Page 61 of The Bratva's Forced Kidnapped Bride
To be honest, I was getting more and more pissed off at my family. Anatoli’s offering was ample sign that he was trustworthy and wasn’t going to go against them, and above all else, they should have just taken my word for it. Especially since we decided we wanted to stay up here in the Silicon Valley area. It made sense due to Anatoli’s expertise with computers and all their components, and it had grown to feel more like home to me than LA, with its roasting, dry summers.
“What will you do?” he asked when I first suggested it on a lazy afternoon sprawled on the couch together.
I laughed, not really sure at that point. “I’d probably go back to work for Mat unless you want to hire me.” I left it unspoken that if Mat didn’t take Anatoli’s deal, I might have to actively work against my cousin.
“You’d be more useful running your own faction,” he said, shocking the hell out of me. Even after all I’d done to prove myself, I never really believed I’d get to run my own territory here in the US. Something about being too hotheaded.
The idea excited me and kept me from jumping every time the phone rang, so we spent an evening poring over maps to decide where I could branch out on my own without stepping on my cousins’ toes. Not even that could keep me from worrying for long, though. So much was at stake. If Mat refused, I’d have to take another stand for my husband, whom I meant to stay married to. If they still didn’t accept him, then I’d be an outcast, the very thing Anatoli was working so hard to prevent.
I already had my eye on the perfect Christmas and thank you gift for Lilia, who hadn’t been able to get in touch with me since she helped us get away from Aleks’s house. She was probably still hearing about it from everyone and might even face getting sent back to Russia for her part in all this. Now I might not be able to give her the antique, illustrated classics I found on a fancy, rare book website. Who knew when I’d get to see her again, if ever.
I was snorting mad on the fourth day, ready to either storm Mat’s house or leave them behind without a backward glance. As I was pacing, ready to tell Anatoli I was fine with heading back to Volgograd, where the people mostly appreciated us, CJ called. She would only speak to me, and he handed me the phone with an unreadable expression.
“Come over,” she said. “We want to talk.”
She made no demands to leave Anatoli behind, so we headed over, both of us quiet and not sure what to expect. We certainly didn’t expect to see the hall crowded with my family members when CJ swung open the doors to greet us. My heartfelt like it was cracking in two at the betrayal as I threw myself in front of Anatoli.
“It’s not a setup,” CJ said, rolling her eyes.
But behind her, a sea of unfriendly glares shot over my head at Anatoli. Every single one of my cousins: Aleks, Lev, Max, Dima, Ivan, and Nik, along with Mat and his brothers, Dan and Rurik. All of them with murder blazing from their eyes.
Mila, the cousin closest in age to Lilia and me, burst through the wall of stubborn men. “Back up and let them in,” she ordered, the voices of my cousins’ wives echoing the sentiment from further back in the house.
“Everyone’s here?” I asked CJ in a low voice, trying to gauge her expression as she nodded.
“It’s an important decision,” she said, leading us back to the library where everyone was crammed in.
It was a tribunal, and there were far too many judges in the room. Anatoli looked as cool as if he were entering a meeting with his own employees, not people who’d wanted him dead for the better part of a year.
“You’ve had a chance to dive into my program?” he asked CJ.
Mat growled, pulling CJ closer to himself. “Don’t speak to her.”
CJ sighed and patted Mat’s hand. “I did. It’s exactly as you described.” She was trying to downplay how excited she was about it and not succeeding. She poked Mat, and he spoke up again, less hostile this time.
“We’re willing to call a truce,” he said. “There will be conditions, of course.”
His mouth stayed open like he was going to start rattling them off, but I cut him off with a sharp noise. “The only condition for you to use Anatoli’s software and for me to ever speak to any of you again is that you accept him as part of the family.”
The men erupted, with Mat the loudest, followed closely by Dan. CJ, Aleks’s wife Katie, and Nat, his eldest daughter, all shut them up with a shrill whistle. They looked a bit embarrassed, mostly at having to act like referees at a family gathering.
“Masha, you’re with us now,” Nat said, holding up her hand for me to let her finish. “Do you want to stay married to Anatoli Ovinko or do you want to be free?”
I pushed aside the anger that they still believed I was being coerced somehow or that I’d lost my everloving mind. I gave her a pointed look that carried to her husband, Kolya, who stood by her side. At one time, he had been our family’s greatest foe, and she had despised him—maybe more than I first thought. I hated Anatoli. If she didn’t get it, who would?
“Iamgoing to stay married to Anatoli,” I said. “There’snothingI want more.”
They got it. I’d walk away if they didn’t stop being stubborn and accept that a man could change. Like they all had, like we all would continue to do. Anatoli got it too, reaching to take my hand and squeeze it.
“Then that’s that,” Aleks said, holding out his hand.
His word was law in our family, and as soon as Anatoli shook it, the others gathered around to welcome him into the fold. Maybe not a hundred percent happy about it, but it was good enough for now.
“You know what this means now?” Dan called from the mass of relatives.
“I hope it means vodka,” Anatoli replied, making my party animal cousin belt out a laugh.
“Maybe you will fit in,” he said, clapping him on the back.
