Page 100 of The Brutal Arrangement

Lucy nodded against me, breathing steadier and easier. With her relaxing like this after that scare, I felt like I could too.

“You are one of us, Lucy.” Tipping her chin up until she gave me the gift of gazing into her blue eyes, I kissed her again. “Not because of that arrangement. But because I love you, and I will never stop.”

She smiled, leaning up to kiss me back. “And I love you, husband. I trust you with that love.” As she glanced around at the others, she acknowledged them all. “Just like I’ll trust you when you swear to protect your own.”

“Once you’re in,” Sloane said in a teasing, wry tone, “you’re in for life.”

“Unlike the Kozlovs,” Lucy quipped just as dryly. “Anton seemed to loathe Katerina. He fought and argued with her constantly. There was no sense of family or love there.”

I glanced at Maxim, then Saul. “Which makes me wonder why Katerina gave up a chance to get away from him.”

“What do you mean?” Lucy asked, peering up at me.

Satisfied that she seemed unharmed, I tried to let go of this possessive urge to whisk her away and check her over in a private setting, just the two of us. Better yet, I wouldn’t mind pleasuring her in any and every way she wanted just so we could further put today’s incident behind us.

“She could’ve married into our family,” I said.

“And she seemed to think the Ivanovs were ‘decent’ people,” she added.

“She said that?” Maxim asked.

“Yeah. It seemed like an oxymoron to me at the time. Seeing how Anton and his men were, I assumedallMafia families were like that. Until…” She smiled up at me. “Until I came here and learned otherwise.”

I kissed her cheek. “So with her knowing she could’ve come here and gotten away from Anton… Something had to have motivated her to give that opportunity up.”

“She said she had to look for something,” Maxim said, referring to that conversation he’d had with Lucy over lunch that one day. “Right?”

Lucy nodded. “That’s what she said. She also made me wonder if she was just interested in someone else. Or something else. Almost like she didn’t care for the idea of marrying at all.”

That would be an odd take for Katerina to have. Women grew up in our world knowing that they’d be expected to marry. Not very many crime families lasted well with a single woman in the lead.

After Beatrice’s betrayal, I doubted I’d ever follow a woman’s suggestions.

And my grandmother pissed me off in her delay to call for help with Father acting the way he was.

But Lucy?

I would spend the rest of my life worshiping the ground she walked on.

“I’m not interested in figuring out Katerina’s motives,” I said, holding Lucy’s hand again. “While we are all gathered here right now, I want each and every one of you to hear me loud and clear that no one is toeverthreaten my wife again. Ever.”

I caught the attention of the guards behind my family members, those who were always stationed in the background.

“No one is to ever look the other way and be confused about this order,” I added, still stunned that a couple of soldiers had actually obeyed Father when he was out of his mind like that.

“This is the mother of my child.” Leading Lucy to stand in front of me, I draped my arm over her in a hug as she leaned back against my chest, setting her hand on my forearm. I was addicted to how possessive she could be of me like that, even in the smallest ways and simplest touches.

“This is the love of my life,” I declared then kissed her temple.

“Should anyone disobey me and slack in her protection, I will kill you myself.”

Sloane grinned, giving me a thumbs-up. “And they say romance is dead.”

Saul chuckled as Maxim shook his head at her teasing.

“You truly are pregnant?” Grandmother asked, coming toward us.

I didn’t relax in my stance, keeping Lucy with me like this. Maintaining some thread of contact between us would prevent me from rehashing that nasty sensation of seeing her in a cell in the dungeon or hearing my father tell me to kill her.

---