Page 54 of King’s Promise

“As much as I can be. Today is the final day to pick up things we might have forgotten.”

“Who is going with you?” Nikolay quizzes me.

“Alex, of course.”

Nikolay seems to agree with this and nods as his fingers wrap around his teacup and Hazel refills it.

From the look on her face, she enjoys having the men here. I forget she knew them from the time they were boys, so this is like a homecoming for her. I sit back and enjoy her serving them more like a mother than a servant.

“You’ll make a beautiful bride, and here we were afraid you’d…” Roman’s words are cut off when Dmitry jabs him in the ribs with his elbow.

“Ouch, what the fuck?” he exclaims.

“Manners, brothers,” Nikolay warns.

It’s evident they thought I’d be homely.

I excuse myself and grab my purse for a day out.

Alex is driving and my mind is elsewhere when my ears fill with the sickening crunch of metal and the car begins to spin. My head is foggy, feeling like I just came off a wall banger of a rollercoaster. I’m still struggling to get my bearings when I’m pulled from the wreckage by men wearing ski masks.

I look for Alex and see his face is bleeding and resting on the airbag; he’s unconscious. I can’t be taken. Nikolay can’t give up bargaining power to get me back. It’s like dealing with terrorists, they will always want more. I fight my captors, hitting and kicking but to no avail. One of them jabs me in the shoulder with a needle and my world turns dark.

21

Nikolay

Pavel receives a call, the erratic voice on the other end of the phone is my cue hell is about to rain on someone. The only question is, who?

Pavel hangs up the phone. “The vehicle Alex was driving was hit. It was a pit maneuver, done by professionals. Alex is enroute to the hospital. Anya is missing.”

“Fuck,” I yell, grabbing the empty tea pot and throwing it against a wall where it shatters into splinters of ceramic. “How could this happen?”

Hazel jumps and moves to sit in the nook opposite Dimity. The mess on the floor is the least of our problems and we ignore it.

“What we need to do is focus on finding Anya as quickly as possible,” Dmitry suggests before shoving a sausage in his mouth. He knows we’re on a mission and won’t stop until we find her. It might be the last bite of food he gets all day.

“Where is her mother, Inessa? Katerynia? Is Sergei with them?” I fire questions as my mind races. The family needs to be secured in a safe house. I have many homes around the world bought through shell companies.

I chastise myself for not keeping everyone secluded until the wedding. My instincts told me we weren’t out of danger. Whoever is behind this should have had the guts to come directly at me. Only a coward would take a helpless woman. I’ve failed Anya. As long as she’s missing, the wedding is off and the Bratva is jeopardized.

“Someone will pay with their life,” I swear.

“We’re with you, brother,” Roman pledges.

I nod, then rake my fingers through my hair. Paris is for lovers, but I didn’t need to go there to understand my heart beats faster when I think of Anya. Her touch sets my skin on fire with desire and I long to see her again. The feelings I had as a teen have exploded since seeing her again. I could have been nicer to her, but if I was, she would see it, and so would the men. How did Papa balance loving Mum and ruling the Bratva? We’re trained to stay on the mission, and now, I need to find my bride before another move is made against me.

Hazel looks like she’s in shock, so Dmitry lays a comforting hand on her back. “We’ll find her,” he assures her with his calm voice. We grew up with Hazel and spent holidays here. She was a second mother to us, and she’s genuinely fond of Anya.

I have my doubts about finding Anya quickly because the kidnappers will hide her and use her to barter for me. I can’t be put to the test because I love her and I’ll have to choose the Bratva, otherwise, I will not have earned my place as the pakhan.

Dmitry’s eyes are on me, waiting for an order and I don’t know where to begin. I must lead my Bratva no matter what challenges we face, and no matter what the outcome will be, but I can’t snap out of my shock. I refuse to accept the fact I might lose someone else I love this month. I thought not loving Anya would keep her safe, and it was an oversight on my part. Have I loved her all these years? She was my first infatuation, but why is it no other woman can make my cock explode twice at one go?

“Leading looks like fun and you have all the perks money brings, but you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, and it never goes away,” Papa warned. His words haunt me in this moment of weakness. I wonder if he ever had the fear gripping his heart and gut at the same time. Did he fear for Mama’s life, or ours? If it occurred, he never told me. He was my father, but also my mentor, the one person I went to for serious advice because he could separate his emotions unlike my brothers, who enjoy life without my responsibilities. Papa and I had grown close in the past few years, so it boggles my mind why he withheld the details of his promise to Igor. I knew we were business partners and we had meetings over the years in London. Looking back, there might have been references to marrying to make our alliances stronger, and as a bachelor, it was easy to gloss over it, delaying the inevitable.

I would have avenged my father’s death if it wasn’t tied to Igor’s. Clearly, the two men were selected for a reason. Their demise wasn’t by the hand of rivals; rivals I would have killed without a second thought. Part of power is knowing who is in the hierarchy because some men have immunity. They control too much, and it would be a bloodbath—our blood. Our world is one where men dominate and delegate.

Death squads are dedicated to killing anyone on a list and, unfortunately, Papa and Igor were on it. We never know who rats us out. It’s like theGame of Thrones,political figures have informants everywhere, and sadly, Russian citizens inform on their own family members.

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