Page 38 of Contract of a Billionaire

I also knew that my father tried to arrange a contract to wed Autumn’s mother. Unsuccessfully.

Smart woman. Lucky woman.

Bottom line, I knew this day would come. The moment my father laid eyes on Autumn, he’d know who she was due to her resemblance to her mother. The woman who denied him. The fucker hated that.

And now he was eyeing her daughter. Too late fucker. She was mine and the contract I had put in place with Autumn’s grandfather four years ago ensured that. If Father dared to even touch her, the streets of this city would be colored red because I’d fight him and all his fucking men until I finished him. Once and for all.

I shot a quick text message to my right hand man to set one of my father's warehouses on fire. I was tired of dealing with the fucker. It took Ricardo only ten minutes to make it happen. It was the reason he was irreplaceable.

My father’s phone beeped but he remained leering at my woman. Then it beeped again and he glanced at it. That got him running.

My lips tugged up at seeing him wobble out of here, his men surrounding him the moment he stepped outside. He was so fucking paranoid about a sniper shooting him as he walked to his car.

“Fucking finally,” Sasha Nikolaev announced. Neither one of the Nikolaev men wanted to deal with the old bastard anyhow. “You should get that asshole eliminated. I can help with it.”

“I agree,” Branka mumbled under her breath. “Let the Russian take the blame.” All our heads snapped her way and her eyes widened. “Did I say that out loud?”

I nodded. Maybe Branka was a bit more ruthless than I thought. She’d need it to survive in this world.

“Just give me a date and time,” Sasha grinned, watching her calculatively. I didn’t fucking like it. “And it’s done.”

“I can handle my father,” I told him.

Autumn shifted uncomfortably, her eyes darting between all of us, probably wondering if we were joking or not.

“Can Autumn and I go to the bar?” My little sister didn’t waste any time.

I nodded and the two of them left us without a backwards glance, leaving me to finalize the deal with Nikolaev men.

“I can have him gone today,” Sasha offered one last time. The fucker was persistent if nothing else. “Like your gorgeous little sister pointed out, the Russians will be to blame,” Sasha deadpanned, but something unhinged lurked in those eyes. All the Nikolaev siblings had the same color eyes. I didn’t like it that one of those pale blue eyes was focused on my sister sitting at the bar, only fifteen feet away from us.

“All you have to do is give me your little sister,” Sasha added with a wide grin, and suddenly I was in the mood to beat it off his face.

“Sasha,” Vasili warned.

“Let me make one thing clear,” I added, my voice deadly calm. “My little sister is not on the table. Never will be. She. IS. OFF LIMITS. And if I have to kill you to make that point, I will.”

Much later, I’d realize those words made my sister a forbidden fruit to Sasha Nikolaev.

* * *

It tookus another twenty minutes to finalize the details of the next distribution. Guns and drugs were my businesses of choice. I didn’t touch human trafficking, but unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for my father.

The two brothers departed, leaving me alone with Branka and Autumn. For a moment, I watched them whisper to each other as Autumn’s finger swept over her phone.

“If we can get pictures like this in front of people,” Autumn said in her soft voice, “it’d bring awareness. Make people help.”

She was strategizing on how to save the world and I just made a deal that would further corrupt it. The differences between us were so stark. Would she stay with me if she knew exactly what kind of shit I dealt in? Even better question was would I give it up for her?

Branka reached over and swept to another screen.

“Next time I send you a message, Branka,” I told my sister calmly, “read it.”

If she had, Autumn and Branka wouldn’t have crossed paths with the old man. Both of them shifted towards me, their eyes darting behind me. As if they wanted to ensure Father was gone.

My sister didn’t need any additional scolding. Her complexion was just as pale as Autumn’s and they only recovered after Father’s departure. The Nikolaev brothers could be intimidating to outsiders, and so far, I’d kept Branka out of the underworld. Just as Autumn’s parents had kept her out of it too.

“Let’s go back to the table so you two can eat,” I told them. I watched Autumn’s slim body slide off the barstool, then bent down to grab her purse she had carelessly discarded on the floor.