Born into Temptation (Devils Will Rise: Melnikov Legacy #4)

Prologue

Valentin

10 Years Old

“ V al?”

The whispered word and soft tug on my arm pulls me from my dream. Immediately, I know it’s not my twin. Svetlana wouldn’t be this gentle. She’d tug on my arm like she’s trying to remove it from the socket.

When my eyes adjust to the dark room, it’s Yelena’s face I see staring back at me. She’s hugging her stuffed dog, and even though I can’t see the tears on her face, I know they’re there. I can hear it in her voice. She’s been crying, and she’s terrified.

I rub my eyes and sit up. “What’s wrong?”

“I had a nightmare,” she whispers.

“Because of that movie?”

“Yeah.”

She sniffs and rubs at her eye with one hand while the other arm clutches the dog to her chest. I’m not at all surprised that she’s terrified. Sveta had convinced Yelena and Natalya to watch a scary movie earlier, and they’d been caught when one of them had screamed at a jump scare. Our dad had run in and turned off the movie, but the damage had already been done.

When Yelena starts to cry again, I feel an ache in my chest that has me flinging back the covers and pulling her in for a hug. She clings to me as tightly as she’d just been holding her stuffed dog, small arms wrapped around my neck and the scent of her strawberry shampoo filling my nose.

“What was your dream about?” I ask.

She hugs me tighter and whispers, “A bad man was chasing me. I kept falling, and I couldn’t get away.”

“It was just a dream,” I remind her, but when that doesn’t help, I add, “No one’s ever going to hurt you, Yelena. I won’t let them.”

Her voice is so soft I barely hear it when she asks, “But what if they do?”

“I won’t let them,” I quickly say. “I’ll keep you safe, Yel.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Maybe it’s dumb to make the promise when I know I’m no match for a grown man, but I make it anyway, because she’s sad and scared, and all I can think about is how badly I want to make her feel better. I may not be able to protect her now, but one day I’ll be bigger and I’ll be able to keep my promise.

“Come on.” I grab her hand and a couple of pillows, leading her to the corner of my room where my tent is set up. A flashlight is already inside from when Sveta and I had been playing earlier, and when I flick it on, it gives off enough light for me to see Yelena’s tear-streaked face. Her eyes look even darker than usual, and her hair is a tangly mess. She looks so small, and something deep inside me sparks to life. I’m not sure what it is, but I know I never want to see her looking this scared again.

“Do you think I’m being a scaredy-cat?”

I smile and tap the tip of her nose. “Of course not, myshka .”

She gives a soft laugh when I call her little mouse, and pride swells in my chest at making her forget how scared she is, even if only for a few seconds.

“Here,” I tell her, setting one of the pillows down and reaching for the blanket that Sveta always uses because she says it’s the softest. Yelena lies down, letting me cover her with the blanket before I put the other pillow next to hers and take the spot near the opening of the tent.

“I’ll sleep here,” I tell her, “that way if anything tries to get you, they have to go through me first.”

She turns on her side and grabs my hand. “But then you’ll get hurt, Val.”

I mimic her and turn on my side so we’re facing one another. “Better me than you.”

She doesn’t look convinced, so I squeeze her hand and say, “I promise nothing is going to come in here. We’re safe in the tent, Yel, and I’ll keep the flashlight on all night.”

Her nod is so soft I barely see it, but she squeezes my hand tighter and sinks further into her pillow. Before she closes her eyes, she whispers, “Thanks for protecting me, Val.”

“Always, Yel,” I say, not even having to think about it. I’ll always protect her. She’s my family, and my dad and uncles have always taught me that you protect your family, no matter what.

And so that’s what I do.

I stay up all night, holding her hand and watching over her. Even though I’m exhausted, I force myself to stay awake, making sure she’s safe and that she doesn’t have another bad dream. When she wakes, I make sure the first thing she sees is me. The shy smile she gives when she realizes I’m still holding her hand makes my heart do a weird flip that I’ve never felt before.

“Morning,” I whisper and then smile when she whispers it back. “Let’s go get some breakfast before Sveta eats all the good cereal.”

She nods and sits up but doesn’t let go of my hand. I don’t want to let go either, so I keep my fingers wrapped around hers and help her to stand. Her stuffed dog is still pressed against her chest, and when we get out of the tent, she stays close beside me as we sneak out of my room. I’m usually the first one up, so when we walk into the kitchen, I’m not surprised to find it empty. Keeping her hand in mine, I lead her to the pantry where several boxes of cereal are lined up on a shelf.

“Which one do you want?” I ask her.

Her dark eyes run over the boxes before she points to the last one. “That’s the one my dad and I usually eat.”

I grab the box and lead her back out so I can get two bowls. I’m still doing it all one-handed because it doesn’t occur to me to let her go, but as soon as I hear footsteps coming down the hall, I look down at her as we both pull our hands apart, like we’re about to get caught doing something wrong. The only problem is it doesn’t feel wrong. Yelena is my cousin, but we’re not actually related. My dad and four uncles are brothers by choice, not brothers by blood, but we both scoot apart, some deep part of ourselves knowing that we should keep what happened a secret.

“Hey, you two,” my dad says, walking in with a smile on his face. He ruffles my hair and kisses the top of my head before lifting Yelena up for a big hug. “Are the others still sleeping?”

“Yeah,” Yelena quickly says as he puts her back down. “I woke up early, and Val said he’d help me get some breakfast.”

My dad picks up the box of sugary cereal. “Good choice. I’ll have a bowl, too, while we wait for the others, and then I’ll make some pancakes.”

Yelena laughs. “We can’t have cereal and pancakes.”

“Sure we can,” my dad says, already pouring us each a bowl. “It’s called an appetizer, Yelena.”

Yelena and I both laugh while my dad gets the milk. When he turns his back on us, she smiles and gives my hand a quick squeeze, and my heart does that funny jump again. By the time my dad turns back around, Yelena and I are no longer touching, and I’m more than a little in love with the dark-eyed girl who’s still smiling at me.

Valentin

21 Years Old

“Val, can you come over?”

As soon as I hear Yelena’s voice, I know something is wrong. I have everything about this woman memorized, and even though she’s not crying or saying anything out of the ordinary, she might as well be blowing a bullhorn in my ear, because every instinct I have is screaming at me that something is off.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine,” she quickly says. “I just need you to come over. Can you?”

“Of course, myshka ,” I say, using the nickname I gave her when we were little. “I’m leaving now. Don’t hang up, okay?”

“Okay.”

I shove an earbud in and pocket my phone before pulling on a hoodie and rushing out of the apartment.

When I’m in the elevator, she asks, “Can you tell my parents that we’re meeting Max and hanging out together? I’m so tired of lying to them.”

I answer her as the elevator doors open and I step into the parking garage. “You know I will, Yel. I’m sorry you’ve had to lie to them.” Hesitating when I get to my burnt orange Jaguar, I brace my hand against the hood of the car and say, “We can tell everyone whenever you want. You know that, right? As soon as you’re ready, I’ll take care of everything.”

I hear the shaky breath she lets out, and my hand instinctively curls into a fist because I’d give anything to take this from her. I’d give anything to make this easier, but we’ve always known that our love wasn’t going to be an easy one. It’s perfect and pure and beautiful, but it’s not carefree or easy, and it’s taking its toll on her, slowly eating away at her and making her feel guilty about all the lies and sneaking around we’ve had to do over the years.

“We can talk about it when you get here,” she finally says.

I nod even though she can't see me and get in my car. She hears the deep purr of the engine and adds, “Drive safe, Val.”

I smile at how sweet she is. “Don’t hang up,” I remind her. “Stay on the line with me.”

“I will.”

Pulling out of the parking garage, I ease into traffic and listen as she tells me about her morning with Evgeny. Yelena’s always been close to her parents and little brother, and I can hear the smile in her voice when she tells me about helping him with his last-minute homework while their mom made breakfast and their dad tried to help. She’s still talking when I pull into her apartment building.

“I’m here,” I tell her, parking my car in one of the reserved spots by the private elevator.

“Can I hang up now?”

I smile and head for the elevator. “No.”

She gives a soft laugh. “Don’t you ever get sick of hearing me babble in your ear?”

“Never.” I step into the elevator, knowing I’m being filmed by the hidden security cameras. Once I reach the top floor, I walk to their door while I whisper a quick “I’m here” to Yelena before giving a knock.

I’m not at all surprised that she’s the one who opens it, and when I see her beautiful face, everything inside me stills. I have to force myself to not wrap my arms around her and press my lips to hers. Her dark eyes stay locked on mine, and I notice the way she quickly grips the cuffs of her sweater to keep from flinging herself into my arms. She pulls her phone out and makes a show of ending the call and then fidgets to keep herself in check. I tell her with my eyes how much I love her, and the sweet smile she gives before turning away lets me know she got the message.

I follow her down the hall, reaching out to give her ass a soft squeeze before we step into the kitchen. That one touch is almost enough to undo me. Everything about Yelena drives me crazy, and one stolen touch in the hall will never be enough.

“Hey, Aunt Alina,” I say when she looks over at us. She gives me a big smile and shuts the fridge so she can walk over and give me a hug.

“It’s good to see you, Val.” My Aunt Alina is the tallest of my aunts, but she still barely reaches my shoulder. Her blue-green eyes are the same as Evgeny’s, where Yelena’s are an almost midnight black like her dad’s. “What are you up to today?”

When she steps away, I lean down to pet Rasputin. The German Shepherd nuzzles my hand and then licks it while I say, “Not much. I’m on my way to meet Max and thought Yelena might want to come.”

“How’s Max liking the new place?”

We all look over at the sound of my Uncle Matvey’s gravelly voice. He walks in, immediately heading towards his wife and wrapping an arm around her as he gives her a kiss. Aside from the tattoos creeping up his neck and covering his hands, he looks completely respectable in his jeans and dark sweatshirt, like a typical loving husband and father, and although he is both of those things, he’s also so much more than that. He runs the city’s most dangerous Bratva with his brothers, and ever since I turned eighteen, I’ve been helping. It’s hard to imagine myself doing anything else because this is all I’ve ever known. When we were younger, my cousins and I were given a normal childhood, but as we got older, we were slowly introduced to the other side of things, the side we keep hidden from the women. Everything we do is to protect them, and I’m more than happy to do my part if it means keeping the dark-eyed woman beside me safe.

I give Rasputin another scratch behind the ears while I answer him. “Max loves it. His piano was delivered yesterday, and he wants to show it off.”

“You going to move in?”

Instead of telling my uncle the truth and saying that I’m not going to be moving in with my cousin because I’m going to be marrying Yelena and moving in with her instead, I smile and say, “Maybe. I’m pretty much living there already, so it wouldn’t be that big of a leap to make it official.”

It’s not a total lie. I have been staying over at Max’s most nights since his dad secured him a standalone that’s not too far away. He was getting sick of apartment living, and since his dad and little brother can hack into anything, they’d found him a place nearby, bought it under a fake name, and used stolen money to pay for it.

My Uncle Matvey grabs an apple slice from Aunt Alina’s cutting board and gives her a wink when she looks up at him. She just smiles and cuts a few more slices for him. My aunt has been in love with my uncle since they were kids, and I’m banking on that to help me and Yelena out when the time comes. Surely if anyone can understand how we feel about each other, it’s these two. I just need to get them to look past the fact that it’s their daughter and we’re technically cousins.

I push aside everything else I know about my uncle, like the fact that he would quite literally destroy the world and everyone in it to protect his wife and kids. If he decides I’m a threat, I’m good and fucked, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to back down. I will never let go of Yelena. Nothing will come between us, not even our own families. I won’t allow it.

“We should get going,” Yelena says, stepping closer to give her mom and dad a hug.

“Text when you get there,” her mom says.

“Be careful,” her dad adds. He kisses the top of Yelena’s head and looks over at me. It’s the same look he always gives me, the unspoken command that I’m to protect his daughter with my life, and I respond with the same nod I always give him, because I will. No harm will ever come to her while she’s with me. I would take a bullet for her without a second thought. I would do anything for her. When he sees my nod, his shoulders visibly relax as he lets his daughter go and smiles down at her.

“Love you,” he tells her.

“Love you too, Dad.” She reaches down and pets Rasputin before smiling at her mom and grabbing an apple slice.

“We’ll let you know when we get there,” I tell them while following Yelena out. She and I have always been close, but so far our parents haven’t put two and two together, which is proof that sometimes you’re blinded by certain assumptions. They assume that I think of Yelena as a blood relative, so in their minds nothing could ever happen between us. Soon they’re going to learn how very wrong they are.

I wait as she grabs her coat, and then we ride the elevator with a respectable distance between us. We keep the act up after we’re in the car because we can still be seen on the security cameras, but I break the silence by saying, “You’re scaring me, Yel. What’s wrong, baby?”

She tucks a strand of dark hair behind her ear and looks out the window while I start the car and back out. The silence stretches on, and as soon as I pull out of the parking garage, I reach over and grab her hand, bringing it to my mouth so I can kiss it. My lips press against her skin as I breathe in the familiar scent of her—the only woman I’ve ever touched, the only woman I will ever touch—and then I ask again, “What’s wrong?”

“Can you pull over somewhere?”

Unable to speak, I give a quick nod and reluctantly let her hand go so I can weave my way through the thick traffic. A million worries swarm through my head, the worst of them being that she’s about to tell me she no longer loves me, that she’s realized being with me isn’t worth the trouble. A heavy weight sits on my chest as I turn onto a side street and then parallel park in the first available spot.

I run a hand through my hair and let out the breath I’ve been holding before meeting her dark eyes. She looks away so she can dig something out of her purse. When she hands me the stick with the two pink lines showing on it, it takes me a second to realize what the hell is going on. I’d been expecting her to break my heart, not hand me the world.

“ Myshka ,” I whisper, taking the stick with shaky fingers. “Is this what I think it is?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers right before the tears start to fall and my girl breaks apart, ripping my heart in two as I cup her face and force her to meet my eyes while she sobs and visibly shakes in her seat.

“I thought you were going to end things,” I manage to say around the ache in my throat.

“Why would you think that?” Her words are shaky and hoarse, tears still falling freely, and hands tightly gripping my wrists.

“Because it was the worst thing I could think of. You were acting strange. I knew something was wrong, and I feared the worst.”

She sniffs as more tears fall down her cheeks. “This isn’t the worst?”

“No, baby, not even close.” Still cupping her face, I use my thumbs to brush away the tears as I look at the girl that I’ve loved for as long as I can remember. “I’m marrying you, Yelena, and we’re going to have a baby. This may not be exactly how I envisioned it happening,” I admit with a smile, “but I still can’t be upset that it’s happened. I could never regret this life that we’ve made.”

She cries harder when I bring a hand to her stomach, already imagining our child growing inside her.

“They’re going to be so mad at me,” she chokes the words out on a sob, her heart breaking at the thought of disappointing her parents and mine breaking at seeing her so upset.

“They won’t be, Yel. I promise. They could never be mad at you. They’ll be furious with me, but never you.”

“I don’t want them to be mad at you.” She wraps her arms around me and buries her face in my neck, sobbing as I hold her small body against mine. I kiss her and stroke her back and tell her again and again that I love her and that everything is going to be okay. The truth is I have no idea if it will be. I have no idea how our family will react to the news, but I do know that I will do whatever it takes to make sure everyone accepts our relationship.

“They will be at first,” I tell her, “but it won’t be for long. They’ll be upset that we lied, but they won’t be mad at you. Your mom and dad could never be mad at you. Our cousins have already said they’d stand with us when it comes time to tell everyone. It’s going to be okay.”

“We’re going to tear the family apart.”

“We won’t, baby.” I kiss the side of her head, pressing my lips to her temple. “Nothing will tear this family apart. You know that.” Pulling back so I can rest my forehead against hers, I say, “We’re not tearing it apart. We’re just making it a little bigger.”

She makes a sound that’s part laugh, part sob, and then reaches up to cup my face, pulling back just enough so she can see me better. Her eyes study mine, and I let her, knowing she needs to see the truth of what I’m saying. I’ve never hidden any part of myself from her, and I’m not about to start now.

“I love you, Yel, and we’re going to get through this.”

She gives a soft nod while gently stroking my cheek with her thumb, and that one small movement is enough to make my heart speed up.

“I love you too,” she whispers before leaning closer and pressing her lips to mine. With a groan, I thread my fingers in her hair and cup the back of her head, pulling her closer as I deepen the kiss and part her lips with my tongue. She opens for me with a sweet moan that my body immediately responds to. I don’t know how she does it, but every part of me has always belonged to her. Every soft breath, every moan, every touch, no matter how small, has always driven me crazy.

When we finally pull apart, we’re both breathless, and there’s a flush to her cheeks that wasn’t there before.

“This is what got us into this mess,” she reminds me with a small smile playing at her lips.

I give her another quick kiss. “Your fault entirely, myshka . You’re too beautiful. I can’t keep my hands off you.”

She rests a hand on her stomach, and when I see the worry start to creep back in, I hook a finger under her chin and tilt her back up to me.

“Please don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything. Anything you want, I’ll do it. We can tell them today if you want and move in together tonight.”

“You’re really okay with this? You’re not upset?”

“I could never be upset about you being pregnant. I know it’s not how we planned it, but we’re going to have a baby, Yel.”

When I rest my hand on her stomach, she puts hers on top of mine.

“You’re all I’ve ever wanted,” I tell her. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve thought about marrying you and having a family. You’ve just given me everything I’ve always dreamed of.”

Her eyes get glassy again, but this time she’s also smiling when the tears fall down her cheeks. “I love you, Val. I always have, and I always will.”

Keeping my hand on her stomach, I kiss her again and say, “Then I have everything.”

We stay in the car while we talk about our future, a future that we’ve both always wanted, one where we don’t have to hide how we feel about one another, and as exciting as it is to think about, I know she’s still scared about telling her parents. When she says she wants to wait a little bit to tell them, I nod my agreement and tell her I’ll do whatever she wants.

Because I will.

Whatever Yelena wants, I’ll do. Whatever she needs, I’ll make sure she has it. She’s always been the love of my life, but now she’s also the woman who’s carrying my baby, and soon she’ll be my wife.

I will do anything for her, but we both know the clock is ticking. She won’t be able to hide this pregnancy for long, and every second that we’re apart is going to be hell for me. The need I feel to protect her just skyrocketed when she showed me those two pink lines. I’ll wait until she’s ready, but as soon as she gives me the green light, I’m putting a ring on her finger and marrying Yelena Melnikov.