by Maura Rose
Lieutenants from larger families were invited, though, as well as a plus-one for them if they chose. As Ivan got them past the bouncer—there was security everywhere, of course, but very discreet and obviously rented from an outside, reputable company so there was no playing favorites—Pavel looked around the hotel and realized that this guest list was practically a who’s who of the criminal world on the east coast.
He couldn’t really have expected anything less from two huge families, giants in their field, uniting, but it was still a bit of a shock to see in the flesh. These were people he would never have been considered good enough to talk to half the time. He could see some men who definitely had been on the opposite sides of gang wars a few years back, now joking and laughing with one another.
“I feel like I’ve entered the Twilight Zone,” Kate muttered to Ivan.
Pavel didn’t disagree. He was feeling a little weird himself, watching all the people around him. He kept expecting someone to whip out a gun, or a knife at least, and declare war on someone else like they were Inigo Montoya and they had killed his father, prepare to die.
He and Kate couldn’t be the only ones who felt weirded out by this whole thing, could they? He scanned the crowed, looking for Natalia. She was a bridesmaid, so she might not be out and about at the moment. She could be back with Irena, helping her get ready for when everyone settled down.
He wanted to see her. He knew it would be bad of him, even if he was already known as her husband, to go and find her and pull her away from her sister at a moment like this but he wanted to find her and just make sure that everything was all right.
“I don’t like this,” he admitted to Ivan.
“I don’t either, but since we don’t know who was logging in and looking at the information, we have nothing,” Ivan replied. “It’s just the three of us in here, and we’ll stay near the exits.”
Pavel forced himself not to remind Ivan that Kate was pregnant. Ivan was protective enough as it was and it wasn’t something that Ivan would have forgotten. Ivan’s job—Pavel’s job as well—was to keep cool, even in dangerous situations. Ivan knew what was at stake.
“What if the worst happens?”
Ivan clenched his jaw, glancing over at Kate, who was actually doing her job and being social by chatting up some other wives. “Your job is to protect Kate.”
“My job is to protect you.”
“Your job is to do what I say and what I say is that I want my wife and my child protected,” Ivan replied, his voice quiet but sharp like the edge of a razor. “Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Ivan nodded once, shortly, scanning the room. “I know that won’t be easy for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you’ll want to find Natalia.”
Pavel felt his stomach drop out. “What?”
Ivan looked at him with his eyebrows raised, like he’d just told Pavel the sky was blue and Pavel had the audacity to question him on it. “You have feelings for her.”
“I…”
“You got to tease me when I was getting together with Kate, Pavel, I have every right to tease you in return,” Ivan pointed out.
Pavel worked his jaw uselessly for a moment, trying to think of an excuse, but Ivan was giving him that steely look, the I am the boss look, the look that told him that Ivan was in charge, and right, and nothing was going to change his mind on this.
“…it could be that I like her better than I expected,” Pavel said, hedging.
Ivan hummed, apparently satisfied—and most likely hearing more in Pavel’s voice then what Pavel’s words were saying.
“You won’t hear me judging,” Ivan said. “After my brother and then myself, I can hardly judge anyone for falling in love with someone in an… unconventional manner.”
Pavel kept quiet. Ivan rarely mentioned his brother, the one who’d had to run away in order to keep the woman he fell in love with safe—and to escape reprisal after murdering their father. Ivan’s mentioning him at all was significant to say the least.
“And at least in your favor you fell for the person that you’re supposed to marry,” Ivan added. His lips quirked up into a smile.
Pavel kind of wanted the floor to open up and swallow him. Had he been so obvious? And aside from his own embarrassment—what did this mean for getting in trouble with Natalia’s father?
“Mikhailov will hate if he hears,” Pavel said quietly.
“Of course he will,” Ivan replied. “If word gets out about you two conversing then people will think the marriage and alliance is all just a cover for something sordid.”
“…that was the conclusion we came to. Natalia and I.”
“So long as we get through this announcement, you will be fine.”
“So long as nothing happens during the ceremony, we are fine,” Pavel countered. “You can’t tell me you don’t sense that something is off.”
His instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. No outright enemies of the Saito or Mikhailov families were here. Everyone was friendly, or at least neutral. But he couldn’t shake the chill at the back of his neck, the one that told him that he had to be alert.
Ivan nodded shortly. “There are appearances to keep up, Pavel. We must remember that.”
Pavel sighed.
Ushers started urging everyone inside to take their seats, and Ivan went over to grab Kate.
That was when Pavel’s phone started vibrating.
He pulled it out, frowning down at it. Was it one of the others back at the base, letting him know something was wrong? This would be the one day that a shipment was delayed or something.
But the text was from Natalia.
Meet me in the back office. Hurry.
…oh no.
Chapter Sixteen
Natalia knew the whole cliché about bridesmaid dresses, but she actually liked hers. It was a dark red that went well with her dark hair and eyes, and the cut was flattering. Irena had let them all go with slightly different styles depending on everyone’s body type instead of aiming for pure uniformity, which Natalia thought was pretty smart seeing as she and her sisters were all pretty tall but the Saito women, such as Irena’s about-to-be-sister-in-law, were about a foot shorter.
They were all sitting around in the back of the church, waiting while Irena put on the finishing touches. Irena was the coolest, calmest bride that Natalia had ever seen. She supposed that being nervous that an important business deal goes through was different than being nervous about exchanging public vows of romance with the person you loved. Irena had said multiple times that she liked her fiancé well enough, but Natalia knew there was an ocean of difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’.
Iko, one of the other bridesmaids from the Saito family, was sitting next to her. She was one of the cousins of the groom, and she looked about as bored as Natalia felt. “You must be looking forward to this,” Iko said, conversationally. “Securing your family and all.”
That struck Natalia as an odd way to say that. “Your family is securing itself as well.”
Iko shrugged. “I suppose. You should have heard the row about it when the news was announced to us. Half of the family didn’t want it.”
“There were some in our family who didn’t like it either,” Natalia said, keeping her tone conspiratorial but her heart racing. Could someone in the Saito family have been the mystery person making inquiries? Accessing the files?
“Giichi said that there would be another war before there was an alliance, much less a marriage, between our families.”
“Who… who’s Giichi?” She should have found a way to get this information, she should have suspected that the Saito family would look into hers, it was what the Sokolov family was doing and if they were then why not someone else, why hadn’t she thought that a marriage could be a scam, why…
“He’s the younger son,” Iko whispered. “He’s always wanted a chance to prove himself.”
Includ
ing, perhaps, seeing a wedding as a chance to start a war. Including, perhaps, seeing the Mikhailov family was weak and seeing that they would all be here for said wedding—because it wasn’t just about killing the leaders, it never was, it was about the assets and the grunt men left behind, it was about the chain of command, it was—
Natalia grabbed Iko’s forearm. “I’m taking a big risk here because I don’t think either of us have even seen one another before, but listen to me very carefully: do you want a war to break out? Are you trying to trick me?”
“What?” Iko looked terrified and confused, her eyes going wide and the color draining from her face. “What are you talking about? No.”
Natalia didn’t have all the facts and she probably should, she should probably get up and walk and think this through, she should probably grill Iko more—but there was no time and her instincts weren’t wrong. She wasn’t a trained killer, she wasn’t in charge of shipments, she wasn’t an active part of operations. But she was the daughter of a bratva boss, dammit, and she had his blood in her veins and his instincts, and she had grown up in this world and she knew when something was wrong.
She stood up and hurried away, ignoring Iko’s confused protests. She dug her phone out of the pile of discarded street clothes and purses and ducked into the bathroom, texting Pavel.
The church had various side rooms but there was only one that was a proper office, in the back directly behind the chapel. He could meet her there. Nobody in her family would believe her because in order for them to listen, she’d have to explain the entire story and then they’d want proof, and to demand to know why the Sokolovs were looking into this in the first place, and… she had no time for this.
“What are you doing?” Anastasia asked, banging on the door. “We’re about to start, get out here!”
“One second! I’ll be right behind you! I’m last in line anyway!”
She heard Anastasia’s moan of frustration but she left the door. Natalia heaved a sigh of relief, stuffing her phone into her bra and making sure she took her heels with her. She’d just run around barefoot and then put the shoes on right before she walked down the aisle.
“Where are you going?” Lana hissed as Natalia tried to sneak out the door.
“I’ll be right back!”
“You’re being rather secretive lately,” Lana said, putting her hands on her hips. “Do you have a secret boyfriend or something?”
“Lana this is not the time. Seriously. Not. The time.”
“It’s not the time for you to sneak away to do whatever it is you’re going to do,” Lana replied. “Our sister is about to get married!”
“This is important, it has to do with the wedding, okay?” Natalia really didn’t want to be arguing with her sister right now. “Could you trust me for just ten seconds?”
“Fine. But if you’re missing from the aisle it’s your head on the platter.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Natalia slid out the door. “Just cover for me if Irena asks, okay?”
Lana looked pissed at that but she nodded, and Natalia literally ran down the carpeted hallway to the back office.
Pavel was already there when she slipped in, grabbing her and hauling her to him, his hands sliding all over her body. For a moment she thought that he might think this was some kind of hookup, which, what the hell, but then she realized he was checking her for injuries.
“Are you all right? You are unharmed?” Pavel blurted the words out in Russian in his concern, his gaze roaming all over her as if he expected to see bloodstains.
“I’m fine,” Natalia insisted. “Nothing’s happened to me.”
“What’s wrong?” Pavel finally stopped frantically checking her but he kept his hands on her shoulders, his eyes locked on hers like she was the most important thing in the world. No, like she was more than that—like she was the only thing that existed for him.
“The groom’s cousin told me that his brother, the younger son, Giichi—he opposed the union.” Natalia realized she was breathing shallowly and forced herself to calm down, taking deep breaths and holding them for three seconds before releasing them slowly. “I know that I don’t have proof but if you looked into my family before the wedding announcement to check up on us, why wouldn’t the Saito family do the same?”
“Of course.” Pavel let go of her, apparently in shock. “We considered that it could be someone who was an enemy of both the Mikhailovs and the Saitos but we didn’t think that it might be the Saito family themselves.”
“Irena did all of the investigating on our end, it was all aboveboard, we did a temporary exchange of men—it’s been a courtship of months, so to speak. I don’t think it occurred to Father that the Saito family might be underhanded and conduct an investigation we didn’t know about on top of the other one.”
“The IP address tracked to a Saito computer but we thought that was the hacker covering their tracks. IP addresses can’t be faked but they could have gotten a hold of someone’s computer to access the Saito files and then just used it to hack into your family’s.”
“Occam’s Razor,” Natalia pointed out. “The simplest solution is usually the right one.”
Pavel stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. “Sorry.”
“You think that was hot, that I just casually mentioned a philosophical theory, don’t you?”
Pavel rolled his eyes but she could see his mouth twitching as he tried not to smile. “Perhaps.” He cleared his throat and his face grew serious again. “But it seemed ridiculous that such a big family would need to resort to such… underhanded means.”
“Maybe not with the old ways,” Natalia replied, remembering what Father had said. “But with these new ways, these ruthless ways… yes. Of course it would make sense. You get your enemy into a place where he’s vulnerable, where nobody’s expecting an attack—or if they are, it’s from the outside, not from you. There’s good faith now between you two, or so your enemy will think.”
“Knocking down the Mikhailovs means knocking down the biggest Russian crime family here,” Pavel pointed out. “They’ll have taken out their main competition.”
“The families of all my sister’s fiancés are here,” Natalia added. “Including you. It’s not just taking out my family, it’s taking out six. They must have known my father was desperate to secure alliances by marrying us all off so quickly in succession, Irena’s marriage was announced first, they’ve had plenty of time to prepare…”
Pavel pulled out his phone and texted someone. “I’m telling Ivan to get Kate out of there,” he explained. “She’s pregnant.”
Oh no. Natalia’s stomach twisted. There were so many innocent lives at stake here, and entire families, entire power structures, wiped out if this plan was carried out.
She turned, wanting to pace, feeling frantic, and frowned as she noticed all the boxes in the room. Was the church doing some kind of renovation?
“Who hired the security team?” Pavel was asking. “Your family or the Saitos? As the second son, Giichi would be asked to be in charge of much of this so his brother wouldn’t be stressed.”
Natalia flipped open the lid to one of the boxes and jumped back, gasping.
It was filled with guns.
“Pavel,” she whispered.
He turned to look, and that was when she heard it—voices. Men’s voices.
And they were headed right this way.
Chapter Seventeen
Pavel heard the voices and his battle instincts kicked in. Natalia—he had to protect her.
There was a small closet, probably for holding the priestly garments. He opened it and grabbed Natalia, yanking her in with him and closing the door.
Just in time. The office door opened and several members of the Saito family stepped inside. He recognized some of them from the photos in the files. They were led by Giichi.
There was next to no room in the closet. Natalia was pressed up completely against him. It was maddening, to have her so clo
se like this, as close as he wanted her, but without being able to touch her.
Natalia laid her head on his chest, trying to see through the crack. He could feel her chest expanding and contracting against him, and could smell her lavender perfume. Both of them were hardly daring to even breathe deeply, just in case that sound alone was loud enough to alert the men moving around, grabbing weapons.
The part that didn’t make sense to Pavel was that Iko, the cousin, hadn’t been aware of the plan. Surely to protect their own, Giichi and the others conspiring would have told the others about the plan and prepared them for when and how.
Unless Giichi, the second son, wanted to seize power.
It would be a clean break. Get his older brother—the heir—and his father and anyone else disloyal to him out of the way along with swaths of the competition.
It made Pavel sick.
He had never known a betrayal like this. Kate’s father had been betrayed by one of his lieutenants over an old grudge, but that was different, that wasn’t blood, that wasn’t family. And Ivan’s father had been a bastard, it was only a matter of time until the child he abused rose up against him, especially with what the old man had been planning to do to the poor girl caught in the middle of all of it.
But for a man to kill his own brother, his father, and god knew how many other members of his family, some of whom had to be innocent—to massacre families, in a sacred building, on holy ground—
It would have been unheard of twenty, thirty, even just ten years ago.
Pavel had to do something, but he couldn’t move. He was a good fighter but he couldn’t take out all of those men alone, especially not when said men had weapons and he didn’t. He’d warned Ivan to get Kate out of the church but that was all—Ivan didn’t know anything else and Pavel couldn’t move to get his phone without alerting everyone that he was in the closet.
But he couldn’t just stand and watch while these men got their guns and went out to massacre everyone.
The music was starting, muffled but still distinguishable. Not the Wedding March, thankfully, but whatever the bridesmaids were walking to.