The Arrangement (Crimson Romance)

by Bethany-Kris

  “I don’t want to be his wife!” Not bothering to reach for the tissues, she slammed the glove compartment closed with a kick. “And I’ve been doing just fine since my parents died, without Anton or the Russians. Eventually, my uncle would have let this whole thing go.”

  Boris didn’t bother to hide his displeasure. “Eventually, he would have killed you.” Clicking his tongue chidingly, he muttered, “Probably would have made it look like a suicide. Do not act so stupid, girl. He cares nothing for the blood you share.”

  The truth in his words were a harsh reality that only added to her fear. Viviana wished she had grabbed for the gun in the glove compartment and turned the damned thing on him, but she knew it likely wouldn’t have made the situation any better. Not wanting to cry again, she steeled her emotions, sitting up ramrod straight in the passenger seat and staring ahead at the miles of highway they still had to travel.

  “Where are we going?”

  “A safe place. More specifically, a place in Brooklyn. It’s where Anton has always lived, and where we work out of, as you already know. Settle in, it’s a long drive from Toronto.”

  Panic raged under her calm exterior. Viviana’s uncle worked out of Long Island, mostly. “It’ll be a war inside the city.”

  Boris still looked unaffected. “It’s happened before.”

  “Not between the Bratva and Cosa Nostra. Would it be bigger than just New York?”

  With a disgruntled grunt, he suddenly leaned over and opened the console between their seats. Viviana didn’t get the chance to see what he grabbed before the flip door to the console was shut once more.

  “Anton doesn’t want you worried and bothered when you arrive. I need you quiet at the border. It’s not so easy bribing officials, you know.” With those words, his hand shot out, and a sting radiated deep in her bare arm. Striking out at him with a startled yelp, the car swerved. She glanced at where the pain originated only to see him push the plunger down in the needle he stabbed her with. “Mostly just a mild sedative that will keep you quiet for a half a day or so. It’ll do the trip at least.”

  “What … what di-did … ju …” The words trailed off and Viviana slumped down in the seat almost instantly. Mild sedative, my ass, she thought drowsily. “I’m telling … Anton … you … tell Anton … drugged me.”

  Boris laughed. “You do that, my dear. Sleep for now.”

  Just as her body began drifting off into a forced slumber, a ringing sounded through the car’s speakers. Boris answered in Russian, and she tried to keep her eyes open long enough to see his facial reactions to what he was hearing. The voice on the other end sounded vaguely familiar, but the wearier Viviana got, the less she was able to focus.

  That was, until her name was spoken in the caller’s mother tongue: Viviana. She hadn’t been addressed by that name since her parent’s death, and publically everyone knew her as Vine. It was a nickname given to her years ago by her older brother Tony when he was unable to speak her given name properly. She was always introduced as Vine. Never once did she use Viviana unless it was necessary.

  But nine long years before, Anton had been the odd man out. He was the one person who called her by her given name; she had only ever been just Viviana to him.

  In her chemical-induced slumber, she dreamt of an earlier time …

  “Come on, they don’t all call you Vine, right?” Anton asked in the dark.

  “Yep, everyone.”

  His hand traced a light path across her naked legs wrapped in his under the blanket. She’d snuck into his room, since it was both their last night before they left from vacation to return to New York. It’d be a long while before they would see each other again. Really, Viviana just wanted to be close to him; one week was all it took for her to feel that way.

  “Mom calls me Ant. I hate that.”

  She laughed. “Ant, really? Oh, God, that’s horrible.”

  “Shut up, or you’ll wake the house.”

  “Don’t think your bull doesn’t already know someone is in here with you.”

  Anton shrugged and rolled to his back with a sigh. “He won’t tell, and they wouldn’t care. Well, maybe Roman would. You shouldn’t be in a boy’s room in the middle of the night, Vine.”

  “I thought you liked Viviana better,” she whispered, biting her lip and grinning.

  “So, Viviana, why did you sneak out of your warm, safe bed to climb into mine?”

  Before her sixteen-year-old self could think better of her actions, she leaned up and kissed him. His large hands tightened on her trim waist, gripping hard as the air turned thick. He muttered harshly under his breath.

  “I wanted to say goodbye before morning,” Viviana said as his thumbs brushed against her sides. Shivering at the new sensations driving through a body still too young to understand, he drove her a little closer, wrapping both tighter in the blanket. “I’m not cold.”

  “Me, either.” Hands moved under the flimsy short and tank set she wore, hesitating only long enough to ask, “Can I?”

  “Say it again,” Viviana demanded.

  Anton’s brow furrowed, blue eyes lighting up in his confusion. “Say what?”

  “My name.”

  Russian fell from his lips so smooth and deep, but there was one word above the rest that she understood well enough: Viviana. It ached so badly, the pads of his thumbs brushing away salty tears that escaped from the corners of her eyes. He was so careful, though, and oh so gentle.

  “Giving this to me makes you mine, Vine. I don’t care about who comes after, or the in-betweens. Not when we both know I’m going to be your last.”

  Viviana didn’t have a reason to doubt him, but she sure as hell hadn’t wanted to, either.

  Chapter Three

  Viviana couldn’t shake the feeling of a heavy pressure holding her down. Blinking rapidly, she breathed and attempted to see, move, or just do anything.

  Nothing happened.

  An ache had settled in the creases of her arms and legs. Bending them only served to settle the throbbing pressure deeper into her muscles. Pain radiated from the right side of her jaw as she opened her mouth to call out. With dry lips, a soreness that wouldn’t seem to disappear, and grogginess saturating her senses, she couldn’t focus long enough to remember where she was. Never mind what had happened that got her … here.

  Where in the hell was she?

  Breathing in, she could taste something familiar in the dark air. Like city air, gunpowder, cigars, and a woodsy cologne that reminded Viviana of home. Her fingers tightened in the blankets.

  Hadn’t she been at the university dorms with Sam last night? Hadn’t she been drunk, and hadn’t Sam taken her home? Didn’t she go to that lecture in the morning?

  “Sam?” Her voice was hoarse, words mumbled and barely intelligible. Her throat felt sore like she’d been screaming her lungs out for hours. “Sam, wake up.”

  It wasn’t a second later that she heard shouts from somewhere outside her dark confines. A voice that resonated deep in her confused mind yelled angrily in a language Viviana couldn’t understand. A woman dressed in a grey-and-white uniform, her hair tied back, looked about as frightened as Viviana felt as she scurried past the opened doorway.

  The shouts continued before something shattered, the sounds of tinkling glass spreading over the floors echoing down the hallway. The familiar voice grew scarily quiet as he spit his words out with sheer venom.

  Viviana didn’t have to understand the words to know the man was livid; just barely hanging on the ledge of control. More than once growing up, she had heard that kind of anger while she stayed hidden in the safety of her bedroom. Her father’s voice carried through the house as he handled misbehaving men in the basement, or office, whichever served his purpose, depending on the soldier who’d done him wrong.

  Forcing herself from the confines of the blankets, Viviana managed to get caught up in all the fabric and tumbled off the bed. Landing on the hard floor with a loud thump, she was surprise
d no one outside the room heard the noise. Crawling until standing was possible, she swayed on the spot, her legs feeling like a mixture of brittle sticks inside a bag of jelly. Nausea rolled through her insides like a tidal wave of sickness ready to drown and destroy.

  Hangovers didn’t feel like that. Nothing felt like that. Unless death did. She wasn’t sure.

  “Sam,” Viviana called out again, heading toward the lighted hallway.

  Had he checked the hallway before leaving?

  Just as she reached the door, something on a small stand caught her eye. The light from the hallway illuminated the framed photograph enough that she could discern the people being pictured. Finally, she remembered.

  The face of Nicoli—a former boss of the Bratva, and an ally to her father—stared back at Viviana. Her shaky hand reached out to touch the photograph, snapping back almost at the exact instant she realized what she was doing.

  There would be no photo of Nicoli in her dorm, nor would there be a picture of him in any house she visited. It was only then Viviana remembered the sounds of a silenced gun firing off three deadly shots. Sam hanging limp and dead off the edge of a bed. A man hitting her face and spitting words in Russian.

  Pop.

  Viviana shuddered.

  Pop.

  Blood bled red in her memories, but the too big T-shirt she now wore hung loose around her bare legs, unstained and pristine white.

  Pop.

  She was in a car with a Russian … Boris … terrified and trying not to cry.

  “Anton.”

  The name was thick on her tongue and heavy in her thrashing, thundering heart. Stumbling, she moved from the room and braced her hands on the wall, needing that solid ground to steady her swaying as she moved closer to the shouting.

  “Anton!”

  Looking at her hands, Viviana noticed the blood that once stained her skin was now clean. Fingernails had been buffed, chips filed down, and the natural white crescents at the tips shined brightly under the light. Confused, she reached up to run fingers through her black hair. Instead of the tangled waves from this morning—or was it yesterday now?—she was met with no resistance. The locks felt clean and soft, brushed all the way through and hanging loose down her back.

  Someone had washed her. They took meticulous care in cleaning any evidence from her hands and body, changing the clothes she wore and leaving her somewhere they thought was safe for Viviana to wake up in.

  Was it him, she wondered. Was it Anton who did that for me?

  Beyond the fear and nerves, something that scared Viviana even worse resided in the pit of her stomach: want. She wanted that. Wanted to know he had touched her. Cared for her. Worried over her. But she shouldn’t have wanted that at all.

  Finally releasing her hold on the wall, she felt stable enough to walk on her own. Moving at a speed that was too fast for her still upset insides, Viviana made it to the partially opened French doors at the end of the hallway. With dark blinds covering the glass, no one on the inside noticed her approach, and the woman who had previously passed the doorway had long disappeared. The men’s voices became louder again, fury hissing with a burn between every word she couldn’t comprehend. Looking through a crack in the door, the sight staring back was shocking.

  At least five men were inside the room, and while four stood upright, the one who had hit Viviana in her dorm—Viktor—was lying prone on the floor. With his head bent at an awkward angle, the barrel of a gun pressing to his right temple, Viktor gritted his teeth and continued to say the same phrase over and over in Russian.

  “Boss, let it go,” one man said quietly. “He’s apologized, he’s never skimmed off his boys or done you wrong in the past. Your grandfather would have done the same.”

  It wasn’t his face Viviana’s eyes were drawn to, or even the man that spoke in a language she could finally understand. Instead it was the hand holding the gun with a painful force. That hand didn’t shake; there was no hesitation in the action. She had the distinct feeling if those fingers that had once touched her skin so softly pulled the trigger, they wouldn’t find regret in that choice.

  “Eta ruka?”

  Anton’s voice sounded darker than she had ever heard it. Hardened and cold, like shards of ice to her soul. Wearing only dark wash jeans that sat low around his hips, the waistband of his boxer-briefs were visible. The black hair, now kept a little longer than when she had last seen him, was wet and hanging over blue eyes. She couldn’t help but wonder if those eyes blazed a dark blue in his rage like they did when he fucked and loved.

  Every muscle tensed and shuddered as anger rolled over his broad shoulders, the six-pack of abs clenching like the white teeth he bared when he growled out once more, “Eta ruka?”

  Viktor nodded, raising the hand his boss had tapped with a boot. The chiseled line of Anton’s jaw grew impossibly harder as he breathed heavily through his nose. Something unknown washed through Viviana’s insides, sending her desire ramped up while fear prickled elsewhere.

  “Do you think it is appropriate I let this go, Viktor?” he asked, warningly. The slight Russian accent in his dialect wasn’t nearly as thick as some of the men around him, but the more irritated his voice became, the more prominent it sounded. “Do you agree with your brothers that your actions should simply be overlooked because of your lack of past transgressions? Would that be to your liking?”

  “I—”

  “It is a yes or no question!” The barrel of the gun pressed harder against the older man’s temple. Viviana’s heart stuttered. “I don’t wish to hear your excuses, or apologies. I want a fucking answer!”

  Viviana’s fingers tightened around the doorknob as Viktor’s voice turned quieter and he said, “Yes, I was wrong.”

  Anton gripped the gun, and he tapped the piece three short times to the man’s head. “This hand,” he stated, his foot tapping against Viktor’s clenched fingers once more. “You hit her with this one, so open it up against the floor. Now.”

  “Boss!”

  “Would you like to be next, Boris? I should take a pound from you, too, considering you didn’t step in until after he’d smacked her around a little. I was very clear with my instructions. Neither of you idiots managed to follow them properly.”

  Anton stood straight, turning to face Boris, and giving Viviana a view of the wide plains of his back and shoulders. Stretched with bands of muscles, his shoulders were strong, wide, and shuddering with barely contained fury. Black ink crisscrossed his skin in a tribal design and a black star resided on both of his shoulders between the inky licks of color.

  “The orders were clear, and you allowed him to break my protocol. At the very least, you could have used that sedative before you took her from the dorm, and he did not have to end that bull inside the complex. Those are issues I have to fix now. Too sloppy for a brigadier of your age and knowledge. Both of you are losing the thirty percent share from your boy’s tributes this month, and maybe next, too. I haven’t decided, yet.”

  “Yes, Boss,” Boris replied quietly.

  Anton turned back to Viktor, the gun in his grip aimed and ready. Viviana choked knowing what he was about to do, but still unable to turn away from the sight. “Hand out,” he ordered again. With a shaky exhale, Viktor unclenched his fingers and laid his palm flat to the floor.

  Closing his eyes, he apologized once more in his mother tongue. Anton kneeled down to thrust the gun against the back of the man’s hand. “You will apologize to her. You are not to speak to her directly, or indirectly, without my immediate presence and permission. I do not want to see your face before I request it, and I suggest you stay away from my clubs and homes until this has blown over. Are we clear?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?” Anton barked.

  “Yes, Boss.”

  Without a second of indecision, Anton pulled back the hammer on his gun. Viktor flinched, and she felt suffocated by the realization that a man was about to be shot for hitting her. Bile rose in Vi
viana’s throat as she pushed open the door and stumbled through. With it came the attention of every man in the room, and the appearance of their guns pointed directly at her.

  • • •

  Goddamn she looked good standing there—like she didn’t care about them or their weapons. Anton’s throat thickened at the sight of Viviana in only his shirt, her brown eyes drawn to his. The hardest thing he had to do was check his emotions out of the equation, reminding himself of just who was there besides her, and what they would see. Guarding his expression, he felt his jaw tick.

  “Please, don’t,” Viviana whispered, pressing her hand into her midsection. Her frame swayed and that only served to piss him off more. The medication hadn’t worn off and Boris used too much. Someone’s fingers needed breaking for that. “It’s unnecessary, Anton. Don’t do that, not for me.”

  When she swayed on her feet again, his expression softened, his heart rate picking up and shoulders temporarily relaxing. “Get her a chair.” When no one moved, his hand jerked to the side, pulling the trigger of his gun. It went off with an echoing bang into the floorboards. Everyone jumped. “Why am I needing to repeat myself tonight?”

  The man closest to Viviana—Ivan—shoved his weapon into the waistband of his dress pants before directing her to sit on the chair beside him. Her unease with five pairs of eyes watching her was obvious. With her shapely legs pressed tightly together and her hands tugging at the hem of his T-shirt to hide her thighs, she was practically naked in front of strangers.

  Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment. Possessiveness flooded Anton’s veins.

  “Your coat, Ivan,” Anton demanded with a nod at his lawyer. “Cover her.”

  When Ivan’s suit jacket was spread across her legs, Anton watched silently as she fisted the fabric and thanked him softly. “It’s no problem, Vine, but perhaps next time you could just knock instead of making a grand entrance like that, huh? Nearly got yourself shot,” Ivan joked with a wink.

  “Enough,” Anton muttered. Did she know just by looking at him that he’d missed her so much? Immediately, her eyes dropped from his to find a spot on the floor. The rising rejection was hard to hide. “Viviana, you’ve met Boris …” She looked back up at the sound of his voice, “… and Viktor,” he added, nudging the prone man on the floor with the toe of his laced up boots.