Chapter 5 Miko
MIKO
I can taste Anika’s fear in the air as I race down the unfamiliar halls of Pyotr Novikov’s house, chasing the pale blond beauty who is astonishingly fast despite her petite size and the high heels she’s wearing.
Who in their right mind would wear heels to breakfast in their own house?
I don’t know, but Anika clearly knows how to move in them as she whips around another corner and bursts into the open foyer of the grandiose modern home, footsteps echoing across the hardwood.
In my shock at her unexpected attempt to flee, I let Pyotr’s bride get a good head start, and I’m paying for it now as I can barely keep her within sight.
But I don’t want to lose her.
God only knows what would happen to her if someone else got to her first. I might trust the Chiaroscuro men with my life, but aside from my adopted brothers, I wouldn’t trust a single other soul with hers right now. Not until the chaos has settled.
Still, she makes it through the front door and down the steps to the gravel drive before I’ve caught up with her.
“Anika, stop!” I call. It’s the first time I’ve said her name out loud, and even in my tense state, it sounds beautiful. Then again, everything about this woman is almost otherworldly.
She flinches at the sound of her name—an odd reaction—and only sprints harder.
But now that she’s not weaving around corners unexpectedly, it doesn’t take me long to reach her. Even if she’s a fast runner, she’s no match for me.
“Nooo!” A feral scream escapes her as my arm snakes around her waist, and I lift her off her feet, bringing us both to a stop.
But she’s not done trying to run.
Her heels flail dangerously toward my shins as she squirms, her arms windmilling in her desperation to break out of my grip.
She nearly succeeds, too, as the soft fabric of her dress slips beneath my hands, her body writhing and twisting until her feet find gravel once more.
She dips, spinning away from me in a sneaky, snakelike move.
But despite the impressive fight she puts up, she’s no match for my strength.
Before she can fully break free, I shift my grip, trapping her arms across her chest and pinning her to me.
I hold her there, keeping her struggles tightly contained until her breath is spent.
With a final furious growl of defeat, she slumps against me. The sweet smell of cinnamon and rose rises from her, filling my nose as we breathe heavily together, her warmth seeping through my shirt.
“There’s no use fighting, Tesoro,” I state, relaxing my grip cautiously now that she’s stopped struggling. I turn her to face me, keeping a hold of her shoulders so I can meet her eyes.
Once again, I’m struck by how truly stunning Anika Novikov is.
She’s a classic Russian beauty—with pale blond hair that falls down to her shoulders in soft waves, smooth, delicate porcelain skin, high cheekbones that frame a straight button nose, and full red lips that are slightly parted to reveal the hint of a gap between her two front teeth.
Her sky-blue eyes hold a deep level of mistrust that I don’t remember being there the first time we met—a night I’ve never quite been able to shake from my mind, even if it was the only time I’ve spoken to her before now.
Then again, I did just kill her husband.
Can I blame her for distrusting me?
Fearing me, even?
But that doesn’t make her any less captivating than the first time we met.
She’s uncompromisingly the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, and while Anika wasn’t even on my mind when I chose to take over the Novikov headquarters, I can’t deny she might just be the single most valuable prize in the Bratva compound.
Claiming her will protect her from any of the other terrible fates that usually become of dead Pakhans’ wives.
But if I’m being perfectly honest with myself that’s not the only reason I want her.
In truth, I’ve never wanted another man’s wife—until the night I met Anika.
Even then, I didn’t realize right away who she belonged to.
But now Pyotr is gone.
And if I don’t take her under my protection, I have no doubt someone else will claim Anika.
“No use fighting because you’ll take what you want regardless?” she spits between gasping breaths as she glares up at me defiantly.
I can see how that’s the conclusion she would jump to. It’s not like we’ve given her a reason to believe we’re the good guys. We aren’t the good guys, I suppose, in her world. But that doesn’t mean I would ever stoop to forcing myself on a woman.
“There’s no use fighting me because I’m not going to let you get away—and if you were smart, you wouldn’t try because whatever fate waits for you outside these walls would be so much worse than the one I have in store for you,” I promise.
“Give myself freely to you so no one else will take what they want, then, is that it?” his hisses.
That about sums it up, I suppose, and I tip my head in acknowledgement, studying the beautiful flush of her cheeks, the fresh spark in her eye that seems to bring them to life.
“I would rather take my chances.”
The words are barely out of her mouth before she’s running again, rocks flying in her wake as she makes a beeline for the front gate.
It’s still closed and perfectly intact because we chose to infiltrate from the back of the estate—where the fewest guards would see us coming.
But that doesn’t slow her down, so I race after her again, this time closing the distance much more quickly.
“Let me go!” Anika screams, kicking and bucking against me as I scoop her up and throw her over my shoulder this time.
Her fists pound my back, and she pushes and squirms against me.
But I have a solid grip on her thighs now, keeping her weaponized shoes as far from me as I can while I march her back toward the house.
“Put me down, you animal!”
A string of Russian cuss words rushes from her next, and I can’t help but smile at the venom Anika spits.
I’m almost glad.
She looked so terrified and small curled up underneath the dining room table, I was worried I’d traumatized her.
But now I can see the fire I caught in her blue eyes that night almost a year ago.
Anika releases another feral snarl, her full hips squirming by my ear, and I give her ass a sharp spank, my cock twitching unexpectedly to life when her supple flesh responds to me.
She freezes, seeming stunned by my audacity, and her struggles cease, though she remains tense against me.
My hand itches with the desire to do it again, to palm her ass and feel how round and muscular it is before giving her another playful swat.
But she doesn’t know me or how far I might take things, and I don’t want to make today any more shocking than it already must be for her.
As I reach the foyer, I find Gio and the twins waiting for me, their eyebrows raised in a look of mild bafflement as I hoist my unruly cargo higher on my shoulder.
“I’m going to find somewhere safe to keep her for now,” I state. “I’ll be back. Vittorio,” I call, jerking my chin toward one of my men I know I can trust to follow orders.
He drops what he’s doing to come over and follows me up the sweeping staircase as I head in the general direction I imagine I’ll find a bedroom.
I stop at the first door that doesn’t lock from the inside and twist the handle, opening it to find a finely decorated room with beige walls, soft carpet, and a crisp white queen-sized bed.
“Perfect,” I state, shifting Anika’s weight to lower her back onto her feet.
As soon as I release her, she steps away from me, her body language tense and defensive as she glances at the bed, then scans the room like she’s searching for a weapon. “Don’t touch me,” she warns, backing quickly toward the far side of the bed when she can’t find an object to hit me with.
I hum my amusement, turning my attention to inspect the room for any dangerous items I shouldn’t leave her with. “Don’t let her escape,” I warned Vittorio standing in the doorway before I head into the ensuite bathroom.
Aside from a soap dispenser and a bedside lamp, the room seems devoid of objects that could be used as a weapon, and seeing as I’ll be the only one coming to visit her for the time, I’m not too worried about them.
With a jerk of my chin, I instruct Vittorio to head back out into the hall.
He does so, closing the door behind him as I approach Anika with slow, measured steps—like one might approach a rabbit caught in their garage.
“What are you going to do to me?” she asks, flattening her back against the far wall in her best attempt to get away from me.
Her sky-blue eyes are flat with distrust, her delicate features carved from stone as she watches me, and as I stop less than a foot in front of her, she has to tip her chin up to meet my gaze.
“I’m going to marry you.”
Anika’s lips part on a gasp, the look of horror in her eyes as sharp and scathing as if I’d told her I intended to kidnap her firstborn child.
I shouldn’t find it funny, but considering her alternatives, I would think she’d be a bit more receptive to the idea, and my lips twitch with amusement.
“Don’t look so appalled, Tesoro,” I murmur. “I promise you’ll prefer it to me letting you run and see how far my men let you get.”
A visible shudder ripples through her body, and while I’m aching to reach out and touch her, I think she’s at the end of her rope.
“I’ll see you again soon,” I promise, then I turn to exit the room, securing the door behind me.
I’ll need to find a proper solution to taming Anika’s hostility toward me, but for now, I need to get the house in order and prepare for any potential counterattacks.
“Watch the door. She doesn’t get to leave until I say so. Understood?” I instruct Vittorio.
He gives a curt nod, stationing himself in front of the room.
“Good. I’ll send someone to relieve you in a few hours.” Heading back down the hall to the stairs, I descend to the front room, where my brothers are already getting things back in order.
“We’ve gathered members of the staff in the great room and put guards on them,” Gio says. “A few teams are on cleanup duty, and several of the men are stationed at the front gate.”
“Excellent. Designate a rotation to patrol the perimeter as well. As of now, we’re locking this place down and maintaining twenty-four-hour surveillance. It’s not a question of if the remaining Bratva will try to take it back, but when, so we need to be ready.”
Gio nods and calls one of the men over to issue an order in our native tongue.
“What else have you found out?” I ask.
“Pyotr stocked this place pretty well. It has plenty of weapons, provisions if we need to wait out an attack. Honestly, it’s not a bad defensible location.
He just got too cocky,” Raf states. “There are a few buildings toward the west where the men can bunk. They look like staff housing, but at least half the rooms are unoccupied. This will be a solid location to start rebuilding our forces.”
Sandro jerks his chin toward the stairs where I took Anika. “You want to tell us what happened?” he asks.
Just thinking about the woman waiting for me there makes my pulse quicken, and I push down the instinctive desire to mark her, claim her as my own.
That’s not what my decision was supposed to be about, but something about Anika is like a siren call to me, and I can’t say I’m sorry if this is the best solution to manage her fate.
“Pyotr’s dead. That’s his widow, Anika Novikov.”
“I thought she looked familiar,” Gio says, nodding as his eyes shift toward the stairs.
“Yeah, well.” My eyes travel back up to the second-floor hallway and the beautiful Russian doll waiting there for me.
My pulse surges, my curiosity piqued. It’s going to take all my effort to stay focused on our mission today. “We all know what would have happened if I’d let her walk out that front door. No one deserves a brutal end like that. Marrying her is the only sure way to keep her safe.”