look down at his hand resting on my arm, the blue veins standing out in stark contrast to his pale, papery skin on my dark suit. He laughs uproariously and I realize I’ve said “what the fuck” out loud.
Ivan leans back as he finishes laughing. “Is it such an odd thing to want two powerful families to come together?”
“No,” I say, getting a hold of myself even though my mind is spinning. “I just don’t understand what you mean.”
His smile now is altogether too much like the one a cat gives to its prey right before it bites its head off. I adjust my tie. Not a signal, but the first sign of real nerves since we got here. I don’t like the look on his face at all.
“The entirety of your family’s debt wiped clean in exchange for taking my youngest daughter off my hands,” he says.
Behind me, Niko makes a choked laugh. He can’t believe what he’s hearing either. But then I remind myself that Ivan comes from a different generation. Hell, it’s not really all that unusual even now for arranged marriages between families to strengthen organizations.
It’s just a massive amount of debt. Debt that he could have called in any time since my father was killed. I would have been destitute a year ago, completely ruined. It took time to show what was left of my father’s organization that I wasn’t a tyrant, so that they’d help me rebuild what we have now. Now I’ll just be really fucking pissed off—left with nothing but my loyal crew. Back at square one. They’ve worked every bit as hard as I have. Don’t I owe it to them to consider this?
“You want me to marry your daughter?” I can’t help but think I might have misheard. “My father was your worst enemy.”
Ivan sighs. “Times are changing. Your star is on the rise, and I wake up every morning with stiff knees and an aching back. My Sera is getting antsy for a family of her own and I want nothing more than for her to be happy and well taken care of.”
It’s all I can do to keep from snorting. The whole show of complaining about the damp weather, suddenly acting like a weak old man. I don’t buy any of it for a second. There’s more to this than meets the eye. More than anything I want to tell him where he can shove his offer, but I can’t.
Every one of the people who work for me would be displaced because I know like I know my own damn name that Ivan will raze my businesses to the ground. Turn them into money laundering fronts, put in his own people who are loyal to him out of fear.
He snaps his fingers and one of the big piles of tires unfolds himself off the banquette and hands him a folder, which Ivan slides over to me. Inside is the contract.
“Of course, you should have your lawyers look it over,” he says, as content as the cat who’s eaten its prey by now. Crunched down every last little bone. “But I’d like your verbal answer before we leave here.”
Erasing the debt in return for marrying a woman I’ve never met. I may be thirty-three, but I haven’t considered settling down yet. I have so much more work to do first. But I won’t have any work at all if everything’s taken from me. For some reason, one of the waiters at my wine bar down the road pops into my head. He’s a favorite there and makes a killing in tips. He pays for his younger sister’s college tuition with his earnings. My long-suffering secretary, who is looking forward to retiring in a few years, would also be out of a job—and at her age, it would be hard to find such a well-paying position again.
The words on the pages in front of me blur, turning into more faces of the people whose trust I’ve nearly broken my back to earn. Whose livelihoods I’m responsible for. I’m sure Ivan has it all tied up in a neat little bow. My debt erased in exchange for my freedom to ever choose the woman I want to live with for the rest of my life.
Unless there’s something more to this. Something I can only find out from the inside. A possible way to regain my freedom. I cling to this shred of hope as I stretch my hand across the table to Ivan.
“I accept the terms,” I say.
He grips my hand and we shake. In our world, this means the deal is done. The lawyers are only ever a formality. I’m as good as married to this stranger Ivan is in such a hurry to foist off on me.
For now, anyway.
Chapter 1
Sera
I stare at my reflection in the mirror as my older sister Katya fusses with the flowers in my hair. I’ve got flowers in my hair and my blindingly white wedding dress hangs from a rack behind me, looming like a malevolent ghost.
“You’re paler than your gown,” Katya says, fixing another rose or peony or whatever the heck it is into my silky blonde hair, all curled and shiny for the big day.
It feels more like a sentencing than a wedding. But it’s not a life sentence. I have to cling to that part of Papa’s promise. Not for life.
Still, I’m only twenty. Nowhere near ready to be married. And Papa’s promises are as sturdy as a sand dune in a hurricane. In my family, the most feared mafia family in this part of the country, being a mob wife is definitely the end of the line for someone like me.
