Chapter 4: Mikhail

Present time...

I keep my gaze trained on the princess in her wedding dress as she walks ahead of me with two of my soldiers on either side of her.

The old man—Raul’s senior lieutenant—is behind me.

I want Raul to see her first. I need him to recognize I was serious about his destruction and taking his only pride.

His beloved daughter, Adriana Alverez, will be the last thing he sees before he leaves this world.

Three weeks ago, when I awoke from the coma I’d been in for nearly three months, Felipe’s face was the first image that came to my mind.

What followed next was the full memory of the ambush that motherfucker set up to kill my mother and sister right before my eyes. At that moment, the realization struck me that Raul sent him because Felipe Naveed doesn’t do anything outside Raul’s orders.

It was a good assassination plot, except for the fact that I lived. I was the thing that went wrong.

I wasn’t supposed to be alive to place Felipe at the scene of the crime, or to track anything back to Raul to bring on the massacre I rained down earlier today.

Dead men tell no tales, but I lived to sing them and avenge my mother and sister.

Raul will feel my wrath, and Adriana will witness it.

She’s the reason he kept his silence as I tortured him. He thought he could save her by refusing to talk and tell me why he did what he did.

All his refusal did was confirm the suspicion already churning my gut, telling me he wasn’t working alone.

His actions were already suspicious as fuck. Sure, Raul Alvarez is a powerful man with the type of thirst to conquer akin to most cartel kings. I wouldn’t be exaggerating by saying he runs Mexico, but the Baranov Bratva is world-renowned for our infamy. You wouldn’t be idiot enough to kill the wife and daughter of the Pakhan out of the blue and think you could get away with it.

But there’s a hell of a lot more to this story than simply wanting to conquer a world-renowned giant. I will find out exactly what’s going on.

The princess stumbles, and one of my men rights her by grabbing her arm.

That’s when I notice the bruise on her cheek she would have gotten when that imbecile knocked her out.

I dealt with him after for doing so. He went against my orders and harmed her.

I meant what I said back in the dungeon. Even with blood, guts, and bruises on her, she is beautiful with the striking beauty to rival all the angels.

I’d be a liar and more of a sinner than I already am if I didn’t admit to finding her as insanely attractive as my men, who I catch stealing glances at her.

People everywhere have only heard whispers of how beautiful Raul Alvarez’s daughter is. The fact Raul kept her a mystery only increased the allusion to her beauty.

The real-life version of her certainly beat what I conjured in my mind.

Those bright, large hazel eyes against her vibrant olive skin are breathtaking. As is her body.

She’s petite at about five four but has that perfect shape with the right amount of curves to define her hips and fully rounded breasts I’m going to enjoy playing with.

That silky black hair flowing down her elegant back is an invitation to run my fingers through it. Or lace them through the silky fibers as I thrust my cock into her gorgeous mouth.

That was the first thing I wanted to do when I saw those lips of hers.

Such a pity our first meeting was of me killing her fiancé.

Then again, I can’t imagine which other way I would have met her. That wedding of hers was only going to be between the cartel members that make up Raul’s empire.

She’s a woman any man would want to keep. People like me take note of beauty for different reasons. Even in my dirty, filthy mind, in the moment I first saw her, my reason was purity, but that makes no sense. From what I’ve heard, there is nothing innocent about Adriana Alvarez and she’s as evil as her father. So, I’ll make sure she gets what’s coming to her.

Right now, she’s a trophy I’ve come to collect. An emblem of my victory and the bond that will glue my takeover of leadership in the cartel. That is all she is to me, and something to fuck.

For now.

Once I give her the hard fuck my dick is aching to wield on her, I’ll get any fascination over her beauty and her body out of my system.

The only reason she’s not dead yet is because I need her.

There’s something, though, that struck me as peculiar about her.

When I told her I was going to kill her father, she never begged for his life. She never said anything.

Not a damn thing. And she never even looked shaken for him or shed the tears I thought she might.

It’s a mystery to me, one I won’t worry about right now. We’re just approaching the hall Raul uses to conduct his business meetings.

That’s where I have him tied up.

I left Sebastian, my second-in-command, in charge. Inside the same room the heads of the families in Raul’s alliance should also be gathered—waiting.

My men open the doors, and we walk into the Arthurian-style hall.

I’ve got Raul shirtless and bound to two metal poles. Blood stains his skin from the top of his head down to the waistband of his pants, and bruises mar his aged face. I messed him up before I went down to the dungeon.

I haven’t been here many times before. But two of those times, he’d tortured some poor bastard to death for entertainment. That’s why those poles are there. Raul is a sick fucker with a penchant for watching people die.

Tonight, I have a box on the table with something special inside for additional entertainment.

I get the desired effect I was hoping for when Raul’s gaze lands on his daughter.

His eyes widen with shock and his lips move, but he can’t talk because I sliced out his tongue. The only sounds he can make are the groaning noises pouring out of his mouth. Tears run down his cheeks when he realizes no one can understand whatever the fuck it is he’s saying, and his precious daughter is at my mercy. That garble coming out of his mouth is nothing but shit to me. My mother and sister never even had the chance to beg for their lives or each other.

Besides, I already gave him his chance.

I tortured the motherfucker for eight hours before I sliced out his tongue.

Eight hours, yet the man kept his silence. The only reason I knew his silence was to protect his daughter is because I tortured that part out of him after noting his behavior.

His resilience seemed to come from the love of a father wanting to protect his daughter. Knowing I was keeping her alive fueled his obstinance, and I could see he didn’t care if I killed him. It’s her he was worried about. I would have gouged out his eyes, too, in true Bratva style, but I wanted him to witness this moment.

The moment his kingdom falls.

Opposite him are the twelve cartel heads in his alliance. Like fucking knights, they’re seated around the circular table in the center of the hall. When they see me, they look like they’re ready to shit themselves.

Their reaction is not due to knowing me, but because they thought I was dead, too. My family kept my survival quiet.

From the way Raul is behaving, the men switch their shocked gazes from me to Adriana. This will be their first introduction to her.

While Raul’s shrieks get louder and the asshole starts crying, I acknowledge my guests with a bright smile, like I’m hosting the Academy Awards ceremony.

“Evening, gentlemen.” I speak in English so they will all understand me. I understand Spanish and speak it on a minimal basis, but I won’t do it here. Right now, they need to understand what’s happening and what’s going to happen from here onwards. “As you can see, there have been some changes.”

“What is happening?” the man closest to me asks cautiously. His name is Antonio. He deals primarily in gun trafficking, but like the others, dabbles heavily in the flesh trade. We met once at a fundraiser in New York my father hosted.

“You’ll see.” I reach for Adriana, pulling her right next to me. I then cup the back of her neck and grip her silky-smooth skin. Her neck is so tiny it would be easy to snap it. But I don’t want to do that—not yet. “I wish to introduce you to Raul’s daughter, Adriana Alvarez. Now that everyone knows each other, we can get down to business.”

I walk Adriana closer to Raul, and he thrashes against the restraints in protests. Nothing he does will help him now. Or her.

Terror reigns in his eyes. As its wielder, I savor the surge of power intoxicating my blood.

I stop a few inches away, and she squirms against my grasp. Her fear, however, checks her and restrains her from doing more.

“Gentlemen,” I announce, pulling my knife from the sheath on my side. “This is the traitor who killed my mother and my sister. Isabella and Talia Dmitriyev. This is the day I take his life for theirs. His blood will spill for theirs. This is also the day I will take his empire and everything inside it.”

I look into Raul’s eyes, and he starts shaking.

“Apart from you, these are the only two people I left alive,” I tell him. “See you in hell, Raul Alvarez.”

In one swift move I slash his throat, and blood sprays his princess and me. She screams a piercing sound, and still I note she never begged for her father’s life.

Because I promised on my mother’s life I’d kill Raul the same way he killed her, I drop the knife and pull out my gun as Raul sputters.

I cock the hammer and pull the trigger, giving him the final blow.

As his blood splashes on me once more, I don’t even bother to note it.

Still holding Adriana by her neck, I straighten and hoist her up. There’s very little white left on the front of her wedding dress. Most of it is either red from the cocktail of blood all over it or grimy brown from the dungeon floor.

She’s crying with true terror while the old man looks on with awe.

I might feel sorry for her, too, if I were a better man.

Turning back to my guests, I see they realize I mean business.

I have one more shocker to pull from my sleeves before I tell them what I expect them to do next.

I open the box on the table and take out Felipe’s head, holding it by the hair on top. A ripple of gasps rushes across the room and the princess heaves like she’s going to vomit at the sight of her beloved fiancé. It shouldn’t irritate me that she belonged to him, or was going to, but it fucking does. That’s probably testament to how fucked my mind is.

Blood runs down my arm as I throw Felipe’s head onto the table. It rolls toward the center, and the men look at it.

Felipe was to be their next leader. Now he is no more.

Fear keeps people in line. With men like these, you have to rain down a taste of Armageddon to show them you have the power. Everything I’ve done so far has added fuel to that goal. They’ll know by now, even without me saying so, I mean to take charge.

They’re not going to like having the Bratva control one of the biggest cartels in this world. But to truly take over Raul’s empire, I want the men on board without the shit of a mutiny.

Either they sign the blood oath, or they’re dead. It’s as simple as that.

With my blood-smeared hand I taint her cheeks by running her father’s blood over it.

I then turn back to the men and look each of them in the eye.

“I’m your ruler now. I, Mikhail Dmitriyev, will be your ruler, and to make it official, I’ll be marrying Adriana Alvarez one month from today.” The princess goes limp on hearing my declaration. This will be an interesting twist of events for her, but something that must be done for me to acquire the cartel and ownership of all Raul’s assets in his empire. “I expect you all to be there to witness our union, the same way I expect you to sign your allegiance to me. Those of you who are in, raise your hand.”

All twelve raise their hand.

Good. Mission accomplished.

I signal for Sebastian to come over. When he does, I hand him Adriana.

“Take her upstairs to wait,” I tell him. “Leave the old man.”

“No, please don’t hurt him,” Adriana begs.

The shrill tone of her voice and the desperation in her eyes as she begs shock me.

She’s a mess after seeing me kill her father and looking at Felipe’s head, but it’s now she really looks like she’s about to lose her shit.

Now that I’ve threatened the old man’s life.

“Please don’t kill him.”

“Get her the fuck out of here,” I bark, and Sebastian, along with another man, hauls her out and carries my wife-to-be away.

I glance at the old man and wonder how deep her relationship with him is.

He looks like he’s in his late sixties, but that’s nothing these days. I’m not sure if the relationship is romantic, though. She screamed for him the way a child would for their parent. It was how I expected her to react for Raul.

I’ll need to talk to him some more. Depending on what he says, I’ll establish if he’ll be useful to me or not.

Then I’ll go and see her.