Sacred Vows (The Dubinin Bratva #4)

Chapter 1

ALEXSEI

Aloud pop cracked through the air.

Confetti and glitter blossomed out in a fluff only to float then fall to the floor of the lounge at my uncle’s mansion.

As if on cue, Helene and Carina, the two youngest members of the Dubinin family, woke up and wailed. Alarmed and likely unhappy that they were pulled from their sleep at eleven fifteen on New Year’s Eve, they cried their heads off.

“Andre!” Lev, my cousin’s nine-year-old, turned and scolded the naughty two-year-old toddler who’d pulled the strings on the party popper.

As the second-born son to my uncle, Luka Dubinin, the Pakhan and boss of the Dubinin Dynasty, he might have been able to get away with any kind of mischief he wanted.

Perhaps having Luka as his father could lend him some exceptions throughout life, but with Gabriella for his mother, the little naughty boy was in for one of those looks.

Sure enough, there she was, holding baby Carina as she cried and protested being woken like that.

She slanted her brows and gave him a look that prompted him to mildly lose that self-satisfied smile.

No matter how much she rocked her daughter, Carina competed with Helene for who could cry the loudest. Sadie held Helene, but once she put her arms out for her father, my cousin Emil, she quieted down.

If I hadn’t witnessed it myself, I never would’ve believed that the Dubinin’s deadliest and sneakiest assassin could be such a hands-on father.

But it was crystal clear that Helene was quickly becoming a daddy’s girl.

He cradled her against his chest and gave Andre a look.

“You’re supposed to wait until midnight,” he told his half-brother.

Andre only grinned like the menace he was.

“Luka,” Gabriella said tiredly at the same time Emil said, “Father?”

Luka got up, nodding and already knowing it’d be on him to scold his son.

Every toddler was prone to having attention issues when a new baby brother or sister came along.

That was a simple fact of life. Andre, however, was born with the demand that he be the center of attention—always.

It was only getting worse, not better, with his baby sister Helene here, as well as his cousin Carina, who was just four months old, born on the same day as Helene was.

Andre did love them. Of course he did, just like he loved his cousin Lev and my son, Misha.

But damn, was he getting out of hand with his antics.

“Andre, you scared Carina and Helene,” Misha told the toddler before Luka could get to his son.

Andre blew a raspberry, and that summed up his opinion.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. What a devil.

“You have to wait until midnight,” Misha said. “Cuz Gabriella and Sadie will take the babies upstairs before it’s a new year. That way, they won’t be scared by the noise and celebration.”

I smiled, proud of my only son for being such a guiding presence for Andre. At the rate of his naughtiness and with all the ways he tried to get attention, it really was becoming a case of it taking a village to raise a child. Or in our case, an entire Mafia Family.

Misha chased after Andre as he saw Luka approaching.

The toddler grinned and giggled, thinking this would be a game of chase, like any other playtime with his father.

Misha intervened, though, catching the toddler and carrying him to Luka, who so clearly intended to discipline his son—if not that, he’d deter him and distract him aside from the rest of us sitting around, waiting for the ball to drop.

As I watched, almost laughing when Andre slipped away and Lev joined in on teaming up to corral the wild one, I knew I had more to be proud of than my son being a helping hand.

He didn’t flinch.

He hadn’t jumped.

Most of us in the room for this party were used to loud pops, bangs, cracks, and rapports of gunfire.

All of us men had spent years in combat, in the streets, and doing whatever it took to keep our family safe and prosperous.

Even Sadie was used to the sounds of surprises, a former FBI agent who’d married Emil this past year.

Raisa, too. She used to be a Mafia princess and was used to the chances of sudden, loud noises like a gun going off.

For the longest time, Misha had startled easily. He was only eight, and that was far too young for any child to ever be exposed to danger and violence. This was how it was in our world, though, always having to anticipate some kind of peril lurking too close for comfort.

Since my wife, Elena, passed away, I raised Misha on my own.

I had a “village” as well. Luka, Emil, and Ivan all helped me raise the boy.

Once Luka married Gabriella, then Ivan married Raisa, and lastly, when Emil married Sadie, I had so much more help to make sure Misha wasn’t lacking for anything in a family sense.

Well, besides the obvious. A wife was the missing piece in my life. Misha needed a mother, too, but I was hoping his aunts and cousins could fill that gap. I wasn’t ready to go looking for another wife after how I’d lost my first one.

Until Andre was born—and Lev showed up with Raisa—Misha was the only child to visit this mansion or stay as a guest here. He was the only boy who had to teeter on the fine line between being aware that the Dubinin name represented power and threats and also being appropriately sheltered.

Noticing him not flinch at Andre prematurely pulling the strings on that festive popper was my cue that Misha was coming around. He was na?ve, yet not ignorant.

Still, the fact that he could roll with the punches meant that he’d already lost some of that youthful ignorance.

Hell, they all grow up too damn fast.

“I told them it was a bad idea to bring the babies down here,” Raisa said as she approached me. She, too, watched over as Lev and Misha told Andre not to use any more of the toys and novelty noise makers before midnight.

Behind us, Gabriella and Sadie soothed Carina and Helene, rocking and swaying with them to get them to stop crying.

“Nah,” Luka said, coming up to join us since Lev and Misha had seemed to have taken over scolding Andre.

It looked like they were getting something through the toddler’s head.

Andre sobered up and frowned at his older cousins giving him a talking-to.

Perhaps he listened more to them as almost peers instead of a nagging or lecture from the adults.

“It’s fine.” Luka caught Gabriella’s eye as she returned to the room with Sadie holding Helene.

That secret smile my uncle and his wife shared was just one more pang of hurt that sliced my heart.

Though I hadn’t known Elena for long and had been married to her for less, I missed having a partner.

“It’s good to have all the family around to welcome in a new year.” Luka beamed, standing tall and proud as he looked over all of us gathered in this room.

He was right. It was good to have everyone alive and well, together and not estranged.

Or dead.

After so many years of it just being us, all the guys at the top of the organization, it felt too bare. Like this mansion was too empty, particularly after I lost Elena. Earlier yet, when Uncle Luka lost his first wife, Maria.

It did feel good to be surrounded by family, and I would always do my part as the family’s protection specialist to make sure no threats could bring us down. Coming off the high of successfully preventing a secret alliance of enemies from grouping up, we had a bright future indeed.

“That’s easy for you to say,” Raisa quipped, resting a hand on her big belly. Her second pregnancy was coming along smoothly, but she sure showed it all in the front.

I furrowed my brow, glancing at her. Luka paid her attention too but quickly chuckled. “You’re already so anxious for the baby to come?”

She softened a bit from that wry quip and shook her head. A small, sad smile crossed her face. “No. I’m just saying that I can’t quite agree with that statement.” She raised one brow. “I can’t claim the same.”

If she was talking about missing her family, I wouldn’t follow.

I was there on the mission alongside Ivan when we tracked her down after her father, Konstantin Petrov, had her taken.

She killed the former leader herself, something she had attested to needing to do for closure.

Spending years hiding from him had set her up to wish him dead—all to keep Lev safe and alive.

“I am worried about how long it’s been since I’ve heard from Kalina.”

I relaxed. So did Luka, who seemed to have been anxious for a moment that she was missing the father she’d hated.

“Simon has been tasked with looking for her,” I reminded her.

She nodded. “I know. But with how long he’s been at it and with no results to speak of…”

“It’s not as though that’s all Simon has been doing lately, though,” Luka said in reference to one of our best cyber-security spies, a member of our family who often worked closest with Emil on his many travels and assassination missions.

“Maybe now that the worries about that Obsidian Eye alliance are over,” I said, “Simon can further look into where your cousin might be.”

Luka nodded, which was more or less his approval for that to happen.

Raisa still frowned, stressed. “I would appreciate that. I think it’s like how it was with Konstantin.

I need that closure. We weren’t that close as children, not with how strict my father was and how distant relations were on my mother’s side since she died.

I just hate how I lost contact with her over the years. ”

“You were hiding,” I unnecessarily reminded her.

“Yes, but still…” She sighed, rubbing her baby bump again.

“I hate that she could be out there and needing help. Or something.” She shrugged.

“Maybe a part of it is that I’m having another baby and I’d like for her to meet my children.

To be there to know the only good parts of our loose family are carrying on. ”

Luka set his hand on my back. “Then between Simon and Alexsei here, we’ll look for Kalina.”

I raised my brows, slightly surprised. Retrievals weren’t normally my thing, but as I was the supervisor who managed security, from covering the bases on missions the others went on all the way to being in charge of all the bodyguards, it wasn’t out of the norm.

Among the top lieutenants, I was the one still in active duty.

Ivan and Emil were stepping back with their roles as their families grew.

“Sure.” I nodded, always ready to do what my uncle expected of me.

“If finding Kalina is a concern for you, Raisa, it’s a concern of mine,” Luka said, proving that while he was the scary Mafia boss the world feared, he was at heart a family man.

She leaned against him in a side hug. “I really appreciate that. Maybe she could be found and visit before this baby is born.”

Talk about a tall order.

“I’ll get started on it tomorrow morning,” I said, already mentally planning to discuss the mission with Simon. With how long Kalina had been out of contact with Raisa, it seemed like a wild goose chase.

That hardly mattered, though. I could devote my efforts to locating her, and once she was found, to secure her with whatever Luka deemed appropriate in terms of safety.

And just maybe, in the process of saving another innocent, I could erase more of the guilt for not saving my wife all those years ago.