Page 41 of Climbing Everest

Brixton

E verest really went all out with her planning. The tables are covered in white linen tablecloths, there are faux candles flickering on nearly every surface, and the room is perfumed with all the fresh flowers.

There’s a quartet currently playing softly with a DJ on standby for after Everest’s appearance, when the party kicks it up a notch.

She also hired a caterer, and the servers are currently walking around with trays of hors d’oeuvres while everyone waits for dinner to start.

No one gets dinner until my girl shows up.

With so many Families, so many syndicates under one roof, the tension is palpable. But everyone is on their best behavior, especially with the journalists currently walking around interviewing and snapping pictures of the guests.

There have to be at least two hundred or more people in this place. With my height, I can see over the heads of nearly everyone, but I’m having a hard time locating E’s little whore friend, Flora. She should be here by now.

Especially since the public announcement is scheduled for fifteen minutes from now. I would have thought she would have planted herself directly beside the door. She’s always been a little protective of Everest and acts like a chihuahua when she thinks anyone is giving her best friend any grief.

Well, she probably thinks she’s a pit bull, but the girl can’t stand more than five foot two. If that. Without a weapon, I doubt the slip of a girl could do much damage to anyone, male or female.

What sucks is I’m actually a little worried, because there’s no chance in hell Flora would miss this. I’m tempted to put in a call with her father, but I don’t want to make him suspicious. Our families aren’t exactly friends.

Madd sidles up beside me, his three piece suit a charcoal gray. “Where’s Flora?” he asks.

“I was just wondering that,” I say. We both keep our voices low to avoid anyone passing by hearing our conversation.

“Should we put in a call to the Pakhan?”

As the last word leaves Maddox’s mouth, the man in question walks through the door, Flora on his arm.

Our nerves are raw. I’m not worried about myself. None of us are, but this is a big deal for Everest. This will be the first time she’ll see her father after he ordered her death. She’ll have the chance to look him directly in the eye.

I’ll make damn sure she’s protected if she wants to approach him, if she wants to get some shit off her chest. I sure as fuck have a few things I’d love to say to the cocksucker.

Then slit his throat after.

That will be Everest’s call. None of the three of us will kill him until we get the green light from her.

I’ll sure as fuck be first in line when that time comes, though. I want him to feel every second of pain she endured. I want to beat him until he begs for death, but I won’t let him die easily. Nah. I’ll let him heal up a little and start over again.

“She here yet?” Maddox asks.

I search the room and find Kato talking with the mayor. As if he feels my gaze, he glances over at me, and I raise my brows. He dips his head.

“She’s here,” I say.

The two of us take our time moving through the crowd, stopping when someone speaks to us, shaking hands with friends or allies, politely nodding our heads at those who would probably rather see us dead than attend this event.

But it would have been viewed as rude if they hadn’t attended without a damn good excuse.

By the time we make it to the door hiding Everest, Flora has found a seat at the table closest. She cocks one brow as we pass, but otherwise gives no other reaction.

Did she tell the Pakhan what was going to happen here tonight? Surely, he’d be interested in knowing one of his men attempted to kill his own daughter and lied to everyone about it. And not just any daughter, but the best friend of the Pakhan’s daughter .

Guess I’ll get my answer soon enough.

The guard standing in front of the door steps out of the way as Madd and I approach.

Maddox is through the door first and I make sure it’s closed behind us. I don’t bother locking it. There’s someone on the other side to stop anyone who might get curious, and I sure as fuck won’t let anyone near my girl as long as my heart is still beating in my chest.

“Wow,” Madd breathes as I turn toward the room.

Everest is pacing the room, wringing her hands in front of her. I barely register the fact there’s an unknown woman dressed in a gown I’d seen in Everest’s closet.

No. The only thing I can focus on is how unbelievably beautiful my girl is. Kato told us he ordered her a different dress than the red one she ordered for herself, and he did good.

It’s long, with a train dragging the ground at the back and it looks so much like a wedding dress I have to blink a few times as my eyes start to burn with the threat of tears. No fucking way am I tearing up here, and definitely not in front of the woman I don’t know.

“You guys look great,” Everest says, her voice bringing my eyes back to her face. “This is Katerina. Kat. She was my makeup artist, but I needed…I couldn’t get in the SUV alone. And she’s cool. Expect to see more of her.”

E’s talking. I hear every word, but I’m having a hell of a time focusing on the words when she looks… like this . Her tits are on full display, but not in a vulgar manner, and that large tattoo of our initials is on full display.

I didn’t get a full view of the back, but I saw her exposed thigh from the slit that runs almost all the way to her hip.

“You…” I clear my throat. I feel like it’s swollen, or like my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth as I stare at her.

Everest has always been the most beautiful woman in the world in my eyes, but this version of her…

Madd said it perfectly. Just… wow .

“You’re so fucking beautiful it almost hurts,” I finally manage to say.

I barely hear the whispered aww from the girl Everest introduced as Kat, but my full attention is on my girl, my wife.

My fucking soul mate.

“Thank you,” Everest says, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink. “Are we almost ready? Is my father here?”

“I didn’t check whether he was here. I was watching for Flora,” I admit.

“He’s here,” Maddox confirms.

Everest frowns. “Watching for Flora? Has she not shown up yet?” she asks as she pulls her phone from inside her clutch to check for missed calls or texts.

“She just got here. Kato gave us the go ahead to bring you out.” I move closer, gently grasping her chin between my forefinger and thumb.

With the way her makeup and hair has been styled, you can’t see the light scarring left from the nearly fatal beating she received at the behest of her father. She is the epitome of glamour, beauty and perfection.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely,” she says without missing a beat.

“We’ll be right beside you the whole time. If at any point you get uncomfortable or scared, say the word and we’ll take you home.”

“I invited two hundred and seventy-five of the area’s most prominent citizens. I can’t just abandon them at my own damn engagement party.”

“You know this whole thing was a form of punishment for you in the beginning. We don’t have to do shit. Hell, we can go to the court or call a judge over to the house if you want to make it legal without all the hoopla,” Madd offers.

Fucking Kato. At least he was able to stop the news from getting out before the wrong people found out she was back.

“It started out as punishment for me. Now, it’ll be the best form of punishment for Dima Sidorov,” she says, lifting her chin with so much fire and defiance in her pretty gray eyes.

My gaze bounces between hers, searching for even a hint of doubt. When I don’t find any, I bend and press my lips to hers. I pull back and she huffs a soft laugh, reaching up to wipe the lipstick from my mouth.

“Don’t need you going out there with my lipstick smeared all over your face.”

“You need a touch up?” Kat asks. Right. The makeup artist.

Everest turns toward her, and Kat checks her over then nods. “Still absolutely perfect.”

And fuck if that isn’t the truth.

I pull my phone free and shoot off a text to Kato that we’re stepping through the door in five. That’ll give him time to make his way to the stage and get everyone’s attention on him rather than us as we exit.

I don’t want anyone to pay too much attention to her until she’s on the stage flanked by the three of us and our guards, and the spotlight directly on her so her father will have a perfect view of the daughter he tried to murder.

My phone buzzes in my hand and I glance at the incoming message. “Viktor has been removed from the building. We’re good to go,” I announce.

Everest releases a shaky breath. I’m sure part of that is from relief over getting her hero out of the line of fire before Dima finds out he failed but the other, the greater part, has to be from nerves.

I don’t blame her. Fuck, even I’m a little nervous, though I’m nervous for her not myself.

“Want me to go out there? It’ll look weird if I walk out with you three,” Kat says.

Don’t know this chick, but she seems to make Everest feel calm and anyone who’s good to my girl gets my respect.

I look at E with a raised brow. “Up to you, sweetheart. You want Katarina to walk out with us?”

She squares her shoulders, raises her chin, and gives me a shaky smile. “No. It’s fine. I’ll see you out there, Kat. Um…where’s Flora?” Everest asks me.

“She’s at the first table outside the door. Look for a tiny dark-haired girl with a bunch of scowling men around her,” Madd answers.

The face Everest pulls makes all three of us chuckle. “You just described every single Greek woman from any part of the syndicate.” Except the dark-haired Flora isn’t Greek.

Kat gives Everest a reassuring smile, fluffs E’s hair, then steps through the door.

“You got this, beautiful,” Madd tells her, wrapping his hand around the knob and preparing to pull it open.

We can hear Kato’s deep voice coming through the speakers around the room, so the attention won’t be on the back of the banquet hall when we exit. As long as Kat didn’t garner any extra attention, no one should notice us at first.

I really don’t care whether anyone sees us, as long as Dima doesn’t spot Everest until she’s in full view of the party. So many fucking witnesses at one fucking time.

This could go so many ways, but I hope we were all correct in assuming Sidorov won’t start any shit with cameras, journalists, and pseudo celebrities present.

“Show time,” Everest whispers as Madd pulls the door open and steps out first.

The guard, Karolos, who’d been watching the door when I approached, straightens and starts to walk ahead of us. Dimitri follows behind as Madd and I flank her on either side.

She’s surrounded by a wall of muscle and firepower.

Yeah, we made everyone check any firearms at the door before entering.

There’s even a discreet metal detector at the door to keep anyone from sneaking shit in, though it would be impossible to know whether the little alerts were set off by jewelry, belt buckles or such without fully wanding the guests.

We’re trying to keep the attention off the fact this is a mafia party. Pretty sure forcing everyone to stand still while they’re searched for weapons would send the wrong idea and cause a front-page story in tomorrow’s news.

Doesn’t mean our men aren’t prepared for any and every possible situation, including the pistol at my ankle.

The spotlight is on Kato as he rattles on about finding the love of his life, about proposing, about being so excited to spend his life with his future wife.

He doesn’t bother announcing her name yet. This whole thing is planned down to the most minute detail.

Murmurs start to rumble through the crowd as we escort Everest onto the stage. She has her head tilted down slightly, her hair creating a curtain to conceal her identity.

Until she’s mere feet from Kato.

“Please join me in celebrating the future Mrs. Antoniou…Everest Sidorova.”

The crowd instantly silences.

Chaos erupts as one by one the attendees realize who has joined Kato on the stage…

And Kato’s fiancée is none other than his family’s enemy’s daughter. The same daughter everyone believed was either dead or married off and living in another state.