Shattered Vows (The Dubinin Bratva #3)

Chapter 1 Emil

EMIL

Tugging at my tie didn’t make me feel any more comfortable. No matter what I tried to do, this tuxedo was too tight. Too stiff. Too rigid. I was used to fine suits, but this new tux that I’d ordered for my cousin’s wedding just didn’t suit me.

Ha. Ha.

My suit doesn’t suit me.

I rolled my eyes at my own thoughts, stuck in too much of a funk to stop being so distracted. Even though I was late to get here on time, I was present to celebrate Ivan and Raisa getting married.

Actually, as of a couple of minutes ago, when Ivan whisked his new bride away from this fancy party in the crowded ballroom, we were all here and gathered to see the newlyweds enjoying the celebration. Since they’d taken off, though, I was now the backup of babysitting their son, Lev.

Another heavy sigh left my lips as I scanned the big room to glance at the young boy.

Babysitting wasn’t really my forte. I was getting more practice in babysitting my half-brother, baby Andre.

Then there was Misha, too, my cousin Alexsei’s son.

Still, I wouldn’t slack in my duties, however new they still were to me.

For so long, it had just been Misha in the family, and Alexsei was very hands-on with raising his son.

Ivan and Raisa trusted me and Alexsei with Lev for the night, and I wouldn’t fail. As I’d learned so far, keeping an eye on Lev was easier said than done. When that almost-eight-year-old teamed up with Misha, who’d be seven soon, they were faster as a pair of hellions than they were solo.

“They’re over there,” Alexsei said as he approached.

He tipped his chin in the direction of the dessert bar where many guests were coming back for seconds.

“By the—fuck.” He hurried off, not quite jogging, as he spotted them reaching up high to get some chocolate out of the fountain, too far up where they’d potentially knock it over.

I cringed, watching as one of the cooks and staff helpers near the table smiled and prevented disaster. The young man shook his head at Lev, who pouted. Misha tugged on Lev’s sleeve to get him to flee at the sight of Alexsei rushing over.

“Close call,” I muttered to myself, wondering how much longer I’d need to be here for the night. Young boys didn’t stay up late all the time, right?

“Yes. A close call,” Gabriella, my father’s wife, said as she found me lounging in the chair at the table reserved for the wedding party. “As in it was a close call for you to get here on time.” She sat, arching one dark brown brow at me.

“It was not a close call, Gabs.”

She pressed her lips together. “Don’t call me that.”

“Okay. Gabby, then.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why do you insist on nicknaming me?”

“Maybe because I see you more like a sister to annoy than a stepmother.”

That got a smile out of her. “I couldn’t be your mother, anyway. Not unless I traveled back in time.”

I nodded, still scanning the scene. Being this alert and on guard wasn’t necessary.

Numerous Dubinin soldiers and men were watching this place.

Countless layers of security had been installed and practiced for Ivan and Raisa’s wedding.

Ivan was one of the top men in the Dubinin Family, just like Alexsei and I were under my father’s rule, and as such, the guestlist for this wedding was a lengthy one.

However, any time this many members of the family were located in one building, extra measures were expected.

I didn’t have to be on guard, but some things never changed. I had been born this way, and I was raised to never assume peace was feasible, at least, not for long.

“That’s true,” I told her. “Therefore, it’s easier for me to lose the formality with you.” She was younger than me, yet married to my father now.

“As if you’re ever formal to begin with.” She scowled, shoving my hand down from my current reach up to tug at my tie. “Stop fidgeting.”

“I’m not.” I was a lethal assassin. If I did something as ordinary as fidgeting, it’d be for disguise. “Cool and calm. That’s me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not tonight. I saw you rushing into the church so last-minute.”

I shrugged, spotting Alexsei with Misha and Lev near the dance floor. It looked like he was trying to get them away from the center of the area, where adults moved under the clumsiness of alcohol in their systems. “Better late than never.”

She shook her head. “You almost missed the wedding!”

“I didn’t.”

“You didn’t miss it, but you almost did. You know, I spent a lot of time planning this day for Ivan and Raisa.”

I was well aware of that fact because when she married my father, she was too much of a target to feel comfortable leaving the house.

“The fact remains that I didn’t miss the wedding.”

She wasn’t satisfied, though, clearly seeing this as her opportunity to give me hell about my lack of punctuality. “You’re a groomsman. Where could you possibly have been off to in order to be that late?”

I turned my head slowly and smiled a bit. As I gave her a knowing look while raising my brows, she huffed. “Fine. Fine. Whatever. You were off on some ‘job’ again.”

A kill.

She meant a hit.

My job was to kill the people the Dubinin Family needed gone.

My father trusted me to do his dirty work in the fashion of assassinations, and I was often away and on the go for my career.

“Luka has warned me not to ask too many questions, and I won’t. But Emil, this is ridiculous. You knew when the wedding was happening. You could’ve been more careful in planning your travels and… tasks.”

I had no doubt my father warned her not to pry. As someone from outside the Bratva circles and as an individual not from an official crime family, Gabriella would always be the stranger learning how to acclimate and catch up.

But I could be flexible. She had put a lot of energy into planning this wedding and she’d likely freaked out about my late arrival after all the emphasis she’d put on wanting to have equal numbers of people in the bridal party to match the groomsmen.

“I’m sorry to make you upset about how late I was to return.

” Across the ballroom, I saw my father speaking with a supervisor within the family.

He was merely looking for Gabriella, just to know where she was.

With baby Andre in his arms, he looked more like a father figure than a mighty Bratva boss.

I had no doubt that they were standing there talking business, though. Sometimes, our work was never done.

Cue another sigh. “But something came up.”

“With the ‘job’?” she asked, air quotes and all. “Is that why you were so late?”

Alexsei brought over Lev and Misha right then. They boys didn’t take a seat, like he did. Still bouncing around and too hyper, Lev and Misha giggled and laughed, rowdy as ever.

“Yeah, Emil,” Lev teased. “You were so late that I was almost the groomsboy in your place.”

I allowed a smile at that. “Better late than never.”

Lev shook his head. “That just means you’ll never be on time.”

I wasn’t sure how he came to that logic, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. He didn’t wait for long anyway, running off with Misha again.

“We’re leaving in a half hour, boys,” Alexsei called. Once they were out of earshot, he turned to me and Gabriella. “Why were you so late?”

Dammit. They wouldn’t leave it alone. I didn’t understand why everyone was making a big deal out of how I disliked sticking to any agendas or schedules. It wasn’t like I had a strict timeline to follow.

“Because,” I admitted, hating the tinge of guilt that snuck into my mind.

The truth was that I had finished my latest assignment. The bloated and angry lawyer who’d screwed over one of my father’s friends was only a corpse in a seedy bar in San Diego now. It was an easy kill, too, a simple assassination with no obstacles or loose threads. No witnesses. Minimal blood.

Easy peasy.

What wasn’t so easy was heading to the airport and catching the interest of one particular woman.

No.

It was more like she’d caught my interest.

Whoever that slim, raven-haired federal agent was, she had to learn a thing or two about actually staying undercover.

Four times this year, I’d noticed her tailing me on my travels to jobs.

Watching me. Following me. Trying to snap pictures of me.

She was far too obvious at this game of hunting and stalking, and her lack of stealth was what had me noticing her the first time, at another airport.

Since then, every time I spotted her, this weird thrill of playing a game with her had taken over me.

The last time I saw her was when I was flying back from Italy with Ivan. I decided to take her on a wild goose chase of leading her to assume I’d flown to Bogota instead of New York, where we called home.

This morning, before I could fly from San Diego back to New York, I saw the blue-eyed beauty and decided to throw her off again, diverting her to Juneau.

“Because?” Alexsei asked with a laugh. He rolled his eyes.

“Well, I know better than to ask any questions.” Gabriella stood, giving me a side-eye. “But with how distracted you’ve been all night and how you haven’t tried to dance with a single woman throughout the reception? I’m gonna bet that because has something to do with a new lady in your life.”

Well, damn. She was eerily accurate with that guess.

“Yeah, right.” Alexsei shook his head, watching the boys run through the crowd again. “Like you’d let a woman matter enough to get in your head and distract you.”

I smiled, using the expression as a mask. He had a point. I didn’t commit—I couldn’t by the nature of my job. Relationships had never been a goal in my life.

But he couldn’t be further from the truth.

That woman was distracting me.

The idea of a gorgeous woman stalking me delivered too much of a thrill.

Petite, with a sharp gaze and a curvy little body I could spend forever exploring, she had well and truly ensnared me. As I sat here now, feeling like the odd man out, I struggled with the illicit curiosity of when I’d see her again.

“Right?” Alexsei laughed once, prompting me to face him.

He smirked at me, incredulous. “There’s not a chance in hell that you’ve met someone.

Because dammit, that’s not fair, man.” His laughing expression faded as he scanned the room.

“First, Luka and Gabriella. Now Ivan and Raisa…” A long sigh left him next.

“I mean, technically, I was first. But now—”

“Hey, hey.” I patted his back as I sat up, not caring for how down and depressed he’d become so suddenly.

Alexsei had been the first of us to settle down and marry since my mother died over twenty years ago.

But Alexsei had been a widower far longer than he’d been a married man.

With a bit of emotional whiplash, I grimaced and hated how I hadn’t been watching him, and checking on how he was doing at another Dubinin wedding so soon.

Of course, all of this would remind him of his wedding and late wife, no matter how long they’d been together.

And of course he’d feel similar to me, that we were the only ones without a partner. He was further ahead than me. At least he had a son. I only had… my job. The assignments. The memories of all the people I killed to haunt my dreams.

“That’s nothing to worry about.” I chuckled to lighten my tone.

“What, are you trying to suggest some stupid shit like love is in the air and I’m next?

” I gave him a silly smile that he returned in kind.

“Come on, Cousin. Listen to yourself. That’s nonsense.

” I stood, sensing that it would be my turn in babysitting to encourage the boys away from the dessert table. “I’m not settling down any time soon.”

He rose to his feet too, looking calmer and less alone. “You don’t think so?”

“Nah. I know so.” I scoffed. “How am I gonna find a woman to be my wife? One who’d be okay with me flying all over the world to kill off the stupid fuckers who don’t deserve to live?

” In case he’d take my reply as a suggestion that I wished I could find such a partner, I elbowed him lightly as I nodded my head toward the boys splitting up, each one running with a plate of cake in opposite directions.

“I’m not interested in settling down at all. I’ve got Lev.”

As I jogged toward the left to get Lev, he nodded before taking off to go after Misha to the right. “Let’s get them out of here before they’re more jacked up on sugar.”

“On it,” I replied, rushing after Lev.

What I wasn’t going to let myself get hung up on was that federal agent at the airport.

Not anymore.

Because it wouldn’t lead anywhere, anyway.

I’d skirt the law and avoid her catching me—like I did with any member of any law enforcement team. And just the same, I’d evade the possibility of her making me any more curious about her than she had already.