Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
The U.S. didn’t have that problem. Capitalism meant corruption was easy. Greed made men predictable. It was cheaper now to bribe a U.S. official than a Russian one.
More families were looking at expanding into the States.
The only thing stopping them had been Gregor. But if he had gone weak…
The sharks were circling, waiting for blood in the water.
I slid my phone back into my pocket and debated what to do next.
But when I turned around, Marina was already there, standing in the doorway.
Hands thrust into the pockets of the hotel robe drowning her small frame.
Her eyes met mine. Her stance was set, braced, as if she were preparing for impact.
“I need to ask you something,” she said.
Fuck. Whatever this was, I wasn’t going to like it.
“Okay,” I said carefully. I couldn’t lie to her. But I was already prepared to dodge the truth like it was a fucking bullet.
“Why did you marry my sister?”
CHAPTER 24
KOSTYA
Marina stared at me, her gaze unwavering, expectation burning in her eyes.
She’d asked a direct question and wanted a direct answer.
Under different circumstances, I would have dodged. Deflected. Or simply refused to answer at all. But I had no intention of letting Marina go. She was going to be part of this life, whether she liked it or not.
I had no idea how she would respond. And that unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.
I always knew how people would react to my words. With fear. Respect. Anger. Some even pissed themselves. I had every possible outcome mapped out before they opened their mouths, ready with an appropriate response before they had the chance to think.
But Marina was unpredictable.
She didn’t react the way she was supposed to.
That should have been her most annoying trait. It wasn’t.
It was maddening, yes. But it was also…intoxicating.
My world was built on precision. Efficiency. Everything in its place. Every variable accounted for.
Marina? She was chaos wrapped in silk. And fuck if I didn’t want to unravel her.
“How much do you know about your sister’s family?” I asked, my voice steady. “Specifically, her mother?”
Her lips parted slightly, then pressed into a thin line. She chewed her bottom lip—a nervous habit I’d noticed—but she didn’t answer right away. Instead, she turned on her heel and walked into the other room, tossing a wave over her shoulder for me to follow.
A test.
I sighed through my nose, raking a hand through my hair before following her.
The scent of butter and garlic hit me first. My gaze landed on the coffee table, now covered with more trays of food, silver domes gleaming under the warm light.
I arched a brow in silent question.
She shrugged, feigning innocence. “I was hungry. I wanted more food. And I figured after the whole chasing-me-down thing, you owed me.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth despite myself. God, she was something else.
She curled onto the sofa, tucking her legs beneath her, and lifted one of the domes to reveal an absurdly large plate of pasta topped with an entire lobster.
“Order whatever you wish,” I said, shrugging.
I considered sitting next to her, feeling the pull of her proximity like a magnetic force. But if I was going to give her the truth, I needed space. I needed to move. I needed somewhere to put this gnawing, foreign anxiety.
I paced the length of the room, rolling my shoulders back, hands on my hips as I tried to find the right words. But the tension stretched tight between us, and I knew the wrong word could shatter the fragile truce we’d barely managed to hold onto.
Marina twirled a forkful of pasta, watching me, her expression unreadable. “I don’t know much about her mother’s side of the family. I knew she came from money and influence. That was all anyone ever told me.”
I nodded for a moment. “They didn’t just come from money. Veronika’s maternal grandfather was a mafia boss. Her mother was a mafia princess.”
She stared at me, then gestured with her fork for me to continue before twirling another bite of the fettuccine noodles around the tines.
The way her eyes slid closed in pleasure as she chewed was...distracting.
I clenched my jaw, forcing my thoughts back into line. “Veronika’s mother’s mafia family had been dying out, but they still had business contacts, assets, and a few other contracts that the Ivanov family wanted. The only way for us to secure them was through marriage. So a contract was made, and Veronika and I were married. It was only ever a business arrangement.”
“Did you love her?” she asked.
“No,” I answered honestly. “But I wanted to. When I found out about the contract and what it was going to entail, I had hoped that she and I could grow to love each other, but she had no interest in that. I could have forced it, but…” I left the rest unsaid.