Chapter 13: Mikhail

As Eric Markov walks into my office, I force my mind back to reality and stop thinking of the woman I’ve been trying for the last few hours to get out of my head.

I managed to tamp down my rage yesterday by staying away.

I worked late to finish up the paperwork and prepare everything in advance for the week ahead, but I didn’t need to. As much as I wanted to bury my cock deep inside the princess, I was in that place again where I needed to shake off the shit and cool off.

I was doing a good job until I tasted her sweet pussy.

The taste of her is still in my mouth, and I don’t want it to go.

Eric’s presence is important, but I’m so hyped up on lust for my wife-to-be that I can’t think straight.

A quizzical smile settles on Eric’s face when he looks at me, and I push the last thoughts of Adriana Alvarez out of my mind.

This man is my last ace. He offers the kind of help no one else will be able to give me to solve the rest of this mystery to protect my family and legacy.

We met a few years back just after he’d joined the Bratva. It’s always good to see him because we get on so well. It could have to do with the fact that we hold the same positions in our brotherhoods, or that our temperament is quite similar. He, however, has a more lackadaisical approach to life that I lack.

I’m always serious. Always. With a brother like Ivan, I’ve had to be.

Eric is from the Voirik, who are based in L.A. There are five brotherhoods in the States that have had a longstanding alliance that goes way back to the early days of the Vory. The Voirik are one of them. His Pakhan, Aiden Romanov, however, has ties to my family that go beyond that because of their logistics company and similar business interests. We both mine diamonds, but we also mine and refine uranium. That’s what Dmitriyev Ltd specializes in, with the diamond mining activities forming a subsidiary. That’s where we made our fortune.

It’s also where the logistics company comes in handy and why Eric meets with us on a regular basis. Like me, he looks after the money going in and out.

Today, his visit will work in my favor, because he’s possibly the only person I can confide my worries in.

“Hello, old friend,” he says, taking the seat before me.

“Hey. Thanks for coming.”

“No worries. How are you doing? Last time I saw you, you were attached to tubes.”

This is the first time we’ve seen each other in months. He would have been one of the few select people in our alliance to know I survived the assassination attempt. And because he’s one of the few people I call a friend, he would have come to visit me while I was in the hospital and dead to the world.

“I’m okay.” I’m probably not by medical standards, but I have to be.

“Well, it’s good to see you on your feet.”

“Thanks. It’s good to be back.”

“Looks like you’re back in action, too,” he observes.

“I am.”

“Should you be?” He inclines his head, and his longish dark blond hair falls to the side.

I give him a firm nod. “I need to be back in action.”

“Your message sounded important,” he states.

“It is.”

Instantly, his bright blue eyes cloud with concern. “Has something else happened?”

“In a way, yes, and I need your help.”

“You have it. What’s going on, Mikhail?”

Apart from knowing I woke from the coma and the confirmation of Talia’s death, no one knows what’s happening yet. My father is going to hold a conference call tomorrow and inform the members of our alliance of Raul’s treachery. He’ll also let them know we have control over his cartel.

Eric, however, will be the first to find out the full details.

I drag in a breath and tell him everything. I tell him much more than I did my family because I can be real with him, and the moment I started talking about Raul, I knew he was on the same page.

“Fuck,” he breathes and runs a hand over his beard when I finish. “Mikhail, I get what your father is saying, but there’s definitely something more going on that needs to be addressed. It sounds that way.”

“Yes,” I agree. “But now that the investigation team can’t find shit, I don’t know where else to look.”

“So, you want me to do it?” He smirks, and I nod.

Eric is a computer wizard and has a habit of being able to dig a little deeper than everyone else.

“Yeah. I’m at a loss. Other than what I’m already doing, I don’t know what else I can do.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take a look at what the team found, and I’ll go over everything.”

“Thank you.” I’m already at ease.

“And you’re getting married next weekend?” He raises a brow.

“Yeah, marry the princess and take control of the cartel,” I reply, and he gives me a nonchalant smile.

“And show their alliance you own them forever.”

“Exactly.”

As much as he loves his wife and fell in love the vanilla way, he’s as ruthless as I am, so he won’t question me any further about what I think about what I’m about to do.

He’ll know Adriana Alvarez is a means to an end and an emblem of defeat.

“Congrats on your conquest.” He smiles. “Having control of the Alvarez Cartel is no mere thing. I’m sure that will add to your good favor regarding the upcoming decision of leadership.”

“I hope so.”

Like everyone else, he’s aware of the animosity between Ivan and me, and the increased tension between us now that we know my father’s plans.

“I’m sure it will,” he agrees. “Well, leave investigating Raul to me. If there’s anything more to find, I’ll find it.”

I don’t doubt that.

“Thank you.”

Now all I have to worry about is the princess.

I manage to finish everything I have planned for the rest of the day.

When I get ready to leave, I think of the princess again. It’s just past ten, so I’m guessing she could be in bed by now.

I haven’t received any calls from Aleksander, so she must have been the good little lamb I thought she’d be. After this morning, I am interested to see what I’m going to come home to.

Since I have access to the house’s security system set up on my computer, I decide to take a quick look.

I find the camera in my bedroom and see her sitting in the corner of the room by the window. She has her knees hugged to her chest and her head resting on top of her knees.

Curled up like that, she looks smaller and helpless. That childlike position illustrates her defeat and makes her seem younger than her nineteen years.

It’s then I remember she’s barely a woman.

Seeing her in my room feels strange, but she’s a pretty sight I can’t wait to explore again and stake my claim on.

Poor thing. She will have anxiously waited all day, wondering what was going to happen to her. I have her daily schedule regimented, but the times when she’s by herself must seem like an eternity of torture for not knowing anything about me, or what I plan to do to her next.

I know she’s fucking worried about José, too. I don’t care what relationship she has with him; I don’t like it. I am a possessive prick, but there’s more to them that grates on my nerves. More I can’t put my fucking finger on.

When she lifts her head, I realize she’s crying.

I have no sympathy for tears. They don’t work on men like me, but something about seeing her like that gets to me, and I remember her words from yesterday.

Is it true?

Is she really not evil?

She sounded sure I wouldn’t think she was evil.

Would it matter?

Maybe. Maybe it would matter in terms of how I treated her. Or maybe it wouldn’t.

I don’t know either way. What I do know is, regardless of where she came from, I’m attracted to her.

So, what would I think of her if I knew her?

The word on the street in Mexico is that Raul’s spawn is just as ruthless as him. I’ve heard of her doing terrible things to the house staff. Shit you wouldn’t expect a woman of that age to think of.

People from all over fear my family as much as they revere them and would never fuck with us, but there are different categories of evil. We wouldn’t kill for fun, or some fucking shit like kill just to see what a person looked like dead. That’s what Raul was like. He was fucking crazy.

People tell tall tales and say all manner of shit to keep others in line, but that stuff about him and his daughter would have been mostly true.

I don’t think I have enough information to make up my mind about her, but what my eyes are showing me is something entirely different to what I’ve heard.

What I detect in her eyes is pain.

I see the deep pain a person would feel when they’ve suffered great hardship and loss. She has the sort of look most often associated with a person who’s lost everything. Like the poor and the destitute. It’s not what I expect from a cartel princess.

The pain in her eyes would almost mirror my own pain for my loss. And at the same time, it doesn’t. Her pain seems to run deeper.

That makes me even more curious than I already am about her. Particularly when something in my core tells me the pain I’m witnessing isn’t due to her loss of Raul and Felipe, and it’s not the situation with me either. Or her worry over José.

If it’s not any of those things, then what is it for?

Who could have hurt her?

Who hurt her more than me?

She gazes right at the camera, and while I know she has no idea I’m watching her; she’s looking at it like she can see me.

Looking at me with those bright hazel eyes that add more to her ethereal beauty. I’ve had many beautiful women on my arm, and beneath me, in my years.

Adriana Alvarez is no less beautiful than any of them. There’s something about her, though, that prevents her from just being another face in the host of beauties looking to be attached to me because of who I am and what it means to be mine.

This woman wants nothing to do with me. If I were to open the gates, she’d run far, far away from me, never looking back.

Knowing that makes me want her even more.

She belongs to me now. She’s as much mine as the cartel and the Alvarez empire will be once we get married.

I own her, and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do to stop me from doing whatever I want to do to her. Whenever I want.

I close the link when she sets her head back down onto her knees and finish packing up.

By the time I reach home, my cock is so hard for my fiancée I nearly blow my load just thinking about her tight pussy. The bulge presses against my pants and only grows when I walk into my room and find her asleep on the bed. The main light is off, but the lamp on the nightstand is on.

I take a quick shower in the en-suite and head back into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around my bottom half.

When I stop by the window to pull the drapes closed, I look at her again and notice the change in her breathing pattern. I know she’s no longer sleeping and is aware of my presence in the room.

I smell her fear, and all it does is entice me.

I smell her arousal, and all that does is make me want to fuck her even more.

“I know you’re not sleeping, Malyshka,” I say, breaking the blanket of silence settling over the room.

A visible shudder ripples over her skin, moving the sheet that’s pulled over her shoulders, then she turns to face me with those beautiful eyes.

They’re puffy and swollen now from crying, but still beautiful.

And now that I’m looking at her, I want to be inside her even more than I did before.