Chapter 10
Viktor~
I stared down at my wife, and I could hardly believe that she was daring me to kill her.
Yet she was.
I was also trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she spoke and understood Russian fluently, and it was clear that I had underestimated my new bride by quite a bit.
If that wasn’t enough, watching her fight Georgi had been another real eye-opener.
Even though the entire thing had lasted only a few seconds, Aurora had fought him like a trained soldier, and now everyone in this club knew what she was capable of, and I wasn’t quite sure if that’d been her intention or not.
When Georgi had spoken to her, she could have easily ignored him or had looked to me for guidance, but instead, my wife had insulted him to the point where he had forgotten who she was and had attacked her.
However, it wasn’t until she had called him a bastard and had dared him to kill her in flawless Russian that I had realized that Aurora Marchetti was a lot more than I had credited her for, and I had already credited her with quite a lot.
Now, my wife was looking up at me with clear brown eyes, making sure that I didn’t miss my mark should I decide to pull the trigger.
Aurora Marchetti was looking up at me, unconcerned that she was surrounded by nothing but the enemy, and she was daring me to shoot her dead, seemingly looking forward to the idea.
What in the actual fuck?
It wasn’t until I heard the familiar melody filling the silence that I knew that I had to act quickly.
For reasons that only he knew of, Kasimir sang when he was beginning to feel particularly violent, but it wasn’t just any old random song.
No. When my brother was feeling bloodthirsty, he began singing The Wheels on the Bus, and only he knew why.
Anyway, with Kasimir ready to shoot everyone in the room, I needed to take control of this situation.
So, even though I knew that Aurora spoke and understood Russian, I still chose to speak in English, a quiet apology for our rudeness earlier.
Everyone had purposely spoken in Russian as a reminder that she was an outsider, and I had allowed it.
“Georgi, take your hands off my wife now,” I ordered, and through his pain, he quickly unwrapped his arms from her knees, but it was too late for him, something that he probably already knew.
“Boss-”
“Aurora, move aside,” I instructed as I kept my eyes on Georgi, cutting off whatever excuses that he thought would make a difference.
However, instead of quickly scrambling away to safety, with her eyes still on mine, Aurora slowly stood up, and it was me that had to pull the gun back from her forehead. It was me that had to de-escalate the situation because my wife didn’t appear to be in any hurry to help with that.
Looking back down at Georgi, I asked, “What did you say to my wife?”
“Boss-”
“What did you say to my wife?!” I roared.
“YA ne mogu poverit', chto on deystvitel'no zhenilsya na ney. YA by nikogda ne vyshla zamuzh za ital'yanskogo podonka, tem boleye za prostitutku,” he reluctantly repeated, the entire club able to hear his confession through the silence echoing all around us. The entire club had been able to hear him confess to saying that he’d never marry Italian scum, especially a whore. The man had insulted my wife’s heritage, then had called her a whore, and I couldn’t remember the last time that anger had crawled down my spine like this.
Wasting no more time, I pulled the trigger, and the sound ricocheted loudly enough to drown out the gasps of shock.
However, more amazing than Kasimir singing behind me, Aurora hadn’t even flinched when I had killed Georgi, nor had she cringed as his blood and brain matter splattered her clothing.
Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if I had married a sociopath.
Lowering my gun, I looked around the room at some of the most important people in our organization, asking, “Does anyone else have an opinion about my wife that they’d like to voice?”
As predicted, my question was met with complete silence, and only Kasimir’s singing could be heard throughout the room, which would be comical in itself if those in the organization didn’t know what his singing meant.
Again, while none of us might know why my brother sang that particular song when he was feeling bloodthirsty, we still all knew what it meant, and it was usually hard to calm Kasimir down once he was in that state.
Of course, in this particular instance, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted him calmed down.
A point needed to be made about my marriage and how I felt about my wife.
Looking back at Aurora, I asked, “Are you okay?”
With her back straight, her eyes clear, and blood covering her clothing, she asked, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Ignoring that, I called for my brother. “Kasimir, come.”
Happily, my brother walked over to my side, the grin on his face a disturbing one. “Yes, Sovietnik?”
“See my wife home,” I instructed, not trusting anyone else to do the job to my satisfaction. “Straight home.”
“Of course,” he readily agreed, more than happy to annihilate anyone that may try to stop him.
With my eyes never leaving Aurora’s, I said, “I’ll be home soon.”
Acting as if the entire situation was beneath her, she just turned from me, then began heading towards the door, not seeming to care that everyone in the room was probably blaming her for Georgi’s untimely death.
She was carrying herself like a queen who couldn’t be bothered with the mess scattered around her, and I found that incredibly awe-inspiring when it should really be pissing me off.
Nevertheless, with a message still needing to be made, I called out to her in Russian.
“Zhena.” Aurora immediately turned to face me, but I hadn’t missed her back snapping straighter at me calling her wife in front of everyone.
“If you ever even think about leaving me, know that I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth, then drag you back to my side by any means necessary.” She arched a brow coolly, the only indication that she’d heard me. “Understood?”
“Ponyal,” she repeated, purposely saying the word in Russian.
With that grin still plastered on Kasimir’s face, he followed my wife out of the club, and once the front doors shut behind them, I turned towards the crowd that was now eyeing me, no doubt silently questioning my loyalty to my family, though no one would dare say the words aloud.
“Now, let me make one thing clear to everyone in this room and anyone else that is confused, Aurora Marchetti is my wife. She’s my fucking wife, making her a Korolev, no matter her heritage,” I said loudly, clearly, and in English to make my point even more significant.
“In addition to being my wife, she will eventually become the mother of my children, which will be half of her blood, making them Italian along with being Russian. If anyone has a problem with that, leave your cowardice at home and say something now.” When no one uttered a word, I added, “Let me also remind you that you are all standing here freely because she agreed to marry me. If she hadn’t, our enemies would have joined forces to obliterate us all, and you’d all do well to remember that the next time you are in her company. ”
One of our brigadiers, Rurik, stepped forward, and I was ready to put a bullet in him without even knowing what he was going to say first. “Sovietnik, my ponimayem,” he said, claiming that they all understood.
I gave him a terse nod before warning them all, “I will kill anyone who dares insult my wife. By disrespecting her, you are disrespecting me, and that slight will not go unpunished. Do I make myself clear?”
Everyone was quick to mutter their understanding, and as much as I’d like to kill a few more of them just to show that I was serious, I knew that I couldn’t.
Right now, I needed to call my father because I had no doubt that my wife was probably going to call her family as soon as Kasimir saw her safely to the house, and I was not about to let my father be caught unawares.
“Clean up this mess,” I ordered, and Rurik was quick to get the others to take care of Georgi. “Kasimir will inform his family.”
With that, I put my gun away, left the club, and then after shooting my brother a quick text about Georgi’s family, I dialed my father. Now, because crime never slept, neither did my father.
“Viktor,” he greeted as soon as he answered.
“Georgi Aliev is dead,” I informed him as I got into my car. “He insulted Aurora, and after a fight ensued, I shot him.”
“A fight, you say?” he asked, his voice more alert than it had been a second ago.
“Right now, I’m headed home to speak with her, but you and I will need to speak in the morning,” I told him. “It cannot wait.”
“Of course,” he immediately agreed, knowing that I’d never make a demand like that unless it was important.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” I replied before hanging up, then heading home to see what in the fuck I’d gotten myself into.