Chapter 9 - Oleg

I can see and sense how nervous Raisa is as we walk into the party, but she doesn’t pull away when I take her hand and she smiles as we are surrounded by all of the guests as they smother us in congratulations and well wishes for our future.

She is playing the role perfectly and while I can read her small gestures well enough to see her discomfort, no one else notices anything.

As we stand outside talking to a group of people, she leans into me, so I wrap my arm around her waist and hold her tighter.

I wish this was real. I wish I was really introducing her as my wife— willingly —because she is the most radiant and beautiful woman here. She is the most radiant woman I have ever met. I would have chosen her in a heartbeat if I had had the chance to get to know her before all of this chaos.

I stare down at her, tracing my eyes over her petite and sharp profile. Her perfect little nose and those plump pink lips.

She sighs softly, troubled by her own thoughts.

I clear my throat, realizing that I have been staring at her for too long. She is looking back up at me, those bright blue eyes of hers seem to have hypnotized me.

“Would you like another drink?” I ask, just because I need something to say and something else to think about. She holds up her champagne glass which is still half full. I nod. She doesn’t need a drink yet and that means that I have nothing to do to distract myself.

I hate these parties. I hate all of this fake niceness I have to maintain while I am in the presence of all of our Bratva allies.

I prefer to be home, in peace, and leave this social side of things to my brothers. They seem to enjoy it and they are definitely better at it than I am. I find myself to be perhaps a little too abrupt with the idiots, not tolerating stupidity all that well. It doesn't help that I know none of these people are genuinely my friends and realistically. they know nothing about me.

Beside me, I feel Raisa’s entire body tense and I look at her, then follow her gaze to see what she has spotted.

Her brother. Rodion Kuznetsov.

I guess her family has arrived.

“Remember what I told you,” I whisper against her ear. I don’t think I need to remind her, she has been doing very well so far, but I really don’t want any trouble and I definitely don’t want a shootout.

The whole reasoning behind me taking and marrying Raisa was to avoid violence.

Rodion walks straight towards us, his eyes locked onto his sister and a deep-furrowed frown on his forehead. He looks angry and intimidating. I can see why people mutter about him—saying he is dangerous. Of course, I don’t give a fuck what people say. Appearance is not everything, but I can say for sure that Rodion is a man who is confident and sure of himself. He is not a man who easily rolls over if he doesn’t agree with you.

He glances at me, then snarls at his sister, “where the fuck have you been and what the fuck is this I hear about you getting married?”

Raisa becomes even more tense at my side. She smiles, a tight smile that hardly reaches her eyes.

“Rodion, this is Oleg, my husband.” She tilts her head towards me.

I hold out my hand. “It is good to finally meet you face to face, Rodion.”

He glares at me, ignoring my outstretched hand.

I lower it again, pushing my shoulders back. He better not fuck this up for us. Raisa shifts her weight from one foot to the other. She is horribly uncomfortable.

Rodion looks furious.

He better play nice or he is going to pay the price for it.

“You fucking married my sister?” he hisses at me.

“We married each other, yes,” I say calmly.

“What the fuck is it with you Dubrovs? Do you think you own everything and everyone? You can’t just go around doing whatever the hell you please—“

“I was hoping our first meeting would go better than this,” I reply, still remaining calm despite my blood beginning to boil in my veins.

“Better than what, Dubrov? Us being pissed off about this secretive bull shit?”

“Look, we are family now. We should be discussing a better way forward for both sides. We shouldn’t be fighting each other.”

“You have no idea who you are dealing with,” he snarls.

On either side of him two other men appear. Raisa interrupts Rodion’s outburst by introducing me to another two of her brothers. I can see she is trying to defuse the situation, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

“This is Rad and this is Roman. Guys, this is my husband, Oleg Dubrov.”

Both of the new comers have shocked looks on their faces. They stare at their sister in disbelief, waiting for her to tell them that this is some kind of joke. Raisa senses the tension increasing and wraps her arm around my side, leaning her head against me. She is trying her best to appear happy and relay that message to her brothers. I appreciate her efforts. It seems to be failing though.

She smiles. “I’m sorry to spring this on you guys like this—it’s just—“

“We met and it was an instant connection,” I say.

Rad ignores my comment and shakes his head at his sister.

“It’s just that you can never do what you’re told—you went out alone and made your own choices. You know full well that we would never have allowed this. How could you pull a stunt like this—were you even thinking about the effect your choices would have on your family? How selfish are you, Raisa?” He is speaking directly to her, as though I am not even here. His tone is cold and nasty. His harsh words are cutting into her like a blade. I can see the way her eyes begin to glitter. He is upsetting my wife.

I take a slight step forward, moving myself in front of his gaze and pushing Raisa a little behind me in a protective gesture.

“Watch your tone, Rad. That is my wife you are speaking to. I don’t give a fuck who you are—when you talk to her you will do so with respect. Nothing else.” I glare at him with darkness and threat in my eyes. He better watch his fucking back or I will be the one starting the violence that I am so desperate to try and avoid.

His lips lift into a snarl of anger.

“That is my sister and if you think you can just walk into my family and start demanding respect based on what—your name ?—you have another thing coming.”

Roman steps closer to me, making his presence known. A clear threat in the way he moves. Raisa steps out from behind me and stares at everyone in horror. “Please, stop this , this isn’t how I wanted this to go,” she says sounding worried.

She knows that Leon could react at any moment if he doesn’t like what he sees.

“Raisa, keep your mouth shut. We will deal with you later,” Rad snarls at his sister again.

I grab him around the collar of his shirt and pull him right up against me. I keep my voice low when I spell the situation out to him.

“Look around you, Kuznetsov. Perhaps you are ignorant, perhaps it is just your ego acting up, but the Dubrovs own this city and you shouldn’t forget that. It is not just my name that demands respect for the sake of the way it sounds. My name demands respect because of the power behind it. Even now, you are outnumbered to the point where you wouldn’t even have time to blink if I signaled for them to take you down. All I want is for you to show your sister some respect. Is that so hard?”

I push him back and he staggers against his brother who catches him with hatred in his eyes—directed at me with ferocity.

Rad pulls his shirt straight, his pride is hurt, but nothing more. He forces his shoulders to relax and I see his posture changing as his eyes roam the crowd around him. He knows I’m right. He knows he and his brothers would drop like flies if it came down to a fight. They are surrounded and are not on territory that they are familiar with. They basically don’t stand a chance and all that is holding them together at this point is arrogance.

The fact that any of them walked in here and even tried to challenge me is something I will never understand. I’ll put it down to shock at the news of their sister's marriage. They need time to process and come to terms with the information. The next meeting better fucking be calmer than this.

Rad pushes his shoulders back, standing taller and Rodion’s lips curl into a smug smile as the other brothers arrive. They feel stronger now. I can see it in the way they stand. The way they hold themselves. They expect me to back down just because there are more of them.

I look at each of them in turn. Making eye contact and letting them know I won’t back down.

I know each of them because I have studied their photographs, made sure I did my homework. Rigor, Renat and Ruvim stand with Rodion, Rad and Roman.

The tension becomes thicker, but none of them makes a move. None of them has anything else to say. They all seem to be glancing towards Rodion—willing to do whatever he says—waiting for his move.

Finally, Rodion clears his throat loudly.

“This isn’t over, Oleg Dubrov,” he says sternly.

“You’re right. This is far from over. I will be in contact so that we can arrange another meeting. Preferably one where you remember who you are dealing with next time. In the meantime, I suggest you all watch your backs and the choices you make.”

When I look around, I realize that everyone at the party is watching us. The tension has spilled over and captured everyone’s attention. This is not how I wanted this to go. It’s time to leave. Our marriage announcement has been made and Raisa has played her part perfectly—but before I do punch one of her brothers in the face—we need to leave.

Besides, they pissed me off even more with how they spoke to her. I don’t understand it. Who the fuck do they think they are?

I take Raisa’s hand in mine and turn away from her brothers, pulling her in front of me protectively, ushering her away from them. I want to kill every single one of them. I can’t believe they spoke to her that way, their own sister. Have they no respect for their own family?

Glancing around, I lock eyes with a few of our guests and they quickly look away. I hate the politics and the drama. I want to get out of here right now.

I don’t even bother trying to find any of my brothers. They will either have seen what happened or will find out soon enough.

Right now, it's time to leave.

Raisa doesn’t say a word as I lead her out of the party and into the front area of the house, towards our waiting limo.

She stands quietly as I pull the door open and usher her inside the car.

When I look at her face, I can see how upset she is.

I don’t know if it is what I did or how her brothers treated her that has caused her to look so miserable, but all I want to do is it make her feel better.

I assume she is angry with her brothers.

Even though her and I know that this marriage was forced—they didn’t know that and she did a very good job of making it appear genuine. Yet they insulted and questioned her instead of being happy for her.

From that perspective—I imagine it hurt her.

They didn’t even wish her congratulations. Not that I should be surprised by that. But worse than that they tore her decisions apart and spoke to her like shit just because she went out without their permission. Is she their prisoner? Their slave? What right do they have to control her life?

No wonder she wants nothing to do with this life. No wonder she was doing whatever she can to try and escape her brothers and make a different path for herself. She deserves more than that. She deserves better.

I suddenly want to be the one who gives her something better. To show her that not everyone caught up in the Bratva world is like that.