Despite the situation, she giggled. “No, I’d never know what to do with a penis. If I had one, the other day would have looked much different.”
“You joke.”
She pressed the paper towels against her cut. “If I didn’t laugh at my life, I’d never stop crying.”
I dropped my hand to where she’d strapped her knife. “You’d be safer with a gun.”
Her head fell forward. “My father forbids me to have one.” She cleared her throat. “I think he’s afraid I’d use it—on him.” She gave me a smile that said she’d do exactly that if given the chance.
I pulled the belt free and set her knife aside while I cleaned her wound. With a little pressure, it stopped bleeding. “I don’t think you need stitches, but you should put a bandage on it when you get home.”
“Right. I’ll do that.” She fisted her weapon and tried to jump off the counter, but I pressed my body in front of her. Her knees spread to give me room to stand between them.
“I care about you, Katya.”
She rolled those big, beautiful blue eyes. “Don’t waste your time on me.”
I grabbed her shoulders and gave her a shake. “You are a not a waste of time.”
“Tell that to my father.” She placed a hand on my chest. For a minute, I thought she’d push me back. Instead, her fingers skimmed down my shirt to the bottom button. She worked them loose one by one. “Let me take care of you.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant. “Here?”
Once my shirt was loose, she worked on the Velcro straps of my bulletproof vest. “I need to know you’re okay before I leave you for good.”
“I’m fine, and you are not leaving me for good.” I grabbed her hands and pulled them to my lips. The hot air of my mouth brushed over her fingers. “We’ll figure this out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out. Someone tried to kill you.”
I shook my head. “No. They tried to kill you or Sergei, and my guess would be Sergei. The Bratva sent him, and your father is not happy.”
She leaned forward and put her head on my chest. “Maybe they will kill each other and I’ll be free of them both.”
I stepped back to get a good look at her. “Has he hurt you? Has he forced himself on you?” It gutted me to think she might be sleeping with him.
“No. I’m not his type.”
“What the hell does that mean? You’re every hot-blooded man’s type.”
“He isn’t interested in me that way. He wants a son. If he lays with me, it will be with that objective in mind.”
“He can get a son anywhere. He wants a son with you so he can legitimately inherit the kingdom.”
She huffed out a breath. “I’d gladly give him everything if it was mine to give. In exchange, all I’d want is to walk away. I don’t want to belong to anyone.”
I moved in close so her thighs cradled my hips. I pulled her to the edge of the counter so only the fabric of my pants and her underwear kept us apart. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. You’ll never get your wish because you’re mine. You belong to me.” The thought of having Katya as mine to hold and love forever made my dick hard. I rolled my hips against her sex. That little mewling sound she made had me wishing we weren’t in a funeral bathroom but in my apartment, where I’d push her into the mattress and pound that reality into her body.
“I’ll never be yours as long as my father breathes.”
I unzipped my pants and pulled out my length. She needed to be reminded of what it felt like to have me fill her completely. I pulled the string of her panties aside and thrust deep inside her. “Feel me, Katya.”
Her legs wrapped around my thighs, dragging me deeper inside her. “Yes,” she whimpered until I moved my mouth over hers to eat up the sounds I knew she’d make when I made her come. When she left this place today, she’d know with certainty that she belonged to me.
“You’re mine,” I said against her lips. “I’m sorry I lied to myself and I lied to you, but baby, you’ve been mine forever.”
She bit her lips to suppress the moans. I was gentle, but I was thorough. Each thrust into her body was a claiming on its own.
“I’m yours,” she whispered. “If only in my heart.”
“Screw that. I’ll figure out a way to make you mine for good. Trust me.”
She nodded. I drove it home and felt her clench around me. She threw her head back as her body ruptured. What started as a flutter became a tight glove milking me to my release. We stayed like that for minutes until we heard sounds in the hallway.
There was a knock on the door. “What?” I asked.
“Mr. Volkov is looking for his fiancée,” Sam said.
“Shit,” I whispered. I pulled a few Kleenex from the box on the counter and cleaned Katya up before I tucked myself back into my pants. “We’re almost finished cleaning her up.” I looked back at her and winked.
While she put herself together, I buttoned my shirt and tucked it back into my pants. I walked in front of her to the door but stopped before I turned the bolt. “Don’t forget who you are and who you belong to. I will figure a way out soon. Will you be okay?” I hated to leave her in the hands of another, but until I had a solid plan, I had no choice. To claim her today would keep the funeral home busy for weeks.
She pulled her shoulders back and twisted the deadbolt. “Of course, I’m a Petrenko.”
She breezed past Sam and walked outside to where Sergei waited with the car. He gave me a look that said he knew exactly what we’d been doing, and I knew he’d use that against me. I waited until she pulled away to exhale.
Funny how in any other situation with bullets flying in a public space, the cops would be all over the place, but add in a few mob families, and no one showed.
They knew we would clean up our own messes. Without a doubt, I was making a big mess of things with Katya.
It fired me up to know she mattered so little to the men who were supposed to take care of her. That was why she needed me.
If I were being honest with myself, I probably needed her more. There was something about her that always managed to calm me from the inside out. It didn’t hurt when she calmed me from the outside in. Nothing would ever be as good as pressing into her soft, wet heat.
Chapter 13
Sergei said nothing to me on the ride to the cemetery. He and Timur looked at each other intently, as if they were privy to some kind of secret code.
“We will watch your father sprinkle dirt on his son, and then we go home. You’re a mess, and you smell like Matt Wilde.” He raised his nose in the air and breathed deeply. “I hope he wore a condom. I don’t want to raise his son.”
“Please give me some credit, which is more than I can give you or my father.” I pulled the skirt of my dress up my thigh to show the angry gash. “You both left me standing there in the hail of gunfire. It was Matt who protected me.” I turned and looked out the window. We had entered the cemetery and were winding around to the Petrenko plot of land. No one was buried there, not even my mother, but there was a large granite stone that had our name on it. Mikhail would be the first to rest beneath it. “How funny that I have to look to our enemy for protection because my family can’t manage to care.”
We stayed at the cemetery until the casket was lowered and buried, and we headed home. I played with the idea of pitting my father against Sergei. If they were fighting each other, they wouldn’t be paying much attention to me.
I turned and faced him. “I want to tell you something, but I feel I’m being disloyal to my father if I do.”
He turned and gave me his full attention. “Your loyalty lies with your husband.”
“But we aren’t married yet.”
“It’s a certainty, Katya. We don’t need love to have an understanding. And I don’t need to put a ring on your finger to demand your loyalty.”
Wrong. I screamed inside, but I held on to my calm facade because this was a game where I didn’t want to find myself on the losing team. “I’
ve been snooping.”
His brows lifted. “My intended is a spy? Should I be worried?”
“Not as long as I’m spying for you.” I pushed my back against the door and continued. “It’s important for you to know about the health of the business.” I watched him for some reaction, but of course, there was none. “Let’s be honest, you didn’t come here to be my father’s second in command; you came here to rule. Don’t you want to know the value of your kingdom?”
One thing I knew for certain was, Sergei was a big man with a big ego, and the more I fed it, the better. “I’m not a great hacker, but I can get into my father’s accounts because he’s lazy and cheap when it comes to protection.”
“Get to the point. What do I need to know?”
“A large amount of money changed hands recently. I think it had something to do with the attack today. I’m not sure who the target was, but I’d guess it was you or me.”
His eyes grew big. “Your father would never be that stupid.”
“We are talking about my father. I’d say a hundred grand labeled as waste disposal is telling.”
“You keep spying, my love.”
“Whatever you need, my love.”
Each time I said those words, I wanted to barf, but they seemed to placate him. I needed time to figure this mess out. All I knew was that Matt couldn’t be the only one trying to extricate me from this disaster.
We pulled in front of the house, and Timur opened the door to let us out. They walked into the gardens no doubt to discuss the new information I’d given him while I walked inside.
I’d raised my foot to the first step when my father summoned me to his office. While the last person I wanted to see was him, I knew better than to ignore his call.
I kicked off my heels and walked down the hall to find my father sitting behind his desk. It was back to business.
“Sit down.”
I did as he told me. I had to pick and choose my battles, and this wasn’t one of them.
“What can I do for you, Father?”
He smiled and kicked back in his chair like he hadn’t just buried his only son moments before. “How are you?”
My mind drew a blank. Not once in the last two decades had he asked about me. “Given the circumstances, I’m doing well.” My fingers ran over the cut on my leg. Though sore, it would heal in a matter of days. “Did you try to have me killed today?”
He laughed. It had been a lifetime since I’d heard him really laugh. “Silly girl. If I’d tried to kill you, you’d be in the ground next to your mother. That hit was for someone else. Dumb assholes got the target wrong.”
“Who?” I sat forward. If the target was wrong, that meant the bullets weren’t destined for Sergei or me. “Who did you put a hit on?”
He poured himself a glass of vodka and sipped. He took his time, as if debating how honest he wanted to be.
“I believe in an eye for an eye.” He drank deeply and put the glass down. “The Wildes owe me a son.”
While I didn’t want to give my feelings for Matt away, I couldn’t help the gasp that left my mouth. “Matt didn’t kill Mikhail. What would he gain from that?”
In a calm that could only be considered clinically scary, he said, “I killed his father, he killed my son.”
“You said you believed in an eye for an eye.”
My father got up and paced behind his desk. “This is not even. I took an old, worthless man. He took my entire future.”
“Matt didn’t do that. Alex didn’t do it. None of the Wildes are responsible. They’re out of the business.”
A cackle-like laugh filled the air. “You are so damn dumb. Don’t you know? The only way to the leave the business is in a coffin.”
“You’re looking in the wrong direction.” I got up and looked out the door to make sure Sergei wasn’t within earshot. “There was no way Mikhail would hang himself. I’d bet my life the Bratva killed my brother.”
He walked to the safe hidden behind a picture of the Kremlin. “Your faith and loyalty are misplaced. You’re so much like your mother.” He dialed in the combination and pulled out a bright blue book. “She got confused, but I sent her out of this world with the truth. Let’s hope you’re smarter and you don’t find yourself in her situation. Don’t confuse a good lay with loyalty. One will give you a moment of bliss, the other a lifetime of privilege. Your mother chose poorly and paid the price.”
My mouth hung open. Had he just told me he killed my mother? “You killed her?”
“She got what she deserved. Her kind of betrayal could never be forgiven.”
I flew out of my chair and ran at him. “How could you kill the mother of your children?” I beat on his chest until he pushed me away. Standing several feet back, I watched a sinister smile lift his lips.
“You mean the mother of my son.” He looked at the book in his hand. “You were never mine.” He threw the book at me. The binding grazed my forehead. I reached up to feel the blood oozing from a cut.
“How could you?”
He chuckled. “It was easy enough, one push, and she was gone.”
My knees buckled beneath me, and the ground met my ass. “Why didn’t you kill us both?”
"A man never bets everything at once. You will marry Sergei and get my ass out of hot water. You’ll give him a son. He’ll try to kill us both and inherit what’s mine, but he won’t because I’m older and smarter, and I’m a hell of a lot more devious.”
I scrambled to my feet. It dawned on me that they were playing from the same deck. They both wanted the same thing from me. While my father could marry and have another son, it was easier to whore me out, get me pregnant and take my child. I was expendable.
No matter whose plan I fell under, one thing was certain. I had no longevity in either scenario.
I hugged the book to my chest. I recognized it as the journal my mom kept by her bed. I raced away from my father in hopes of discovering the truth.
There wasn’t a moment where I’d have guessed I wasn’t Yuri’s child. I’d been raised as his daughter, but tonight I locked my door and pressed a chair under the doorknob. I’d never felt completely safe in this household, but never had I ever felt in danger. I’d always felt like an outsider. Now I knew why.
Matt asked me to not lock him out, so I opened my computer and let him into my ugly world. If something happened to me, at least there was a chance he would see.
I changed into flannel pants and a T-shirt, then sat in the center of my bed and opened my mother’s journal. Why had Yuri kept it when he had destroyed everything else?
January 1st
My New Year’s Resolution—never tell the truth. I look at my sweet little girl and wish she could meet her father. I’d considered myself lucky that she looked like me, but now I’m not so sure. We’re trapped in this fortress, prisoners of a man who kills for pleasure. I’ve seen what he’s done with our son. I don’t want him to erase everything good in Katya with his evil.
I read through the next few weeks, where my mother talked about me and my brother and how terrible she felt that she’d need to leave Mikhail behind but he was already ruined. She couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t reach out to Yuri.
January 15th
My plan is set in motion. He’ll ruin her if I stay. I’ve managed to squirrel money away through shopping and returns. It doesn’t amount to much in our world, but a few thousand dollars will at least get us to another city. I’ve been thinking about new names. Something decidedly American will be best if we want to disappear. Katya will become Katherine, and I will become Anna instead of Anya. When I close my eyes, I see a better world for us. I hope someday Lucky can be a part of it. I love that man so much. For now, I can’t risk his life too. How was it I fell in love with a man as powerful as Yuri? I guess that’s my thing. Big, strong men with a soft side, except Yuri never had that softness.
I sat back and wondered who my father was. So far, all I had was the name Lucky. No doubt it was a nic
kname. A kid growing up with that name would have been beaten to a pulp each day because of it.
I swiped at the cut on my forehead and smeared what little blood oozed from it away, then dug back in to my mom’s journal. The entries were daily accounts of what was happening, from my A on a spelling test to me losing another tooth. I remembered putting that tooth under my pillow and waking up to find a dollar bill and a candy bar. I always thought it odd that the tooth fairy would give me money and something that would rot my teeth, but Mom said it was a guarantee she’d stay in business. That was the last time I got anything from the tooth fairy.
March 16th
My roses are budding. I spent the whole day pruning the branches. It aggravates Yuri that I put my hands in the soil and won’t touch him. I’d lost any desire to be a real wife after he forced himself on me two weeks after Mikhail was born. Since that day, I lived in the guest suite and locked my door. Not that a lock stopped him from entering. He took what he wanted with regularity. Hard to believe I endured him for so long. If it weren’t for Lucky, I would have never survived. That day in the spa changed my life forever. He’d sneak me out the back door and make love to me all day long and then sneak me back inside. Eventually, we had our own room, and we stayed there because it was safer. Yuri spent thousands on spa treatments, not even realizing he was footing the bill for my indiscretions, but I craved love, and Lucky gave it to me.
March 31st
He knows something. He’s upped my security detail, which means he realizes that my time away is about something other than the appointments I claim to have. I wish he was the type of man I could be honest with. I’d love to be able to tell him that Katya isn’t his child. That she’s the daughter of a man I’d fallen in love with years ago. If Yuri found out I’d been cheating on him, he would have killed both Katya and me. It was safer if Lucky didn’t know he was Katya’s father, so I never told him. I’ve kept that secret for almost eight years, but life with Yuri is worse than living in a prison. I don’t want this for myself or for Katya. She deserves to be happy. If I can save just a little more, I’ll take her and we’ll be gone.
Betting On Her (A Wilde Love Novel Book 2) Page 9