Page 17 of The Brutal Arrangement (The Ivanov Syndicate #2)

DAMON

“ K aterina.” I repeated her name, wondering where she could be hiding in here. There wasn’t any way out that she could’ve taken. No guard would permit her to leave or go against my orders to keep her in my apartment.

She didn’t show.

Instead of worrying that I’d lost her, I had to wonder if she was trying to hide as a show of defiance.

Or out of fear.

“Katerina.” That was the third and last time I’d try to summon her. It wasn’t like she could evade me forever. Only so many hiding spots were available in the apartment.

I don’t have time for this bullshit. Maxim glanced at me, raising his brows. I rolled my eyes.

“Come here,” I ordered as I entered further into my apartment, assuming that maybe she’d taken it to mean she had to stay in my bedroom only.

“Don’t tell me she’s gone already,” Maxim muttered as he walked with me.

“No. Of course not. How could she get out of here?” I asked as I shoved my bedroom door open. I didn’t blame him for assuming that so instantly, though. We knew Anton had sent her here as some kind of a trick.

But as we walked into my room where the bed was still messy from last night, my tie and her veil still strewn over the sheets, I spotted someone else exiting the bathroom.

Katerina wasn’t here.

Another woman peered at us nervously.

“Who the fuck are you?” I drew my gun just a second slower than Maxim did.

He, too, was focused on this stranger who squeaked in alarm and held her hands up. Wincing slightly, she ducked, as if that would save her from either of our bullets.

“What the hell is going on?” Maxim ordered.

I stared, doubting my eyes. If this was an optical illusion, it was a damned good one.

Because the slender brunette who froze at the threshold of the door to my bathroom looked a lot like my wife.

Slight differences were more noticeable now as I took in the sight of her blue eyes, slightly damp and wavy brown hair, and the graceful curves of her figure.

No matter how long I stared, she didn’t shift back into what I recalled of Katerina’s appearance.

“Where is my wife?” I demanded. It felt like an eternity stretching out as I studied this stranger and rushed in an attempt to understand what was going on, but mere seconds had passed.

“I’m…” She spoke quietly, so scared that she had to clear her throat to audibly finish. Trembling and with those blue eyes open so wide with fear, she seemed on the verge of passing out. “I’m your wife.”

Maxim didn’t budge. He kept his arm up, his gun trained on her as he used his other hand to lift his phone and call for backup at an intruder in the house. “I’m getting sick of this shit. People trespassing too fucking easily?—”

“I didn’t trespass,” she insisted, volleying her fearful gaze between me and my brother, as if she couldn’t decide who was the bigger fear.

“Who the fuck are you?” I roared again, not lowering the gun I aimed at her.

“I’m your wife,” she began again.

“Don’t fucking lie to me.” I gritted my teeth, pissed that we were already one step behind instead of one step ahead.

We’d agreed to this old arrangement to bring the enemy closer and learn what we could to stay on top of the Kozlovs’ intentions.

It didn’t feel like we were ahead at all right now.

I was confused as fuck. And even more pissed off that a strange woman was in my room when Katerina was missing. “My wife is Katerina.”

She shook her head, stopping me from continuing. “She was supposed to be your wife.” Again, she swallowed hard, as if she could barely manage that function with how terrified she was under gunpoint like this. “I’m your wife.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Maxim demanded. “I was there. I saw her sign the papers last night.”

“No. That was me.” She shook her head again as she lowered her chin. I wasn’t falling for this innocent act.

Rage kicked in. The idea of this woman telling me what to think, challenging me about who the fuck my wife was… This was bullshit. I had no patience for lies. I had no interest in anyone trying to gaslight me or alter the facts of reality.

“Where is she?” I got out through clenched teeth. The guards could take this liar to the dungeon while I found my wife and demanded an explanation from her about this stupid trick she was trying to play on me.

“She’s not here,” the woman replied as guards rushed in. She flinched at the sight of more men crowding into the room, but she didn’t try to run or hide. Frozen in place, she seemed to accept that she was stuck.

“Where is my wife?” I yelled again.

“What’s going on?” Grandmother scurried into the room, her usually calm and proper tone colored with worry and a franticness that wasn’t like her. “Who is this? What’s…” She paused, looking at all the men, Maxim and I holding our guns up, and this lying woman. “What is going on?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” I growled.

“I’m your wife,” the brunette insisted. She didn’t pack any heat or sass into her words, but she was adamant about that fact so far.

I didn’t care if she swore it on her life. I wasn’t in the mood for any lies.

“I came here last night and I signed that paper in the office,” she explained, still so scared.

“What…” Grandmother scowled at Maxim, then me. “What is she talking about?”

“I was there,” Maxim said. “And I saw him marry Katerina.”

“No—”

Grandmother cut her off, pointing at her. “Who is this? You were arranged to marry Katerina.”

“I fucking know that,” I bit back at her. “And I did.” I’d signed the paper to marry Anton’s niece. Then, because Maxim thought showing her that I was in charge and shouldn’t be taken as a fool, I fucked her hard.

Just being in this room taunted me to recall how tight she’d felt. How good she felt wrapped around my dick.

“You married me,” the slender brunette said, not changing her tune yet, despite the danger in her face.

“I came here in place of Katerina. And I was the one who signed the paper last night.” She tore her fearful gaze from Maxim to me.

“And I was the one who…” Lowering her hand, she gestured at the bed.

She didn’t need to explain. I understood what she wasn’t saying.

This was the woman I’d fucked so hard last night.

The woman I’d gagged and tied up to take my dick.

The woman who’d moaned in arousal despite my ignoring her initial pleas not to fuck her.

She’d changed her mind. Even if she wanted to tell me no , her body proved how wet she was and how badly she was aroused for me in the end.

If I lost any more control, I’d replay the memory of how fucking perfect she’d felt when she came, milking me dry.

“Who are you?” Grandmother asked. She masked her confusion about this commotion quickly. Speaking firmly again, she bore this young woman with a stern stare that seemed to pin her in place.

“My name is…” She swallowed again. “My name is Lucy Forden. I was sent here last night to see through this… betrothal agreement in place of Katerina.”

Maxim lowered his gun, pivoting sharply to narrow his eyes on me. “He fucking…”

I brought my gun down as well. I didn’t trust this woman, whoever she was supposed to be, but the men behind us wouldn’t lower their guns yet. She was covered. But as my brain hurried to make sense of the little she was telling us, my fury burned hotter all over again.

“He sent you to marry me in place of Katerina?” I asked.

She nodded, small, feeble movements as if she couldn’t be brave enough to do anything more than that.

“He fucking tricked us,” Maxim growled, stalking back and shaking his head.

“I don’t understand,” Grandmother protested. “I didn’t reach out to him about that arrangement when I found it. He reached out to us . And he only wanted to with a… a…” She gestured at Lucy. “With a decoy? A stand-in?”

I was livid. Nothing pissed me off more than dealing with a liar. The feeling of being duped and manipulated wasn’t a sensation I cared to hold on to.

As I stared at this woman who swore she was my wife, this stranger, I knew the genuine terror in her eyes meant she wasn’t the mastermind behind this lie, this duplicity.

Anton Kozlov had tried to fuck with us, and he would regret it all.

I couldn’t tear my gaze off her, determined to understand why the Kozlovs were messing with us like this. But she gave nothing away.

“Who are you?” Maxim asked. “Where did he find you to send here last night?”

I almost wanted to caution him not to take her word for what she’d said so far, but even I couldn’t deny how this could’ve happened.

She’d worn that veil since the moment she got in.

No one had actually looked at what she wrote in and signed on that paper, her penmanship so small.

We hadn’t spoken vows that used our names, just blank yes and I do replies.

Then when I dragged her in here and didn’t turn on the lights to fuck her in the complete darkness…

Fuck.

Fuck!

I married the wrong woman!

All that she’d said so far was plausible, and I regretted that I hadn’t taken a second to check that she was even Katerina. I’d been so annoyed to marry her—anyone—at all that my attitude was to just get it all over with.

“I am… Well, I was a maid at the Kozlov mansion. I’m just a maid.”

“A maid ?” Grandmother exclaimed, clearly astonished and offended as she faced us. “You married their maid ?”

“I didn’t mean any harm. I didn’t know any details and I just did what I was told,” Lucy claimed desperately.

“You were told to come here and marry me?” I asked, doubtful yet not. We were aware that this arrangement was likely a trick, but not like this.

“Yes.”

“Anton told you to come here instead of Katerina and marry him?” Maxim asked, pointing at me.

“Well, yes. I mean no.”

I tilted my head to the side, narrowing my eyes. “Which is it?”

“Yes, I was asked to come here and go through with this marriage thing. But also no. I didn’t know who I was being sent to.” She looked between me, Grandmother, and Maxim, as if pleading with us to believe her.

“Who told you to?” Maxim ordered.

She hesitated. If I hadn’t been watching her so closely, stunned at this revelation that I’d married a random maid, I would’ve missed how she slightly waited to reply.

“The Kozlovs,” she replied.

“Who?” Maxim asked again.

I shook my head, giving him a look. “It hardly fucking matters who specifically told her. Anton had to be behind this.” Furrowing my brow as I realized that the woman who’d made me come so hard was a stranger, I felt lost on what to think of happening next.

The only reason we’d gone through with this arrangement was to get Katerina here and keep our enemies closer.

I was supposed to start interrogating her for intel today.

But now, I had this… nobody. This maid wouldn’t be able to tell us anything worthwhile.

And likewise, she wouldn’t be able to tell them anything.

If she was sent here as a spy to report back to the Kozlovs, she’d be shit out of luck.

“This is ridiculous,” Grandmother snarled, crossing her arms. “The agreement was for Katerina to—” She huffed, snapping her fingers and looking at a soldier. “Go. Go find the paper from last night, the contract she signed.”

“What difference does it make?” I couldn’t take my eyes off my wife. She was useless now. She wouldn’t have any secrets or intel to give us.

But as I recalled, again, how she’d felt when I shot my cum deep inside her, I knew that wasn’t true.

Lucy—whoever the fuck this maid was—wasn’t completely useless.

She still had a pussy.

She could still bear me children.

“What do you mean, what difference does it make?” Grandmother blurted. “This maid is?—”

“Is my wife.” I turned to glare at my grandmother.

“I signed the paper. I consummated it last night. She is my wife, and it shouldn’t matter who the fuck she is if you want us to have heirs.

” I shrugged, adopting a forced indifference to the situation before I could let the anger return that I’d been lied to.

“If she’s not here as someone who can spy, then whatever.

” I huffed a wry laugh. “Anton can play his stupid games. It won’t harm me.

” Lifting my hand to point at her, I dismissed how she flinched at the aim of my gun still loosely held in my hand.

“What does it matter who she is? She’s got a cunt, and she can give me an heir. ”

Maxim shook his head. “No. This woman is a maid. She’s no one. She’s— No, Damon. We will annul this marriage today.”