Page 41 of The Bratva's Bride

“That’s five. You’re a nurse, you should know better than to just fuel yourself with coffee on an empty stomach.” He chided me, calm and collected like always. Smug ass bastard.

“You can’t punish me for that. You’re getting yourself a cup, I haven’t seen you eat anything, you literally just got here.” I retorted with a pout, getting off the stool from the kitchen island and going up to him to attempt to get my coffee mug back.

“Ten now. I can punish you for it because you’re not taking care of yourself properly. Now, go get some breakfast then you can get your coffee back. And I already ate before working out.” He said matter of factly, holding the coffee mug out of reach of me easily because he was built like a fucking tree.

“Hmph. Bastard.” I muttered under my breath, crossing my arms and turning around to go to the fridge. I didn’t even make it a step though because he grabbed my hair and pulled me back, forcing me to look up at him.

“Hm? What was that,lisichka? I don’t think I heard you.” The dark look in his eyes made me shiver with pleasure.

“N-nothing.” Maybe I can weasel my way out of this one. “Ah!” My head was yanked back more by my hair, making me more aroused as I tried to hold my gaze with him.

“I don’t like liars,lisichka. And I sure as hell don’t tolerate them. So, one last chance. Repeat what you just said.” God damn it, his tone meant I was in trouble.

I was backed into a corner. I would get in trouble either way. If I continued to lie to him, trouble. If I told him what I said, trouble.

Ugh, fuck me.

“I said you were a bastard.” I muttered, averting my eyes from him.

“That’s not what you were saying last night.” He whispered teasingly in my ear, giving it a small nip before looking at me with a smug smirk. “That’s another ten.” Chuckling, he let go of my hair before getting his cup of coffee. “You must have a penchant for punishment. The morning’s barely started and you have racked up twenty within ten minutes of being around me. Guess I took it too easy on you last night if you’re still being a little brat.”

He enjoyed this too much, and the temptation to smack that smug look off his face itched at my hands. “Hmph.” Chewing my tongue to keep it at bay, I opened the fridge and pulled out some yogurt and fruit. He didn’t say what I had to eat, and technically this could count as a breakfast meal.

“I thought you had work today.” He said, taking a seat on the stool next to mine at the island.

“It’s my half shift today, so I’m just getting some business done before going in.” I replied while going back to my spot.

I didn’t care about him having full access to what happened on my laptop screen, not like there was anything for me to hide from him. “Hey Kolya, do you want it? The Triad territory. I know it might be a lot to take on in a short amount of time, but it would expand your empire greatly. There’s lots of ports, warehouses, and you’ll have a nice prison place out in the desert for holding and or torture.”

“I’m fine maintaining what we have, but to have more control of Nespin wouldn’t be something I would oppose to. Why? Are you taking what your friends said from before into consideration?” It would be ideal to hand things over to Nikolai and try to peacefully merge things while I still had some control.

The last thing I wanted was for everything to go into the shit hole and have the territory up for a power grab. We’d most likely win in a turf war, but I’d rather avoid a war if necessary. Mass casualties weren’t fun to deal with, and innocents would be caught up in a turf war. I’ve already seen my fair share growing up when my father expanded, and I would rather not add another to my memory bank.

“I’m starting to lose my hold, and if I let Lady Qing continue then it’s going to be bat shit hell. I don’t know how she’s doing it yet, but she’s still thriving even though I’m cutting off her streams of profit. I’ve shut down so many of her warehouses and shipments, enough to where she shouldn’t even be getting half a penny. Yet, her posse grows every day, and what few loyal men I have are being cut off one by one. If I merge the territory fully under you then we can run her out effectively, which is what I want to do. It’ll be a win for you in a sense that you get more turf to expand your businesses to. I’m not going to force it on you, you know what’s best for the Bratva and what’s needed, but I’m just putting it out there for you to think about. I’ll support you in whatever you want to do, but I just want to know what you would rather do, so that I can know how to prepare for the future.”

The plans were simple in my mind. If Nikolai wanted the merge, then I would assert my full power as temporary head to do that. If he didn’t, then I would go with my original plan of tearing the whole empire down to where not even the foundations remained. The only problem was my father. I had to figure out how to ensure his safety before I do anything too drastic that would tip off my stepmother that I was the one behind her failings.

Picking up my phone, I sent a quick message to Bao, letting him know to send the pictures I had been looking at on my laptop to the others for later on and to schedule an email to the police so they could have their piece of the cake.

The operation to tear down the Qing Triad had been in the midst for a while now, but we had been taking it very slow and cautiously. We didn’t want to get too involved, wanting to keep our hands hidden. So, we had been digging up dirt and sending the information to trusted law enforcement agents to handle the dirty work for us if it seemed simple enough.

“What are your plans, darling? If I agree, then there’s still the truce in place that prevents a merge like that. Both sides agreed to keep our territories as is. Even if you were to exact your power and merge the territory into Bratva territory, then that would break the truce on our end which could mean war as well. If I don’t agree, then what my little fox?” Nikolai posed a good point, and it was one I had thought about carefully before even popping the question to him.

“The truce is contingent to the marriage. No marriage, no truce.” Glancing over at him, I could see his eyebrows furrowing together as he looked at me knowingly.

“So, you’re going to divorce me?” He didn’t sound too happy, nor did he look happy. “You know I won’t let that happen right?”

Scoffing, I looked at him with disbelief as my eyes rolled. “You won’t let it happen? Excuse you.” I challenged him with a glare as I turned around in my seat to face him. “You have no say in whether I divorce you or not, not that I was going that direction mind you. There is a way to nullify the marriage, and actually I was going to bring up the issue to you a little later on because it is a real legal issue. You didn’t marry me. The name on the documents, all of what was signed that night, that’s not my legal name.” A false identity was a sure way to get legal things nulled and voided. “I didn’t say anything that night when I noticed their mistake just in case—”

For the first time, he raised his voice at me. He snapped at me, “In case you needed an out? When were you going to tell me this? Were you always planning an escape?” Okay, now he seemed really upset, not that I blamed him.

After a few nights of passionate sex, it was clear to both of us that we both felt more for each other than we were willing to admit. So, for something like this to pop out was like a stab to the gut. I would be upset if I was in his shoes, and rightfully so.

“Yes, but I tossed that idea out of my mind the moment it was you I was going to marry, and after seeing that you weren’t some horrible bastard. I kept that secret because I knew it was going to come in handy in the future, not in the sense of nulling the marriage because I don’t want you, because I do. I just wanted a means to keep you out of anything messy if it came to it. Also, I knew the treaty would be a problem, one that I would need to be rid of, which is the main reason why I kept the fact that the name penned was not me. I’m not going to divorce you or leave you, not unless you give me reason to run far from you.” It seemed messy and overly complicated, but this is the business of mafia life.

“I promise you Nikolai, when this shit is over, and you still want me, then we can get our marriage legally set straight.” The chemistry between us was undeniable. From what I’ve been told, it wasn’t easy to find someone who set that passion within you on fire like this.

We weren’t two horny teenagers needing to fuck each other out of our systems, and the past nights had been a testimony to that. We were never going to get enough of each other. The look of desire, and the fire in his eyes whenever he set those gorgeous azure blue orbs of his on me was the same as the first night I pulled him out of the car. Even now as we sat here, having our first argument, he still held that same fire along with the hurt.

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