Chapter 25 - Rodion

It’s been a long morning already, it’s not even lunchtime yet, and all I want is to go home to Anya.

There have been truckloads of shipments arriving this week and it’s a massive process to unload them and make sure they are organized correctly for how they need to be shipped out.

The key to a successful business is planning ahead with every step you take.

It makes things so much more efficient in the long run.

Today though, I am constantly distracted with thoughts of my beautiful wife waiting for me at home—but that’s how it is most days lately. My life has become less oriented around work and only work and more oriented around creating a good life for my gorgeous wife and our little baby, who is on the way. I’ve started to learn how much more fulfilling life is when you have someone to love—and who loves you back just as fiercely.

I’m so much happier—as though this has given my life a whole new purpose. She’s given my life meaning.

Anya is also teaching me to be less controlling—to rather trust the universe that everything does turn out just how it’s meant to turn out. I’m trying not to be so hard on my brothers and Ruslana. They need to learn things for themselves. I can’t keep track of their every movement and every choice.

The floor manager's voice grabs my attention from across the warehouse.

“Rodion, where do you want these containers?”

“Put them at the back of the warehouse. We only need to ship those out next week,” I shout back to him. He waves his hand in the air and nods his acknowledgment.

I sigh, turning to observe the rest of the organized chaos around me.

I can’t believe it’s only eleven. Still a long day ahead.

My phone vibrates in my pocket.

Anya’s name flashes across the screen and immediately I’m smiling. I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have a woman as beautiful and caring as her to call my own.

“Hello, princess,” I say happily, the phone pressed against my ear.

“Hello, husband.” I can hear the smile in her voice. “Can you talk for a moment? Something happened—I just want to let you know—“

My stomach knots immediately. Even though she doesn’t sound panicked, panic rushes through me.

“Are you ok? Is the baby ok?”

“Yes, no, it’s not about me—it’s your sister. Ruslana is here. We just had a long talk. It’s not good at all, but everyone is ok—it’s just something you need to be aware of.”

“Ok—“ I say, feeling anxiety growing inside my chest.

“You know, with how she’s been withdrawn lately—we thought it was just her being a bit sulky over the drinking incident, but it’s not—“

Anya explains everything that’s going on with my sister and my stomach knots tighter and tighter.I don’t understand why she didn’t come to me for help. Although Anya tells me it’s because she was worried about being in trouble—but this is serious. This is more than just me being annoyed with her. This is her being in danger. The exact thing I was trying to protect her from in the first place.

“Do we know anything about the guy who’s bothering her?” I ask.

“No, she only knows his first name—nothing else.”

“Send me his name and his phone number. I am going to have my guys look into it so we can find out who he is.”

“I’ll send it. But listen, I am going to take Ruslana shopping now.”

“Anya—I would prefer if—“ she interrupts me, immediately cutting off my attempt to control her.

“We will take bodyguards with us, I promise. And we will be careful. I want to get her out for a bit and clear her head. She’s been so stressed about all of this. She needs to know we are there for her.”

I sigh, fighting the urge to try and tell her she can’t go. I have to learn to let go. Anya and Ruslana will be perfectly safe with the bodyguards nearby. Some idiot from the club is not going to be able to bother them. And as much as I want to, I can’t keep Anya home just because she’s pregnant. She will hate me by the time the baby is born. I have to relax and not get so worked up over things.

“Alright. If you take the guards. Two of them, at least. And please put your live location on. I know—I’m being paranoid. But please, do it to make me happy.”

She giggles and the sound rustles through me, making my skin tingle. I love the sound of her laugh. “I will put it on right now,” she promises.

We chat a little more, with her taking the time to reassure me and me worrying anyway. I appreciate that she knows me well enough to be patient with me about these things. The need to control everything that goes on around me is in my blood.

“Princess, just keep in touch. And I will see you at dinner tonight. I can’t wait. I’m missing you terribly today.”

“I’m missing you too, my love. I can’t wait to see you either.”

We say goodbye and I hang up, taking a deep breath. “They will be fine,” I tell myself, still feeling horribly stressed over it.

But just because I am trying not to control everything, doesn’t mean that I will just let idiots mess with my family. I make my way to the security office in my warehouse. I’ll give them his number and they will easily be able to find out exactly who he is. I will deal with him, even if I need to do it without Ruslana knowing—he has no right to make my little sister so stressed.

Chatting to the security team there, I give them the asshole’s name and phone number. I want to know who this idiot is who thinks he can mess around with my sister and upset her like that. I’m angry she didn’t tell me—but I can understand what was going through her mind. I am more angry that this fucking idiot thought he could get away with it.

He clearly has no idea who she is.

Who her family is.

But he’s about to find out.

I leave the information with my security team and head back into the warehouse to get some more work done. These constant distractions will hold me back from being able to get home to Anya earlier. If I had my way, I’d take off a full year of work to be with her throughout the entire pregnancy. I want to look after her all the time. But I also know that once our baby is born, I’ll want to take off another year so that I can take care of both of them.

What I need to do is keep this business running—and give my wife everything her heart desires.

The entire time I’m working though, my stomach is in a knot, my throat feels tight. My instincts are going crazy, warning me over and over again that something is wrong. I check in with Anya on message and she reassures me they are fine and having a lot of fun at the mall and I can relax. But the feeling doesn’t go away.

All afternoon, I feel sick.

My gut is churning and twisting and begging me to pay attention and I keep pushing the thoughts back down.

Finally, to my relief, my security guy comes to find me to give me the info he’s discovered on the guy.

But the look on his face smacks into me like a train going full speed into a barricade. I want to puke. This doesn’t look good at all.

“What?” I snap, glaring at his wide-eyed expression.

“Sir, the guy who has been bothering your sister—it’s Declan Volkov.”

I stare at him in disbelief. Volkov.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I say, my heart sinking to the pit of my stomach. “Get me everything you have on him. I have to call my brothers.” I rush towards my office, panic searing through me like wildfire.

Declan Volkov is one of our biggest rivals and his family is strong. This isn’t just some random nobody. This guy is massive amounts of trouble and he has the power to do damage if I don’t act immediately. The truth is, he probably knows exactly who my sister is and was actively targeting her in the club that night. It wasn’t just some random guy she picked up. It was Declan Volkov—seeking her out, for what—I have no idea. But it terrifies me even more now to think about what would have happened if I wasn’t there with Anya that night.

I call each of my brothers, telling them what is going on. I speak fast and try to explain it as quickly as I can. Then I call Anya’s brothers as well. We need all the help we can get to protect the women we love.

Everyone rallies immediately. They all know the Volkov name and the dangers behind it.

“We’ll meet you at the mall,” Leon snarls into the phone. “That guy is nothing but trouble. I can’t believe we didn’t know he was messing with our family.”

I’m happy he referred to my sister as his family.

It shows just how far we have come since our first interactions.

I sprint out of the warehouse to my SUV, climbing inside, I have the engine started and in a matter of seconds, the tires are spinning against the gravel and I’m accelerating out of there.

I have to get to the mall as quickly as possible.

I don’t phone Anya because I don’t want to freak her out. The guards will keep them both safe. I just need to get there. That’s all that matters.

This just shows me that my gut instincts were not wrong today. All day, my body has been trying to warn me that this is bigger than it seemed. All day, I ignored it. I won’t do that again. I wish I had told Anya to stay home. At least until we had looked into it.

It’s too late to have regrets now, though—what I have to do now is get to them and make sure they are safe.

I drive full speed through the city, running through red lights and over stop signs, ignoring the angry hoots and shouts of other drivers.

When I pull up outside the mall, Leon is already there, just having parked.

“The others are close. I say we wait for them. We don’t even know if this guy is here, but if he is, we want all the reinforcement we can get.”

“Agreed,” I say, “But not if they take too long.”

“Do the girls have security with them?”

“Yes, two guards.”

“Ok, they would have reported any issues. We are still in control here,” Leon says, but I can see he is as tense as I am.

Oleg pulls up in the parking lot and joins us.

Slowly, our brothers arrive one by one and my patience begins to disappear.

“Let’s get going,” I demand, unable to wait another second.