4. Mila

4

MILA

T his would be the last day of my freedom, and I struggled to accept that I was spending it at home.

Freedom? I'd never had any true sense of that fantasy. I lived with my father ever since my mother passed away while giving birth to me. He controlled me at home and here at one of his excuses for a business.

Friends were denied to me. I was educated by private tutors. Pastimes and hobbies weren't allowed.

My existence was nothing but serving the family, and now that my allegiance would need to shift, to cater to my husband, I felt untethered and unsure of everything.

I'd never have to come here again and suffer through the tedious task of forwarding certain emails to specific addresses. It was mindless, ridiculous busywork, but it gave me a tangible sense of purpose. I was active. I was doing something. I didn't want to entertain what expectations would hang over my head after my wedding.

How can it be tomorrow? It was too soon for me to possibly adjust. My father told me just this morning, almost like an afterthought, before he left for meetings with Lev and Geoff.

How can my life be changed this drastically on such a short notice? I'd grown comfortable in this pathetic desk job, and now that the security and familiarity of it would be yanked away, I felt lost and apprehensive.

"The ‘Doc'?" I whispered aloud, furrowing my brow at the screen. Some of these coded references made no sense at all, but I gave up trying to understand who or what " The Doc" was, why an "understanding needed to be proven," or how "unwarranted hardware ratio shifts" mattered. I didn't follow this jargon, and I didn't want to. I wasn't trusted with too many things, but my father had been adamant that I specifically handle this looping correspondence. I assumed someone else, maybe my father, was watching what was said where, as he had my passwords, but it wasn't my business. I'd learned long ago not to ask questions. Since my father singled me out to handle these emails, I assumed that he didn't want many to know, even within the family.

Whatever.

I couldn't even care anymore. I never had, but mere curiosity just didn't matter. All I could obsess about was whether my life would change for the worse tomorrow.

Two men approached outside, and their appearance snagged my attention. This was a front business, with mock shipping for general items. Visitors seldom came by, but these two tall men did not look like lost solicitors.

On the left, a muscled brute strode toward the door. He'd spotted the surveillance camera that allowed me this preview of their arrival, and his lips almost kicked up in a smile. Or was that a smirk?

His companion, a blond, didn't hide his eyes behind sunglasses. He scoped his surroundings, those blue eyes not stopping on anything long enough.

It hardly mattered why they were here. This was protected land. They were strangers letting themselves onto Kastava territory. I minimized the window on my computer and locked it as I shot to my feet.

I couldn't understand how the guards or patrolmen wouldn't have stopped them from coming to the S.T.L. Shipping office, but I supposed it was up to me to deter them from snooping around here any further.

They opened the door and entered. At once, I realized who they were. I didn't know their names. I'd never seen them in person before, but I recognized the tattoo on the taller one's neck. Sloping along the taut muscles, the ink linked lines and swirls in what had to be the Valkovs' crest.

The enemy.

"You can't come in here." I crossed my arms.

"I can't ?" The man lifted his sunglasses to bore me with his serious, sinister stare. "Looks like we can. And we just did."

"Alek." His companion sighed, like he was used to this smartass. "Enough of that mood."

"Mood? That's what you call… that?" I gestured one hand at the hulking man. With muscles galore, he was a tall, towering giant. Power radiated from him, and I knew without a doubt that he had to be one of the Valkovs' high-ranking soldiers. "You need to leave."

Alek tipped his chin up, looking down his nose at me. I'd never been a petite woman, but I'd always been cursed as too short. I'd be damned if I craned my neck to meet this jerk's gaze. I ignored him, doing my damnedest to curb the instant urge to check him out. Instead, I faced the almost kinder one. He couldn't be a nice man, but he seemed calmer, not ready to fight me or argue semantics. "You need to leave," I repeated.

Even though I tried speaking past him, addressing his friend, Alek stepped closer and closer.

I lowered my arms as I retreated toward my desk. Instinct had me leaning back, holding the edge of the furniture for support. The nearer Alek came, the less I remembered why I shouldn't stand up tall and order him out.

His cologne teased my nose, but the scent of him , so raw and masculine, called to me. Heat exuded from him, warming me in this overly chilled room with fans and the AC. As he towered over me, glaring down and locking me in the spell of his intense stare, I wasn't shy about why I should kick him out.

If he took one more step closer, I'd be caged in. The thrill of that idea sparked a flare of desire. I felt it in my pussy. In my nipples. I'd been surrounded by many virile, strong, and gorgeous men in my life.

None of them had ever instigated a rapid and visceral reaction like this before. I kept my lips closed and refused to show a flicker of awareness. He couldn't know. I couldn't go weak now. Not with the enemy.

" You think you've got the right to tell me what to do?"

I lifted my chin, clinging to defiance as he challenged me. "In here, yes, I do."

"I don't take orders from young girls like you." He leaned his head to the side a bit, looking me over and lingering with his dark gaze on my breasts. With how deeply my chest heaved, I wanted to cringe at how hot and bothered he was making me.

Just like that. Zero to sixty. He had me craving his presence, and I didn't like feeling so unsettled with it.

No. This isn't happening.

They couldn't get to anything here. Since I'd locked the computer, they couldn't find anything of value here. Still, I knew what was expected of me. Allowing Valkovs to sneak around here would be an unforgivable mistake.

"Alek. Enough, I said."

"Fuck off, Nik. I came here to speak with The Doc, not wait for some sex kitten to tell me what I can or can't do."

Sex kitten? I knew this dress had a lower cut than my others, but I was no?—

"What did you say?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You heard me. Sex kit?—"

I shoved at his hard chest, jarred from the haze of lust he'd so quickly put over me. The Doc? What a coincidence. "No. Why are you here?"

"We're here to speak with someone about a shipment coming soon," Nik said as I walked around my desk.

Putting the piece of furniture between us would be a good buffer, but with the intense way Alek continued to lock his gaze on me, I didn't feel much safer.

"With The Doc," Alek reminded me.

I shook my head. "There's no ‘Doc' here." I had no clue if his wording tied into what I'd just seen on the computer, but I had to remain suspicious, if oddly drawn to his dark stare and warm proximity.

"You sure you know what you're talking about?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I know what I'm talking about when I tell you to leave. This is Kastava territory, Valkov."

He nodded, rubbing his jaw. "Haven't you heard? We're about to be united."

My throat went dry. Words couldn't come. As a matter of fact, I have heard, asshole. I was expected to be a key player in this union, but the more I thought about how bad my life would become as Andrey Valkov's wife, the harder I wished for something else.

It didn't matter that the clock was ticking away. Deep down, I clung to the fantasy that my marriage might not go through. If these men assumed the engagement would happen, it looked like I had to give up on that farfetched hope.

I replayed Alex's taunt in my mind again, though, leaning heavier on how he'd said it. We're about to be united. I could vividly imagine it. Uniting as one with this cocky Valkov. Sliding against him and taking his dick inside me until we were joined in the most intimate, deepest way possible.

Once more, he dragged his attention over me. His stare sparked with more than annoyance at my talking back. He checked me out with a raw hunger that almost excited me.

"We've come under the orders from Pavel Valkov," Nik said, trying for a more diplomatic but still stern tone.

I nodded, but caught myself and shook my head. "That may be so, but there is no one here to meet with you."

"Your father?" Alek guessed.

I shook my head.

"Your superior?" he tried again.

"It's just me here."

He huffed, rolling his eyes. "Well," he said as he turned slightly to face Nik, " she can't be The Doc."

Again, that reference to something in the emails. This was the bratva, not some rough MC gang. We didn't use road names or aliases like that. Maybe the Valkovs did, but I wasn't informed of anything they might be here for.

"Regardless, you need to leave." I pointed at the door, proud that my finger didn't tremble.

"You always this bossy?" Alek retorted.

"Until any marriage takes place between our families?—"

"Sounds like it's a done deal." Alek shoved his hands in his pockets.

I pressed my lips together, exhaling hard through my nose. I didn't want to believe it yet. Until I was walked down that aisle, I had to believe something else was in store for my life.

"Until anything can bring our families together, you need to leave. No Valkovs can come lurking around here. Wait outside for whoever you think you're here to meet." I pointed again, aiming my finger at the window, indicating that they could go toward the street.

I was alone here, but I was no dainty fool. I had to be firm with these men. Especially the rugged man who continued to stare at me so closely, so heatedly that his focus felt like a naughty caress over my skin.

Nik's phone rang, and he frowned down at it. When he moved the device to his ear, he nodded once, dipping his chin at me. He sighed and headed for the door, elbowing Alek on the way. "Come on."

He didn't move. Lingering right there, boring me with his dark-brown gaze, he seemed to struggle with the need to leave.

Finally, with an expression full of suspicion and doubt, he turned and followed Nik back outside.

I didn't hurry to lock the door after it closed. Instead, I stared at the small monitor on my desk that showed me they were leaving as I'd demanded.

Alek turned, though, glancing up into the cameras once more, almost as though he had to have the last look, one final act of being a rebel and not hurrying away.

I sighed then bit on my lip as I considered the chance I could see him again once I married into his family. Would that flame of desire rise again? Could my husband be just as sexy, luring me with that immediate magnetism like Alek had?

Would this instant lust die out so I could please my husband instead?

Shaking my head, I sat. Then I dropped my face into my hands. I wasn't sure what to make of their visit.

All I knew was that I wasn't ready to get married despite the minutes ticking by to bring me closer and closer to that exact fate.