Chapter 20
Elana sits on the leather couch in Kaz’s office, her feet tucked beneath her and her lip tightly pinched between her teeth. Her brothers sit across from her on another couch, unloading all of the events of the past months she’s been away.
“No. He never mentioned a son. But there were a lot of things he didn’t tell me.” She sighs. It has been a tense conversation, and the weight of the day shows in her expression.
She’s a strong woman, but even she has limits.
“I’m glad Sienna is all right.”
“She’s healing, but she should be resting more.” Kaz frowns. “She listens as well as you do.”
“Good. The last thing you need is another person jumping at your commands.” She smiles. It’s tiny, but it’s there and it’s the first one since we arrived.
“Is it too late to send her to boarding school?” Kaz looks at Alexander.
“I think you’d have to ask Artem that question.” Alexander raises his eyes to mine.
“Or—and I know this is probably a strange suggestion to you all, but you could ask me,” Elana says.
“You?” Kaz laughs. “You’ve proven more than ever you need a keeper. And I suppose Artem is as good as they come.”
“A keeper?” She drops her feet to the floor, ready to leap from the couch.
I place my hand on her shoulder, steadying her.
“We need to discuss O’Brien and Janis.” I turn the conversation. There’s time to inform her of the plans I’ve made for her and me later, once her brothers aren’t around to nudge her annoyance.
“Cole O’Brien put Janis on a leash. He’s not an issue.” Alexander frowns. “It cost us, though.”
“Cost you how?” Elana questions.
“You approached one of his associates. It was an insult. Compensation needed to be made.” Alexander says with half a shrug. All this tiptoeing around won’t keep her from the information if she wants it, but they need time to realize she’s not going to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
Not anymore.
“What exactly did you have to give him?” Elana questions again. “And if you say something barbaric like another forced wedding, I’m going to scream.”
Alexander looks at me as though asking me to get her under control. But he should know more than anyone what an impossible task that is.
“No one is being forced to get married,” Kaz says. “Besides, we’re out of available Volkovs.”
She stiffens and looks over her shoulder at me. “What does he mean?”
“We’ll talk later. Once you’ve heard your brothers out.”
“Heard them out about what?” She shoves off the couch and faces me. “What plan have you four concocted in your heads behind my back?”
“Elana.” Ivan’s voice is steady, firm. “What you did was an insult to O’Brien, and insults in our world are more dangerous than something uttered at a bar.
To compensate, we’re giving him permission to operate here in Chicago.
Apparently, once he found out what you were suggesting, bringing the raves here, he saw it as an opportunity. ”
“So he’s sending Janis to start it here?” she asks.
“No. Janis won’t be coming to Chicago. If he steps foot here, he forfeits his life,” Alexander explains.
“And what about the women? Janis was starting to traffic them for the DeAngelos. I found the messages between him and Tony. You can’t just let him do that, right?” She turns wide eyes on me. “We can’t let him do that.”
“Cole has been made aware of it, and he’s as against the trade as we are.”
“You’re just going to trust him to stop Janis?”
“Janis is under his control, and he fucked up when he put that gun to your head. Cole will deal with him, but we can’t get involved in Boston. Especially after Artem swore he wasn’t there on business, then hours later you’re trying to make deals.”
“I wasn’t there as your sister,” she argues.
Alexander shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter what you thought you were doing. It matters that you are a Volkov, you are our sister, and you tried to broker a deal with one of his associates without his permission.”
Her shoulders drop and something like defeat crosses her eyes. More consequences for her actions.
“Elana.” I wait for her eyes to meet mine before I continue. “Cole O’Brien will not tolerate flesh trades. He will stop Janis. And he wouldn’t have learned about it if you hadn’t done what you did. So no more guilt, understand?”
She starts to protest, but I shake my head.
“No. More. Guilt. We deal with what’s in front of us, and no more looking back.”
“Listen to him, Elana.” Kaz gets up from his seat.
“You’re happy? With your wife?” she asks him, worry embedded in every word.
Kaz rolls his shoulders back. “I am.”
“You love her? Like really love her, Kaz?” There’s a small crack in her voice.
I don’t think she hears it, but I do. It’s important that there’s love.
She’s never seen a relationship filled with it growing up.
Her father was a monster to his wife, a worse one to her own mother.
But she’s never going to experience that herself.
Not with me.
Not ever.
I will spend the rest of my life making sure she knows how much she’s loved.
“I love her, Elana.” Kaz assures her, seeming to understand the importance. “She was living in a real shitty situation at the hands of her brothers. Her being made to marry me saved her from an even worse fate her family would have forced on her.”
“And the little boy?”
“Tommy? He’s amazing. He’s funny and smart; you’ll love him.”
“You’re going to raise a DeAngelo?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I’m going to be raising a Volkov. The adoption papers were finalized yesterday.”
“You’re going to be someone’s dad?” She covers her mouth, stifling a small giggle.
“Why is that funny?” he demands, his brows knitting together.
“Nothing.” I place a hand on her shoulder. “Everyone needs a daddy, don’t they, Elana?”
Her body tenses, and when she turns her glare on me it’s filled with ice. But the deep blush that spreads like wildfire across her face makes me grin.
“Congratulations on the wedding and the adoption,” I say to Kaz, ignoring the murderous stare Elana holds on me.
From his position across the room, Alexander’s eyes narrow. Ivan turns his head, a suspicious grin tugging on his lips, but Kaz’s expression matches Elana’s.
“Elana,” he says, holding my gaze. “Sienna is in the kitchen with Megan and Vivienne. They’ve been waiting to get you cornered for months.”
I squeeze her shoulder then drop my hand. “Go on. When I’m done here we’ll head home. It’s late, so it won’t be long.”
Elana’s fire dies to an earthy glow. “This isn’t going to be some manly pissing contest, is it?” She shoots a look at Alexander.
He shakes his head. “No pissing contest. Just a conversation. Business.”
“Fine.” She drops her hard tone and exhales. “I’m glad to be back. As big of a pain in the ass you all are, I’ve missed you.”
“We’re a pain in the ass?” Ivan shakes his head. “This woman…go, Elana, before I change my mind and let Alexander have you dragged off in the middle of the night and committed to an asylum in Siberia.”
“So touchy.” She flashes a smile, knowing that she’s gotten under her brother’s skin and seeming damn proud of herself for it.
I lean into her, so they won’t hear me. “Behave, Babygirl. We can have a discussion of our own when we get home if you don’t.”
A shiver trembles her shoulders, and her eyes are hazy with arousal when she lifts them to me. She told me once the idea of being punished made her needy. I’ll be keeping that bit of information in my back pocket.
“I’m going to the kitchen,” she mutters then stalks out of the room, slamming the door behind her when she leaves.
Three sets of brotherly eyes are fixed on me when I turn from watching her leave.
“What did you say to her? Just now?” Alexander asks.
“Nothing you want to hear.” I admit with a shrug.
“You’re right. I don’t.” He gives a sharp nod. “Have you talked to her about the wedding?”
“Not yet,” I admit. “I wanted to get her home first.”
“She’s probably going to object.” Ivan frowns. “She’s stubborn like that.”
“We could let her decide,” Kaz says, always in her corner.
“It will be her choice,” I agree.
“What about school?” Alexander questions, and Kaz rolls his eyes.
“Always with school. She doesn’t want to finish college, Alexander,” Kaz argues. “She didn’t drop out because Tony made her; he was just her excuse.”
“School will be another choice for her to make. It will be up to her. I won’t pressure her one way or another.” I stand firm as they stare at me.
Kaz’s smile is the first to crack. “She’s going to run all over you just like she does me.”
I shake my head. “When you know how to talk with her, you get better results.”
“I don’t want to know the secret you seem to have with her.” Alexander shoots me a disgusted look. “That’s our little sister you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about my future wife, who happens to be your little sister.”
“I don’t want details.” Alexander stalks to the bar in the corner of Kaz’s office and pours a drink, downs it, and pours another. “This is all Megan’s fault. She started all of this chaos when she stole that damn thumb drive,” he mutters more to himself than anyone else in the room.
Ian and Kaz share a look and a grin.
“Okay, enough catching up on family drama.” Alexander eyes me with a severity I’ve seen too many times to pretend I don’t know what it means. Business. And not the lucrative sort that makes us all a lot of money.
My back tenses. Taking Elana for myself will have consequences.
I knew that and have already accepted whatever they deem reasonable.
The Volkov family has been my safe haven since my mother and sisters’ murders.
They gave me a home, a job, a purpose. They may not be against my relationship with Elana, but I’ve gone against them by doing it behind their backs.
“We need to discuss what happens next. With you.”