Page 19 of Nobody Wants Me (Volkov Bratva #5)

V ictor

I traded places with The Butcher. I hadn’t intended to come back to the island, or at least I had hoped for The Grid to have been dealt with before I returned to take Freya back home with me.

We’d been unable to locate Harris. He kept moving, and that was just suspicious.

I didn’t get it. His sons had been useless.

Although they lived with their father, they knew next to nothing about the business deals.

They were just told what to do, what to say.

They were nothing more than puppets. They didn’t even realize their sister had a hit put out on her, and it had come from Harris.

Victor was starting to have doubts about the brother’s place in Harris’s life. He also wondered if they had any brain cells between them. They did what they were told, screwed who they were told to.

Arriving back at Ivan’s private island, I was surprised by my overall excitement to see Freya. She moved forward to greet me.

“Did it go well?” she asked.

“As good as could be expected.”

She glanced past my shoulder and watched as The Butcher left the island.

The Butcher had called Ivan and said to hurry his ass up, as she had a couple of leads she wanted to check out.

I don’t know what those leads were, but until we could guarantee Freya’s safety, we were not going to move her from here.

Ivan had this place tightly secured, and it was the only thing keeping her alive at the moment.

“That sucks,” Freya said.

“Are you hating the island?”

“I’m not hating it. I love the views, and you know, sitting on my ass all day, watching movies is fun, but...” She stopped.

“You’re missing your sewing room.”

She put a hand to her forehead and laughed. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?”

“It’s not crazy at all.”

“Also, The Butcher has been trying to teach me how to fight. Well, I don’t know if you can call it that, but I am learning to take a good slap.”

I paused. “What?”

“I asked her to teach me, and, well, her methods are a little dubious.” Freya tilted her head to the side. “You hate it?”

“I don’t like the fact you have to even consider learning to protect yourself, but it’s a good idea,” I said, reluctantly.

Being my wife was going to come with a ton of problems. I knew that. Being a member of the Volkov Bratva was not easy. We had a lot of enemies, and someone was always waiting in the wings to take over. My time being a Brigadier had taught me that, and I knew it wasn’t going to change.

“So, you’re not mad?” she asked.

“No, why would I be mad?”

“You didn’t look happy.”

“Circumstances are making me unhappy. We’ll continue your training.”

“You’d do that?” Freya asked.

“Yes, but not tonight. Tonight, we’re going to eat, watch a movie, and relax.”

Freya went on ahead of me, and it looked like she already had the same idea.

I saw the television was already paused on a movie.

I didn’t know which one, but knowing my wife, it was a chick-flick of some kind.

She was not into horror, nor action either.

She didn’t like murder or death, or violence.

I had to wonder how and why Ivan thought me and Freya were a good match.

I didn’t mind death. I’d killed a lot of people.

The scent of beef filled the air, and my stomach rumbled.

Ivan had given Umberto time off. He’d given all of my staff some time off, including Rafael. Until we handled The Grid, no one was safe. My staff had gone into hiding for now. Ivan, once again was taking care of everything. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything that man couldn’t do.

I told Freya I was going to freshen up, and left to go to my bedroom. Entering my space, I looked to see if The Butcher had left anything for me. There was nothing. No letter, not even a threat. I took a quick shower, changed into a pair of shorts, and made my way back to the kitchen.

Freya was already serving our dinner, so I grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses.

I knew she didn’t drink, but I poured her a glass just in case she would like to try some.

I also took some water to the table, so she would have options.

There, I was being a caring husband. I hated to admit it, but I had been a dick to her for no good reason.

Hearing some of the shit the brothers had said, that they would take turns teasing her, holding her beneath the water of the pool, or scaring her.

No wonder she ended up with a house on her father’s land.

I could imagine her locking that shit up tight.

But then, I also remembered what she said about her father getting angry and trashing her space.

Like I had trashed her quilt. I hated myself in that moment.

Freya hadn’t had an easy life. There had been no love.

And it made me hate myself more for the way I’d been treating her.

She didn’t deserve that kind of anger or aggression.

Freya didn’t manipulate this wedding into being.

This was between Ivan and Harris. My wife was innocent, and her reward was a shitty husband who didn’t appreciate her. She deserved a lot better than me.

This I did know: we were going to make this work. The more I learned about Freya, the more I wanted to make this life better for her. I knew if my mother and sister were alive, they would be embarrassed and ashamed by the way I had behaved. That was on me.

It looked like Freya had made beef stew with mashed potatoes. Even though it was still quite warm, my wife wanted hearty fall dishes.

She put a bowl full of food in front of my plate, along with her own. Picking up my fork, I dived in because I was ravenous. It was succulent, juicy, savory, and with each bite, it made me want more.

“Is it good?” she asked.

“It’s delicious. I did pour you a glass of wine if you’d like to try it.”

She looked at the glass and then shrugged. “Why not try one sip?” She didn’t wait for a response as she took a sip. “It’s good.”

From the wrinkle of her nose, I didn’t think it was.

We talked about the techniques The Butcher was teaching her.

I caught her up on The Grid situation, and before long, our dinner was finished.

We took our glasses of wine, and I sat with her as we watched her movie.

Again, it was a romance, but the story didn’t register with me.

I couldn’t help but steal glances at my wife.

She finished her glass of wine, and I poured her another.

However, she put the glass down and switched to water.

I didn’t mind. I wasn’t attempting to get her drunk.

The movie ended and Freya leaned back. “You know, that’s all I wanted,” she said.

“What?”

“To have a big family. To ... fall in love. I know it sounds corny and I never told anyone because what is the point of telling anyone when all they tell you is how ugly you are?”

“I am going to kill your father,” I said.

This made her look toward me. I expected to see anger or tears or something. Instead, she just looked at me and nodded her head. “It’s not like I can defend him. Look what he’s done.” She sighed.

“We’ll make it right.”

“The Butcher was telling me about The Grid. No one escapes it, Victor. I’m just me. I’m a nobody. How can I escape something like that? It doesn’t seem possible.”

I cupped her cheek and forced her to look at me. “We’ll fix it. Don’t have doubts in the Volkov Bratva. We’re a lot stronger than people realize.”

But the sadness in her eyes didn’t disappear. When Freya looked at me, I knew she was thinking about her death, and that was not acceptable.

In that moment, I don’t know what came over me or why I was even feeling this way, but I wanted to kiss her. Her lips were lovely and plump. Not too big, not too little, just perfect, and I wanted to kiss her.

Running my thumb across her lips, she looked up at me, a little taken aback. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to kiss you, Freya. Tell me to stop.”

“Stop,” she said.

And this surprised me.

“Look, I know we’re trying to make this work, but kissing me ... I don’t know if you’re doing this as some kind of order from Ivan. I don’t want this to feel forced, and I’m not going to pretend this is easy.” She got to her feet. “I hope you don’t hate me, but I’m not ready to start kissing you.”

She turned on her heel and left.

It was odd, other men might be pissed at her rejection. I wasn’t, I was happy about it, because it meant my wife was not afraid to tell me no, and that was a damn good feeling.

****

T he Butcher

Holy fucking shit!

I knew I was good. I knew I was really fucking good, but I had no idea just how good I actually was. Staring down at the results, it was clear as day, and yet this brought a whole new bunch of problems. What it did so was buy us a little time with The Grid, as these results changed everything.

“You know, when I give you a command, you’re supposed to follow it. This is not showing good signs of being a Brigadier. I can trust each of them to be where they need to be,” Ivan said, arriving with The Beast in tow.

I should have known The Beast wouldn’t be far behind.

“How good are you at surprises?” I asked, looking at Ivan.

This made him frown. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, did you know Freya’s circumstances?

” I asked. I waited but both men were silent.

“Okay, clearly, I was the only one thinking about this. Did no one think it odd that Harris kept this woman’s identity a secret?

I mean, she is in no papers. No one knows who her mother is.

Even Freya doesn’t have a clue who her mother is.

She wasn’t allowed to go to school. The nannies that taught her are all dead.

Everyone that had anything to do with her is dead, including a couple of plastic surgeons who refused to operate on her. ”

Ivan folded his arms across his chest. “I did always find it suspicious, but Harris was a fickle man. He thought Freya was ugly.”