34. Carina
CARINA
For the whole day that led up to the trap that Maksim devised against my brother, I went out of my way to stay busy. To avoid being idle and overthinking anything.
I was caught between two families, but by the end of the night, I wouldn’t need to be. I would know, without a doubt, what Arturo would decide. Like others had said before, he’d show who he really was and who his real “friends” were tonight.
In the morning, after I slept in, I spent time working out and letting that distract me.
Then, I had my first appointment with the doctor about my pregnancy. Elena suggested that we use the same doctor, who did house calls, and I was pleased with the competent woman who checked me and my baby over. All was fine, and I was thrilled to have an ultrasound of my little bean.
Later, Maksim seemed to sense that I needed to avoid being idle, and he took up hours of the afternoon making me come a couple of times. The long intimacy in bed had tired us both out and we’d napped.
After that, Elena kept me busy as we both looked up things we’d like to order for our respective nurseries. We’d almost lost track of time going through and comparing cribs and bassinets.
When night fell and we had our answer about my brother’s loyalty, we headed to bed.
I didn’t feel as wired and restless as I imagined I might.
I was tired, and it was a soul-deep fatigue that wore on me.
Maksim showered with me and gave me such a relaxing massage that I fell into a deep sleep.
A true surprise, given the roller coaster of emotions I’d experienced while I watched the footage of the trap.
In the morning, I tried to embrace that this would be the first day of a new life. A new understanding and adaptation that I’d accept. Maybe today wouldn’t be the day that I would be fully comfortable about the Volkovs ordering Arturo’s death. But I could get there. I knew I would.
For the sake of my marriage, my child, and the Bratva, I would.
I got up with Maksim, who seemed to be checking whether I was holding up all right, which was sweet.
Sticking with our usual routine helped. We went to breakfast and ate.
We discussed other opportunities of what other smuggling runs we could plan.
Instead of going to the gym, though, I was going to take a walk with Elena near the big house since it was going to be mild heat until later.
Before I could leave, though, Jeremiah and a couple of guards arrived and blocked me from leaving the hallway. The looks on their faces said it all.
Danger.
After the excitement and hope that filled me with the doctor’s report that I was healthy and my baby was too, I felt a surge of extra protectiveness. I placed my hand on my stomach, even though I wasn’t close to showing yet.
“What’s going on?” Maksim ordered, stepping around me to block me.
As if any intruder could enter the building.
“A ‘guest of the family’ has arrived,” one guard reported wryly, implying anything but what he said.
“Who?” I leaned past Maksim to address the guard. Already, I had a strong hunch. Only one person came to mind. And only one person could be so deluded as to think he could show up here and call himself a guest of the family.
Maksim frowned at me before facing the men.
“Garcia,” the other guard said. “The men at the gate called it in and alerted the house patrol. They’re keeping him at the gate.”
I shook my head. “No. We’re not dragging this out.”
“Carina,” Maksim argued.
“No. I want this done. I can’t look forward to bringing this baby into a world where he could still play games like this.” I didn’t flinch, no matter how fast my heart raced. “I know what’s coming, Maksim.” I swallowed hard. “Just… do it.”
He watched me closely, that worry creeping in again. Not that he’d be killing anyone, but how it would impact me.
“Tell him that I will speak to him out back,” I told the guards. Off to the side of the ornamental gardens, near the pool, ample security could lie in wait. “I mean, you’ll pat him down first.”
The guards volleyed their gazes between me and Maksim, unsure.
“Go on.” He gestured for them to go and do as I asked. Then he turned to me.
“I will?—”
“You will wait from a distance. If he came here as a supposed guest of the family, he means my family. He’s not here to see you.”
“I—”
I stepped forward and cupped his face, feeling how his jaw was so tense. “You will protect me,” I finished for him. “No one will let him harm me. And then we can…” I licked my lips. “Then whatever needs to be done for closure will be done.”
I walked away from him, unable to spend another second talking about the possibility that my brother would be killed today.
By the time I reached the outdoor area that I’d dictated to greet him in, a tension headache had crept in.
Before, when I first got here to this estate, I had to convince myself to play along and act like a properly arranged wife. Now, I was sick of playing at anything, and I didn’t bother to hide my disgust and anger when I faced my brother.
He paced on the patio, shaking his head and muttering curses that couldn’t reach me yet. The second he heard me stepping close, though, he stopped and scowled at me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he hissed.
I stayed put, my back straight, and crossed my arms. “How rich. I’ve asked you that countless times, yet now you expect me to answer that for you?”
“Don’t play games with me,” he warned.
I narrowed my eyes, debating how mad Maksim would be if I punched my brother. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t risk getting in an actual physical fight while I carried this baby.
“Did you know that handoff was a fucking trap? Huh?” He paced angrily again. “Did you? Did you know that your fucking husband was trying to set me up last night with that request for a shipment like that?”
I tipped my chin up, letting him stew and boil over with his fury.
I didn’t owe him a single word. When I walked down here, I tried to talk myself out of clinging to some stupid morsel of hope that he could redeem himself, that he’d be worthy of any redemption or forgiveness.
Five seconds into being in his company again and I realized how futile that was.
They didn’t try to set you up.
They did.
And you failed the test.
“You…” He growled, fisting his hand in the air as he punched it. “You fucking let these Volkov assholes set a trap like that? On me? Your brother?”
“You ceased being my brother a long time ago.” Fuck, did it hurt to admit it, but it was true.
“I’m your blood! We are family, Carina. But you let these people get in your head or something. They tricked you into siding with them? Over me? Your family?” He pounded his fist on his chest for emphasis. “Me, your brother!”
“I know damn well who you are and I know even more who I wished you could be. You haven’t been a loyal leader to the Cartel that our father left us. You dismissed me and removed me just so you wouldn’t have to hear how poorly you were messing it up.”
He growled again as he paced. “Shut up! Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I shook my head, sad for him now.
“You are so stupid and useless that you could let these motherfuckers set a trap for me last night? And not want to do anything to help me?”
“Why would I?” I retorted.
In this specific moment, the full and brutal realization of his priorities shone clearly as the truth.
He valued his own power, his own warped idea of survival and success, over my life.
He always had.
He always would.
This was also the exact moment that my common sense and profound loyalty would snap into place in my heart and soul, in my mind. I was a Volkov, the family he wanted to criticize and hate.
Our parents hadn’t taught us to hold that bias. He’d formed that himself. All on his own.
“Why would you?” he screamed back. “Because I’m your brother. You are a Garcia?—”
“I am a Volkov,” I corrected sharply.
A cruel bark of laughter twisted up his face, revealing him as the maniacal and selfish fool he was.
“Oh, is that how this is going to be? You want to toss away the fact that you were Miguel Garcia’s daughter and now call yourself a Volkov?
” He held his hands up, mocking me. “Sure. Go ahead, bitch. Be a traitor. Choose your Volkov over blood.”
I fisted my hands as I lowered them, unsure whether I could refrain from attacking him. Only my concern about my baby stopped me. My love for my child burned hotter than my fury for him, but I let him hear the heat of my ire. “It was your decision to marry me off to him!”
Guilt slapped me in the face as soon as the words came out.
It was a sharp rebuke, but also something that sounded like a bad confession. I regretted my wording instantly, worrying that Maksim would certainly hear me and think that I regretted our union. That I didn’t care for being forced into becoming his wife.
I only wanted to throw it into Arturo’s face that it was his rash and impulsive idea to make this happen. It was his decision that got me into this position at all.
“I am no traitor. You arranged me to marry, all so you could get rid of me.”
He scowled, pacing again.
“I am choosing blood. I am choosing to fight and stand with my family. My blood,” I stated, pointing at myself. “My flesh and blood. My child that I will raise and share with my husband. I’ve lost faith in the man who was supposed to act like my brother a long time ago.”
With that final word, that declaration of loyalty that would be the final nail in the coffin for him, I turned and strode back into my home, leaving him out here to face his fate.
One he’d earned himself.
One my parents would’ve been ashamed of.