Chapter 27: Mikhail

Adriana looks beautiful.

The other day, I thought about how many beautiful women I’d been with and how she was right up there with the best of them. I take that back now, because I’d push to call her the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

I can imagine the women who are going to be at the dinner tonight will be envious.

The most beautiful thing about the princess is that she doesn’t know how beautiful she is. That makes her even more desirable.

I don’t know how that works, but it does.

Minutes ago, I walked into the bedroom and had to stop by the doorway to look at her as she stared at herself in the full-length mirror.

She still hasn’t seen me yet.

She’s wearing a black sleeveless cocktail dress that enhances her perfect frame.

I selected that dress for her for tonight’s event and had it delivered earlier.

She looks stunning in it, like it was made for her.

Her hair is down in loose graceful waves around her shoulders, and her face is lightly made up.

She’s the kind of woman who carries natural beauty and doesn’t need too much of anything. When she does add anything at all, whether it’s clothes or makeup, it’s more than striking.

The most elegant I’ve seen her look was when she was fitting her wedding dress. Before that, it was in Mexico right before I killed Felipe.

She could have all the beautiful dresses in the world, and I’m sure each would look like it was made to fit her, but my favorite thing is her naked body.

I allow my gaze to run over her body and take in every inch. It must be the heat of my watchful glare that makes her turn around. Her cheeks flush when she sees the way I’m looking at her.

I never hide my intentions. Never have and never will. It’s not my style, and I won’t start now.

I purposely stayed in my office all day because I wasn’t ready to talk to anybody.

Or specifically her. She saw a side of me last night I didn’t want anybody to see. I asked for it, though, because I drew attention to myself.

The way I am now just for looking at her.

She knows I want her, which makes her less afraid of me. I meant what I said last night, though, when she asked if I wanted her to think of me as a monster.

I don’t, and that’s in violation to what I set out to do.

“Thank you for the dress,” she says first.

“Looks nice on you.”

“Thanks. And thank you for allowing me to see José.”

“No worries.”

“How’s your shoulder?” She brings her hands together.

It still hurts like a bitch, but I’ve had worse done to me. Whatever she did helped.

“It’s good. Thanks for patching me up, princess.”

“You should still go to the hospital.”

I’ve had enough of hospitals. “I don’t need to. I’ll be fine. Are you ready?”

Nerves fill her face. “I think so. Who’s going to be there? I… just want to know.”

I should have told her before now. “My father, Sophia, my brother, an aunt from my mother’s side, and two cousins. That’s it.”

She looks more nervous than before, but we have no time for nerves.

I have important business to discuss with my father.

I hold out my hand to her, beckoning her to come to me. “Malyshka.”

She steps forward and walks toward me, taking my hand.

The maids all look when we walk down the stairs, everyone gazing at her in adoration, even the ones who don’t like her.

I know of the tension that exists in the house, and I’m partly to blame for it because I didn’t want the staff talking to her. That was mainly because I didn’t want them treating her unfavorably.

Aleksander is loyal to me, but he has a big mouth I don’t like sometimes.

When we get in my car, I realize this is the first time she will have gone anywhere with me and our first outing as a couple.

A quick look in the mirror shows me how good we look together and how she fits me.

We don’t talk on the journey to my family home, but I know she has questions. She’ll have questions about last night I won’t want to answer, and she’s curious about the room.

I knew when she’d entered the room long before I saw her, and I knew the room would fascinate her. It’s supposed to be fascinating.

When we arrive at the house, she looks so nervous her skin has gone pale, and there’s a tremor in her hands as she brings them together. I can imagine she must feel like the lamb going to the slaughterhouse.

Even when we get out of the car and she straightens her shoulders like she’s finding strength, I can tell she’s still nervous.

So, I take her hand.

I know I shock her, but I hold her hand like she’s mine because she is.

When we walk into the house, everyone is in the living room, where we normally meet for canopies first.

We’re the last to arrive, and we get the attention I expected we would as my family stop what they’re doing to look at us.

“Hello, everyone,” I say. “This is Adriana Alvarez, my fiancée.”

Even she looks at me when I give the announcement.

Sophia smiles sweetly. I avoid looking at Ivan because I clocked him the moment we stepped through the door and saw he was looking at her, just like I knew he would. I’d bet the motherfucker was counting down the hours until we arrived.

Father is the first to get up and make his way over to us. I’m not sure what to expect from him, but when a small smile cracks his wrinkled face, I feel more at ease.

I think out of everyone, Adriana was most worried about him.

“Good to meet you, my dear. I’m Sergei Dmitriyev, Mikhail’s father and Pakhan of the Baranov. Welcome to my home,” my father says, holding his hand out to shake Adriana’s.

She takes it and returns his smile. “Thank you for inviting me.”

Father cuts me a glance, and I know from that he’s all right with her. He was always going to be all right with my plan, but being okay with her is a different matter altogether.

“I can see for myself the rumors are true,” Ivan cuts in, walking up to us, too. “Adriana Alvarez is definitely a beauty.”

I don’t want him to touch her. I hardly want him to look at her. But I’d be completely overreacting if I said anything to him now or stopped him as he reaches out his hand to shake hers.

“I am Ivan Dmitriyev, Mikhail’s brother.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

She shakes his hand, and I notice how he grips hers when she tries to let go.

The asshole lifts her hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles.

“And you,” he replies, releasing her.

Adriana glances at me, probably sensing my disdain for my brother’s display of affection for what’s mine.

“Okay, now that we’re all here, let’s go to the dining room,” Father announces.

I’m sure he noticed my temper rising, too.

Moments later, we’re all seated around the dinner table, Adriana sitting next to me and opposite Ivan, who continues to fucking stare at her.

The only opposition I feel comes from both my cousins Marsha and Louise, my aunt Denise’s daughters, and I know the animosity isn’t down to their grief over my mother and sister. It’s jealousy.

Sophia, as always, lessens any tension and guides us into talking about things a normal family would discuss.

I need normal tonight for many reasons, and she provides it with her talk of flowers.

When the evening approaches that natural pause, my father motions to me, signaling he’s ready to talk. Before we arrived, I told him I needed to talk to him, so he was aware I’d be discussing business tonight.

I lean close to Adriana, and she looks at me.

“I have to step out for a few minutes. I won’t be long,” I tell her.

“Where are you going?” she whispers.

“I just have to talk to my father. When I get back, we’re going home.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her,” Sophia cuts in.

“Thanks, Sophia.”

I leave, following my father out of the room, but when I look back, Adriana is staring after me, and fucking Ivan is looking at me, too.

Father and I head to his office on the ground floor, where we sit together.

He has that weak look again, like he’s had enough.

I’m sure he has.

“Well done, son. She’s a nice girl,” he states. “I’m sure we’ve enraged many in Raul’s alliance just for having her.”

“I’m sure we have.”

“Are your plans still the same?” He raises his thick brows.

When I posed my idea to him about killing Raul and marrying his daughter to get control over the cartel, the plan was to either kill Adriana as soon as I didn’t need her or dispose of her by some other means. Of course, killing her would be the ultimate ending of revenge. In just one week, my mind has changed.

I can’t kill her, but I can’t see myself keeping her, either.

I still don’t know what I’ll be doing when I cross that bridge of marriage yet.

“I’m playing it by ear,” I decide to say.

“I leave it in your good hands, my son. What you’ve done so far is the sign of a good leader.”

“Are you dropping hints, Father?” I decide to aim for lighthearted so he can take the heavy stuff easier when we start talking about it.

He chuckles. “No, I’m not dropping hints.”

“But you already know who the next Pakhan will be,” I state bluntly, and he nods.

“I do. I always did. I did years ago. But this part is necessary to seal the deal. My decision can change like the wind.”

“And you want to meet me at the lake house because?” I quirk a brow.

“We won’t talk about that tonight. That’s an important meeting I want to have with you, just not now.”

“Okay, I’ll wait.”

His expression grows serious. “You’ve found something more to worry about, haven’t you?”

“I have. It’s not good, Father.”

I quickly fill him in on what’s been going on but leave out the part about it being someone inside the brotherhood. I’m saving that for last because he’s not going to take that well. He’s spent his life as Pakhan establishing loyalty among the ranks. It’s what he’ll be remembered for.

By the time I finish, he looks like he’s ready to breathe fire.

“So, we don’t know any more about this contract?” he demands.

“I believe it’s someone from inside our brotherhood,” I finally say, and the blood drains from his face.

“Our brotherhood, Mikhail?” His nostrils flare.

“Yes, Father. It makes sense, and now’s not the time to second-guess or pussyfoot around the shit. It would have been someone in our circle who would have known our movements or been feeding information. I don’t know if it’s one person or a group, but we need to watch our backs.”

“God in Heaven. This just goes from bad to worse.”

“I know.”

“Where are we at now?”

“I want to keep this between us for the moment, and I suggest an investigation on everyone who’s working for us.”

“Everyone.” He says this more like a statement than a question.

“Yes. We can’t afford to slip up. Eric is still checking things out.”

He nods. “Okay. And agreed. I will speak to Aiden Romanov personally and thank him for lending us one of his finest men.”

I dip my head. “Father, you know Eric would have helped outside of our alliance of the Bratva.”

“Yes. It’s a shame we can’t have such faith in our own men. I can’t begin to tell you how this makes me feel.” He bares his teeth and balls his hands into tight fists that shake more because of his ailments. “Someone we know and trusted with our lives was watching us, and they took your mother away from me.”

“I know how you feel, Father.”

He shakes his head. “My son, I know you loved you mother and sister with all your heart. It’s commendable how you took care of them. But you don’t know how I feel. Your mother was the love of my life, and you kids were the result of that love. The only way I could show my love for her was in my art. When I couldn’t do that any longer, I took comfort in just being with her. When you meet the woman who feels like the other half of your soul, nothing can describe what it feels like when you lose her.”

Few things grip me to the point where I feel in touch with my soul. He always seems to guide me to that place. I have no words of comfort for him, and I feel inadequate for it.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s enough to tell you how sorry I am.”

“Because nothing is enough, my son. Nothing will ever be enough. Loving her was my strength, and now it’s my weakness. Weakness is a curse in the Bratva. To be weak is to sign your death certificate, yet I chose it, and now it’s crippled me. There’s a hole in my heart that can never be filled again. Now that she’s gone, all I look forward to is death.”

The lifeless tone of his voice buries a hole into my own heart and disarms me. He’s right about weakness and love. Love is the fastest way to become weak because your enemies use it against you to destroy you from the inside out.

My father looks destroyed.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice warns me not to allow the same thing to happen to me. It’s laughable, though, because I always thought I was incapable of such love. But perhaps the voice beckons to me now because I’ve encountered my match. A woman I’ve been obsessed with owning and staking my claim to her body since the first look I got of her.

This is a dangerous thing that could cost me, and I can’t allow that to happen.

Father draws in a measured breath and tries to calm himself. I can tell he’s still worked up. I expect him to be, and it must be eating him up from the inside out that he can’t be the ruthless leader he used to be.

If he were his old self, there’s no way he’d allow anyone else besides him to be out on the street searching for the truth and justice.

“I promise you I will fix this,” I tell him, and he nods.

“I know you will. I’m grateful for the way you’ve literally come back from the dead and taken this on.”

“Thanks, Father. Remember we still have control of the cartel. That’s a big win the enemy never anticipated. They also never anticipated me. I wasn’t supposed to survive.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“So, take comfort that I have this in hand.”

I need him to believe me and trust my capabilities. Especially for the goal I have in mind. Like fuck am I going to allow him to choose Ivan to be Pakhan when I have all the skills it would take to lead the brotherhood the way our forefathers did.

That’s why I need to stay focused. It’s imperative now more than ever that I do.

He rests a hand on my shoulder and nods.

“I do, Mikhail. I do take comfort in all you do. And I trust you to figure this out. You have my permission to do whatever you see fit and use whatever resources you need to, to accomplish this task of securing the company and the Brotherhood.”

“My thanks, Father.”

This week, I allowed my lust for a woman I’m supposed to be using to get the better of me. I need to gain control of my ability to think and eradicate this problem hanging over our heads. Our future and safety depend on it.

My future and safety depend on it, as does everything I’ve worked so hard for.

I can’t allow anything to clash with that, not even Adriana.

No matter what I feel for her.