"Where are you going?"
"My love I'm going to get us out of here. I will be right here, I promise."
Before she could ask any more questions, I kissed her, hard and deep and with as much conviction as I could muster. If anything was going to give me the drive to get us out of this mess, it was her.
I wasn't going to let her die like this, and when I got us safely home, I was going to wage real war on Timoshenko. This was a line he should never have crossed, and tonight of all nights he was not going to succeed.
Confident that the lull in the rain of bullets was a signal that the shooter had done his worst, I hopped into the front in the gap between the two front seats and slid down into the passenger footwell.
"I'm sorry, my old friend," I whispered as I reached over to unclip Arkadi's seatbelt. Crossing myself in silent prayer, I unclipped it and reached over him to open the car door. Arkadi was a big man, but with a well timed shove, he slumped right out of the seat and onto the cold ground. "I will give you a good burial, my friend. I promise you this. And I will not let this go unpunished."
I'd never been so furious in my life. All I had done was offer peaceable solutions so that bloodshed could be avoided, but Timoshenko would rather rip our city and all our Bratva comrades to shreds just to make his point and satisfy his ego. It made me sick to think that Mia could have so easily met the same fate.
There was no going back from this. Revenge was the only option.
I was able to slide into the driver's seat and pull the door closed, hoping that no one was foolish enough to risk the police arresting them by waiting around for a second go.
The windshield was entirely shattered, and the pattern was frozen like the splinters that run across ice on a pond that won't smash through. I knew that unlike the side windows, which would biscuit into sugar lumps, the glass of the windshield was designed to stick together like a perfect sheet of chewy toffee and that was just what it had done. Only the bullet holes that had hit Arkadi had gone clean through.
Turning the key in the ignition, I prayed that the gas tank hand not been shot out, and my prayers were answered just as I heard the wail of sirens coming closer. I hit the gas, putting the car into gear and pulling away sharply.
I had no time to get the police involved and no trust that they would not be complicit in the whole mess. Right now, I couldn't be confident of anything any longer. Timoshenko had made his move and I had to assume that the Bratva was against me until I could prove otherwise.
Trusting no one was the safest option.
Back at the apartment building, I pulled Mia out of the car, lifting her up into my arms and jogging up the steps without even feeling her weight. She clung to me, and my grip on her must have been painfully tight, but I couldn't make my hands unclench.
"Wait here," I told her shortly as I set her on her feet in front of her apartment. With one shoulder to the door, I barged it in and stormed inside, ignoring Eva and Maria's terrified faces as I scouted through the apartment looking for threats.
"What's going on?" Eva demanded, but I didn't have time to answer her.
"Nothing that concerns you. If anybody asks for Mia, let them in, but you haven't seen her. Understand?"
She nodded vaguely, and I frowned. "Do you understand?" I shouted.
"Yes!" She held her hands up in a surrender gesture, stepping out of my way as I continued my sweep of the rooms, checking every window, every cupboard, every door, until I was satisfied that there was nobody lurking waiting to do their worst.
"Good. Do that, and you will be fine. It is me they are trying to hurt."
"Mia, you can come in," I called, and she stepped cautiously into the corridor, looking more than a little shell shocked. I hated that I had been the one to cause that after such a wonderful evening.
"Pack a bag," I said softly, going over to her and stroking along her arms in an attempt to soothe her. "I will meet you here in five minutes. Do not go downstairs. We will go somewhere safe, together, okay?"
She nodded mutely, but when I tried to pull away, her fingers were clenched tightly in the sleeve of my jacket and I had to peel them away. "You're bleeding!"
"No, my darling." I shook my head sadly, knowing that it was Arkadi's blood that she was seeing seeped into my shirt, impossibly scarlet. "I am fine. I promise. Pack your things. I won't be long."
I took the stairs two at a time up to my apartment, and made the same hurried checks, mystified to find that there was nobody waiting. If Timoshenko had planned a hit, he had been arrogant about the outcome. I knew from Maxim, that a plan B was always necessary, but it seemed as though Timoshenko hadn't put one in place.
I grabbed a bag of my own, and darted around the apartment gathering all the important things. It wasn't clothes I reached for; I needed weapons in whatever form they came. I needed my laptop, my files, the backups of the company information and the contact list that was always doubly encrypted and only trusted to so many men. And I had to make sure my access had not been revoked.
It was worth the two minutes it took to boot my computer and burn an uncoded copy to a pen drive. That was the only way I knew for certain that Timoshenko couldn't burn the house right out from under me.
Whatever he did next, I still had the bones of what I needed to remain in control and I slammed the lid of the computer down with a sigh of relief. Whatever move he'd made, it was an incomplete and inept one, and I had to count my blessings.
I wouldn't get another chance, so I had to make the strongest move I could right there and then. And that was going to take more firepower than I had alone. In this city I didn't know exactly who I could trust to side with me over Timoshenko, but I had my allies elsewhere and they had already sworn allegiance in blood.
Last thing, I headed for the safe and pulled out my gun. I didn't have a multitude of weapons here. This was my home, not an armory, and it didn't make sense when I had an entire security firm under my command, but all the same, I was very glad for the heavy weight of my Glock in my palm.
Right then, I could vividly picture myself putting a bullet right between Timoshenko's eyes. He'd tried to hurt Mia, and I couldn't let him live that down.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Mia
I was practically shaking when Valentin left me in the apartment to go up and get some things of his own. I couldn't believe what had happened. Everything about the evening had been perfect, and then suddenly it had gotten so badly out of control.
"What happened?" Eva asked, leading me towards my bedroom and helping me to find a bag.
I was almost too stunned to answer her. "There was - someone shot at us. In the car. And Valentin's driver-" I cut myself off with a grimace, not wanting to think about the way Valentin had had to push his body out to get us to safety.
This was a world I'd never wanted to be a part of, but I didn't have a choice when it was so tied up with everything that Valentin was. There was no way I could walk away from him now. I loved him too much to do that.
Eva sat me down on the bed. "Oh my God, are you okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I am. I'm fine. Valentin got us out of there."
"You didn't wait around for the police?" Maria was leaning in my doorway, and the pair of us both looked up at her blankly.
"I don't think that would have been a good idea."
"Why not? I thought the wonderful Mr. Rozhkov was above reproach."
Eva stood up sharply. "Thank you for your input Maria. We are busy right now. Perhaps you can go and find Yuri." With that she closed the door in her face, and I couldn't have been more grateful to her. The more I interacted with Maria, the less I liked her and I was beginning to think her petty little jibes were all fueled by jealousy.
Eva turned back to me with a smile sneaking onto her face. "Oops. My hand slipped. These doors, they slam so easily."
And suddenly I was laughing. That was just the antidote I needed, and Eva seemed to know it instinctively. Automatically, my hand drifted up
to cover my mouth and Eva's smile widened.
"That's better. Keep smiling. And then tell me all about this ring! Nothing happened to you, and I know that Valentin will sort all of this out and then you will never have anything to worry about, so focus on the good things, hmm?"
"You think?"
"I know. The Rozhkov's are good people. They always have been, and he will find a way to make everything good again. You just wait and see."
Almost as soon as I had my bag packed, Valentin was back again, knocking on my bedroom door. Eva let him in and I felt myself relax just knowing he was with me again, despite the tension in his face.
"Come, we need to go now."
"Where are we going?"
In one motion, he scooped up my suitcase and took my arm, leading me out to the hallway. "I think that we should pay another of the Seven Sisters a visit. Why not take the opportunity for a little sightseeing, yes?"
"The Seven Sisters?" I frowned, not understanding at all until Eva let out a slow whistle and I turned around to see her leaning in the doorframe.
"Those are some very nice hotels… Bring me back some of the bubble bath?"
All I could do was nod, and then Valentin hurried me out of the door. He practically jogged down the stairs, and I struggled to keep up with his large strides. Everything felt far too urgent, and I had never known tension in Valentin's body like this.
On the street he pulled out his cell phone and two minutes later, a car pulled up and the driver got out. Valentin loaded our bags into the trunk and handed over a roll of bills in exchange for the car keys before he turned around and walked off down the street just like we were in some kind of spy movie. My blood had to be pure adrenaline.
"Get in. We're crossing the city. It's going to be a little while."
Valentin
Viktor positioned himself by the door of the hotel suite I had moved us into when I requisitioned the entire floor, his body in an easy pose that I knew had nothing to do with his state of alertness.
He'd had his eyes on the windows, the same as I had. Both of us had scoped out the access from the balcony as a possible weak point, and then I had firmly locked the door and closed the curtains. I wasn't going to let anyone sneak up on us the way that they had sieged Maxim's house in St Petersburg. This time, I knew that I had no backup on the outside.
If Timoshenko had eyes on me, I didn't plan on making this easy for him.
The first knock on the door took Viktor by surprise, but I had been expecting it.
"Maxim, Elizabeth! What are you doing here?"
My oldest Bratva friend and his wife walked in, and Mia started to her feet. She'd changed out of her dress into more comfortable clothes and now she stood there, brushing her leggings down, turning pink at the ears as though she suddenly felt under dressed.
"You look beautiful," I whispered, ducking down to place a kiss just behind her ear as I swept past her to shake my guests hands.
"Thank you for coming so quickly."
Maxim raised an eyebrow and clapped me on the back with a solid palm. "After all this we weren't very well going to leave you to handle the old man on your own. Besides, we all worked pretty well together securing St Petersburg."
Elizabeth reached up to pull me into a brief hug, and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "You've done so much for both of us, Valentin. We've got your back just like you had ours."
She turned to Viktor with another smile. "Oh, and I hope you don't mind, but Destiny said she'd never been to Moscow, and someone's going to have to stay and look after the babies while we're putting the state of things to rights, so…" She stepped back out of the doorway, and Destiny stepped through the door.
Viktor let out a strangled kind of cry and swept the curvy woman into his arms, kissing her so fiercely that all of us had to laugh.
"I have kept them apart for too long," I admitted with a glance back into the room to where Mia was hovering behind us, looking a little awkward. I had a lot of respect for Viktor for standing by me, and allowing me to wrench him away from the love of his life, right when it could have been the last thing either of them wanted, but it wasn't going to be forever. I would make sure of that. I extended a hand, beckoning Mia towards me and she took it, drawing in close to my side.
"This is Mia. The woman of my dreams and my future wife, as of this evening."
"Valentin…" Mia hissed, turning adorably pink around the ears.
"It's true, my darling. And these are my very good friends. My brothers."
Maxim patted me on the shoulder again. "About bloody time, mate. Well done." Then he turned to Mia with the smile that had become more prevalent since he'd met Elizabeth. "Lovely to meet you. Don't let us put you off. Valentin's the brains of the operation, clearly. The rest of us are all just the muscle."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and swatted her husband's shoulder. "Maxim, stop."
He leaned in to kiss his wife, and Mia looked up at me with a warm smile, curling closer in against me.
Another knock on the door brought another pair of familiar faces and it was Maxim's turn to let out a surprised shout.
"Roman! Ivan - bloody hell, the pair of you got here fast."
"Anything for Valentin," Ivan let out gruffly, striding into the room with all of the presence of the New York cop that he was. "Becca wouldn't let me live it down if I didn't pay off my debts, and I wasn't going to turn down the chance to come back to Moscow, just this once. What the hell is all this about Timoshenko playing drive-by tonight?"
I shrugged it off. "Don't worry about it. You're all here and that's all that I need to make our counter move."
As always, Roman was impeccably turned out and well tanned and he set his bag down at his feet and Destiny sent him a broad grin. "Oh my God, I didn't think you were going to come! Is Chloe here too?"
"Did you think she'd let me come all the way to Russia without her? She's just down the hall. Can't wait to see you."
I folded my arms across my chest and rocked back on my heels, looking across the room at all of the men who I'd brought together, all of the men who I'd worked so hard to bolster up and support however they needed, to keep the Bratva moving forward. These four men were our most key players. All the way along, I had asked for their support when the time came, and they had promised it to me, but I hadn't known how much to rely on their word when push came to shove.
But here they all were. And they'd brought their families too. This truly was a new era, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
"Thank you for coming, gentlemen. I can't promise that this is going to be easy, but I can promise that at the end of it, we will have the Bratva we have been working together so hard to achieve for so many years, and you will all be my most senior members. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for you, and I will never be able to fully repay you for that."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Mia
Elizabeth was the only one of the wives who went out with the men, after they'd all selected their weapons. "How come she's gone with them?" I asked Destiny, while Chloe made coffee.
"Oh, that's just Elizabeth. She's Maxim's partner in crime." Her smile flashed wickedly and I couldn't tell whether she was joking or serious. "They work really well together. And she's a great mom, but she really loves her work too, and she doesn't mind getting muddled up in all the… what does she call it, Chloe?"
"Wet work." She gave a little bit of a shudder. "That's the only bit I don't like. I'm glad Roman's mostly on the money side of things."
Becca nodded. "They've got a solid moral code, though. No one dies who doesn't deserve it. Ivan would never stand for that."
I felt like maybe I should have been the one playing host, seeing as Valentin was the one whose suite this was, and we were the ones staying in it, but I didn't mind giving over to the happy enthusiasm of Destiny and Chloe as they navigated the room's coffee machine and made us all complicated looking lattes like the double act they had clearly had a lot of practice being.
The pair of friends were so eager to try to include me and Becca - the only two who didn't really seem to know the others, that it was impossible to feel put out.
I'd worried that I'd feel out of place - too young - among the families of Valentin's friends. But that wasn't true at all. There had to only be a handful of years between us all, and although I was fairly sure I was the youngest, it can't have been by much. And not one of us was Russian.
"So," I started, once I had a cup of coffee in my hand, tucking my feet up under me on the L-shaped sofa in the middle of the suite. "Did any of you ever think you'd wind up marrying into the mob?"
Chloe barked a laugh. "Hell no. But it's the best thing that ever happened to me. I've gotta tell you, these Russians are good men." Destiny nodded, folding her arms across her chest.
"I never thought I'd end up with someone like Viktor, let alone living in Russia, but he's like no one else I've ever met. The Bratva is his world right now, but I'm his everything, and I know that."
Becca let out a hum of agreement. "If you're thinking about joining our little wives' club, I say go for it. I’ve loved Ivan forever, even before I knew what he really did, but knowing makes it even better. I see all the things he does every day to make sure he's doing right by the people he cares about and the people he's in charge of. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Plus, Valentin's fantastic, he's always made sure Ivan has everything he needs, whatever that is."
Destiny nodded. "She's right. I wouldn't tolerate Viktor being all the way here while I'm back home if I didn't think that. The sooner they get this nonsense sorted the better. Then we can all get back to normal." She smiled. "Not that it isn't great to meet you guys."
Becca laughed. "Seriously, it's great to finally meet you guys. We're a bit cut off from everyone apart from Roman in New York, and he's been a bit… preoccupied? Since meeting you Chloe!"
Chloe laughed. "We've been very busy, that's all. But when we get back, you guys should totally make plans to come and visit us."
"My family's in New York. I'm definitely going to come and see you when we visit them," I put in, and she looked at me, stunned for a moment, and then her smile widened.
Bratva Boss Page 19