Page 12 of The Bratva's Sold Bride

He stopped talking abruptly because I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his chair until he was spluttering. It was like he was no longer there because all I saw was red. My heart pumped a hundred miles a minute at the very idea of what he was suggesting.

The man was truly a monster.

“No. Fucking. Way,” I growled, squeezing until his face turned purple, and he could barely garble out the answer I wanted to hear.

And that’s when it hit me. What I wanted out of this. What I was going to get. Calm washed over me, and I let him go, waiting silently until he caught his breath and looked up at me fearfully.

“What, then?” he whimpered. Pathetic, spineless man, but that would work in my favor. “What can I do to pay it all?”

“I’m going to pay off the debt to Aleks,” I said, holding up my hand to keep him from interrupting. “And the money you owe Kuzmin. And on top of that, I will give you enough money to get back on your feet. In return, I’ll be taking Olivia’s hand in marriage.”

Father of the year over there didn’t blink before agreeing, and after that, it was only a matter of moments while I made the necessary bank transfer. I immediately had the money in Aleks’s account but needed more information to get what he owed to Kuzmin.

“He’ll never accept it if he knows it’s coming from you,” Benedikt said. “And there’s still the matter of the shipment I lost.”

“That’s going to be on you to sort out,” I told him. “Stick to your plan of hiding out in Russia until things calm down for all I care.” I fixed him with a steely glare. “I’ll put the money you owe Rurik in your account because you’re probably right that anything with a whiff of the Fokins on it will just hurt his delicate pride and incite a war. I hope it actually reaches him.”

“Of course, of course. I know better than to mess with him.”

“Do you?” I asked, my mood lightening considerably now that Olivia’s safety was assured.

Now that she was really going to be mine.

“Everyone makes mistakes,” he grumbled.

“Yes, but you seem quite a bit better at it than most.”

He ignored my jibe, eagerly reminding me of the extra amount I had mentioned, so he could get himself together once two major crime families were no longer hunting him down. It was probably foolish giving a compulsive gambler and drunk a large amount of money to squander, but if it continued to insure he left Olivia alone, it was worth every penny.

As he reached for the vodka bottle to celebrate his reprieve, the glee on his face made my stomach turn over. He really didn’t give a single shit about his only child. The factthat she might be on her way to Rurik Kuzmin to be offered as payment if I hadn’t gotten suspicious and turned up, chilled me to the bone.

When Benedikt called Olivia out to inform her of our new pact, I kept my eyes trained on her face. She was normally fairly composed, never letting her true emotions come out in her facial expressions, but her eyes couldn’t lie. At least not to me. I’d been watching her too closely for too long, because she fascinated me.

This gorgeous woman was going to be my wife. It hadn’t been my first intention, and the offer had spilled out of my mouth in desperate anger, but now it seemed like the only thing I had ever wanted.

And it was as clear as Benedikt’s vodka that she was pissed.

I remained steady as she gave up her strong facade and outright began to plead with Benedikt to reconsider. I didn’t like the sound of despair in her voice, but knew what faced her if I didn’t get her out of there by any means necessary.

It didn’t matter that it suited my wishes. Her safety was my top priority, now and forever, because she was mine. When she finally gave up and followed me to the car, I almost expected her to make a break for it and caught her eye as I opened the passenger door for her. She gave me a narrow look and a slight shake of the head before sliding under my arm and sitting in the seat.

For the first half hour or so of our drive, she remained as silent as a tomb, not even a huff or sigh. Her arms were tightly crossed, and she shifted her body away from me. She stared out the window as if the sight of the other cars on the freeway was the most interesting thing she’d ever seen.

Finally, she let out a breath and turned to me, brows drawn close together over her extraordinary eyes. Yes, I could read her expression just fine, and she was still pissed.

“So where are we going?” she asked. “Back to San Diego for a trip to the courthouse, or to LA for a big family wedding?” She drew a breath, letting her ire out before I could answer. “Do you honestly expect me to be a good little bride and walk down the aisle in front of everyone without any problems?”

“I hoped that’s what you would do,” I admitted, but she didn’t smile at my teasing tone. “But if not, I’m happy to put plan B into action.” Since we weren’t going anywhere fast in the ever-present LA traffic, I glanced over at her with a grin. She returned a scowl, and then her lashes fluttered with worry.

“What’s plan B?”

I didn’t give her any specifics, because I honestly didn’t have any yet, but something was quickly formulating in my brain. “Actually, plan B might be better anyway. We should lay low until everything is settled with your father and Kuzmin.”

I wasn’t worried about Aleks. Now that his money was returned to him, he’d just cut off his former friend without any need to retaliate. Rurik Kuzmin was another story. Until he had his money from Benedikt, I didn’t want anyone to know where Olivia was. That entire family was unhinged, but Rurik outshone any of them regarding vengeance. They’d been pushing the limits of our patience for a long time, and one misstep could start an all-out war.

Two of my brothers had just had children, and Max was much too happy in his extended honeymoon period to want to return to LA to fight a battle that didn’t need to be started. I tapped the Bluetooth connection and eased toward the exit laneto change directions. As soon as I had called in a favor with someone with a private jet, we were on our way to the airport.

Trusting someone outside the family wasn't ideal, but I didn’t want to bring Max into it and ask to use his plane until everything was official. Olivia wasn’t his assistant anymore, and he acted like he was going to stay out of her affairs and respect her privacy, but he’d admitted earlier that he had a call in with Aleks to find out why she had skipped out on her last few days of work. That told me he might interfere with my plan, and I couldn’t have that.

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