Page 88 of Marked By the Devil

Alexei sighed and rubbed his face. “He’s just trying to hit back at us because we’ve been prosperous all this time he’s been in hiding.”

“Not to take back the throne?” Wren asked. “Seems like a lot of effort just to hit you as hard as he can. Those hits—and those bribes—cost a lot.”

“I think he’s trying to take the throne back,” Lev said, narrowing his eyes. “And if he attempts to⁠—”

“Yes, yes,” Alexei grumped. “We know. We’ll make sure he wishes he were dead.”

I frowned at my cousin. He was often dismissive of what Lev said. They were brothers, after all. But with this re-emergence of Gregori, there was no missing how tense he was.

“We all will make sure of that,” Adrik said, giving Alexei a pointed look.

Wren glanced at me, curious, and I wasn’t sure what to think either.

Alexei had always been a guarded and quiet loner, but I had always wondered if Gregori trying to take over the throne by killing our grandparents and trying to kill our father had intimidated him, such that he would’ve become the heir to the throne instead of Adrik.

There was no point in borrowing trouble to wonder about it now.

Adrik would become the Pakhan any day now.

And we would all stand with him, stronger together.

32

WREN

Everyone was in favor of my idea and I relished the pride of being able to contribute a solid plan to the family. To the Bratva that was feeling like my family, even if Viktor didn’t want to officially make me part of the family.

We spent most of the day planning how to expose the bribed agents and to ensure that they wouldn’t be able to change the narrative. Stefan Rossi, a Mob boss in New York, shared his ideas in a video call because he and his relatives had dealt with that concept before.

Or at least he’d had experience with exposing politicians.

“They want to hide whatever they can from the public and keep everything down to flashy news bites and viral stories that put the heat on others,” he advised.

I wasn’t sure how much Smithson or anyone else could try to hide anything when we planned to share all the photos and videos of him accepting bribe money. Even the digital transactions were ready to be shared as images. Receipts mattered in this day and age.

All throughout the planning phase, Viktor kept me involved. He didn’t shut me out. None of the men acted like I couldn’t be there or be trusted. After the all-nighter I’d put in to stop that collaborative attack from happening, I felt like I’d earned their trust now.

Still, being near Viktor prompted me to think back to all that he’d said this morning.

Was he trying to propose?

Or am I just wishing he would?

We hadn’t even told each other that we loved each other, and a silly part of the hopeless romantic that I was wanted that to happen, too.

Just be grateful for what you have so far.

At that moment, a rise of nausea in my stomach triggered me to almost gag.

Nikolai noticed me grimacing across the table and raised his brows at me. “You okay?”

I nodded, not ready to share my suspicions about whether I could be pregnant yet. When I did, I hoped to do so when it was just me and Viktor.

“Well, with this news conference tonight about policy changes,” Maksim said, “we’ll be sure to have ample attention when the reporter we’ve tipped off speaks up.”

I bit my lip, still a little nervous about it going smoothly. There would be plenty of attention on them, all right, but I wanted to know how they’d react. Storm off and hide? Argue and say that the rumors were lies?

The reporter was just another Bratva member, a daughter of a boss who handled the distribution of arms. She had a different surname, though, so when she spoke up, she’d be seen as an independent party, not affiliated with the Bratva.