Page 1 of The Pakhan’s Arranged Bride (West Coast Bratva Pakhans #2)

“It feels like someone gave me seven Mondays in a row,” I groan, leaning back in my office chair and pressing my hands against my eyes.

“I’m sorry, sir, I wish I had better news,” Jadon says, leaning in the doorway of my home office.

I shake my head, standing up and stretching. Jadon has been head of my security team since I started running Las Vegas. He’s brilliant at what he does.

I look out of the window behind my office desk. I took the day to work from home, hoping I’d get more done.

My eyes trace over the view—it’s the reason I bought my house here, on the outskirts of the city, at the edge of Red Rock Canyon National Park.

It’s beautiful. A man can breathe with views like this.

“So, no sight of that little rat, and no one on the streets is talking?”

“Miron has disappeared. It was just that one-off sighting a few months ago.”

“It’s insane how good he is at hiding. Just like a rat. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s been tucked away in the sewer,” I huff. Jadon chuckles.

Miron is in my city, and that makes him my responsibility. Besides, with my ties to his stepbrother—my alliance with Nestor—Miron is sure to make a move against me the first chance he gets. His arrogance is astounding.

He shouldn’t be able to say a word in Las Vegas without me knowing about it, yet he’s here, creeping around, hiding in plain sight. I want him gone.

“Sir, I have other news that you probably don’t want to hear,” Jadon says cautiously.

I shake my head. “I don’t know how much more bad news I can handle. Is it something you can sort out without me?” I ask, hopeful that it might be an easy handoff. The past few weeks have been insane. The constant drain on my energy is starting to get to me.

“Mm. Normally, you know I’d try to help you out—but this is a bit of a personal matter.” Jadon looks amused.

Personal?

I narrow my eyes towards him. “Spit it out.”

“It’s your mother—"

“What the fuck has that meddling woman done now?”

Of course, it’s my mother. I haven’t been keeping an eye on her because I’ve been so busy with other business, and she wouldn’t miss grabbing the opportunity to make my life harder.

I like to think she means well, somewhere at the base of it all, but she can’t seem to let go of trying to control my life or make decisions on my behalf.

It drives me crazy and it’s made me put up heavy walls between her and myself, damaging our relationship.

“She’s busy arranging a wedding. She has a wedding planner involved and everything.”

“What?” I blurt out in shock. Of all the things Jadon could have told me, that was probably the last thing I would have guessed. “Whose wedding?”

I clench my jaw, waiting for the answer. My sister? Belle would have been on the phone with me complaining already, it can’t be hers. My mother’s own wedding? What is going on?

“Yours, sir,” Jadon chuckles.

“What the fuck? Don’t fucking laugh, what the hell is going on?” I snarl angrily, pacing up and down the office to disperse the tension threatening to blow up inside me. I roll my shoulders and crack my knuckles. This is a whole new level of meddling for her.

“Sorry, sir, I know it’s not funny. It’s just—she doesn’t seem to have limits with the shit she pulls.”

Shaking my head, I stop pacing and sit on the edge of my desk. “She never ceases to amaze me. I’ll phone her. Please let me know if you hear anything more about Miron.” I sigh, resigned to the fact that today will not be the easier day I had hoped for.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Jadon nods and steps out of my office, leaving me in my own turmoil, wondering how the hell my mother is planning my wedding without my knowledge and disregarding the fact that I don’t even have a woman in my life.

The last thing I want to do is phone her, but it’s the most urgent thing I have to do, before whatever she’s up to gets out of hand.

I press her name on my phone, leaving it on my desk on speaker. It rings as I wait, getting tenser with each annoying chime.

“Benedikt, darling, I’m so glad you called,” her voice oozes through the phone.

“Barbara, why am I being informed that you are in the process of planning a wedding?”

“Oh darling, how many times must I tell you to call me Mom ? I hate it when you call me Barbara.”

“It’s your name. Answer my question,” I snap impatiently.

“Well, Bennie —" She knows I hate that nickname. She even hates it. She’s only using it now to get back at me.

But calling her ‘Mom’ suggests I have a fondness towards her, and most days I don’t. Today, especially.

“I’ve done all the planning for you. All you have to do is show up. There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about. It’s all done.”

“ What’s done? ” I snarl. “Who the hell am I meant to be marrying?”

She laughs lightheartedly.

I can hear the smirk in her reply. “Alina Pushkin,” she announces, as though she’s introducing a member of the royal family.

The silence from my side of the phone deepens as the seconds tick by. My rival’s sister? She wants me to marry my longstanding rival’s sister?

“Ardalion’s sister?” I say in disbelief. “Why the hell would I want to marry Ardalion’s sister?”

I can’t believe my mother. She has no idea how bratva politics work, yet she’s organizing a wedding. Has she been in contact with Ardalion? Making deals behind my back?

How? Why? The only reason I’d marry a rival’s sister is to merge an alliance, and I have no intention of being allied to Ardalion Pushkin.

My mother is doing this for reasons that only benefit her.

I don’t even give a shit what they are at this point.

“I’m not marrying her,” I say, simple and clear.

“You are; I’ve already planned the whole thing,” she insists, as though she has the power here. “You know that Ardalion is a powerful man from a powerful family. It would do you good to be in an alliance with him.”

It’s odd how easily my mother might acknowledge the powerful status of one of my enemies—but not of her own son’s.

My blood boils as I clench my jaw, not wanting to lose my mind or my temper. My mother seems to get some sort of sick satisfaction from pushing me over the edge. I won’t give her that.

She must know that once a wedding of convenience is arranged, there has to be a damn good reason for it to be cancelled.

I have to get out of this disaster as quickly as possible.

“I can’t marry some strange girl I’ve never met when I already have a fiancée,” I say. “You should have spoken to me before making such a massive business decision.”

I don’t. I don’t even have a girlfriend. But for some reason, this is the excuse that pops into my mind first, and my mouth spits it out before I have a chance to decide if it’s a good idea or not.

I’m immediately pleased with the horror I hear in her voice.

“You’re engaged? Why didn’t I know about this? I am your mother, ” she shouts through the phone, enunciating each word to make her agitation clear. “How—when—when did this happen? I don’t understand why you kept it from me?” She’s whimpering now, horrified she wasn’t in the know.

She’s also probably upset that whatever she stood to gain from her arranged marriage is no longer viable.

“If you’re going to arrange a wedding, Barbara, it should be with my fiancée, not a stranger,” I say curtly.

It’s her turn to be stunned into silence.

I take the opportunity to end the call before she can ask me any more questions that I can’t answer. “I’ve got to go. We’ll speak soon.”

I hang up.

***

Now that I’m off the phone, I realize I’ve created a mess for myself. But at least I’ve put an end to her mess. For now, anyway. If she finds out I don’t have a fiancée, she’ll be right back onto her plans.

Shit.

Overall, I’d say that did not go well.

A reminder alarm buzzes on my phone, and I pick it up to see what I’ve forgotten about. A meeting with Nestor.

Okay, it’s not so bad. It’s a Zoom video meeting, I don’t have to go anywhere for it. And Nestor is pretty chill. Our business is going well. We’ve almost become friends over the past few months.

Grabbing my notebook and my preferred silver fountain pen, I sit down behind my laptop and open all the necessary programs to start the meeting.

My fingers drum against the edge of the book, waiting, thinking, stressed about my mother’s constant interference in my life. It doesn’t matter what I do—she finds ways to cause problems.

I chuckle, thinking that if she were an enemy, I would have buried her in the desert years ago.

“Benedikt? Can you hear me?” Nestor’s voice carries through my laptop. A message pops up on the screen to switch on the video. I click accept.

His face fills my screen.

“Working from home today?” I say, noting that he’s in his home office. “Living the easy life there is San Francisco?”

He snorts. “Hey man, one day, when you have a newborn who doesn’t think night time is for sleeping, we can talk about the easy life. ”

“Ha. No thanks,” I laugh, tapping my pen against the notebook.

“Shall we get to it?” Nestor says, looking down at the list of topics he’s noted on the paper in front of him.

“Go for it,” I sigh, already struggling to focus.

“On Thursday we have those goods coming in from our new contact in Mexico; we want a larger team in the receiving bay to accommodate any risks.”

“Done, I’ve already got Jadon to discuss that with Milo. They’ve got a second team standing by.”

“Good.” He nods, ticking it off the list. “Then—"

I wonder what my mother promised Ardalion? That guy hates me. We’ve been at each other’s throats for years. Why would he agree to let me marry his sister? I wouldn’t let him near my sister if my life depended on it. I’d never do that to her.

My mother must have offered him something too good to refuse. Something that wasn’t hers to give.

“Benedikt?”

“Mm?” I snap back into myself, realizing I haven’t been listening.

“Man, where is your head at? I just said your name three times,” Nestor complains, shaking his head.

“Sorry, fuck. I know. I’m having the worst week.”

“What’s going on?” Nestor asks, concern knitting his brows.

I laugh bitterly. “My mother is what’s going on. Can you believe it? She has arranged a wedding between Ardalion’s sister and me—all behind my back.”

“What the—" Nestor stammers in disbelief.

“I know, I can’t get my head around it. I just got off the phone with her now, and the way I put a stop to it was telling her I already have a fiancée.”

Nestor leans closer to the camera. “I had no idea you were involved with someone.”

I snort. “I’m not. There’s isn’t anyone. But I need to whip someone out of thin air before my mother finds out.”

Nestor leans back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.

Behind him, his wife, Lara walks across the view carrying a baby and looking exhausted.

“Hi, Lara,” I say.

“Hi, Ben,” she says, then carries on her way. Another girl appears after her, talking to Nestor about something I can’t hear.

“Ulyana, can you please wait until the meeting is over?” Nestor huffs.

“Is that your sister?” I ask, my eyes locked onto the screen.

The girl looks up at me and steps closer.

My heart slams into my rib cage as every cell in my body fires up. She’s fucking gorgeous. I’m immediately possessed by her.

Nestor waves his hand through the air in confusion. “Yes, I’m sure you’ve met her before on one of your trips to San Francisco.”

Not a chance. I would remember meeting her. She is a pure goddess. There is no way in hell I would have forgotten.

Ulyana laughs in amusement, her eyes teasing me. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting this man,” she muses. There is a mischievous, playful smile on her full lips. I can’t tear my eyes off her.

Nestor rolls his eyes. “Well, whatever, man. Ulyana, this is Benedikt; Benedikt, Ulyana. Can we get back to the meeting?”

Ulyana is standing next to Nestor’s office chair, watching me with bright hazel eyes.

She’s mesmerizing, the smile on her face is cheeky and confident.

Her blonde hair is loose around her shoulders as she leans closer to the camera and tilts her head.

“So, did I overhear that you’re getting married? ”

Nestor shakes his head. “Ulyana, we’re busy. And no, he isn’t getting married—he doesn’t have a fiancée. It’s a bit of a mix-up.”

“Let me marry your sister,” I blurt out. This is so out of character for me. Never in a million years would I expect myself to be asking.

But she’s captured my attention so intensely that I can’t get the idea out of my mind. I have to have her.

Nestor’s eyes narrow to thin slits as he shoots daggers at me through the video call. “No,” he snaps instantly.

“Nestor, it makes sense. We are allies. Things are going well. It can only strengthen things between our families.”

“I’m not pimping my sister out to you, Benedikt, there is no way in hell—"