“I know what I’ve got at home.” A complication.
“I’d have expected this behavior if you’d married Bethany.”
“Adelaide shouldn’t be my wife.”
“Not only is she your wife, but she will be the mother of your child, but then, you’d actually have to fuck her to do that,” Ivan said.
I gritted my teeth to keep from talking. He knew I hadn’t taken her on our wedding night.
Ivan smiled. “I like that you don’t lie to me, Andrei. I do like that about you. It’s one of your few rare qualities.”
“What brings you here?”
“I’ve got some business to attend to in Slavik’s territory. No matter what you hear, you are not to respond to it, am I understood?”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Simple. You’re not to move from your territory. I will call you with an update, do you understand?”
I didn’t like this. Slavik and Ivan were planning something. I hated being kept out of the loop, but this was my job.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Ivan tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “I’ve been thinking about Yahontov.”
Yahontov was Ivan Yahontov, but we called him Ive so as not to confuse him with Ivan. Not that you could mistake the two.
Ive was a monster to the core. I heard his territory was dark and his men were cruel. One of the rules as brigadiers is that we never got involved with other territories. We ran our places the way we saw fit.
Ive was cruel. He was evil. But with a past like his, I could totally understand that. The fact he was able to attend certain functions without drawing attention to his oddness was a miracle. Ivan liked to have strange men running things.
I was an odd choice-the unwanted son of the previous Bratva, who was in fact a soldier’s son. Yes, I discovered through torturing my father that I wasn’t his son after all. My mother had an affair with a soldier, but they didn’t kill me.
My father was ordered to raise me as his own, which of course he never did. He made sure I paid every single day for my mother’s betrayal. That was her punishment to see my life ruined day after day, because she had fallen in love. It was just another reason why Adelaide would never have a soldier near her.
“What about him?”
“You and Slavik are married. I think it’s time Ive has a woman of his own.” Ivan sat back, running a finger across his lip.
“I thought you had women picked out already?” I asked.
Ivan smiled. “No. I like to make sure the women I choose for my men are tasteful. Those women would not make it in this world.”
I didn’t even have a fucking clue why he picked Adelaide for me, but poor Ive. If Ivan was going to marry him off, I didn’t know who I felt sorry for more.
Adelaide
I was fucking bored. I was so bored that I had even given boring a new name.
The curtains were open, and that meant a perimeter was nicely built around the penthouse suite. I’d already tried to ask my guard for one day out of the penthouse without Andrei knowing. Was I given that luxury? Nope.
Moving into the kitchen, I opened and closed the doors to the fridge, then the drawers. I glanced at the notice board and saw a marker. Without thinking, I grabbed said marker, made my way toward the edge of the penthouse, as far as I could go, and got to my knees.
I drew a line, and then I carried on, until I had gotten across the room to the far wall. The moment I had done it, I realized I had drawn on a very expensive-looking wooden floor, and my heart started to race. Andrei hadn’t given me permission to change anything.
I didn’t have a cell phone. Even the phone in the bedroom didn’t work. I couldn’t find a laptop. The outside world was cut off from me, unless you counted the guard at the front door, who wouldn’t even tell me his name.
This sucked.
I hated it.
Rushing to the kitchen, I grabbed a cloth, wet it, and got back to the line I’d just drawn across the floor.
“Stupid fucking thing,” I said, rubbing the cloth back and forth across the line. Of course, it was permanent.
Great. Now I was going to look like a child and any hope I had of getting out of this apartment was fading, and fast. Sitting back on my heels, I pouted, and I had a sudden overwhelming need to cry.
We’d been married nearly three weeks. He’d propositioned me a few weeks ago. A single kiss. Could I kiss him? I’d never been kissed before my wedding.
Covering my face, I cried out. Did he want me to go insane? Was this part of his plan? To drive me crazy so he could divorce me, because all he needed to do was ask. I was happy to end this farce. This was not love. This was not a good marriage. It was a fucking nightmare for me.
The sound of the front door opening and closing made me panic. Getting to my feet, I spun around, quickly shoving the cloth behind the pillow on the sofa to hide it.
I expected to see Andrei home. He rarely came home early, but it had been known to happen.
It wasn’t Andrei. It was Ivan Volkov.
“Hello, Adelaide.”