Page 11 of The Bratva King's Twins

“Let go of me!” I shouted, letting out every combative nerve I possessed as I tried to hit his back and kick my legs.

But it was no use. He was stronger than me, and my attempt to free myself did virtually nothing.

“Shut up,” Aristarkh muttered as he closed the door behind him and carried me toward the interior entrance to the nice house. “The sooner you give up, the better we’ll both feel.”

Regardless of what he said or how compromised I was in his grasp, I didn’t want to give up.

I wanted to fight for myself, and for my freedom, even if my abilities paled in comparison to his monstrous strength.

Chapter 5 - Ari

I had learned from an early age to appreciate every win, big or small.

In our business, you never knew when the next one would come, so it was best to take it all in while you could.

With everything said and done, I was feeling good about it all.

I humiliated Edoardo in his own home, making him look like a spineless fool in front of his family, and his only daughter was officially my wife.

Everything should’ve been perfect, because every detail went according to plan. The job went swimmingly, and I had exactly what I wanted.

Except the deer-in-headlights look Vivian previously sported had worn off, and she apparently came to her senses after we reached the house. I didn’t want to lock her in the guest bedroom, but I had no choice. Not after she found her courage and started fighting me.

Sitting in the living room with a glass of whiskey in my hand, I tried to soak in my victory and savor the look of defeat on Edoardo’s face after everything was complete.

But her incessant screaming and shouting was ruining my immersion.

Regardless of how big the house was and the fact nobody would be able to hear her outside of these walls, she did it anyway, yelling at me to let her go, along with all the creative obscenities she could think of.

Even if I grew tired enough of listening to that noise to let her go, I couldn’t do that. It was done, and there was no backtracking now.

Legally, she was my wife, and even if it was mostly a rash decision, we both had to deal with it.

Sitting in the living room by myself while she shouted herself into exhaustion wasn’t the wedding night I had in mind for myself. In all honesty, I never really pictured myself tying the knot, regardless of wanting it deep down.

Something had always appealed to me about finding the right person and settling down with them, making as many heirs as we could. But with my line of work and how brutal it forced me to be, I wasn’t so sure it would be possible.

I couldn’t envision any sane woman wanting to marry me, so I never went out of my way to try to make it happen before.

But with De Luca causing trouble, it was the one way I could really get a one-up on him and get into his head to the point of making him throw in the towel.

It wasn’t by any means an ideal union, but I couldn’t complain.

Having a more agreeable wife would likely be a better circumstance, but that wasn’t an option anymore.

After my first glance at her, I assumed Vivian would remain as passive as she seemed in the house, too afraid to fully look at me. I thought she would fawn like all the other innocent women swept into the mafia world for the sake of convenient marriages and making babies.

But it seemed she was hell-bent on proving otherwise.

Letting some of the whiskey burn its way down my throat, I sighed and wondered how I managed to get myself in this position, anyway. Or how I convinced myself that getting married would solve my De Luca problem, when in reality, it seemed to create a whole new one.

As annoying as her tantrum was, I had been taken with her. Ever since I started digging into Edoardo and his family, I couldn’t deny how the young woman had caught my attention. I learned as much about her as I could, and while I didn’t have much to work with, it was enough to let me build an entire identity for her in my mind.

From what I knew, she had been a private school brat like most of them were. Beyond her good grades, she didn’t accomplish much academically. She certainly could’ve had her dad grease some palms to get her into whatever prestigious school she wanted, but that obviously never happened.

As far as I could tell, she had been a stay-at-home daughter, with no further education under her belt and no career as a result. But, of course, that made sense.

Edoardo would’ve never wasted that kind of money on getting her a higher education when she would inevitably be sold to the highest bidder.

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