Page 43 of Reign of Four

My chest tightens as my eyes lock with hers. One woman shouldn’t change any of our stances on having children. We’re men of the Russian Bratva—we live violent lives. There is no place for something as innocent as a child in our line of work—or our personal lives. We’ll fuck things up, for sure, without even trying. Hell, even Tolkotsky’s relationship with Valentina was strained at best. After our own father figures failed us, none of us should want children.

But despite all of the shit from our individual pasts, Valentina somehow makes us want . . . more than we’ve imagined. More than we ever thought possible. A child? A family? A living, breathing, happy group of people coexisting under one roof. It’s not just me and Valentina raising a child together—it’s all of us. And that makes the challenge feel a hell of a lot less impossible and more . . . real.

Valentina gives me hope for the future in a way that I’ve never felt before.

Valentina clasps her hands in her lap, straightens her spine, and looks me in my eyes for what comes next. My world suddenly shrinks back down from the potential all of us to only us in an instant. I can feel the way she’s tuned into the frequency in my bones. Locked in with me, willingly. The man she should have never wanted, yet chose anyway.

I’m eternally grateful for that decision.

My pulse hammers through my veins all the same, nearly drowning out her voice.

“I don’t think I want to have kids.”

I don’t get a chance to respond.

“You don’t think you want to have kids? That’s something you really should know, Valentina. Way before having unprotected sex with all three of us.” Andrei is clearly hot about the subject, absentmindedly tapping his heel against the tile floor. “You could be pregnant right now.”

Valentina rolls her eyes. “I just had my period.”

Andrei’s eyes narrow. “We came inside you last night, and I’m sure Ezra did again this morning.”

Valentina’s cheeks flush, and despite the ripple of agitation manifesting across her face, she’s damn beautiful. Sunlight streams through the oceanfront windows, casting warm, orange streaks across her hair and shoulders. “Could you stop with the melodramatic shit, Andrei? Yes, we’ve all had sex. It’s been one big fucking orgy after another. But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want kids!”

Mikhail’s voice is calmer than Andrei’s, for once. “What’s changed?”

“Everything, obviously!” Valentina scrubs a hand down her face and rubs the back of her eyelids. “Liam kidnapped me, you guys. Me. The Baranova Princess, in a chapel full of witnesses, in broad fucking daylight. If he can get to me that easily, who’s to say that someone else can’t get to our children? Steal them out from under our noses, in our own home?” Shaking her head, she sighs. “I don’t want them to go through anything like that. Grant me at least one shred of grace and understand that I know what we’re giving up. Having a child would be—” her voice cracks, sharpening her next inhale—“they deserve better than what we can give them.”

My shoulder aches as Valentina stares at it, digging beneath the bandages and gauze to picture the wound and its inevitable scarring. I shift my arm in its sling, careful to keep the discomfort off my face.

Mikhail opens his mouth, but I cut him off before he can jump down Valentina’s throat and make things worse. “You are right, child deserves best life.” Stretching out my legs, I nudge Valentina’s foot with mine. The flicker of surprise across her face releases some of the tension in her shoulders. I continue, “but best life is with loving family. We are loving family. Bloodied and bruised, yes, but loving. We protect our own. We will protect child with last breath.” I incline my head towards our woman, hoping she understands that even though her fears are valid, so too are our reasons. “Like we will protect wife and mother, and each other. With last breath.”

Mikhail grabs the back of my chair as an anchor and wedges himself in the infinitesimal gap between Andrei and my shoulders. “You were kidnapped because we were arrogant and careless. No one’s ever challenged us like that before, especially not in our territory. Most people know not to fuck with the pakhan, but our reign is new and, before now, untested.” He gestures vaguely towards Valentina. “We don’t have decades of family lineage backing our claim.” With a sigh, he runs a hand through his hair, destroying what semblance of normal he has left. His hair sticks out on all sides, and the five o’clock shadow working its way across his jaw is begging to be shaved. “What happened to you was a mistake, one that we’ll pay for for the rest of our lives.”

“That we will atone for,” Andrei revises.

“That’s what I said,” Mikhail grumbles, glaring at the back of Andrei’s head.

I nudge Valentina’s knee to regain her attention. She needs reassurance, and I will give it to her every fucking day of the year if I have to. Whatever it takes to let her know that not only are we sorry for fucking up, but it will never happen again. “Lisichka. I make promise.” Snagging her hand under the table, I lace our fingers together and squeeze. “I will kill every man and woman who threatens family. Idle threat. Real threat. Does not matter. They will not breathe next breath, because I will crush lungs with bare hands. I will bring fear of God, and they will remember it, or they will die.”

“She doesn’t need a death poem, for fuck’s sake.” I can’t see Mikhail over my shoulder, but I can hear the eye roll. “Once we prove to everyone that we’re dangerous fuckers, no one will try this shit again, is what Ezra’s trying to say.” He pinches the bridge of his nose before taking a quick breath. “Baby, I know you can’t trust us so soon after this bullshit with Liam and Katya, but I swear, it won’t happen again. Not to you, or to any future kids of ours. But, love, we won’t be the only ones looking out for our family. We have an entire Bratva behind us. They are family, too. They’ll keep us safe, just like we’ll keep them safe.”

Valentina purses her lips. “Because that worked so well before.”

Mikhail’s expression hardens. “It’s different now. Katya isn’t around to fuck with things. We have you, and it’s going to stay that way. The Bratva will see your devotion to us, and the mudaks who doubted it will realize how fucking stupid they’ve been. They’ll come crawling back on their hands and knees, begging for forgiveness.”

“They are all dead.” I shrug with my good shoulder. “No one left to beg.”

Valentina’s eyes widen. “What do you mean by that, Ezra?”

My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I don’t need to check it to know what the messages say. We gave the final kill order last night. Anyone whose loyalty has wavered over the past few weeks should be dead by now. There is no room for the weak in our ranks. “They are dead,” I repeat. “All seventy-five.”

Andrei keeps detailed records of every single member of the Bratva. After Valentina’s abduction, we checked every single one. Those who abandoned us for Katya were marked immediately. A few upstarts never made it out of the chapel. Their blood stains the floors.

With a shrug, Mikhail continues. “The others won’t be foolish enough to follow them, then. Especially once they see that Valentina remains by our side.”

“You killed seventy-five people?” Valentina swallows thickly.

I nod. “No one will hurt you again, lisichka. I promise.”

---