Epilogue
RAFAIL
Hailey has been banging around in her closet for the past fifteen minutes preparing to go show a house for sale, last-minute. She has done very well for herself over the past eighteen months. I am surprised at how well she adapted to her new life as a bratva wife. My queen.
A fussy gurgle from the infant lying on a brightly-colored mat brings a smile to my face.
“Mommy is making a lot of noise. She has to rush over and show a house to a potential buyer. They are leaving tomorrow.” I wipe away a thread of drool from my daughter’s chubby cheek. Nobody told me that babies are as disgusting as they are cute.
“Ludmila will help you with the baby.” Hailey emerges, holding a pair of high heels in one hand and a necklace in the other. Her dress flaps open in the back as she strides to me. “Help.”
“Please,” I say in Russian. She rolls her eyes and butchers the word pozhaluysta. Knowing she has places to be, I obligingly stand up and pull the zipper up her spine, pausing to press a kiss to her nape before closing it completely.
“Necklace,” she says, dropping it into my palm. Natalya, our daughter, fusses crankily. I drape it around my wife’s neck and work the tiny clasp closed. “Rafe! Look! The baby! She rolled over!”
Hailey drops to her knees and makes cooing sounds.
I crouch beside her, staring in wonder at our baby’s milestone.
A commonplace event in the grand scheme of things.
Babies roll over every day. Yet this is the first time our daughter has rolled over.
She doesn’t seem to be any happier on her back.
Hailey, her shoes forgotten, scoops up Natalya and kisses both cheeks.
“Yes, who is the smartest baby? The cutest baby? The strongest baby? That’s right, you are!
Oh, shi—I mean, shoot, look at the time. I have to run.”
“At least you were here to witness it.” I take the infant and place her under the brightly-colored plastic toys suspended from an arch over the play mat. Natalya kicks at them, then grabs one and tries to stuff it into her mouth. Getting hungry. I’ll have to feed her while Hailey is out.
“True.” She sticks her feet into her shoes and wobbles over to me. “This dress is tight. Help me fasten my shoes?”
An indulgent smile touches my lips. I drop into the nearest chair. Hailey plants her heel in the center of my chest. Only a few inches away from where the bullet struck me. My injury is long since healed. No lasting damage. I was lucky. It could have hit my gorgeous wife instead.
I would have betrayed my vow to protect her if I had let that happen. Once I have fastened the tiny buckle, she plants her other foot on my chest with a smirk.
“When you get home, these do not come off.” I kiss her shin and caress her ankle as I set her foot on the carpet. Her smirk disappears.
“I wish I didn’t have to go,” she pouts. “But this one has been sitting for a few weeks and we need the sale.”
We. I need this house sold as much as she does, to conceal the real source of my income. Hailey has become an essential player in my enterprises. I truly cherish this woman.
“You will return soon. Think of me while you’re entertaining these pampered idiots.
” I swat her on the bottom to give her a taste of what she has to look forward to when she gets back.
Hailey grabs her purse and rushes out to the waiting car.
“It’s just you and me now,” I say to Natalya.
My daughter lets out a piercing wail that fades into a sob.
A rave review for her father’s care. She takes no shit, just like her mother.
“Ludmila,” I call out, but my housekeeper is otherwise occupied. I carry my fussing infant to the kitchen and heat up a bottle for her. I put her down for a nap. Finally, I have a bit of time to myself to focus on business.
Less than ten minutes into my catch-up call with Valerian and Andrei, a conversation I have been putting off for days, my wife returns.
“We will discuss later,” I tell them.
“When does paternity leave end?” an exasperated Valerian complains in Russian as I hang up on him. Soon. I have to get back to work soon, but who can think about dealing with enemies and outwitting the Feds when I have such a tiny bundle to look after?
I’m turning soft. I’m becoming my father. Speaking of whom, I need to arrange a visit to show him his darling granddaughter.
Right now, I have a more intimate concern to worry about. My wife has returned, and she is back to her old tricks. I adore her smart mouth.
“Good news, they loved it, but they’re looking at several other options and won’t make an offer right away—”
“I said to leave those on,” I remind her when she bends to take off her shoes. I don’t mind the view from this angle, but I have reasons for her to keep those shoes on. She stops, then straightens.
“My feet are killing me. I walked all over that mansion. Twelve thousand square feet. Eight bedrooms. Nine bathrooms. An entire basketball court in the basement.” She tiptoes over to me.
I like her in heels. It puts her mouth closer to mine.
Crouching, I bend and scoop her up. A seam rips.
Her thighs grip my hips. I’m already hard for her.
“You can take them off when I give you permission.”
“Rafail, you need to get back to work. Direct some of this bossiness at someone who appreciates it—”
I stop her with a kiss. She is ready for me. Our tongues tangle. Finding time for one another has been challenging since Natalya arrived. I am not letting this opportunity pass me by. Even if she is right about me needing to find a better balance between work and life.
I have a life now. Before, I didn’t. I was all work and very little play. While that made me the strongest bratva leader on the East coast, I find myself enjoying domesticity more than I ever thought possible.
I roll her onto the bed. Hailey gives me an arch look and refuses to uncross her ankles. I nip the spot below her earlobe as punishment. “If you want me to fuck you, you’re going to have to let me go.”
My wife pouts. Free, I kick off my pants and push her knees wide.
Her pussy is already wet and ready for me, but she can be wetter.
I kiss her there through the mesh of her stockings.
No panties. I finally trained her out of the habit of wearing them by destroying too many pairs.
There is only her sweet nectar and soft folds trapped behind a layer of nylon.
A cage. A prison.
I crook my finger, dig into the fabric, and tear. Hailey gasps. I don’t give her time to protest. I dive into her petals and feast until she comes against my face.
“That is one,” I tell her with a smirk, knowing it infuriates her as much as it turns her on. I collect her legs and hold them against my chest.
“Who’s keeping score?”
“Let’s see how many I can fit in before the baby wakes up.” Those vicious spike heels point directly at my chin. I like to live dangerously.
“You’re on.”
Keeping her thighs closed, I press my cock into her pussy and watch her squirm. Another seam in her dress tears. I could have stripped it off her, but I enjoy dismantling her professional mask. She comes undone only for me.
Her tight cunt squeezes around my hard length. I caress her thighs and set a steady pace. Her throaty moans turn higher pitched until she clenches the bedcovers and comes on my cock. I grit my teeth not to follow her. When her climax has passed, I pull out briefly and flip her onto her stomach.
I enter her from behind and cup her chin with one hand. “Look at us in the mirror,” I order her. For once, Hailey does exactly what I command. I almost wish she would fight me. We don’t have endless time.
I come hard, unable to resist the pull of her third orgasm. Just in time, too, for a tiny, querulous sound from Natalya’s room reaches our ears right then.
“I’ll get her,” Hailey says, red-faced with damp tendrils clinging to her temples. She kisses me and rolls away, taking a moment to remove those shoes before she goes to our baby.
My little mafia princess, and my queen.
Andrei
I never thought I would see the day when my pakhan fell for a mere woman.
Not just any woman. A baby. Only a few months old and Natalya has her daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger.
Rafail Volkov, the most feared pakhan in the Western hemisphere, turned soft over his own wife and daughter. Hailey is nice enough. Works hard. Still, the way she and their daughter have turned my boss soft worries me. I don’t want to see him end up the way his father did.
We step out of the car and make our way through prison security. Guns left in the car. Valerian dropped the four of us off for visiting hours.
I cannot express in any language how much I detest prisons. I would rather die than be sentenced to serve time. God knows I’d deserve a lengthy sentence. I will do anything for my family. I may not have any blood family remaining, but the brotherhood is kin and my loyalty is total.
I hang back watching Dmitri bounce his granddaughter on his knee. Hailey embraced him warmly. I’m not sure what strings Rafail pulled to get access to his father outside of a glass barrier. The man holds his cards close to his vest.
When it’s my turn, I drop to one knee before Dmritri Volkov and kiss his knuckles. A gesture of respect for the man I served before his son took over.
“I don’t wish to be the bearer of bad news, pakhan,” I begin.
“But Rafail’s marriage to Hailey has set off shockwaves amongst the brotherhood.
He was supposed to marry Nina Kotov, daughter of a rival faction of bratva.
It has been nearly eighteen months of escalation since they found out he’d married another woman.
Pakhan Kotov isn’t taking the insult well. ”
“What does Rafail say?” Dmitri’s frame is shrunken and his eyes shadowed, yet I still cannot believe how much authority he has turned over to his son. Even now.
“He says Kotov will get over it eventually. He isn’t the one who discussed the idea of a merger, you were.”
“My son is correct.” Dmitri clasps my shoulder.
There is yet strength in his grip. “Do what you must to fix this, Andrei. A merger would have been advantageous for us, but Rafail has managed fine without the Kotov family. You would be doing us a great service if you found an alternative solution. Your loyalty will be rewarded.”
His meaning is clear. Find a way to fix this.
A face flashes through my mind. I try not to think about her. Nina Volkov is forbidden fruit. She is bratva royalty. She is definitely not for me, a man who worked his way up from a low-level boyevik.
Yet that has never stopped me from wanting her.
Only the risk of starting an all-out war between our factions has stopped me from pursuing her. If Dmitri has given me tacit permission to unite the brotherhood…well, who could blame me if I took what I wanted?
“Sir,” I bow again to indicate that I understand his meaning. Dmitri embraces me.
“Don’t tell my son. I will handle him.”
Still my pakhan. A current of excitement whips through me at the thought of being trusted to stop an all-out war and claim the woman I want.
I follow Rafail and Hailey out of the prison, smiling ever so slightly at the task before me. At long last, Nina will be mine.