24. Mikhail

24

MIKHAIL

Having Katya Petrova show up dead two days before my wedding is a real inconvenience. I was hoping I could go to Alexei with some pivotal information but instead, I have a butchered corpse on my hands.

But that's just how it works when you're dealing with the Russian mafia.

I called Anton to the house because there's no point hiding this information from my brothers any longer. I'm honestly surprised Alexei hasn't already found out yet, and I'd rather have him hear the news from me than from one of his men.

Though it seems my cousin is more interested in discussing my love life rather than the work at hand.

"Aren't you still trying to make Lucia call off the wedding? You said you don't want to tie yourself to the mafia brat."

I cringe as Anton throws my earlier words back in my face.

I feel ashamed of how quick I was to judge Lucia. I should have known that what she was showing me was nothing more than an act.

She covered herself in armor that she had built up piece by piece as a result of all she's endured growing up in my world.

She is so much more than a mafia brat, and to call her such is a fucking insult.

"That was…before." I pour us both a drink, trying to ignore the pit in my stomach.

"Before what?" Anton leans against the mantlepiece with his arms folded over his chest looking like the picture of ease. "Before you realized how good she is in bed?"

I clench my hand around my rocks glass.

"Shut your fucking mouth, Anton," I snarl.

My cousin only grins as he holds his hands up in mock surrender. "Shit, I didn't realize you actually cared about her."

"I don't just care about her, I—" I cut myself off before I can say the words that have been sitting on the tip of my tongue for days now.

They almost came tumbling out last night when Lucia opened her heart to me, but the thought of making myself that vulnerable scared me too much to fully commit.

But I hope what I offered her was still enough to show her how much she means to me.

"You love her, don't you?"

I release a breath before turning to face my cousin. As much as it scares me, what is the point of denying it?

"Yeah, I do," A smile tugs at my lips.

"You seem happy."

"You sound surprised."

"Of course, I am. You're Mikhail Koslov, for fuck's sake, you're the most miserable bastard I've ever met. "

"Don't worry, I'm still a bastard. Just perhaps not quite as miserable."

Anton's shoulders shake laughter, and I fight a smile as I take a sip of my drink.

"All this time, you just needed to get laid on the regular."

I go to retort when my phone buzzes on the desk.

Setting down my glass, I cross the room, cursing when I see who's calling.

Anton appears at my side, and I put the phone on speaker.

"What have you got for me, Rosa?" I grip the edge of the desk as I brace myself for whatever bomb she is about to drop.

"No ‘hi, how are you Rosa?'" She scoffs. "Honestly, you would be lost without me, Koslov, and I barely get a greeting out of you."

"Perhaps not, but I seem to recall that your Christmas bonus bought you that new Range Rover, so I'm sure you can forgive my lack of manners."

"Whatever."

Anton chuckles, and I shoot him a warning glare.

Shit is getting serious, and I can't afford for the people working for me to become distracted.

"Any update on what happened to Katya?"

"That's keeping me very busy. Whoever took care of her was very thorough in covering their tracks."

"Fuck."

"It won't be impossible, but it's taking longer than I thought. But while I was looking into Katya's death, I did find out something that I thought you would find useful."

"What?"

"It was Igor Ivanov who was behind your attempted hit in Madison Square Park."

"I fucking knew it. Thanks for the information, Rosa."

"Happy to help." She hangs up.

I look at Anton, and any trace of amusement has been wiped from his face.

I run my hand through my hair. "I think it's time we fill Alexei in on what we've found."

I find my oldest brother in the lounge, balancing Leo on his lap as Bianca sorts through piles of baby clothes on the floor.

They both look so domesticated that I wish I didn't have to walk in and drop a bomb on them.

But that's what he signed up for when he took over as head of this family, so I can't feel guilty for adding to the already heavy weight on his shoulders.

Bianca sighs as she folds a tiny shirt. "He's growing too fast. I can't believe he was ever this small."

"I'm happy to have another one whenever you are, zhizn' moya. " Alexei chuckles, bouncing Leo on his knee.

She laughs. "Don't even joke. Visiting the twins yesterday has made me nostalgic."

I clear my throat. "Alexei."

My brother looks over his shoulder at me, and his expression instantly changes.

" Ptichka , can you take Leo for a moment?"

Bianca glances at Anton and me, a wary expression on her face, but she says nothing as she takes Leo and disappears from the room.

"What is it?" Alexei gets to his feet. "You both look sheepish as fuck."

"It's been confirmed that the attack on Lucia and me in Madison Square Park was orchestrated by Igor. "

Alexei narrows his eyes and tucks his hands into his pockets. "By who?"

"Rosa."

"Why didn't you tell me you had her looking into the attack?"

"I figured there wasn't much point until I had something worth telling you."

Alexei's jaw flexes, but he nods. "Is that everything?"

I open my mouth, ready to tell my brother about my colossal fuck up with Katya, but my phone buzzes again in my pocket.

When I see it's Rosa calling me again, a sense of unease washes over me.

"What is it, Rosa?"

"You need to remember that I'm just the messenger here, Koslov."

I'm instantly on alert, wondering what the hell she's about to reveal.

Alexei and Anton share a look, and I try my best to keep my face neutral, not to give away the fact that internally I'm shitting a brick.

"Rosa."

"I had a few of my guys looking into Igor to confirm he was behind the attack in Madison Square Park."

"You already told me about that, Rosa."

"I'm fucking getting there," she snaps, and I bristle at her tone. "One of them just got back to me and caught wind that he's planning another attack."

"When?"

"Your wedding."

I'm already stalking toward the door before I even hang up the phone.

Alexei follows me. "What the fuck was that about? "

"I need to go and speak with Massimo." I pocket my phone.

"Why?"

His footsteps follow behind me into the foyer, but I don't have any time to waste.

In two days, the life of the woman I love will be in colossal danger, and it's up to me to keep her safe.

I arrive at Massimo's club thirty minutes later.

No doubt I'll be getting angry emails from my friends on the force letting me know that I owe them another favor for making my speeding offenses disappear.

But that is the least of my fucking worries.

Massimo doesn't look pleased by my surprise arrival, but then again, I don't think I've ever seen the guy crack a smile.

Perhaps we are similar after all.

"What do you want, Koslov?" He glances over his shoulder at me as he slams his rocks glass down on the bar. "You better not be backing out of this marriage."

I shake my head, tucking my hands into my pockets as I glance around the private room at the back of the club.

There're two guys behind the bar watching me closely, as well as another by the door.

I have no doubt that each of them is carrying multiple weapons, but so am I.

I just hope that I don't have to use them.

"I gave you my word, Massimo."

"Your word means shit until you put a ring on my daughter's finger." He turns to face me.

"I have every intention of doing just that."

"Then why the hell are you bothering me?"

"You might want to sit down for this." I move to sink into one of the velvet chairs.

"If you think I don't already know about Ivanov's role in attacking my daughter, then you're even more stupid than I thought, Koslov. You're not the only one with contacts."

I clench my fists as I try to keep my temper in check.

How the hell did Dimitri ever manage to have a conversation with this fucker? I've barely shared three sentences with the guy and already I want to put a bullet in his head.

"Good, then I should assume you are also aware that he's planning another attack at our wedding."

Massimo narrows his eyes at me as he waves a finger at one of his men to pour him another drink.

"That is news to me."

"I think it's in Lucia's best interest to postpone the wedding until the threats have been taken care off."

Massimo huffs a laugh, though the sound is nothing short of chilling.

"Oh, is it now?" He snatches his whiskey out of the hand of his bartender and downs it in one gulp.

"Believe me when I say that I care about your daughter, and I want this wedding to happen just as much as you do."

Massimo waves a ringed finger to cut me off.

"I don't give a fuck if you care for her or not. This wedding must go ahead as planned, Koslov. I've given you plenty of time to get your head around the idea of saying goodbye to your bachelor days?—"

"Massimo," My patience is wearing thin.

I don't miss the anger in his eyes, but I don't have time to be intimidated by him.

"These threats on Lucia's life are more important."

"Which is exactly why this marriage needs to go ahead. "

I let out a frustrated breath and lean back in my chair.

I knew Massimo would be stubborn if his daughter's anything to go by, but I didn't actually expect him to be worse .

"You can't be serious. Igor is literally planning an attack to take place during the wedding, and you still want it to go ahead?"

"Yes."

"You're insane." I get to my feet.

It's clear that this meeting is nothing but a colossal waste of my time, and I'm already running out of it as it is.

"I'd watch your fucking mouth, boy !" Massimo snarls.

"I'm just watching out for your daughter, which is more than I can say about you."

I duck, narrowly missing the glass Massimo launches in my direction.

"You've got some fucking nerve."

"Yeah, I fucking do. Because I don't want my first act as Lucia's husband to be cleaning her blood off my hands after Igor's shot her dead," I growl.

"I'm not canceling this wedding, Koslov, so I suggest you find a way to deal with the threat."

I run my hand over my face as I try to think of a plan.

"What if we move the wedding to Alexei's place? I know you already trust the security, seeing as Lucia's been staying there for the past week."

"Is it strong enough to withstand Igor should he come sniffing around?"

"I'll make sure it is."

"I have your word on this?"

"It's like I said, I don't take the your daughter's safety lightly."

"We'll see about that, Koslov."

When I arrive back in Forest Hills, I know my first priority should be to sit down with Alexei and go through the security plan for the wedding, but all this talk of Lucia being in danger has put me on edge, and I need to get my hands on her even if it's just for a second.

I need to see for myself that she's all right, and then I can go back to trying to save her life.

I head straight into the kitchen and breathe a sigh of relief as I see her standing at the counter with her back to me as she chops some vegetables.

"Hey, kisa ."

I wait for her to turn around to flash me that smile that sends me to my knees, but she doesn't even glance over her shoulder at me.

I frown. "How did the wedding chat go with Bianca?"

Still nothing.

Has she got earbuds in and not realized I'm in the room?

I move to lean against the counter.

She ignores me.

"Lucia?"

The way she's aggressively chopping the carrots is making me feel uneasy. She seems angry and completely lost in her own head, which is a recipe for disaster when she's holding a sharp knife.

I reach out to grab her wrist to halt her movements, and she flinches, dropping the knife on the counter as she pulls away from me.

"Lucia? What's going on?" A low level of panic starts to build inside me.

Her face is pale, and she's refusing to meet my eyes.

What the hell has happened ?

I reach out to cup her cheek, to offer her some comfort even if she doesn't want to talk, but when my fingers brush her soft skin, she jerks out of the way, swatting at my hand like I've stung her.

"Leave me alone, Mikhail." She stalks out of the kitchen.

"Lucia—" I'm so taken aback by her coldness toward me that I don't follow her.

I've seen Lucia pissed before, but this is different. There was nothing but icy indifference in her tone.

What could have triggered her to suddenly act so differently?

I come up blank.

Everything was good between us when I left her this morning to go and meet with Anton, and I haven't seen her since.

The only thing I can think of that might have caused her to act so cold toward me is that she's having second thoughts about the wedding and is pushing me away because she's changed her mind after all.

The thought hits me like a ton of bricks.

I really hope I'm wrong because there's nothing I want more than for Lucia Conti to be my wife. Mine.