Page 6 of Thorns of Love
It would seem their little sister kept secrets from her brothers. Pregnancy being one of them.
“She has something that belongs to me,” I responded calmly. The chip was only a small piece. The baby in her womb was the bigger piece and the only one that mattered to me now. I sat up, straightening my sleeves and signaling the meeting was over. “I expect your final answer by the end of today. My men will see you out.”
My men started to escort the brothers out when Vasili stopped and turned around. “I’ll be right behind you,” he told them. “I want to talk to Konstantin alone.”
Sasha grumbled something but headed out. Nikita’s eyes flitted my way for permission and I nodded.
With everyone gone, Vasili narrowed his eyes on me. “What does she have that is yours?” he questioned.
The chip. My baby growing in her belly. My fucking heart.Take your fucking pick.
I sat down behind my desk and leaned back, studying the brother who raised his siblings while his father roamed this Earth looking for his next lover. I couldn’t help but notice similarities and differences between us. After my mother’s death, my father went off the deep end and I had to navigate Maxim through the years. Then when Isla was born, I had to raise her.
I guess the only difference was my father killed my mother. His father didn’t.
“Vasili, you and I both know the road has come to an end,” I answered him vaguely. His sister obviously withheld information from her big brothers, but Vasili was a smart man. He had to have guessed she was pregnant. He had a few kids of his own. “I don’t know whether you’re blind or just choosing to be.” The fucker growled. Like that would help his sister.
“I promised her when she was a little girl that she’d choose her own husband,” he said tiredly. “And that she’d never be part of an arranged marriage. I cannot break my promises to my little sister, Konstantin.”
“It’s not exactly an arranged marriage, is it now?” I noted sarcastically.
“Let me talk to her again,” he tried. “If she’s pregnant with your child–”
“There are no ifs about it,” I growled. If he even insinuated she slept with someone else, I’d cut his throat and dig his heart out of his chest.
He shook his head. “I still don’t understand how that happened.” I let out an incredulous breath. He didn’t actually expect me to explain to him that I fucked her and got her pregnant with my semen. Did he? He pushed his hand through his hair. “Honestly, I don’t like that she’s keeping secrets from me, and I don’t like that she got involved with you.”
“But you were okay with her getting involved with Adrian,” I spat out. “The guy that put her on the radar of every fucking powerful crime family on the planet.”
“Frankly, I didn’t want her getting involved with him either,” he admitted begrudgingly. “I don’t think I’m good with my little sister being involved with any man.”
“She’s carrying my child.” There was nothing else to be discussed. Of course, I wouldn’t admit to him it was my plan all along to put a baby in her belly. Hence, fucking her without a condom.
I rocked back and forth in my chair, studying him. His jaw ticked, signaling he was pissed.
“I won’t force her to marry you,” he finally concluded and turned around, heading for the door. “And I won’t let you force her either.”
He disappeared through the door and my thoughts instantly shifted to the woman I was about to marry. Whether they agreed to my terms or not, Tatiana Nikolaev would be plucked from her natural habitat and forced into my world and my life. Permanently.
It was only a matter of time before she remembered the whole incident. Before someone got their hands on her or she found that chip.
She might wither under my rule, but she no longer had the luxury of her freedom.
Sooner or later, it would get her killed. And if the feds got their hands on that chip, she’d pull the entire underworld into it. And the woman didn’t even know it.
I had given her time to heal after the accident. I pledged for her. I understood the risks. I understood the danger. Did I care? No, I didn't. The Omertà had my oath, but she had my heart. It was about her life and our child’s.
I had let her go once, this time nothing would save her from me. We were two souls that stupidly passed each other, multiple times, only to end up here. Or rather, where we’d soon be.
In my kingdom. In my country. In my home. In my bed.
Exactly where she should have been all along.
She had been mine for almost a decade, but fate pulled us apart. Now, it was me who controlled our destiny.
It was time to make Tatiana Nikolaev remember who she belonged to.
THREE
