Page 91 of The Brutal Arrangement

“And please know that history won’t repeat itself.” I put our joined hands on my stomach underwater. “I would never let anything hurt this baby. And I vow that you can always trust me, Husband.”

He held the back of my head to pull me close again, sealing his lips over mine as if to lock those words between us. “And I will do the same. I won’t ever let anyone harm you or our child, Lucy.”

34

DAMON

“How’s she doing?” Maxim asked me the next day.

I sighed, hating that she had to suffer from morning sickness at all. “Still nauseous in the morning.”

“That’s rough.” He continued walking with me as we left the building together. Saul was already at the building uptown where he was confident we could ambush a couple of leaders within the Romano Family. Soldiers had been arranging a trap to get them separated from their guards, and the goal was to question them about many things—Nik’s capture, Father’s poisoning, and a variety of strikes against our family.

Anton Kozlov was still out of the country, in Greece, according to our contacts, but as soon as he was more within reach, we’d spend our efforts on finding him, too.

Between the Romanos and Kozlovs, one of them had to be behind all of our troubles. It wasn’t ideal timing for me and Maxim to find our women and start to settle down with them,adding babies into the mix, but sometimes, life went off plan like that.

“I’m glad that she’s got Sloane, though,” Maxim said. Even though talking about his fiancée usually lightened him up and loosened him up a bit, he remained tense and alert as we headed out to business. We couldn’t afford to be distracted in the slightest.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

He shrugged. “She’s got no friends or other female relatives in the building. I don’t know why, but Grandmother still seems to not trust her or like her much.”

“I wonder why Grandmother disapproves.”

He laughed once. “I could say the same about you and Lucy.”

I frowned. “She doesn’t like Lucy?” Hell, I doubted Grandmother and Lucy had even talked since the wedding. “Why? Because I refused to go through with a fancy, big-ass wedding?”

“No. I think because she is a stranger who came into the family without being vetted. And because she’s from a working-class background.”

I rolled my eyes, striding into the building ahead of my brother, trained to always do my part to protect thePakhan. More men surrounded us, but still, the habit remained. We brothers always preceded Father like this too.

“I don’t have time for worrying about Grandmother being a fucking blue blood about this.”

He chuckled. “Me neither. She wasn’t too fond of the fact that Sloane was a stripper.”

Once we reached the meeting room where the Romano bosses would be brought to us for questioning, I shoved the matter of Grandmother and her flaky approval from my mind. This was time to focus, and with enemies nearby, I couldn’t take the risk of not paying attention.

After an hour of waiting for the men to bring the two Romanos to us, we got the call that they split. Our soldiers had sprung the trap, but it was now three bosses they’d gotten to fall for their baits. Having more enemies to question would be better than too few, or none, but they were all going to different places.

“We’ll split,” Maxim said to me and Saul. “One of us with each of them.”

I nodded, ready to get my part in this over with. Hell, these fuckers probably wouldn’t talk at all once they saw us. And at that rate, they’d end up in the dungeon for me to do my “magic” later, anyway.

Before I reached the destination where the Romano supervisor waited for me, my phone rang and pulled me completely out of the situation. Holding up a finger to indicate for my guards to give me a moment, I answered the phone.

“Sir? I was instructed to inform you of any updates on Lucy Forden’s phone,” the Ivanov soldier stated.

“LucyIvanov,” I corrected. “She is my wife. Refer to her as such.”

“Yes, sir. I apologize. I’m contacting you as requested to let you know that calls have been coming into her phone.”

I scowled, not following. Lucy was hardly ever on her phone. Since she had the log-in information to watch over her mom’scare at the Dream Garden home, she used the laptop in the apartment to see her. The screen was bigger. Lucy was never on her phone. It sat unused. Whenever she hung out with Sloane in the building, I had to text Sloane to remind Lucy to take her phone with her.

“That’s not possible.” I shook my head. “She hasn’t been using it at all. I’ve seen it sitting there untouched.”

“I understand, sir. I am only reporting as expected.”

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