AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His hand grazes my elbow. I stifle a shiver at his touch, even as my body tingles and my heart beats faster. I swallow, quickly scanning the room to anchor myself. I catch Polina’s gaze, and she winks at me. I wink back, take in a deep breath, and march forward beside my husband.
Means to an end. Means to an end, I chant in my head. I can do this.
As we walk down the aisle together, side by side, I vow silently to myself that I will find a way out. Lev may think he’s won, but he doesn’t know what I’m capable of. I will bide my time, gather intel and strength… and when the moment is right, I will make my move.
“Phew,” I mutter under my breath. “Something about being held captive and being forced to marry a Russian gives a girl an appetite, I guess.”
Lev’s large, rough, warm hand squeezes mine just a bit. His eyes spark at me. “I get it. There’s something about keeping a Colombian firecracker princess hostage that’s made me a bit peckish, too.”
I can’t help it. A corner of my lip twitches. He’s told me we’re in this together, but I am not so sure about that. I need cold, hard evidence before I will believe it.
I’m more than a little pleased, though. It’s nice to know I haven’t been the easiest to keep prisoner. I haven’t lost my touch. Maybe he isn’t quite as hard to read as he thinks he is.
“You shine up nice,” I say appreciatively when he shrugs out of his suit coat and leads me into the dining room. I can throw him a bone.
The room is set up with large vases of flowers in deep reds and oranges. The air is filled with the warm scents of cinnamon and clove, making my heart ache just a little. I don't miss my family, but I do love my homeland. The colors and scents remind me of the markets in Colombia.
I’ll get back there.
There’s a small table set for two a bit apart from the rest, and he leads me over to it.
“I shine up nice?” he says with a smirk. “I’d say the same for you, but you never lost your luster. Even when you’re angry, you’re beautiful.” He sighs. “Especially when you’re angry. You’re glowing, but it doesn’t take much to spark your eyes, does it?”
I stare at him before responding. There’s no hint of foul play or sarcasm in his tone.
He pulls out a chair for me while I stand frozen. “Did you just pay me a compliment?”
“Definitely not,” he says, shaking his head. I unfreeze and fold myself into the chair, giving him a curious look. “Just an observation,” he finishes.
“Right,” I say, remembering how my father would rant about my looks and scream about keeping me away from predators and men who would use me. I wasn’t allowed to wear anything tight or remotely appealing. I couldn’t wear makeup or two-piece bathing suits, and the day he caught me trying on lip gloss, he gave me a fat lip. His “protection” had nothing to do with me and everything to do with his own pride.
On the surface, it might seem Lev’s appreciation of me is something I would want. But I know better.
“Any word from my brother yet?” I ask, hoping he doesn’t notice the way my hand trembles when I reach for the wine glass. Before answering my question, he asks one of his own.
“Wine?” I blink at the label, taken aback. Marqués de Villa de Leyva. A nod to my homeland.
“Mmm. Please,” I say. He pours me a generous glass, and I close my eyes and inhale. My father died when I was eighteen. While others drank this exact wine to honor his death, I drank for another reason altogether—in celebration of the end of tyranny. The first layer of it, anyway. “So? Anything?”
“Yes. Javier has a few associates lurking nearby, but none of them have made a move yet.”
I smile at snapping cameras. We hold our wine glasses up next to each other as if they’re kissing and clink the rims. “He will,” I say, smiling at the camera. “Get me the names of who’s here and I can tell you exactly how. We’re not impermeable. He will either think you’ve captured me against my will and our marriage was a power move or that I’ve betrayed him and given myself over to the enemy, plotting an attack against him.” I shrug. “In both cases, he’d be right. Still. We have to be careful.”
He nods but doesn’t otherwise respond as his family enters the large room. I notice Viktor first, because he’s so huge it’s hard to miss him. I wonder idly if he books two plane tickets when he flies. His wife Lydia stands next to him, a full-figured, stunning woman with thick, wavy brown hair, wearing a red dress that shows off every curve and dips dangerously low, all the way to her navel. She catches my eye and blushes, wiggling her fingers at me. I smile and hold my glass to her.
Cheers to the women who married into this family because they had no other choice.
Aleksandr, the tall one with dark black hair, is sitting, talking to his mother, his wife Harper on his other side. I know them mostly from research. Harper was a Bianchi before she married into this family, and I know for a fact she can outshoot every damn person here.
I find all the brothers from the warehouse, but someone’s missing… hmm. Who’s missing? Oh, right, Nikko, the assassin. His wife Vera is often off somewhere doing fieldwork, and even though he was here earlier, he’s likely off on the trip with her.
And Mikhail. Where’s Mikhail? The eldest brother and leader of all, I need to keep my eye on him.
Wait… there he is. Walking in here now.
Others are present—people I don’t know and people who don’t matter for my purposes. Cousins and aunts and uncles, or associates and paid help, smaller, less powerful men from the Romanov Bratva, businessmen and women. Who knows, and who cares?
The one who matters the most is sitting right next to me.
