Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 79211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Cold and cruel, merciless and feared. Aleksandr Romanov is my nemesis... And my new husband.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER ONE
Aleksandr
“I’ll do whatever it takes, Mikhail. Whatever our family fucking needs.” When I close my eyes, I can still see my brother Lev, his face beaten to a bloody pulp. Unrecognizable. It was a threat, a thinly veiled warning meant to send a message to my brothers: we’re watching.
Jumped after a late-night gym session, it was five against one. Lev is a formidable opponent, but his pair of fists didn’t stand a chance against the pack of five masked men wielding broken bottles, a length of pipe, and a goddamn baseball bat.
We’ll find who did this and when we do, they’ll wish they were never fucking born. But until then, we have to plan our next move strategically.
My older brother Mikhail paces in front of me, his hands shoved into his pockets. The blue light from our computer monitors casts shadows on the floor of his dimly lit office.
We’ve been at this all damn night. Empty pizza boxes are piled haphazardly in a corner of the room, the emergency stash of vodka long gone. The entire atmosphere of the room is charged, the weight of our decision impacting all of us.
We haven’t been able to find out who beat him. Not yet. But we got the message. The death of our enemy Fyodor Volkov was only the beginning.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, my eyes stinging from staring at the computer screen for way too long.
Mikhail blows out a breath. “I know. That’s the problem, Aleks. I want to be sure bringing the Bianchis in through marriage is the best next move.”
I push away from the desk and stretch, my muscles aching from lifting earlier and sitting too damn long. On instinct, I glance at my phone to check the security details of our family. I’m always on hyperalert, but ever since Lev took a beating, I’m damn near glued to the screen.
I glance through the list of everyone who isn’t present. My mother and Polina are both at home, Viktor and Nikko in their homes, our younger brother Ollie in Moscow. Lev is still in the hospital. I can fit my entire world in the palm of my hand.
The security cameras show nothing out of place, including the two men we have in holding we transported back here to America from Russia.
I sit back down while Mikhail continues to pace.
“Mikhail, it’s probably best we don’t make decisions when we’ve been up all night.” Kolya leans back in his chair and strokes his beard threaded with silver. The group mastermind, my late father’s war buddy, Kolya’s taken on the position of father figure of the group even though he’s only half a generation older than we are and younger than my father was.
While Mikhail and I have changed into tees and jeans, Kolya’s still more formally attired in a dress shirt and neatly pressed pants. He’s well-meaning but ought to know by now you don’t talk me or Mikhail into letting anything go when the security of our family’s at stake.
Still, Kolya tries. “Go to bed. Go home to Aria.”
“Home to Aria?” Mikhail’s wife Aria appears in the doorway, wearing Mikhail’s tee and sweats, the only clothes that apparently fit her when she’s stuck in the office nine months pregnant. Her hair’s in a messy bun, her glasses perched on the edge of her nose. She has a laptop in one hand and a large plastic cup filled with something vibrantly pink, in the other. “I’ve been here working in between naps the whole time, I just didn’t want anything to do with the vodka shots for obvious reasons.”
Before Aria came, I was the group cybersecurity expert…at least ostensibly. We all knew the real job I got paid the big bucks for doing was hacking — until Aria showed me she was better. I’ve gotten over it, though, mostly because she isn’t just better than I am. She’s better than anyone in the goddamn world.
Aria isn’t well-versed in Bratva business, though, which is why she sticks to some jobs, and I do others.
“C’mere.” Mikhail sits in his office chair and gestures for her to come to him. She sidles onto his lap and plunks her computer on the desk. The real reason she’s here is because Mikhail doesn’t let her out of his sight. Not that I blame him. If I cared for anyone half as much as he does her, I wouldn’t let them out of my sight either.
“I’ve been listening to everything you said, I just needed to do so in a comfortable position.” She nestles in against my brother. “Though if I knew you were this comfortable…”
He kisses her temple and wraps his arms around her, whispering something I can’t hear in her ear.
I look back at my computer, a headache brewing behind my eyes.
“Aria, what’s your take?” I ask. If there’s anything I love about my sister-in-law, it’s that she is absolutely Mensa-level brilliant, likely the smartest person I’ve ever met. Just for fun, she learned Russian in a few short months. She can out-code anyone in the goddamn world. In the digital age, having the world’s best hacker on our team puts us at a decided advantage.