39. Viktor
VIKTOR
Wren and I arrived at the mansion late. We were the last ones to get there since the appointment with the doctor ran a little over, but no one was upset about it.
“How is Paul doing?” Adrik asked once we all took our “usual” places in his office.
I didn’t think that my father ever could have counted on so many people stuffing themselves in here like this. With the six of us and now our women included, we were expanding more than I thought we might.
“Paul is stable and doing well.” I smiled at Wren. “He’s excited to come home and experience a promotion.”
“It wouldn’t be a demotion, would it?” Wren asked, smiling right back at me.
“Demotion?” Adrik asked with a frown. “No, no. He’s never going to be demoted. Anyone who would sacrifice themselves for the security of us in this room would never be demoted.” He scoffed, like it was ridiculous to even think it.
“How are you doing?” Maksim asked Wren. He looked at me, as if needing to make sure that I wasn’t beat up over how Smithson had died in my home.
“I’m coping.” Wren sighed. “But I’m curious what can follow now. He’s dead, but he wasn’t the only one being bribed.”
“And he had a hit placed on himself,” Lev said.
Adrik nodded, standing instead of staying seated behind the big desk.
“There are lingering questions, and we’ll need to address them all next.
First, we need to devise a plan to stay ahead of how else Gregori wants to try to mess with us.
He’s putting pressure on us from the law enforcement he pays off, but I don’t think he’ll stop there. ”
“He’s already tried to meddle with the smuggling runs,” Carina reminded him.
Adrik nodded. “And I’m not sure I want to imagine what he’ll think of next.”
All of us agreed to scale up any teams we could make to anticipate Gregori’s next plans since we’d proven that he doesn’t have an ironclad grip on the law enforcement angle anymore.
“We also need to identify who his new intermediary is,” Alexei said.
I nodded. “I imagine it’s Kirill Konstantin.”
A few of them bobbed their heads in agreement.
“They are a local family,” Maksim said. “With old ties to us. If Gregori were to become more local, it would make sense for him to seek out someone he knew from before.”
“Then we need to form a task force and crew to investigate whether the Konstantins are behind it,” Adrik said.
Nikolai raised his hand. “Okay, but it’s not like the Konstantins would hire a contractor to take out the hit on Adrik or Smithson. They’ve got their own snipers, and no member of the Konstantin Family was found at the site that night.”
“That could just mean that the sniper got away,” Wren said.
“Would the Konstantins benefit from taking out Smithson, though?” Adrik asked.
“Maybe they could if they thought he wasn’t treating them fairly,” I said.
“Remember how they got busted with that major drug sting a few months back? That wouldn’t match with the idea that Smithson or any other agency is trying to look the other way and let them off the hook, which would be the case if Gregori was bankrolling Smithson and the Konstantins. ”
Every point we made posed several other questions to address. But this was only the beginning, only the start of our making more preparations and plans to close in on Gregori.
“We also need to give some attention to how Rico Johnson could be involved,” Adrik said.
“He still seems to be missing, but that could be a diversion.” He crossed his arms. “With how he persisted and requested a meeting when Smithson came to attack at Viktor’s home…
” He glowered and shook his head. “I can’t be sure that wasn’t a strategically planned diversion to throw us off. ”
We discussed all those options at length. No one was idle. We all spoke up and contributed. Elena had seemed to be out of her shock about seeing Paul bleeding out because she also offered ideas of where she and Wren could investigate in terms of the financial trails.
It was a productive morning after so many developments, but there were still so many things to go over before we could claim any sense of peace. Or even stability.
This is exactly why I should wait.
I can’t be planning a wedding and have my head in the game of marriage when we’re all planning what else to do to protect our empire.
Yet, each time I looked at Wren, that surge of protectiveness and love filled me and I couldn’t handle the idea of not calling her mine.
For real.
By giving her my ring and my name.
So all the world could know she was my wife and would always be the woman I’d choose to have at my side.
As the discussions wound down about who would tackle what part of the next steps, I wondered if I was just too scared to propose to Wren. If I was too intimidated by all this bad news and the threats looming over us to feel like we could deserve to be engaged or married.
“I’ll start checking out more about those docks,” Nikolai said, volunteering after another mention was made of how so much energy had been put into that massive sting operation at our big warehouse.
“What about, um, me?” Wren asked. She sat up, giving me a nervous glance. “With what was said at the press conference and how I’m wanted now, I don’t want anyone trying to find me and locate wherever I might be living to arrest me. Now that I’d be seen as a target to get to all of you.”
I frowned. “Wherever you might be living? You’re not going anywhere, Red.”
Adrik raised his brows. “Those charges were dropped.” He flicked his hand dismissively.
“Dropped?” Wren raised her brows.
“Oh, yeah.” Elena smiled. “Yeah. Trojan did some adjusting of notes and documents and all…” She shrugged.
“Wherever you might be living?” I repeated.
She glanced at me. “Yeah. Because you said renovations and…”
“You’re going to be living with me,” I stated. “Because there’s no way my wife is going to be living in another location than the one I’ll be.”
She turned to face me, her lips parting. “Your… what?”
“Wife.” I smiled, loving the pure shock on her face. This wasn’t the place I wanted to do this, but hell, everyone else was already here.
Lowering to my knees as I turned to face her fully, I watched her mouth hang open even further. The bright green in her eyes contrasted sharply with her red hair, an exotic combination I’d never tire of.
“My wife,” I repeated as I kneeled in front of her.
I set my left hand on her thigh and reached for the ring box that had been in my pocket all morning.
“I would like it if you might forget about ever leaving or having a purpose somewhere else. Because I’m very hopeful that you might be interested in that.
In swearing your allegiance to my family.
Your allegiance to me. And your allegiance to—”
Her eyes opened wide as she thrust her hand out to cover my mouth.
I grinned, loving how she panicked that I’d remind her that I really liked it when she swore her allegiance to my dick. But that was only part of our bond, the intrinsic, physical need to complete each other.
I tugged her hand away and kissed her palm. “In swearing your allegiance to our family.”
She relaxed somewhat, smiling as she placed her hand on her stomach.
“Wait, are you preg—”
Carina elbowed Alexei to be quiet. “Shh. He’s proposing. I never heard a proper one of those before.”
Maksim gave her a side-eye.
“Wren Green, would you do me the honor of agreeing to become my wife? To be my partner and always be with me no matter all the ups and downs we’ll face on this journey?”
She licked her lips, gazing at me before lowering her attention to the ring I offered her.
I knew those old biases were still in her mind. She’d been on the other side of the fence, on the other spectrum of the law, and now, I was asking her to fully swear her life and identity to be on my side. With my Volkov Bratva.
“I love you too much to ever consider not having you in my life,” I told her, knowing I had to make this case the best I’d ever sincerely share.
“I love you too much to entertain the chance that this might not be the altruistic future you’d always dreamed of.
The future that your parents would have wanted you to take. ”
She leaned forward on her seat, pressing her lips together in what almost seemed like a smile she was fighting to hide.
“I know I kidnapped you. I know we started off as enemies. But I will never walk away from all the brightness and hope that we’ve dared to find together.
I didn’t capture you as an agent in the wrong place that day.
I found you, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
The one I want to swear my heart, my whole heart to.
Because you’ve had it since the first time you glared at me in that alley. ”
She smiled.
“Wren, will you please marry me and make me complete with this love that no law or agency or threat will ever destroy?”
I swallowed hard and watched her, feeling like I’d never faced a more perilous moment of waiting before.