Page 6 of Bound to the Mafia King

I sipped on my whiskey. The bitter liquor kissed my lips and scorched my throat as it went all the way down smoothly. I felt it when it settled in my belly, pooling in my stomach and warming me from the inside out.

I wouldn't say I liked these things. It was nothing but a pretentious show where we all pretended to like and tolerate each other. However, Savina had so cleverly coined it to be a 'networking event'.

I caught my sister-in-law’s eyes from across the room and lifted my glass. She gave me a curt nod before turning her attention back to whoever she was speaking to. Once upon a time, my sister-in-law and I got on swimmingly. Then she had to go and fall in love with my brother.

“Fucking pathetic,” I muttered under my breath before taking another sip.

I was not a pessimist by any means. Their story had been one many read about. The Mafia Princess and the Prince of Death. Once mortal enemies, now lovers with a domesticated lifestyle. Not only had their union made for the most powerful alliance our world had ever seen. But they also now had more enemies than we could count. Though many sought to gather peace with them, there were about a dozen others who wanted us dead.

But what was the Mafia life without a death threat or two, after all?

I sipped my liquor and watched the people mill around the room. To think almost every single one of the hands in this place had spilled blood. And yet we were all adorned in the finest garments that money could buy.

“Having fun, brother?” Andres came to stand beside me. I didn’t miss the slight glance he took at my glass.

“This is only my first, Andres. Would you like me to take a fucking breath test?” I rolled my eyes and sipped the whiskey. “Next time, tell Sav to spring for the good liquor, this tastes like ass cheeks.”

“And how would you know what ass cheeks taste like?” His little smirk told me all I needed to know. I wasn’t about to take the bait. “Hmm, little brother?”

If I could have, I would have smacked that little smirk clean off his face. However, my therapist had told me to practice patience with those who disrupted my peace. I thought all her practices were a bunch of bullshit, but I tried to exercise said patience. Unfortunately, my brother had a talent for knowing just how to get under my skin.

I was about to open my mouth to tell him to fuck off when a man I kind of recognized came into view.

“Do my eyes deceive me or are these really the Valdez boys?” The guy held a flute of champagne in hand and a corny little smile plastered on his face. I had seen his face before, but I just couldn’t place where. Judging from the fact he didn’t look like he wanted to kill me, I had to guess it had to have happened in good terms.

“Danill Valenski!” My brother beamed back and offered his hand to the man. “I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere. Where have you been?”

That surname sounded so familiar, too. Who was this guy?

The Danill guy laughed boisterously. “I relocated to Washington. I needed to start fresh after the whole dismantling of the Russian Empire. I had to start again, you know.”

“And I take it things are going well for you?”

Danill nodded. “As well as they can be. I have had to secure some necessary funding from an old associate of my father's.It hasn’t been easy, but he has agreed to help in exchange for marrying my sister. The terms were not ideal, but my sister understands that this is for our family.”

Oh great. I sipped on my whiskey slowly. I had no patience for these betrothal stories. I found them to be archaic and absurd. What were we in? The medieval Era? A simple exchange of cash and a blood-binding agreement would suffice.

My brother’s marriage had been one that we needed at the time, but even then, I still had my thoughts on the whole matter. Sure, it wasn’t like the vows of marriage meant anything to Mafia men. But I still believed that there should have been some kind of sanctity to it.

I looked around the room trying to move through the last two hours of this event without killing myself. I wasn’t a schmoozer. I was more of a ‘point the gun this way’ kind of guy. I didn’t do these diplomatic events to feign friendship with these people. They were not my people.

My eyes moved to the side door when a woman wearing a gorgeous emerald dress walked through. The dress hugged every inch of her perfect curves and flowed all the way to the floor. It opened on the side to reveal a thigh-high slit that added to the sexiness of the moment.

My eyes traveled from the foot of her dress all the way up until they finally came to rest on her face and time stood still.

Those eyes. I had burned the memory of them into my mind for all of eternity. I would know exactly who they belonged to from 100 miles away.

It washer.

My entire body stiffened at the realization that after all these years, this woman had finally shown up. I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars looking for her. I had scoured the country just looking for her. She had seemed lost in the wind, nothing but a distant memory that I had tried so dearly to hold onto. Butnow it seemed like the heavens had finally shown me mercy and delivered her to me.

Blonde. Her hair was a lush golden blonde that made her look like one of those children princesses that so many were obsessed with. Her eyes moved across the entire room as if searching for something.

“Ah, and there is my sister now, Ana! Come!” Danill turned to the girl and waved her over.

What. The. Fuck.

She turned her head and found her supposed brother standing with us. She smiled and walked over to us. But when her eyes found mine, I watched the slight falter in her steps. It was only for a brief few seconds, but it was there. She quickly schooled her features and made her way toward us. She plastered on a new smile, but I could tell that it was not genuine like the one that she had on before.

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