Page 40 of Captive Vows (The Dubinin Bratva #1)

LUKA

A fter Gabriella and I said our vows, we received congratulations from the small audience we’d invited. A simple dinner followed. Simple was the understatement of the year for the gourmet feast, but it was a toned-down affair.

This was how I wanted it—with her comfortable and owning her position as my wife.

As she fed Andre, covering up our son as she talked to Allen at the table, I stood back and sipped my drink.

She was already settling into her new roles.

As a mother.

As my wife.

As the head of the household, too. I knew that firing the house staff shocked her, but it proved, again, that I would take no risks with her safety.

She was overwhelmed with the idea of hiring new staff, but she’d do it.

She was scrappy. She was smart. And she had my trust. Just like I knew to count on everyone else who called themselves a member of the Dubinin Family, I could rely on her as well.

Emil approached the bar where I sipped my drink. Ivan was there as well, nursing more vodka than was typical for him.

I hated the possibility of his being sad at my wedding, but I could understand it. He’d lost his one true love, and if there were ever a time for him to be lovesick, this would be it.

“What the fuck were you talking about with Gabriella earlier?” I asked my son.

He shrugged. “I was testing the waters. Seeing how she’d feel about Miguel being killed.”

I scoffed. “She can’t wait.”

“I bet she’s eager for that fucker to be dead,” Ivan said. “He’s threatened her every time she leaves the house.”

“I know.” Emil shoved his hands in his pockets, watching as she gently burped Andre. “But she’s still a stranger to so much of our world.”

“True,” I admitted. “But she’s adapting well.”

Leaving them to join her for a dance, I appreciated how Alexsei offered to hold the baby.

“May I have this dance, Wife?” I asked, extending my hand to her.

She gave me such a dazzling smile that I wondered if going down on her would be breaking the rule of no sex until after her checkup.

In this wedding gown, she was stunning. Ravishing. Gorgeous. And I’d spend the rest of my life reminding her of that.

“You sure can, Husband.” She stood, moving into the open area of the ballroom to dance with me. No other couples were out here. It was only my closest men joining us for this ceremony and dinner. But that didn’t matter.

I kissed her, committing this memory to my heart. With just the two of us moving to the soft music, it was as if we were in a bubble of our own. Where all that mattered was that we were together and in love.

“You’re not overdoing it, are you?” I asked as we moved as one. Feeling her slender, still-athletic body swaying with mine teased me.

“No. I’m fine. Remember, I’ve been dancing for most of my life.” She kissed my cheek. “Taking a few months off won’t set me back that far.”

“When do you think you’ll return to the studio and dance again?” I asked. I wanted her to keep her passion, to never stop pursuing her dreams.

“Soon.” She shrugged. “That’s a question you should ask our son.”

I smiled, amused but also aware of what she meant. Breastfeeding him took a toll on her sleep schedule, to say the least. I was always up, helping her, but she was the one with the milk.

“I doubt I’ll try to perform again,” she admitted.

“Because of how the audition ended?” I asked, hating that it had been interrupted.

“Not only that. It’s just how my life has changed.

I’m a mother now. A wife. I have a family.

” She beamed at me, making me feel like a god.

“You can’t understand how over the moon I am about how everything is falling into place.

I’ve never been happier, Luka. I have a family now.

A real one.” She sighed and shook her head.

“A real family, unlike the waste of space who was supposed to be my father, the fool who went on the run.”

I kissed her. Not only to quiet her but to distract her. Damn Emil for mentioning Miguel today.

“Don’t worry about him.”

She smiled slightly. “I’m not.”

“I mean it, Gabriella. Don’t worry about him.” It seemed so flimsy of a command to give her. We were having a fraction of a wedding here in our home because she was rightly nervous to exit the security I had here.

“I’m not worried. I know you’ll get him. You’ll find him and kill him and I’ll never have to worry about him again.” She licked her lips. “I know other threats will come, but I have faith in you, husband of mine, that you’ll handle him and dispose of him.”

I nodded then rested my brow against hers. “I swear on my life that no one will ever hurt you again. No one will ever get close enough to hurt you on my watch.”

She lifted her hand to caress my cheek. “I believe you. And even if something were to happen, I’ll start taking self-defense classes and learn how to handle a gun once Andre isn’t nursing as often.”

I kissed her, so damn proud of her. To trust me but also to be interested in participating in her safety as well…

Three days later, I delivered on my promise.

Emil and Ivan asked to talk to me in my office, and I nodded.

“Here, I can take him.” Gabriella extended her arms toward me, suggesting I hand her Andre.

“No, no.” He’d just fallen asleep. I doubted either of us got an hour of rest last night with how he’d cried to be fed. Cluster feeding was hell .

“You sure?” She glanced at my son and nephew. “If you need to handle business…”

“Chill, Gabby,” Emil told her.

I shot him a stern look since everyone knew she disliked that nickname.

“Andre’s too young to understand what we’ll be discussing.” He huffed. “You look like crap.” At my scowl, he winced. “I mean, you look like you could use a break.”

She yawned, taking his critique without a bother. “I could use a week of sleep,” she replied dryly, giving up on her breakfast.

As I left the room, I stopped Allen. “You’re on baby duty for the rest of the day.”

He nodded once.

In the office, I rocked Andre with that weird swaying, bouncing stride that seemed to calm him.

“I bet he’s only relaxed when you move and don’t sit because she danced so much during her pregnancy,” Ivan said. “He’s used to the movement.”

“That’s what you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked, eager to get back to my wife and let her rest.

“No. We’ve got Miguel Lopez,” Emil answered. “He’s in a holding cell at the warehouse near the docks.”

I gave up on the plans to relax with Gabriella. A slow, wicked smile lifted my lips instead. “About fucking time.”

We made quick plans to head out as soon as possible.

It seemed like an oxymoron to express impatience to end Miguel Lopez’s life.

We’d captured him before. When I suspected he was lying or up to something, we’d set that trap and gotten him. We’d held him and tortured him until I had the idea to exact a different payment from him. Instead of taking his life, I’d taken his daughter.

His loss was my gain.

But now, it was time to return to the original idea of killing him.

Perhaps he’d paid for his sins of two-timing us. I’d taken Gabriella because he’d sold intel to the Vipers and the Riveras. For his even graver sins of trying to hurt Gabriella and have her removed from my life, he’d pay with his.

It was past time to kill him.

After handing Andre to Allen and checking in with Gabriella, I prepared to leave.

“Important business to handle?” she asked as she came out of the bathroom from showering.

“Very,” I replied. I got the impression that she wanted to ask if it was about Miguel, but at the same time, she didn’t want to know.

Sparing her the indecision about asking or not, I kissed her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Please be safe.”

“Always.” I would always be safe for her and Andre. As the boss, I had to be careful that I came home safe and sound. Too many counted on me and relied on my guidance. But it was the love for her that propelled me to hurry back.

The ride to the warehouse was a quiet one. Emil didn’t ask me questions. Ivan didn’t comment about other business. All of us were looking forward to having this matter over with.

Ten minutes later, I strode into the nondescript building with my men. Every step that brought me closer to the cell where Gabriella’s father was held felt a march to salvation. The scales of justice had yet to be righted.

Then as I shoved my hands into my pockets and peered at the broken mess of the man who’d dared to fuck with me, I smiled.

“Mr. Lopez. We meet again.”

Bloody and shaking, he was nothing more than a lump on the floor. Gabriella was right. He truly was a waste of space.

“Fuck you. Fuck you, Dubinin!”

Emil kicked him until he sobbed.

“You can’t have my daughter just because?—”

Ivan took over beating him silent.

Once he settled, crying and trembling, I squatted down.

“Gabriella is my wife ,” I corrected.

He growled, thrashing to get up as I stood.

I gestured at the men to stand back.

While I wasn’t in the mood to stay here when I could be at home with my family, I was determined to end this once and for all. It was time to get rid of any threats from this man, even though there would always be danger lurking near us.

That was the nature of the Mafia life.

Because this wasn’t the same old and because this man had threatened the lives of my son and wife, I should’ve adopted the mindset of taking my time to torture him. But Miguel Lopez wasn’t even worth that anymore.

I straightened, gesturing for my firstborn to hand me one of the blades sitting on the table.

No other furniture was on offer in this room.

Except for this flat surface that housed a variety of torturing tools and weapons, it was just the bloody floor, the sack of broken bones that used to be Gabriella’s spiteful, lying father.

I didn’t need much. Emil intuited that, wasting no time to put a knife in my hand.

I tested the heft of it.

It’d do.

I didn’t care to return to my loved ones overly messy and bloody.

This death wasn’t going to be a fancy act of revenge and justice.

But it would be meaningful.

I would forever remember this day that I would eliminate the most direct threat to my love.

“She will never be yours, Dubinin,” Miguel snarled. “You can’t just take her. It doesn’t work like that. She’s my daughter. My blood.”

I shook my head, almost sorry for his pathetic ass.

Blood wasn’t always thicker. Plenty of recruits we brought into the family were as loyal, if not more, than the relatives I had. Allen was a prime example of such a bond.

“She is my wife,” I corrected with savage anger. “She is the mother of my child.”

His eyes opened wide as I advanced, showing him the knife in my hand.

“She has given me another heir to enjoy. A grandson you will never meet.”

I grabbed his hair, twisting the filthy strands in my grip as I pulled his head off the floor.

He grimaced and squirmed, but I didn’t release him one bit.

Wrenching his head back, I exposed his sweaty neck for the final blow that would end his life.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to get free.

I lined up the knife to end his wretched life, one that I really shouldn’t have taken before.

If I’d been hasty to kill him earlier, I never would’ve met Gabriella.

I never would’ve experienced how much of a beautiful blessing she was to save me.

“I didn’t take her,” I said. “I captured her, just the same as she captured me in the end.” It was that vow of love that I shared with my wife that nothing could ever break.

As I dragged the knife over his flesh, piercing it until blood gushed forward, I did the final deed. I killed him with swift deliberation. Just like this, with one movement of my hand, I eliminated the biggest obstacle to the peace I wanted to share with Gabriella for the rest of our days.

Watching the life spill out of him as he gurgled and moaned uselessly, I released his hair.

His head dropped at a weird angle, splitting the open gash at his neck even wider.

A crimson pool gathered on the floor where he’d dropped.

With every drop that leaked from him, his death was that much more of a done duty.

I rose to my full height, knowing justice had been done.

By my hand, the Lopez name would exist no more.

Gabriella was a Dubinin now, my wife, secure under the protection of my family. She’d submitted to me in love and trusted her role in our family, and I would never, ever take that gift for granted.

I set the bloody blade on the table. Facing my son and my nephew, I nodded once.

“Let’s go home.”