His Wild Attraction: A Billionaire Romance Novel (Wild Billionaire Romance Book 4)

Chapter Thirty-Five Andres

Things had slowly changed since the night I confessed my feelings to Ellie.

It felt like we were more of a union now. More a family.

Pride burned in my eyes as I pictured them before I left for work that morning.

Ellie was wearing a pair of stretchy jeans and a fuzzy gray sweater, and Sammy was getting ready to visit the preschool we were looking to send him to starting that January since he missed the fall semester.

Ellie and I had spent a few days researching programs we felt would be good for him, and today was the first interview.

I was meeting them there at ten o’clock, but I had to handle some things first at work.

My phone buzzed, and I looked down, frowning when I saw the contact.

It was a message from the Sigma International bodyguard I’d enlisted to tail Gary Peters after our little meeting.

The motherfucker had given him the slip.

Fuck.

“Morning, cousin,” Marat said, walking into my office.

“Morning,” I replied, eyeing him warily.

Still known as the face of Volkov Industries, Marat was more than met the eye. Something his enemies had to learn firsthand.

Luckily, I was not one of them.

But I had no time for reunions or whatever Marat wanted to chat about.

I needed to get someone out looking for Gary. With Ellie and Sammy out and about today, even with a driver and bodyguard, I was on fucking edge as it was.

Knowing Gary was on the run was not a comfort in any way shape or form. I needed to call Ellie.

“What’s up?” I asked Marat, hoping to shoo him along so I could phone my wife.

“Nothing. Just thought I could spend some time bonding with my favorite cousin.”

“You only learned I was your cousin a few weeks ago. How can I be your favorite?” I asked blandly.

“Probably because I don’t know of any others,” he replied with a shrug.

“Idiot,” a gruff voice said from the doorway and we both turned to see Adrik standing there. “Get in my office, both of you.”

I followed Marat and Adrik to his office, wondering what was going on. Josef was already inside, and he didn’t look so happy.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Anything you want to tell us, cousin? Like how you confronted your wife’s ex-husband in a law firm we don’t own and proceeded to beat the man to a pulp in front of witnesses?” Adrik snapped.

Eyebrows raised, I looked from one man to the other, stopping with Josef when he lifted his phone to show me a picture of a beaten and bloody Gary Peters.

I heaved a sigh.

“What? It’s not like you haven’t done anything like that before,” I grumbled, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand.

“Why wouldn’t you come to us for help with this?” Adrik spat, slamming his hands on the desk.

“Ellie’s ex-husband is my problem to deal with,” I said, shaking my head.

“That is where we beg to differ, cuz. You see, we’re family. That makes this asshole all of our problems,” Marat replied.

Emotion started to build inside of me. I never had this. Family, camaraderie, or whatever it was.

It was new.

It was different.

And it felt good.

“Tell us everything you know about him,” Adrik instructed, and I took a seat.

“He’s an abusive fucking blight on humanity,” I growled. “He hit her. He threatened Sammy. He’s tried to weasel his way into positions of power within her father’s company. Thought he was going to get the whole shebang once the old man died. But he didn’t. And the fucker took it out on her,” I said, barely able to contain my fury.

“Fuck,” Adrik spat.

“You didn’t kill him?” Marat questioned.

“I was keeping him alive because I thought he was Sammy’s father and I couldn’t do that to the boy,” I growled.

“What do you mean you thought he was Sammy’s father?” Adrik asked.

“Oh, well, this motherfucking prince tricked Ellie, berated her into thinking she was at fault for his limp fucking dick. They used a fertility doctor, and good ol’ Gary bribed the fucking guy to knock her up with donor sperm.”

Just saying it out loud brought a wave of rage flowing through me, I didn’t realize I’d been sitting on.

I was going to find out who that fucking doctor was. And I was going to kill him myself.

What he did was unethical, immoral, and a gross violation of my wife.

Even if she wasn’t married to me at the time, Ellie was mine.

“Josef?” I growled, and the man nodded, reading my mind.

“On it,” he said, shooting off a text.

“So, you had a meeting with this man? For what purpose?” Adrik asked.

“He threatened to sue for visitation,” I began, and then proceeded to explain everything that had happened up to me beating the shit out of Gary Peters.

“Again, cousin, I must ask, why not kill him?”

I sighed.

Might as well tell them the truth. If anyone understood my compulsion to do right by Ellie, it was these three men.

“Because I didn’t want her to see that. Didn’t want her to know I was capable of that kind of violence,” I confessed.

“Understandable, and fucked up,” Marat said, slapping a hand on my back.

I rubbed my own hand over my face. Too many fucking emotions were batting at me to do more than that.

“Look, I know I dropped a bomb on you at the wedding. It doesn’t have to change how you treat me, though,” I said, and they all scoffed.

“Are you fucking kidding? Bro, you’re family,” Marat said, as if that explained it all.

“We take care of family, blood or otherwise,” Adrik added.

“Not to mention the fact that our wives have all bonded, forming a friendship that means a lot to each one of them. Knowing her friend was close to this piece of shit sent Merdith into a frenzy,” Josef said, adding his two cents.

“Fuck. I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was something I needed to trouble you all with. I love my wife. I’ve loved her for a while. As for Sammy, he’s mine. They both are. And I protect what’s mine,” I said, and it felt really fucking good to share this with them.

“Then we will, too. Because, Andres, you are our family. You and yours are also ours. You are Volkov,” Andres growled, his Russian accent he’d almost gotten rid of peeking out at the last.

“Thank you,” I replied, holding his intense gaze for a beat.

“You got him pretty good,” Marat mumbled, looking at the photo that Josef had apparently sent to each of them.

“Broke his jaw, shattered his cheekbone, and destroyed his nose,” Adrik murmured.

“Yeah, I dabbled in MMA when I was in college,” I replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, I can shoot and use a knife okay, but I prefer using my hands.”

“I get it,” Adrik said. “We should spar sometime.”

“No thanks. I mean, I’m good, but you’re a fucking beast, Adrik.”

“Ha! I suppose I am,” he said with a smirk.

“You know, Andres, we’ve done many bad things, but we’ve worked hard to become a legitimate business. Even harder to bury our not so clean past. But we still have connections,” Adrik said, his voice even.

I nodded.

What could I say?

I knew all about that chapter in the Volkov family dedicated to criminal undertakings. And really, I was fine with it.

Maybe that made me a worse man than I thought I was, but I didn’t have it in me to judge them.

Truth was there wasn’t that much difference between the corporate world and the criminal one. Though, perhaps one was more honest than the other.

Of course, it was up to interpretation which was which.

“It all comes down to fundamentals, but in my experience, every powerful organization steps over the line now and then,” Josef stated.

“Yes. Agreed. I suppose it is up to Karma to bring us all to task eventually,” Adrik replied.

“You know how karma deals with men like us?” Marat asked, a grin splitting his stupid handsome face.

“How?” I asked.

“It gives us daughters.”

I’d expected someone to laugh, but instead, all four of us went quiet.

My brain short-circuited. Thoughts going immediately to Ellie.

I imagined the others were thinking of the women in their lives.

Marat would undoubtedly picture Destiny and Lucy. While visions of Michaela and Sofia filled Adrik’s head. Meredith, with her swollen abdomen, was likely consuming Josef’s every thought.

I couldn’t blame them for pausing. I couldn’t blame myself either for the sudden intense joy that raged through me at the thought of having a daughter, of adding to my beautiful family.

A son.

A daughter.

A life.

With Ellie. My Lupina.

I was really looking forward to that.

Picturing her swollen with our baby was enough to make me cry. The woman had me on my knees.

Did she know?

How could she not?

I should have felt vulnerable. Maybe some thought me weak. But all I could feel was pride. Pride that she was mine, and that I was hers.

Christ, I loved her.

“Okay, well, I hate to break up this reunion, but after that prick was seen by one of our doctors, he took off. My man tried to track him, but he gave him the slip,” Josef said, and I exhaled.

“Shit. Yeah, he texted me too, before I came in here,” I said, reaching for my cell. “Fuck. I forgot to text Ellie.”

I dialed her number and frowned as the line went straight to voicemail.

“What the fuck? She’s not answering,” I growled, fear causing the vein in my neck to throb.

“Is she using a Sigma driver today?” Josef asked.

I nodded, tracking her phone.

“Her phone is stopped at the Safari Playground. It’s on 91st Street off Central Park West,” I shouted as I took off for the elevator.

Adrik, Marat, and Josef were right on my heels, and I froze after I hit the button for the elevator. It was a private one. Faster than the general car.

But it was still going to take a second, and during that time, I met their determined gazes one at a time.

There was no point telling them they didn’t have to come with me. They would, anyway.

Just like I would be there if they ever needed my support.

Because Adrik was right.

I am a Volkov.

I am family.

My wife and son are family.

That meant Ellie and Sammy were theirs to protect, too.

“If Gary is there. If that prick is threatening them, I’ll end him this time,” I said.

“Got it. Our boys will meet us,” Marat replied, rolling his shoulders.

The elevator pinged, and the doors opened. We got on, silent, lethal, all of us on the same page.

My mind wandered, and it occurred to me this might be the first time four alpha wolves headed to Central Park for a common purpose.

To protect theirs.

When I met Ellie, I became immediately obsessed with her. The attraction I felt?

Hell.

That wasn’t even the right word anymore. Whatever it was, it defied nature. Laughed in the face of Newton”s law of universal gravitation.

We stalked over to the two SUVs Josef had waiting for us and we split up. Me with Adrik, and Josef and Marat in the second one.

“We will find her,” Adrik said.

I nodded. We had to. There was no other choice.

But even as I held on to my fear for my own sanity’s sake, I thought of my beautiful wife.

She looked so innocent, but beneath that soft exterior, Ellie was a fucking wolf.

My Lupina.

People lied.

Everyone did.

At one time or other, every single human being on the face of the planet has told a fib or a lie.

But my Ellie? She lied without ever meaning to.

Her whole appearance was a lie.

She made you think she was this shy, timid, scared little thing. This soft, fragile, sheltered carbon copy of a woman. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Ellie wasn’t some burned out version of herself.

Ellie was the fire.

She was iron.

She was steel

She was mine

All fucking mine.

And if Gary Peters laid one finger on her, he was going to find out the hard way what that meant.