Page 23 of Forgotten Vows
Or game.
What wasn’t a game now was the message Alexsei sent to me. He must have texted while I was still dozing before landing. I couldn’t relax and fully sleep, but I took advantage of the chance to close my eyes and slow my breath. It was as close to “peace” as I could try to claim.
Alexsei had texted me to stop by a warehouse to back him up with a slight problem he was handling. It likely wouldn’t amount to anything. From the little I knew of what Alexsei was up to, he was merely overseeing some activity near the Cartel’s turf.
Ever since Luka took Gabriella for his wife, he’d been especially interested in hitting back at the Vipers. Gabriella’s father was a rat, an associate who sold Dubinin intel to multiple parties, but in the end, it seemed like Miguel Lopez might have sided with the Vipers Cartel the most. As such, Luka would spare no expense or effort to eradicate the members of that group who would dare to bother him.
Numerous threats had popped up when Luka took Gabriella to be his bride. Rumors circulated with how he’d taken her and married her. It was the same damn political bullshit that had interfered and torn me away from Raisa, too.
Many within the alliance of Bratva families hadn’t approved of Luka marrying an outsider. Taking a bride from an enemy was an even bigger grievance some family heads had been unhappy about.
But this was Luka Dubinin. The boss of the Dubinin Dynasty, undisputedly the most prominent and powerful criminal organization on the coast.
As far as I could tell, Luka was content to tell them all to go fuck themselves. He loved Gabriella and he’d never give her up. Nor would he ever give up his son. Second to Emil, Andre was another Dubinin heir. Even though Andre was an heir from amother outside the family and the alliance, Luka had officially made her his and he expected the world to obey that.
I found Alexsei exiting the building when I arrived. The driver waited in the car while I got out to meet my other cousin.
“Am I late?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “No. They never showed up. I sat there and waited for the people to show up, but nothing.”
“That’s good.”
“For now,” he replied, walking back to the car, as if to ride with me. He waved off the driver who’d been waiting for him. “You know there will just be more bullshit to come up later.”
We got into the backseat and I sighed, leaning back against the comfortable cushions. First class was nice and all, but something about resting sitting up like that never felt great on my back. I could blame a really shitty fight when I was younger for my back issues, but they mostly never bothered me. Only when I slept like shit did I feel the strain.
“So long as Luka stays married to Gabriella, someone will bitch,” I said.
“Of course. And since he’s never leaving her or letting her go, we’ll have to deal with any complaints as they come.” He yawned.
“It’s just like how Raisa and I never could’ve lasted.”
He frowned at me. “How so?”
I hesitated just a second before telling him what I’d shared with Emil. My cousins would keep this between us, but it wasn’t fair to only confide in Emil and not Alexsei.
“Because the woman I was in love with all those years ago was Raisa Petrov.”
He had the same reaction as Emil did. The car began to move and he acted like he was lurched backward from the newsI imparted with him. “Petrov?” His brows shot up high as he gaped at me. “As in Konstantin Petrov?”
I nodded.
“The same Konstantin Petrov Luka has never particularly cared for since they don’t see eye to eye?”
I nodded again, hating how true it was. After a deep sigh, I continued. “Konstantin found out that Raisa was no longer a dutiful and obedient daughter, spending time with me. He didnotapprove of her being with me.” Speaking with Emil reignited those old worries that Konstantin could’ve punished her for being with me, like he suggested. But the strict fucker was dead. Supposedly. Still, with this in mind, I knew that we could never fully dismiss the concerns about an “unapproved” union outside of family expectations, like what Luka and Gabriella had done. “So, yeah, it’s true that we can’t rule out the need to be careful with Gabriella being a Dubinin now.”
“You slept with Konstantin’s daughter?” he asked incredulously.
“I didn’t know who she was at first.”
“I can understand that. Konstantin was such an old-fashioned freak, acting like all the women in his family were puritans to shelter until he could arrange them for money.”
I curled my fingers into a tighter fist, hating the idea that the old fucker ever could’ve tried to do that to the strong-willed, sweet blue-eyed woman who’d stolen my heart. Raisa was too good to be chattel. She was too smart to be athing. She was too gorgeous inside and out to be passed in a transaction for money.
Alexsei was right, though. Raisa, and her cousins and aunts and other female relatives, weren’t paraded around in the strict patriarchal structure of the Petrov Family.
“We agreed to no details. I think she was just looking for one night of fun like I was when we met. But… We just got stuck oneach other and…” I shook my head, unwilling to go on with this sorry tale again after just talking it out with Emil in Italy.
