Chapter 23

Maksim~

"I 'm here," Avgust announced. "What is the emergency?"

After Katja had finally tapped out last night, I had texted Avgust, requesting a meeting with him first thing this morning. We needed a new plan because Katja simply wasn't an option anymore. Now, while I knew that it was going to take some convincing, she didn't really have any choice, and neither did her grandfather. I planned on speaking with him soon, but he was going to eventually learn that his granddaughter was going to marry into the Russian Bratva, and he was just going to have to deal with it.

"It is hardly an emergency," I drawled out.

"You have summoned me at all hours of the morning, Maksim," he said like an asshole. "How can it not be an emergency?"

I slid a coffee mug his way. "It is not my fault that becoming a father has turned you into an old man," I retorted.

Avgust grinned as he took a seat at my kitchen table, grabbing the mug as he did so. "I wouldn't have it any other way," he replied happily, and I believed him.

Getting to the reason why I had called him here, I said, "We need to come up with another plan to drawl Nikel out in the open."

Avgust's brows shot upward. "We do?"

"Katja's asleep in my bed right now," I informed him, telling him everything that he needed to know with that one sentence.

"Well, that escalated quickly," he smirked before taking a sip of his plain coffee.

"I cannot have her unprotected anymore," I told him, ignoring his quip.

"While I completely understand where you are coming from, as long as Nikel doesn't know that she is double-crossing him, she should be safe, no?"

"Yes," I agreed. "However, I no longer want her away from my bed."

Avgust's hazel eyes narrowed in thought. "Which would play exactly into Nikel's plans, no?"

"While it would, I no longer appreciate the risk now that he's made his intentions with Katja clear," I replied evenly, doing my best to keep my emotions out of this conversation. Avgust was here as my Pakhan, not my friend.

"Everything that we know is still not good enough," he remarked evenly.

As my Pakhan, Avgust knew everything that I did. He knew about her conversations with Klive, the showroom, and that her grandfather was now home. There wasn't anything that Avgust didn't know about this situation, though we were still trying our best to keep Akim out of this. My brother knew only what he had to know in order to keep his family safe.

"I'm willing to pay the Sartoris," I finally told him.

His head jerked in surprise. "Pay them for what?"

"Morocco, of course," I answered. "While Katja confirmed that Nikel is the same man in our pictures, he obviously has to be in disguise when he's stalking me or Akim. He knew that I was at The Swan that first night, and he also knows too much about Katja's movements. If we can get Morocco to pull security footage from the neighboring cameras from everywhere that Katja and I have been these past few weeks, then we can compare faces in the background. Hell, if he can just pull the feed from either Trevally's or Birdsoup, we can see a more updated version of his face."

Eyeing me, Avgust asked, "What are your intentions with her, Maksim?"

"I am going to marry her," I answered honestly.

"And does she know this?" he asked, chuckling under his breath like an asshole.

"Not as of yet," I told him. "However, after everything that I just did to her last night, she should have an idea."

Not surprised by the choices that I made in life, Avgust said, "As much as I applaud you conquering your fears of commitment, she is believed to be for sale, Maksim. Are you certain that she's willing to choose marriage to you over all the money that she could be making when this is all over?"

"She doesn't know," I admitted.

Avgust scowled. "What doesn't she know?"

"She is unaware of why we had sex at Millie's," I clarified. "She's under the impression that it was just another hotel room of sorts."

"Lisus Khristos," he swore as he ran a hand through his dark hair.

"It is something that cannot be undone, Avgust," I pointed out.

"Maksim, you are going to lose her when she finds out what you've done," he said, and I knew that he was speaking to me as my friend right now. "While it can't be undone, something needs to be done to salvage this situation."

"I plan on telling her the truth soon," I told him.

I watched Avgust let out a deep sigh. "There is no way to clean this up without further humiliating her, Maksim. If you do nothing, then everyone will believe that you married a whore. If you say that it was merely a…a fantasy that you were fulfilling for your girlfriend, then men will believe that she enjoys being leered at. No matter what path you choose, she will still end up the loser in all this."

"I'll simply say that I enjoy showing her off," I semi-lied. While I did enjoy having her on my arm, that was different from parading her modesty around to one and all.

"I will call Nero," Avgust announced, surprising me.

"You will?"

He nodded. "The sooner that we capture Nikel, the sooner that we can spread the word that Katja's little act was for the betterment of the bratva. We can let it be known that she is not- nor was she ever -a whore, and that she had agreed to do what she did to help us set a trap." He shook his head as his mind raced with the best way to help me on this. "The story is believable if we spin it correctly."

"It could work," I muttered, wondering why I hadn't thought of it first. Of course, my emotions were involved, so that changed things a bit.

Avgust eyed me again. "You need to tell her the truth soon, Maksim," he advised. "I'll let Melor know that she is unavailable and to begin fielding calls, but since the word is already out there, it's possible that she might hear it from someone else."

"She is around no bratva unless she is with me," I reminded him. "The rest of the time, she is at work or at home with her grandfather."

"Maksim, I am telling you this as your friend," he said seriously. "Tell her before she finds out from someone else. Being honest with her will be the difference between getting yourself a wife or a prisoner. Trust me on this."

"There's only one little problem with telling her now, Pakhan," I replied.

"And what would that problem be?"

"Right now, she is honoring her word to help us lure Nikel out in the open. If I tell her what I did to her, what guarantee do I have that she won't flip on us?" I posed. "A woman scorned is one that does not care about any consequences to her wrath, something that we both are very aware of."

After mulling my words over for a bit, he finally said, "Let me call Nero. That's our best course of action right now."

I gave him a terse nod. "Let him know that I am willing to pay whatever price tag that he feels appropriate."

With the rest of his coffee untouched, Avgust stood up to leave. "Is there anything else that I can help you with?"

"Katja needs some clothes," I told him. "I cannot send her home in my stuff, but I also cannot send her home naked. Her grandfather might have an issue with that."

Ignoring the part about Katja's grandfather, Avgust asked, "And what are you going to do about her job? I imagine that she'll no longer be allowed to work, no?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "Once we're married, she'll understand why I cannot have her working."

"You're putting a lot of faith in that little piece of paper, Maksim," he remarked dryly.

"Just call Nero," I said. "I'll deal with the rest of it once Nikel Ovchinnikov is no longer an issue."

Avgust smirked. "Good luck. I am fairly certain that you are going to need it, bratok ."

"Thanks," I replied wryly.

"I will ask Samara to pick out a few things, then have them delivered downstairs," he said, finally addressing the issue of Katja's lack of clothing. "Send me a picture of the clothes that you ruined, so that we have an idea of her size."

"Sure thing," I replied, grateful that he was doing this for me.

Not needing me to host him, Avgust showed himself out of my penthouse, leaving me with a fucking headache. Though I'd already known that this thing with Katja was going to be hard to navigate, a woman scorned really was the most frightening thing on earth.