Page 29 of The Mistake

“I don’t know what youchose.”

I frowned. “Why not?”

“I’m there to play my role, I don’t care what I wear.”

“Charlotte, what is going on?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“I cannot fix the problemif you don’t tell me. Did Cathy say something? Sophie?”

“Why? What are you going to do? Force them to their knees to apologize?”

Was that it? Had I scared her?

“I will not allow you to be treated like that.”

“And you think it’s okay to do that?”

“Yes, especially when it’s against my wife.” I was not going to argue about this.

“Even when it’s against a woman you took on a date, who clearly had a crush on you and thought there was something more going on?” Charlotte asked.

I turn my full attention to hernow.

“You were cruel for no reason. Sophie was good enough to go on a date and have sex with, but not to marry?”

This made me chuckle. “Are you jealous?” I asked.

She shook her head and I’m pretty sure I spotted a tear in her eye.“It’s nothing. Can we just leave it alone?”

Any other day I’d be glad to dothis, but for some stupid, fucked-up reason, I couldn’t bring myself to just leave well enough alone. Running a hand down my face, I tried to ignore the woman beside me, but I don’t know why I even cared.

“Why are you crying? That woman purposefully wentout of her way to humiliate you today. You’re my wife. No one does that to me or to the Volkov Bratva.” She should be happy I hadn’t killed the bitch. No one disrespected my wife and got away with it. I was going to make sure she couldn’t get a fucking job. I’d make it my responsibility to see that she was miserable. I smiled at the very thought. I liked that idea very much.

“It’s nothing. Can’t I just cry for no reason?”

I was about to respond when atext came through, and I had no choice but to return to business. It was from Vlad. The women had been captured and were currently with the police force, more specifically the men on our payroll. This was a good thing, but I still wasn’t happy. If word got out that women had been taken, or even the intention of taking from me, there would be backlash.

I should have known thelittle trick Ivan played of faking his death would come back to bite me in the ass. Not only that, Ivan’s death had created a ripple of problems, the main one being Oleg’s territory. All that traitor needed was one implied weakness and he’d gone out of his way to exploit it. We were all forced to deal with the consequences.

Now Ivan had plans to put a brand-new brigadier in place. He had two people in mind. I had my suspicions of the two, but there was no way he’d be able to choose between them. Not only that, I didn’t believe The Butcher and The Beast could be the two people to bring Oleg’s territory back into control. There was just no way that could happen. Both were not known for being “clean” about it. They had kill rates that rivaled each other. They would turn the territory into a bloodbath.

Now that the women had been returned and were going to be processed, there was nothing for me to do other than work. The only problem I had was Charlotte. She couldn’t come with me to work. The casino was no place for her. I leaned forward and gave Hubert the details of dropping me off, and then taking Charlotte home to my penthouse suite where I’d been staying during this past month.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“I’ve got work to do.”

“And what do I need to do?”

“Get ready for this evening. The clothespurchased for today will be delivered in a couple of hours. Wear the red dress for this evening when we join Ivan for dinner.”

Ivan’s dinner invitations were always few and far between. In fact, I think I could count on one hand the number of times he’d invited me to dinner. I’d been aware of the dinners he had with Slavik and Andrei, but they had only come since they’d been married.

Was his only interest in my wife? I had to wonder if Ivan took the women out for a test drive? No, that was complete nonsense. Ivan wasn’t the kind of man who shared. If there was a woman he wanted, he’d keep her to himself. I knew enough about Ivan to know he was a selfish bastard.

Hubert pulled up to the casino and without waiting for him to let me out, I did so, slammed the door closed, and slapped the top of the car, letting him know he could leave. I waited against the sidewalk, aware of people staring. I was a powerful man who drew the eye.

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