Page 44 of The Bratva's Forced Bride

The two men flinched at my raised voice but took it on the chin and nodded.

“There have been far too many hits already, and now they’ll think they can walk all over us. Tighten things up around here, and let the others know there is to be around-the-clock surveillance of every warehouse. I don’t ever want to hear there wasn’t at least one person at every post or monitor,” I directed, doing my best to reign in that anger. I didn’t want Grace to see me in only a bad light. “Do I make myself clear?”

They both nodded again, not wasting a moment. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Because it’ll be your heads, then mine when Dimitri catches wind of anything else.”

They both looked anxious but reserved as they continued without another word.

I glanced back at Grace to find her brows raised curiously. While she certainly looked intimidated by the prospect of anyone being punished for the hit or future ones, there was still a sort of curiosity stitched in her features.

“Still with me?” I asked, hoping to break that tension I felt building in my chest.,

I couldn’t understand the strange frame of mind I found myself in. I was stuck between two worlds—the one where I had to run a tight ship and the other where I was trying my hardest to prove I wasn’t a monster to my wife.

At the very least, she didn’t seem too repulsed by how I shouted at our employees, and that was a good sign.

Grace just nodded and followed me inside.

That tension was impossible to shake no matter how hard I tried. Inside the warehouse, it was a jumbled mess of men not only cleaning up what had been the hit site but also moving product and rearranging it to be moved in the meantime until the building could be fixed.

While I needed to be engaged with what was going on, I couldn’t shake that worry in the back of my mind. Grace was in the middle of that chaos, and I was afraid something else might happen while she was there.

I couldn’t stand the thought of it, even if it had been her idea. It was my responsibility to keep her shielded from the dark aspects of this business, and I’d be damned if anything happened to her on my watch.

Regardless of whether it was the reluctant vows I made to her or how we were slowly forming some sort of trust between us, I felt obligated to protect her.

As one of the higher-ranked men came into view, I called out to him, and he pivoted on his heel to approach me.

“Sir,” he said simply, chin raised obediently.

“Give me the run-down on what’s going on here,” I said, looking between him and the movement going on in the open space.

He nodded once. “We’ve taken inventory of what was taken, and now we’re moving the more valuable product out to a different warehouse to ensure they don’t try to come back for more. We plan to swap with lesser value stock…”

As he spoke, I caught myself glancing over to where Grace stood as she took it all in. She watched as equipment was moved, along with the inventory, looking somewhat amazed by the extent of everything. The sheer numbers and vastness of the business. That warehouse wasn’t even half of it.

“And where are you sending it?”

He showed me a map on his clipboard and pointed at a region on the upper west side of the city. “We found a reasonable rate here. It’s secluded, and there’s potential for future real estate, should we need it.”

“Very good. Send the details to my office, and I’ll make sure to sign off on any changes.”

“There is another matter we need to settle,” he began, flipping between his stack of papers.

I did my best to listen as I was briefed, but Vik and Elias moving in to speak with Grace caught my attention.

Elias, with his shit-eating grin, stuck his hand out to Grace while he mentioned some vague introduction. A look of recognition crossed her face, and they seemed to talk easily enough.

I could already hear what he would say to me, surely prepared to tease me about bringing her to the warehouse.

While I couldn’t pay full attention to what they were saying, given how he pointed to various things, he seemed to be explaining some of our operations to her. He was being smug as he flashed me the occasional smile, but I knew it was harmless.

Even if I knew I would never hear the end of it, especially given the fact that I was married and he wasn’t, a swell of pride moved into my chest. At the very least, it was nice to see them getting along, and that Grace was taking an interest in my work.

Initially, I only saw that as a burden, since I didn’t want her to become entangled in everything. There was no telling when things might go south, and I didn’t want that extra layer of stress. I didn’t want anyone to have something they could hold over me.

But I didn’t anticipate how nice it would be to have her accept that part of me. The more rugged, brutal side.

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