Stepan #2
"How long before they move?" Roman asks.
"Hard to say. The threat gives us the twenty-four hours, but that's theater. Could be sooner. Could be they're already in position."
My mind reels at the idea that no matter how hard we try to avoid fighting, it seems to come down on us.
If we were as bold and dastardly as the men who rise against us, we'd crush them.
We do crush them. We're always victorious, but we sit back on our hands and wait.
It's not right. I'm ready to be on the offensive for once and not wait around.
Roman has to see that waiting for them to attack is a bad move.
"Has anyone from the Orlov side made a move?
" Roman asks him and presses his eyes closed before he pinches the bridge of his nose.
I know as well as he does that if Orlov's right-hand man thinks there's anything left in it for him with Maksim out of the way, they may still strike an alliance.
Especially if they think I was involved in his death.
I look at Radimir and he shakes his head at Ro’s question, but we listen as Timur responds.
"No one... They're quiet. If Orlov is dead, as you say, no one knows it yet." Of course no one knows it yet. It happened less than twenty-four hours ago and if they've even found the body yet, I'd be shocked.
"He's gone, Tim." Radimir's grunt raises Roman's eyes. "We made it look like his buyer, and there's no trace of connection to us at all." I don't like the way Roman looks at his soldiers, but I'm glad there's at least one person in this room who's on my side.
Then an idea occurs to me. The way we can defeat Belova isn't through muscle, it's through knowledge. And we hold the key to that. We can manipulate things and make them spin our way, and it will leave Sergei scrambling for a way out.
"Timur," I say. "I need you to do me a favor."
"What?"
"Put the word out publicly on every channel we've got, every ear that'll listen. Marina Belova is pregnant, and the child is mine."
Roman's eyes snap to mine and his hand freezes around his glass. Radimir's head lifts from looking at the floor to meet my gaze, and Timur is silent for a second.
"Repeat that," Timur says.
"You heard me. I want every connected family between here and Moscow to hear it by morning.
Marina is carrying a Kuzin child. It'll force his hand, right?
" My heart starts hammering as my mind races through the possibilities.
If we make this announcement, Sergei won't come after us.
If he does, he's openly declaring war, and every one of our allies will side with us without hesitation.
It's not defaming her or shaming her if she's openly admitted to it.
Then all we have to do is convince her to marry me, and her father will be forced to either bow to us or be consumed.
Roman sets his glass down, but his eyes stay fixed on mine. He's tracking where I'm headed before I get there.
"If the Orlov organization finds out Marina voided the marriage contract," I continue, "they've got no reason to back Sergei.
The whole alliance was built on that marriage.
Without it, Sergei's standing alone with a broken deal.
The Orlov side walks. They don't know he's dead.
They're not gonna back a contract that's been broken. "
Timur goes quiet. I hear the faint tap of his fingers on a keyboard as he's already pulling up his means of communication.
"And Sergei?" he finally asks.
"Without Orlov's backing, Belova doesn't have the manpower to come at us," Ro says, finally relaxing into my idea. "He's got his own soldiers, but it'll never be enough. Not against what we can field."
"So, we isolate him?" Radimir asks. His eyes narrow on Roman's as we all start coming to the same conclusion. We're gonna force this fucker to bow, and it makes my chest do something wickedly sinful. I want to hurt him so badly for how he's hurt his own fucking daughter.
"We isolate him," Roman confirms. "Force his hand. Make it clear Marina isn't going back, and the child belongs to this family. Any move he makes against us is a move he makes alone."
"Timur, how fast can you get this out?" Radimir asks, leaning forward. He's itching for a battle like me, but if this works out how Roman thinks, we won't see much fighting at all.
"Within the hour. I've got people in every circle worth reaching. By sunrise, it'll be the only thing anyone hears from here to the Urals."
"Do it," Roman says. "But make it clean. We're not declaring war, we're announcing a fact. The Belova daughter is carrying a Kuzin heir. That's all anyone needs to know."
"Understood..." Timur is still typing as I sit back in my seat and rub the back of my neck.
When I walked into this place, I figured my world was about to erupt.
Now I wonder if Marina is ever going to forgive me for this.
We're making choices for her just the same way her father did. I never wanted it to be this way.
"And Timur," Roman adds, "keep your ear on the Orlov side. The moment they start pulling back from Sergei, I want to know. We have to know how Maksim's death is playing out with them."
"I'll have eyes on it within the hour."
The line goes dead and Roman steeples his fingers on the desk and stares past me at the far wall.
I watch his face shift from the tight frustration he's been wearing all night into a look I've seen a hundred times from the other side of that desk.
He's strategizing for the worst-case scenario and he's not happy about being in this situation.
"Sergei will come," he says, mostly to himself.
"When he finds out the pregnancy is public and every family in the region knows his daughter chose us, he won't be able to sit still.
His pride won't let him. He'll either come to negotiate or he'll come to fight, and either way, he walks into our territory on our terms."
When he turns to me, I'm surprised by his question. "How certain are you that Marina will marry you?"
It paralyzes my heart for so many reasons. I've done this with her, and she's rejected me. I know it was because of the alliance that she turned me down, but that doesn't make the thought of asking her again to be turned down again any easier to think about.
This isn't just about saving our asses, either. I love her. And hearing her push me away when I know she's pregnant will crush me. I'll never be the same. I really would ask to be transferred out of country, or at least to Siberia.
"I don't know," I say. "She's turned me down twice."
Roman stares at me for a long moment. Then he picks up his glass and throws back the last of his vodka and sets it down hard.
"Then you'd better figure it out," he says. "Because everything we're about to do depends on it."
My throat constricts as I let his words sink in.
The thing I never wanted to do has become the only way out of this. I have to make her want me, even after seeing her shock when she walked into that garage and saw the Radin men.
We're her enemy, and she's already pregnant with my baby. The only way to convince her to marry me is to phrase it as her only hope. I save her by marrying her, the same way Maksim was set to save her family.
I can only hope she sees this is done in real love, not coercion.