Chapter 11 - Arko #2
She took a teasing sip of her champagne, her eyes never leaving mine, and I felt a heat pool at the bottom of my spine. For a second, the party faded, and all I could focus on was Beatrice and how she was playing me in front of my allies.
But then, she broke contact, turning to Elena again to compliment her outfit.
“Congratulations, again!” Beatrice smiled warmly once she was done, and I felt my shoulders sag with relief to see her looking like she belonged. Somehow, she had missed the disapproval on Gastone’s face.
I, too, took that as the cue that the conversation was over and kissed Elena on the cheek again. “I’m sure you two are solidly busy. Go, go, make your rounds. We’ll catch up later.”
We bid them goodbye, and I led her around the room, introducing her over and over again.
The same shocked faces, the same surprised questions.
We dealt with it, and by the time we were done, Elena and I had built up a rapport of some sort.
She was smiling, laughing, joking, and had started to look like she was even having fun.
“Oh my god!” she gasped, clutching my arm. “There! Your siblings!”
I followed her gaze and, sure enough, saw the entire clan crowded near the bar.
“Let’s go.” She started dragging me toward them. What was even happening here, I thought to myself in utter surprise. Beatrice looked not just warm, but thrilled to see them.
“Alena, Anja!” she squealed, surprising them from behind. My sisters turned to her with beaming smiles, and my surprise turned to shock. They were genuinely happy to see each other, something I never expected. Even yesterday, I thought for a second that Beatrice was only being polite.
But she wasn’t just being polite, was she? She was truly this person—warm, kind as hell, far too fucking good for my plots and plans.
“Did you girls end up going shopping yesterday?”
“We thought we’d wait till you were free!” Alena gushed, giving me a glare over Beatrice’s shoulder. “We could use fresh inputs.”
“Fair enough. I find it impossible to buy things without a second opinion,” Beatrice nodded wisely.
“Yeah, and I’d suggest when we go, make sure you bring Arko’s credit card.” Anja glowered at me, too.
“I’ll make sure to get one without any limit,” Beatrice agreed, giving me a wink over her shoulder. I was struck by the playfulness on her face, the teasing, and the ease with which she chatted up my sisters.
I tried to remind myself not to go soft, not to go weak, but with every passing second, I was slowly filling up on pride.
Yeah, Beatrice wasn’t the woman I married out of love, but whatever the circumstances were of our union, she dazzled by my side tonight.
I saw people turning to look at her, eating up every word she said, like my sisters were doing right now.
I felt awed to call her mine tonight.
“Come on,” I said softly, brushing up next to her and whispering low and close in her ear. She froze, then softened, her eyes meeting mine questioningly. “We should go say hello to a few more people.”
“Okay,” she said softly, not fighting me as she turned to say goodbye to my siblings.
We turned, walking side by side, and I still felt the ghost of her skin from whenever we touched. This easy rapport, this partnership, felt like a betrayal to her in some way, given how I was using her.
Suddenly, I felt in over my head, not knowing what came next. I’d put my plan in motion for my revenge against the Pavlovs, sure, but what about after?
I shook my head, knowing it made no sense to think so far ahead. I just needed to get through tonight and do this one thing right.
“That’s Sergei Vadim, and his wife, Lilliana,” I whispered to her before leading her toward them. “The Vadims are quite power—”
No. No fucking way.
I froze, my eyes at the swung open doors, through which now strode in six very angry men. Caspian, Giovanni, Federico, Dante, Luca, and Achille.
Beside me, I felt Beatrice sway.
“Wha…what are they doing here?” she whispered, her voice filled with agony.
The Lebedevs. They’d found us.
Caspian, Beatrice’s brother, was the first to notice us.
I stepped slightly in front of her, instinctively shielding her from them, as though to say she was mine because now, she was. How had they found out about tonight? Who had leaked the information?
The room went silent, and Beatrice pale.
Her brothers strode toward us with fury in their eyes.
“Beatrice!” Caspian lunged to grab her, but I stepped in his path.
“Move out of my way,” he hissed.
“Are you certain you want to do this tonight?” I hissed back. “This is a party hosted by my allies. There are more enemies here tonight than you can count.”
I made a valid point, and knew so when I noticed that flash of uncertainty in Caspian’s eyes.
“Caspian?” Beatrice breathed behind me.
“Are you hurt?” he asked his sister, trying to look at her over my shoulder, just as Giovanni and the others flanked him.
“What the hell did you do to our sister?” Federico hissed.
I felt Beatrice start to move forward, but I caught her wrist, keeping her at my side.
“Let go of her hand, you bastard,” Giovanni roared, stepping forward. There was violence etched onto his every feature, and I knew he was capable of doing something stupid.
Beside me, I felt my brothers arrive, giving me my own private guard. Beatrice must have realized things could get ugly, real soon.
“I’m okay,” she said, her voice trembling. I could feel her shaking with the effort not to run to them.
“Let her go, Pavlov,” Federico said, his hand inching toward his holster.
“That’s not how this works, Lebedev.” I kept a firm grip on Beatrice’s wrist. “Your sister is my wife now.”
The shock on their faces would have been satisfying if I weren’t so focused on keeping the situation from exploding into violence.
“No!” Achille shook his head at last, in disbelief. “That…that’s not possible.”
“She agreed to it,” I said, ignoring the twinge of guilt that surfaced. “The marriage is legal. Want the paperwork to prove it?”
Luca stepped forward, his face contorted with rage. “It can’t be legal if you forced her after you set that club on fire just to take her!”
I felt my heart stutter, then stop, before it started to race.
While I hadn’t planned to see them tonight, I wasn’t frazzled by the sight of them.
But this…the fact that they had somehow known I had been the one to set that fire and declared it tonight, thrown it right in Beatrice’s face when I had tried to keep it from her, threw me off my game.
I felt Beatrice go completely still beside me.
“Fire?” she whispered, turning to look at me. “What is he talking about?”
I hadn’t known, when I had set that fire, that she had been kidnapped as a teenager and left tied up in a burning building. I hadn’t known her brothers had rescued her, but the trauma still lived. If I had, I would never have done that.
“Tell her, Pavlov,” Dante challenged. “Tell her how you started that fire to create chaos so you could kidnap her.”
The blood drained from Beatrice’s face. She pulled her wrist from my grip. “Is that true?” she asked, her voice cracking.
I wanted to turn to her and explain, beg for her forgiveness in the role I played in making her relive her greatest fear, but right then, I was in a room full of people watching.
I was the Pakhan of the Pavlov family. I had to be ruthless, especially now.
“It was effective, wasn’t it?” I said coldly, hating the look of betrayal on Beatrice’s face. “I got your sister just where I needed her.”
Around us, I heard gasps as people realized what this marriage meant I had done. This was a declaration of war.
Beatrice took another step back, her eyes wide with hurt. “You used my fear of fire against me?”
“Business is business,” I said, hating myself for being so cruel, but I was convinced I could explain this all to her later. “Nothing personal.”
She recoiled as if I’d slapped her, and I had to stop myself from reaching for her and telling her I was sorry, and that it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
“You bastard,” Caspian snarled, moving forward.
Two of my brothers immediately stepped between us and drew out their weapons.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said, grabbing Beatrice’s hand. She tried to break free, but I held tight, stepping back and away from her brothers. “This is my turf, remember?”
“You’re going to pay for this, Arko!” Federico roared from his spot. “We’re going to come and get our sister back, then fucking bury you six feet under.”
“Oh yeah?” I laughed back, cruel and vicious with a bite. “Looks like I’m winning so far, so we’ll see how it goes.”
And then, I nodded to my brothers, who immediately became a barrier between us, allowing me to pull a petrified Beatrice away from here.