Page 37

After the best night’s sleep I’d had in a long time, I woke up with my wife in my arms, revitalized.

Ready to do what needed to be done. It was time to exterminate the cockroaches that had infested and rotted my organization here in Moscow, my father’s home.

Once it had been mine, and during the time I left to further advance and enrich my family’s holdings, Uncle Eldar saw his chance to seize the power he’d been too weak to earn on his own.

As much as there was to do, I didn’t jump out of bed.

Mila’s head rested on my arm for one thing, and I would have taken a bullet before disturbing her.

She looked so damn pretty and peaceful, despite her bedraggled and bruised appearance.

I was just as much of a mess after lighting up the bar last night, but neither one of us had wanted to get out of bed to do anything about it.

Soon, her eyes opened, and she smiled at me, letting them drift shut again.

“Sorry,” I said, softly running my fingers down her arm. “It’s time to wake up.”

“What for?” she grumbled adorably.

When I reminded her of the task ahead, she perked up. When she said she wanted to go with me to take care of Eldar, I figured she’d change her mind after sleeping on it, but she was as determined as ever to take part.

“It won’t be pretty,” I warned. “And I won’t hold back just because you’re there. This needs to happen. It’s been a long time coming.”

“I don’t want you to hold back,” she said, heading for the shower. “I’m not going to.”

I let my eyes roam over her lush curves, happy for the moment just to take in the view. It wouldn’t take much to distract me, and it was better to get this unsavory task over with so we could move on with our lives. I still had no idea what that looked like, but there was time to figure it out.

Time to breathe and possibly become more like a married couple instead of a prisoner and a guard.

As soon as we were both clean and dressed, we headed out to the place I had instructed my men to take Eldar.

There were still the ones who’d lied to me, but I didn’t want to involve Mila with that.

It was enough that I let her relieve her anger on my uncle with a few slaps to the face before I took over.

Except that wasn’t what happened at all.

Mila didn’t shrink from the first sign of blood on Eldar’s face.

Instead, it seemed to fuel her. The old man was tied to a chair, weakened from the multiple blows to the head I gave him with the butt of my gun.

He sneered when he saw Mila walk in with me, and if he was worried when the man guarding him hurried to leave us alone with him, he didn’t show it.

“I told you you were stupid to let this little piece twist you around her finger,” he scoffed, acting like he was the one in charge, as usual.

Before I could say a word to shut him up, Mila raced forward, slamming her closed fist into his jaw with all her might. His head snapped back, slowly rocking forward again. Dazed, he made the mistake of spitting at her. I stepped in with my own fist raised, but Mila held up her hand.

“Don’t,” she said, never taking her eyes off Eldar. “I’ll let you know when I’m tired.”

Then I watched in absolute awe as my beautiful bride let Eldar have it with both fists, one after the other. Beating the shit out of someone was exhausting physical labor, but she never let up until he was slumped over, barely conscious.

Shaking out her bloody fists, she turned in a slow circle, trying to catch her breath. Fire blazed from her blue eyes, and she tossed her hair behind her shoulder before wiping the sheen of sweat off her brow with her forearm. She was radiant, and she was mine.

“Damn,” I said, grabbing a hank of Eldar’s thin hair and pulling his head back to see if he was still alive.

He blinked woozily at me and made a gurgling noise before spitting out a mouthful of blood. He’d taken enough damage to the head, but I was far from done with him. He’d made my woman suffer, and he was going to feel her pain and fear a thousandfold before I let him die.

“I’m not finished,” she said, turning her fiery look on me and daring me to stop her. She was so fucking hot I forgot where we were and what we were doing.

I turned away from Eldar and closed the distance between us, pulling her into a rough embrace.

Her bloody hands stained my shirt as she gripped handfuls of the fabric, turning her face up to mine.

I had to have her mouth, feel her heat pressed against me.

Her lips parted the moment I claimed them, her tongue eagerly seeking mine.

“Damn,” I repeated, lost for any other word. “You are something else.”

She let me go and moved toward Eldar again, those dainty but dangerous fists clenched and raised. I grabbed her arm and held her back. “He’s had enough punches.”

“Then give me a knife so I can start carving,” she growled.

Holy shit. How did I ever get so lucky?

***

After I sorted out the bad seeds in my organization, a few blissful weeks passed without too much trouble.

Nothing I couldn’t handle, anyway. Since I had given up the fact that Mila wasn’t just out traveling and staying too busy to actually hop on a call with anyone by my frantic text to her brother Lev, the cat was out of the bag, and her brothers knew she was missing.

However, due to some miracle, they didn’t yet suspect I was behind it, or I hadn’t heard about it yet since the Moscow branch of her family hadn’t rained hell on any of my businesses.

I had hired several actresses who disguised themselves to look exactly like Mila, at least enough to fool anyone who spotted her on the cameras on the streets of Paris, Brussels, and then Mumbai, just for fun.

I hated to think what Mila would do if she found out I was leading her brothers around by the nose, all over the world, just on the off chance it might really be her this time.

She would have ripped my head off, so I kept it my guilty little secret. She certainly wouldn’t have been happily going to my meetings with me, wearing different wigs and makeup styles to stay hidden from anyone she might know while we were out and about.

I was shocked she went along with it, but she seemed to be having fun with it most days, probably glad she wasn’t being left behind.

She was far too clever and outgoing to stay at home with no one but guards to keep her company, and unlike her, I didn’t have a gaggle of close family members for her to befriend.

For the first time, we were on the same page, and if I wasn’t wrong, I would have said she was both happy and even content, especially when I let her keep taking video meetings to run my quarry—no, her quarry now.

She had earned it. Mila really was my queen.

Not just dazzling to look at, but sharp-witted and sharper-tongued when necessary.

It was at least thanks in part to her helping me root out the weeds that my organization here was now lean and mean. Together, we ousted the bad players and replaced them with people I could trust. She seemed to be thriving for the most part, but…

For one, she was a Californian through and through.

There was a difference to spending the occasional Christmas in Russia.

The biting winters could be charming if you only spent a few days in them.

Much longer than that, and anyone who grew up in the South would begin to suffer.

It was only the beginning of fall, but the air had a distinct chill, especially after the sun went down.

Once, I walked into the closet while she picked out her outfit for the day and caught her looking wistfully at the sundresses she brought from Rome.

She would still be wearing them in Italy, and the same in LA.

Secondly, her Russian was improving by leaps and bounds, but I could tell it tired her out to follow along with the fast-spoken conversations I had with others.

And finally, while I would never ask and she would never admit it, she missed her family.

How could she not? She actually liked and got along with her brothers, unlike me.

At the moment, it had been weeks since I last heard from Kolya, so who knew where he was or what havoc he was wreaking.

Unlike Mila, who surely must wonder what her brothers were up to, I didn’t care at all.

I missed LA, too. I wasn’t a native, but getting used to a place that hardly ever rained and had miles of breathtaking coastlines was easy.

Not to mention all the opportunities. The American dream was real, and I had worked hard to get my piece of it.

It had been a struggle, but I actually enjoyed the fight.

Here in Moscow, I’d inherited everything, and people respected me more based on my ruthless father’s name than my own.

It was almost too easy, except for the fact that I had to keep my wife a secret, and my sworn enemies wouldn’t rest until they found her.

They had to be going crazy by now, after I’d kept her from them without a trace for so long.

It was only a matter of time before they stopped chasing after my decoys and realized who they were really after.

I had stopped messaging Nat altogether because as soon as Lev put out the word, she stopped believing it was her friend on my end, and it seemed unnecessarily cruel to torment her.

Despite all that, things were good with Mila and me. Maybe even great, as we were still riding the high of claiming vengeance on my uncle. But we were still being tentative with each other. Not quite real. I wanted real.

When there was finally an afternoon with no meetings, and Mila was upstairs memorizing Russian verbs, I planned a romantic evening for us as a surprise.

It was going to be a catered dinner with all her favorite foods, candles, flowers, soft music—the works.

I went all out, making sure everything was perfect and just the way she would like it, feeling as anxious as when I put together my first multimillion-dollar proposal years ago.

When she wandered downstairs at dinner time to see the table swathed in a white linen cloth, tall silver candlesticks lighting the room instead of the usual overheads, and the huge bouquet of jasmine and bougainvillea I’d had flown in, she looked surprised and flustered. Maybe even as nervous as I was.

“Have dinner with me?” I asked.

“What is all this for?” She leaned over the flowers and breathed in their heady scent with a sigh, then looked at me suspiciously.

I laughed. “I just thought you deserved a nice evening after all your hard work.”

This was true, and I left it unsaid that it was impossible for us to go out on the town.

It was dangerous enough to let her go to meetings with me in full disguise.

That was yet another thing I missed because of our situation, finding places to take her that would impress and delight her, like our one date in Rome.

Pulling out her chair, I pressed a kiss on the top of her head as she slid into the seat.

Like she had down to the flowers, I breathed her in, enjoying her as much as any rare bloom.

There was more to this date than just the fact that she deserved something nice, and it was the main source of my consternation.

I kept it to myself until the end of the meal, because what I had to say wasn’t a question.

It was going to happen, and I only hoped it would make her happy.

If not right away, then in the long run, because I was going the distance with her.

“That was so good,” she said, pushing away her dessert plate. She eyed the rich chocolate layer cake in the center of the table, and I picked up the serving knife to cut her another slice. “No, I’ll pop like a greedy mosquito if I eat another bite,” she said, smiling warmly at me.

I hoped it lasted. I took her hand and kissed it, looking into the azure depths of her eyes. “You are so damn beautiful, Mila,” I said.

She blushed, then narrowed her eyes, sensing I was working up to something. “What’s going on?”

“I finally have a plan,” I told her. She leaned forward, eager to hear it, at least for the moment.

After a deep breath, I spit it out. I had given this a lot of thought and believed it was best for both of us.

“We’re going back to LA. I’m reclaiming my territory.

” Her hand went limp in mine. “Our territory,” I hastily corrected.

Would she agree with me that this was the right step? Her face was blank, utterly unreadable. What I announced was the last thing she expected to hear. Holding my breath, I waited for whatever she had to say, ready for anything. Her silence only continued.