9. Andrei

Chapter 9

Andrei

What most people don't know about me is that I never once woke up one morning and decided to become pakhan. As a child whose parents went missing before the age of five, the idea of planning for anything other than tomorrow was completely foreign to me.

Become a leader of one of the most notorious mafia families in the country?

It was never something I set out to do.

Some would say that it makes me complacent. If I never fought for the position, do I truly care about the duties it holds or the people it protects? But the other piece that most people don't know, is that everything changed the moment I met Valentina Baranova.

She was innocent. One hundred percent pure of heart and mind, like freshly fallen powder snow blanketing the city at sunrise. Pristine and shimmering and full of light. Something I'd never seen before—something so beautiful that it was meant to be treasured.

For a while, I was convinced that Valentina was put in my path to give me a purpose. I'd done well for myself since officially joining the Bratva—Ezra and I were making a name for ourselves with each new task we conquered—but everything was fragmented. Run these drugs for a hot meal tonight. Stake out this office and report back so that you earn your bed for the week. Nothing mattered besides the day-to-day living, and Ezra and I were good at living by the hour.

But when I saw Valentina, a pretty girl in a delicate pink dress hugging the pakhan right before my very eyes, I knew not only that I had to have her, but that if I could charm Tolkotsky well enough, he would give her to me.

I was proven right when he made the offer to give me the Bratva and a bride if I continued to impress.

But the jobs required to climb the ladder to the top became dirtier the higher Ezra and I climbed. Drug running turned into retaliation. Stake outs turned into assassinations. Money pick ups turned into laundering schemes.

If I continued down the path as written, when I'd finally become pakhan and embrace Valentina, I'd ruin her in the same way the Bratva ruined me. So I decided to change the organization from within, one piece at a time. That way, when I held my darling wife, I wouldn't drip blood on her shiny white shoes or stain her powdered nose.

As I stare at the poisoned wine spreading across the tablecloth towards Valentina, I imagine her soul looking much the same. Satin white, with patches of deep crimson bleeding through, tainting her just like the rest of us. It's hard to say when her innocence was first ruined, but in the end, the timeline doesn't matter.

Now I can hold my wife without fear of damaging her innocence. If she's just as stained as the rest of us, then I will make her shine as brightly at midnight as she did at dawn.

She'll be made of deep obsidian instead of ocean pearls, but she will still be mine, and she will still be just as perfect.

Liam motions for Mikhail, disguised as one of the guards, to remove Katya's body from the table. Mikhail hesitates for a split second before following orders and carrying her out of the room. I'm not sure where he'll take her—we weren't briefed on the poison plan like Liam's true guards likely were—but he'll be back before too long.

Neither of us wants Valentina out of our sight.

Bringing Thanatos into the fold was unexpected, but welcome. He's always worked well with Ezra and earned a name for himself, of his own right. He's one hell of a shot and good at watching others' backs. We'll need his help to get Valentina out of here safely.

But it's the waiting that kills me. Valentina is right there. Sitting across the table, directly in front of me. I could scoop her into my arms and carry her out of here. I doubt anyone at the table would make a move to stop me, aside from Liam himself, but it's the guards I'm worried about.

As it stands, they still outnumber us.

That's why Ezra and his team should be taking them out one by one, first with the ones patrolling the grounds, then with the ones inside the building. Once he gives the signal, we'll grab Valentina and get the hell out of here.

One of the staff members removes Katya's place setting, but the stained tablecloth remains an ugly reminder of her sudden death. I don't pity the woman—she was slated to die one way or another—but to drink a poison from the very man you helped rise to power . . .

Karma's one hell of a bitch.

Valentina leans into Liam's side and whispers something in his ear. I'm not close enough to hear it, but seeing her touch another man makes me want to end this entire charade right now.

She's not allowed to touch anyone but us.

Across from me, Thanatos jerks his head ever so slightly to tell me no. If I cause a scene, it'll blow our whole plan to hell, and Valentina could get hurt.

I grit my teeth as Liam presses his lips to my wife's cheek. He smiles at her, and I can see it in his eyes—the genuine affection he has for her. His arm moves beneath the table, and I have no doubt that he's touching her there, too, on her knee or her thigh, or maybe even spreading his fingers across her waist—or worse , lifting her skirt to touch what's mine ?—

My fists clench tightly. There's no way in hell I'm letting this man touch my woman. Not in front of me. Not behind my back. Never again.

Valentina jerks her arm without warning, and I catch a flash of silver as she swings open a switchblade and jabs it deep into Liam's thigh.

She hisses something harsh into his ear, and although I can't catch the words, I can see her twist the knife with a sharp turn of her wrist.

Liam's face turns beet red, and in the next heartbeat, he has Valentina's throat in his hands, squeezing.

Thanatos reaches them first, pistol whipping the fuck out of the man and pushing him to the ground. By the time Valentina's free from Liam's grasp and gasping for air, I've already unloaded half a magazine into the remaining guards in the room. It won't stop them because of all the fucking armor they have on, but it will slow them down long enough for me to cover Valentina.

Assaulting the pakhan isn't going to win her any points with anyone but us

At the sound of gunfire, Valentina ducks under the table while the remaining dinner guests scramble for the exit. As the mayor tries to push past me, I slam his face into the wall, satisfied with the telltale crunch that comes from a broken nose. When he yells, I yearn to put a bullet in his knee and give him something worse to scream about, but sadly, I don't have time.

The two guards in the room that are under our control tackle the ones that aren't, and I drop to my knees to find Valentina.

She's crawling under the table towards Liam, determination in her eyes as she wraps her palm around the switchblade and yanks it free from Liam's thigh. He blindly kicks out at her and misses, kneeing Thanatos instead. The bodyguard quickly presses his forearm against Liam's throat.

Valentina quickly scrabbles closer, shouldering Thanatos as best she can to position herself on top of Liam. She straddles his waist and crushes one of his hands beneath her knee, while Thanatos blocks the other from reaching her.

I expect her to speak to him, to say something cruel and vicious and cutting as her final words to him, but she's furious as she jabs the knife into his shoulder.

I understand being pissed off, but anger like that makes you reckless, and now is not the time to let her guard down.

It's why she doesn't see the blonde man lunging across Thanatos' back to reach her.

But it's a good thing I do.

I fire off three shots into his back and quickly take his place, wrapping my arms around Valentina from behind and pulling her off of Liam. " Zhena , let him go. We need to leave."

Ezra hasn't given the signal yet. We're vulnerable if we stay in the middle of enemy territory.

She fights me like an angry cat, thrashing her arms and legs to try to force me to let her go. I wrap my arms tighter and drag her from the room, my frustration spiking at the sheer fact that she's trying to get away from me to go to him .

It's fucking unacceptable.

Once we're out of the room and in the hallway, I shoulder open a random door and toss her inside. I slam the door shut behind us and lodge a chair back beneath the handle. It won't last long, but it'll last long enough for what I need to do.

I whip off my face shield and glower at my wife. She's still raving mad, dark hair whipping around her face as she storms towards me. "Let me out," she demands, shoving my chest with both hands. "I'm gonna kill him."

God , she's perfect.

"No." I tear off my gloves and cup her face in my hands, pushing her deeper into the room. She stumbles as I force her backward, but I don't care—I won't let her fall. "You're mine , Valentina. You're not going anywhere."

Not without me.

She grabs my wrists and tugs, but it's no use. Even in her anger, she's not strong enough to push me around. "Let me go , Andrei, I need to kill him?—"

I crash my mouth over hers, swallowing her protests. Fuck that guy. If she's going to be angry, let it be at me—I want everything from this woman. All of her anger, her outrage, her pain. Every piece of her, I'll claim for myself.

She is mine.

I lift her off the ground and slam her back against the wall, growling as she claws at my armor. Fuck it , too—I unclasp it with both hands, keeping my lips on Valentina's to keep her quiet. Once the chest piece is off, she tears into my shirt, and I spread my feet apart and buck my hips up into hers. I'm crushing her. I know I am, but neither of us cares as we tear at each other. Her panties rip easily, my belt buckle jangles over my hips, and then I'm buried deep inside her heat.

She whimpers against my lips, and I delve my tongue past the seam to taste her. Groaning, I reach under her dress and grasp her hip as I punch into her hard , my anger at being ignored for another man making me just as reckless as she was in the dining room.

I dig my heels in and slam our bodies together.

She screams, but I swallow the sound, greedy for every sound she makes. I screw her hard to make sure she knows who she belongs to. Not Liam. Not this fucking place. Not the fucking Bratva, either. Oh no—fuck her bloodline. Fuck what it demands from her.

I demand every part of her as mine.

Her touch is as rough as mine as she digs her nails into my shoulders and neck, marking me as much as I'm surely marking her, neither of us caring about how it'll look in the morning.

I'm as much hers as she is mine. She can touch me however she likes.

She tears her mouth from mine to pant in my ear, moaning when I arch my back and change the angle, hitting a better spot for her, making her moan as she gets even wetter , the slap of our flesh meeting filling the room.

"You're mine," I growl into her neck, sucking a mark into her skin. "You've always been fucking mine , Valentina. Do you hear me?" I slam her hips over mine fast and hard, and she wraps her arms around my neck, holding me.

"Yours," she repeats, moaning perfectly for me. " God, Andrei, I'm coming?—"

I lick into her mouth to steal the sounds she makes as she clamps around my dick, damn near cutting me in half with how hard her thighs wrap around my waist. It's enough to tip me over the edge. My balls tighten and I come hard , my eyes rolling back as I shoot my load deep inside her.

Slowly, I drop us to my knees and hold her in my arms. " Valentina ." I press a kiss to her temple, the edge of her eyelids, across her cheek, on the tip of her nose. "I'm sorry it took so long for us to get here, baby, but I'm here. We're here. Feel me, baby. I'm right here."

Her hands travel my body, catching each visible patch of skin. It's not much since we're both still clothed, but she runs her fingers over the scratches she put on my neck and across my shoulders, like the red lines prove I'm here more than my cum inside her does.

I can still see a flicker of anger in her eyes, but she hides it well as she brushes her fingers across my jaw and presses the tips to my lips. I kiss them all, every single one.

"I almost thought you'd . . ." She swallows and sweeps her gaze behind me, avoiding my eyes. A blush creeps up her neck. "Decided against it. Saving me, and all." She gives a half-shrug, trying to play off her confession, but her lip trembles just slightly.

How could she ever think we'd abandon her?

" Zhena , we drove ourselves crazy looking for you. It only took so long because that fucking bitch—" My words come out as a harsh growl that I have to rein in. "We let our guard down and you suffered for it, baby, and I'm sorry. That should have never happened. It won't happen ever again. I promise."

She nods, but I can tell she's uncertain. If we let her get kidnapped once, how can she believe that we'll keep her safe the next time someone tries shit? Fuck , we messed this up. We thought we had allies and loyalty—we thought no one could take shit from us, let alone our fucking woman—but Katya proved us wrong with a flick of her fucking wrist.

Damned woman should rot in hell for eternity.

Valentina's eyes grow distant, and I hold her fucking tighter. She's not running away from me, not even inside her mind. "What is it, baby? Tell me."

Her forehead crinkles as she stares in the distance, away from me. "He killed my grandmother. I wasn't sure that he'd—" She draws a shallow breath. "He killed her for me, Andrei."

I brush my knuckles across the bruises forming on Valentina's neck. Liam may have killed her if Thanatos hadn't gotten there in time. Jesus, I need to give the man a raise once all this shit is over.

"Why would he do that for you?"

"Because I asked him to." She wipes at a tear threatening to fall, then looks at the wet streak across her knuckles with a frown. "God, Andrei, he killed her to prove he loved me. That's what I asked him to do. Kill her. I didn't think he'd actually do it, you know? I didn't think he had it in him."

I draw a deep breath. "Love makes us do all kinds of things, Valentina. And love for you?" I shake my head, feeling myself smile. Fuck, am I in love with this woman. "It's the strongest motivator of all. Anyone who falls for you will do anything you ask." When the Bratva falls in love with her, too, she'll have the entire organization eating out of the palm of her hand. It's only a matter of time.

"Anything?"

I nod as I press a kiss to her palm. "Anything, zhena. " Her emerald eyes harden instantly, and I wish I could swallow my words. "Anything except that."

"I need to kill him, Andrei."

"Now isn't the time."

She rolls her eyes and slides off my lap, stepping away from me to straighten her dress. The skirt ruffles around her thighs, and it's tempting to pull her back in for another round. "I already hurt him. Just let me finish the job, and this will all be over."

"I wish it were that simple, zhena . I really do."

" Make it that simple. You're the goddamn pakhan ! Your word is law."

"Not in this house." I push myself to my feet, quickly zip up my pants, and buckle my belt. "Not with these people. They aren't loyal, Valentina, not to me."

"All the more reason to kill him."

"That'll start a war."

As she darts for the exit, I jump ahead and barricade the door with my body. She scowls up at me, still fiery as a hellcat. "We're already at war, so let me end it. Right here, right now. Come with me."

My heart yearns to give her what she wants, to follow her into the other room and help her hold a gun to the bastard's temple. He deserves a bullet to the brain, and more importantly, she deserves to be the one to pull the trigger.

But his death won't solve our problems. It will only make them worse. I tilt Valentina's chin up to force her eyes on mine. She needs to know why. "Listen to me, Valentina. Right now, Liam is only acting as pakhan because he has you. If we kill him now, we'll have six more men pop up to take his place . It'll be another war over who will lead the Bratva. And these other men?" I exhale harshly, not enjoying the thought of other men vying for what's mine. "They'll fight to have you, Valentina, because you'll give them the title and the power that comes with it. But they won't love you. They'll use you as a hole to fuck and a body to bleed."

Her expression hardens. "That doesn't matter. I'm with you. That gives you the title. That should be enough."

I brush my thumb across her bottom lip. There's barely any lipstick left, but what remains is smudged outside the lines. She looks well and properly fucked , and it takes genuine effort to stay focused. I have to stop touching her, or I'll bend her over a fucking lamp just to get my dick back inside her.

"Until we're officially married, we're not legitimized." I run a hand through my hair and tug at the ends to keep myself focused on the conversation, and not on how fuckable my wife looks. "We'll have people contesting our reign left and right. We need to marry, and then the war will die out on its own. Whoever owns you owns the Bratva. That's just how it works."

She lifts her eyes to mine, and something sparks within their depths. A flash of brilliant green as an idea takes root. Within seconds, it grows into the brightest flame I've ever seen as determination takes hold.

"Then you can't own me, Andrei."

My entire body tenses, and I have to resist the urge to force her back against the wall and rut her senseless again. "You are mine ? — "

She holds up her hand. "I know. I'm yours. I'm not contesting that." She takes a quick breath. "But if I marry you, I'm still a pawn in these stupid pissing contests, because you'll be the one officially fucking the Baranova bitch. But it's my bloodline. It's my name. I'm the one who owns it. Why can't I be the one in charge if it's my name on the fucking Bratva?"

"You don't have a dick, Valentina." The Bratva won't listen to a woman. It's not tradition. I'm fine sharing the throne with her—I want her to use her power and rule beside me.

But to try to reign on her own?

Dozens of people will kill her before they let a woman be in charge of the Bratva.

"I don't," she concedes, "but you do. All three of you do, and I own you. Don't you get it?" She presses her body against mine and slides her palm up my chest sensually. "The only reason any man will have power is because my bloodline, my name, gives it to them when we marry. But this isn't your Bratva. It's mine. I should choose who I marry."

Fury races through my veins. If she thinks she's going to marry someone else?—

Valentina smacks her palm over my mouth. "I should choose who I marry, Andrei, and I choose all of you. You, and Ezra, and Mikhail."

I pry her hand from my face and squeeze it tight. "You can't marry three people."

Her lips twitch as she tries not to smile. "Fucking watch me. It's my life, my body, my Bratva. I'll marry who I want." She places her palm on my chest and pats it three times, once for each of her chosen men. "You. Ezra. Mikhail. Think about it. The people in this house, and by extension, this Bratva, won't listen to you because we're not legitimately married. But when I marry you, all three of you, they'll have to listen to all of us. All four of us."

Four people running a Bratva. There's always been the pakhan and his advisors, but what she's suggesting is different. Not just sharing duties and delegation, but sharing the woman behind it all. The Baranova who gives this Bratva its name.

It's not much different than what we had planned, except I'd share the title of pakhan with Ezra and Mikhail, and we'd all be recognized as Valentina's husbands in the eyes of the Bratva instead of only me claiming the title.

Even if we're not recognized within state or federal laws, that's not the issue.

It's the Bratva we have to reckon with.

Could this actually work?

Valentina pats my chest once more, as though to console me. "And then, once that's all settled and we recognize that I actually own my own damn life and choose my own husbands to rule beside me, we can kill Liam without all this war nonsense."

A war is inevitable at this point, whether it's against one man or twenty. The Dolohovs are gunning for the crown by any means necessary. If word gets out that they killed Katya, blood will fill the streets within the hour. Not to mention—"I saw how he looked at you." My lips curve into a frown. "He'll fight for you, and his family will fight to take over the Bratva. It's already begun, zhena . The first act of war was kidnapping you, and the second was killing Katya."

All it takes is one little breath, one small moment for her to process what I'm saying, for me to glimpse a crack in her armor. To see a hint of something soft and fragile beneath all the talk of war and death. To see the woman I first fell in love with.

"More people are going to die, aren't they?" Her voice is as soft as it was the day I met her, and for that tiniest, tender moment, her innocence returns.

I want to shelter it. Keep it safe and avert her eyes, tell her that no, no one will die, but it would be a lie. One she'd see right through.

I resist the urge to step back into the past by cradling Valentina's head in my hands and pulling her into my chest. I hold her as tight as I dare, probably too tight, as my heart does this funny little thing, pitter-pattering like it did when I first held her in my arms five years ago. I wish I could save even one tiny glimmer of that version of ourselves, but it's too far gone, and this life far too dark and twisted to keep even a sliver of it alive.

My innocence was lost years ago, and Valentina's slips through our fingers faster each day. Soon, there won't be any part of that shy, fragile princess left.

In her place, will be a Bratva queen.

Our queen.

"Yes, people will die."

She pulls away from me, a pinched frown on her face as she gathers her long, dark curls in her hands and ties them in a twist at the nape of her neck. When she's done, she holds the knot and sighs. "Liam will be the last. Then this nightmare will be over."

I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her—my woman, my wife, my queen. We don't have much time left alone. This moment was a stolen slip of time, and it's quickly running out. Shouts and gunfire rain down in the distance, and it's only a matter of minutes before someone finds us.

I make her one final vow, pressing the words into her lips. "His life is yours, zhena. To take—to save—it's your choice."

Valentina nods, the sheer strength in her emerald eyes taking my breath away. That spark of fury when I first stole her away started a wildfire of emotion, but now, it no longer controls her. She controls her fate—the fate of this Bratva—and the fate of my heart.