Page 101 of Sins He Taught Me (Bratva Crime Syndicate 3)

A FEW MONTHS LATER

Being free is a strange feeling.

Timofei stands by his car waiting for me to emerge from the courthouse. I can’t even describe how good it is to step out into the clean, fresh air.

It tastes like freedom.

It’s been a long few months of negotiating. The D.A. thought he was going to have me drawn and quartered with a whole litany of charges. But no Bratva man would ever go down so easily. And as it turns out, having hundreds of millions of dollars at my disposal means I can hire the best lawyers on the planet. They’ve gone to war for me in all these backroom dealings, and when they’ve reached their legal limits, I’ve stepped in to do the rest of the things that needed doing. It was an ugly process, to be sure, but I’m emerging victorious in the end.

The one factor I never expected to help get me out of my legal troubles faster was Chris Walter. He came to me months ago, asking for his job back, and I didn’t have any plans on working with him again. After all the shit we’d been through and the bad blood between us, there was nothing to talk about. But with his judge father, he came through and quickly became one of the biggest reasons I beat the charges.

“The bastard lives to see another day,” Timofei says when I’m close enough. He pulls me in for a one-armed hug and pats my back. “Glad to see you free again, boss.”

“Glad to be free.”

Timofei brings me up to speed on everything that’s been happening while I’ve focused on the court case. Like how Chris is back to taking care of bullet wounds and patching up stabbings, or how the Albanians launched an all-out war on the Italians, and it’s been nothing but drama since then. He says Gavril Vaknin of the Toronto Bratva and Tomas Dubrovsky from New York have both called to express their support as fellow members of the Syndicate.

I smile as he talks. He’s done well during his time holding down the fort. I wouldn’t have hired him if I didn’t think he could manage in the event that something ever happened to me. Looks like I chose wisely.

Truthfully, though, the last thought in my mind is Bratva business. More than anything else, I just want to get home and see Victoria and Nikolas. He’s probably still at school, which is perfect, because right now, I just want to be there with her.

That is, if she’s still at the house.

We pull to a stop. I take a slow breath, climbing out and heading up to the front door. I knock twice on the door, and almost immediately, Victoria pulls it open like she was waiting for me.

The expression on her face tells me she wasn’t.

Her eyes go wide, and her mouth falls open, and before I can say anything, she throws herself into my arms, squeezing me tight.

“I was just coming to get you,” she says, pulling back to look over my face. She cups my cheeks in her hands.

Then, I lean in and kiss my woman. It feels fucking incredible.

Her lips on mine are warm and soft—everything I’ve been missing, dreaming, fantasizing about. The cold that seeped into my bones vanishes at the slightest touch from her fingertips on my chest.

It’s perfect. She’s perfect. We are perfect.

It takes all my strength to pull away. “Timofei picked up me,” I explain. Victoria glances behind me and gives a wave to the man still standing by his car.

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me! I got all dressed up to see you and bring you home.”

I look over her outfit and smile. She’s wearing a form-fitting pair of jeans and a lilac blouse that makes her breasts look amazing. Something tells me she chose that shirt on purpose. “You were really that excited to see me?”

Sitting in that conference room across the table from beady-eyed prosecutors, I imagined what it would be like to get home and find Victoria had disappeared. With me tied up with the D.A.’s office and her father off the hook, this would be the perfect chance to pack up and move away. She was no longer indebted to me, no longer forced to be around me, and she’d realize how shitty I’d been to her all those months. I thought she’d want nothing to do with me.

So seeing her here, still living in my house and taking care of Nikolas, feels like something of a fantasy. I don’t know how I lucked out, but I know that I did. Anyone lucky enough to be around Victoria should feel the same way.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be here,” I say. For some reason, I’m having a hard time looking her in the eyes as I say that.

But I can feel her gaze on me—as fiery as ever. She cocks her head to the side and forces me to make eye contact.

“Matvei, I told you in the hospital that I’m not going anywhere, and I meant it. I waited for you. For this moment. I just can’t believe it’s really happening now.”

She hugs me again, and I wrap her in my arms, breathing in the smell I’ve craved every day since I was arrested.

I’ve dreamed that whole time about returning to her and Nikolas.

I don’t have to dream about that anymore.

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