“Don’t forget their little girl,” Adelaide said.
How could I forget? Ivan had been raving about the little brat. I was happy for Slavik. Delighted for him, in fact. The next generation was starting, and it was good news. The Volkov Bratva was not going to die out. Ivan’s ways would remain and I was hoping it would grow.
But, Slavik having a little girl got me thinking about the child we’d lost-the baby Bethany had taken from me. Adelaide hadn’t been far enough along and I didn’t ask the doctor to find out the sex or any of that shit. I don’t even know if it was at the stage when the sex was determined. Didn’t they all start out as girls? I didn’t know fucking biology that well. Just enough to keep people alive long enough to cause them the most pain. I knew a lot, but not enough about babies and shit. Anyway, I couldn’t help but be a little jealous. Slavik had a girl. I had nothing. And Bethany was still alive.
I had my spies on her. She was a fucking whore who was blowing through the funds her parents had given her. As for her parents, their company was still struggling to hold itself together. They were draining funds and losing viewers faster than anything.
“Yes, their little girl,” I said.
“Andrei? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing is wrong. I just … it’s good news for them.”
“Are you disappointed I’m not pregnant?” Adelaide asked.
She had started her menstrual period that very morning, and I knew there was no chance of another baby right now. I wasn’t disappointed, not really. I saw that she was in pain. Running fingers through my hair, I saw the sadness in her gaze, and I couldn’t live with it. I went to her, cupping her face. “Look at me. I am fine and I don’t care if we’re pregnant or not.”
“What if … what if I can’t?”
“You can.”
“I heard what Ivan said, within two years.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“You might get a new wife.”
“Not going to happen.” I kissed her hard.
I wanted to say more, but as I started, my fucking cell phone rang, pissing me off. Annoyed, I tried to ignore it, but Adelaide pulled away.
“You need to answer that.”
What I needed to do was be there for my wife, not constantly be at the beck and call of everyone else around me. It was Ivan, though, so she wasn’t wrong. I did need to take the call.
“Andrei,” I said.
“I know it’s you. Why say that?”
I rolled my eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I need you to arrange the meeting with Rage. Have him come to your penthouse suite.”
“Not fucking happening,” I said, stepping away from Adelaide.
“Pardon me?”
I close my eyes, realizing what I just said. “I’m not having him come anywhere near my wife.”
“She loves the house, doesn’t she?”
I glance back at Adelaide who’d gone to sit on the bed, giving it a little bounce. “I don’t know.”
Ivan tutted. “You clearly didn’t sell it well enough.”
There were moments like now, where I would have gladly throttled Ivan Volkov. The man could be so fucking annoying and I knew he did it on purpose. He was a meddling fucker. He’d not gotten to where he was in life by not meddling. I was so fucked off with it.
“I’m talking with her.”
“Tell her how nice it would be raising a family. How she can have Aurora come to visit. Their kids could be friends and all of that.”
I step out of the bedroom so she doesn’t hear. “Ivan, that’s not the best course of action. I’ll deal with it, but we can’t meet at the penthouse suite.”
“Rage needs to know we mean business. He also has to think we trust him.”
“Which we don’t.”
“I trust him more than I do Demon. Now, if he comes to your penthouse suite, that is a sign of respect and trust.”
“It’s a sign of stupidity.”
“So, get Adelaide loving the house and we’ll see how everything else plays.”
He hung up, of course. That was what Ivan did-gave instructions, and left me to deal with everything else. The guy was exhausting at times.
I dropped my head, taking several deep breaths. Adelaide had been attempting meditation. Since the attack, she occasionally had panic attacks. She didn’t know what they were driven by, but I’d heard the methods and started to use them myself.
Anything that stopped me from killing my boss was a fucking bonus.