Chapter 31
ALEXSEI
Acouple of weeks after Kalina came to me and told me that we were growing our family, we made progress on many plans.
She had fully moved into my room closer to Misha. We shared a bed and were together.
But it was more than that. Lots of wheels were rolling and moving us toward our future.
We were house hunting. She was taking a couple of classes. She was helping Misha with homework and watching the kids more to get to know them better.
The first evening she came back to our room after helping Gabriella watch Andre would stay in my mind as a comical moment.
“That child…” she’d said with wide eyes as she dropped onto a chair.
I laughed. “We like to say that he was born with the need to be the center of attention.”
“Yes! That’s exactly it,” she agreed with a laugh. “He’s so sweet. Funny, too. But…”
“Naughty,” I finished for her.
We all had confidence that Andre would mature and address his jealousy about attention as he grew up. To be fair, it was probably harder for him to have so many changes in his young life, going from being the little baby with all the attention on him to so many newcomers born in the family.
However, with all the changes happening in our lives, the most important plan I remained alert for was the mission to take out the rest of the Riveras.
It seemed like the wait would be over, too. Everything was coming together because I headed to Luka’s meeting room now to talk with the others about when we’d make a move.
Striding down the hall, I caught myself from going to Luka’s study, where he usually was.
Before my uncle met Gabriella, he used to be the boss in the office, downtown and committed to filling his waking hours with work.
Dedicated to staying busy and doing the same old of running the organization.
He’d lost his first wife many years ago, and I saw the toll it took on him.
He grieved privately, but he was always half there, like he was waiting to be fully alive again with love lighting his life.
Then when Elena died, he and I had that similarity. We were both widowers. Because of that, we formed a stronger and different kinship from what he had with Emil and Ivan. Almost as if we were comrades for experiencing the same loss.
Now, we were experiencing the same kind of beautiful adventure with our women.
He was so much more well-rounded with Gabriella in his life, with Andre and Helene.
That didn’t mean he’d loved Emil any less, but there was a new energy of love with Gabriella.
It had taken his meeting her to be full again.
Just like it had taken my finding Kalina to fully wake up and open my heart again.
Since he married and started having more children, he switched to working strictly out of his study as a home office. He wanted to be hands-on and involved, and I didn’t blame him.
For bigger meetings like this, we gathered in the conference room for the more strategic operational talk. With more space. I eagerly entered the room, ready to put this plan into action that would keep Kalina safe for good.
Simon was seated in front of a laptop, and he didn’t really glance up to acknowledge me, too busy typing. He did nod at me. “You ready?” he asked as a greeting.
“Very.” I glanced around the room. “Just as soon as everyone else gets here.”
As if cuing them to arrive, they filed into the room. Luka, Emil, Niko, several other top soldiers, Allan.
“Where’s Ivan?” Luka asked once we all had seats or chose our spots to stand in.
“Here.” He strolled in, looking haggard and exhausted. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he slumped against the wall. “Sorry.”
I smirked while Luka laughed. “Rough night?”
He nodded. “He just wouldn’t sleep.”
I sympathized with him. He hadn’t been there for Raisa when she was pregnant the first time and when Lev was born. We all knew how much he wanted to bend over backward and be present to assist her with Roman.
“Did you try—”
He held up his hand and cut me off. “I tried everything,” he argued weakly. Clearing his throat and straightening, he cracked the kinks out of his neck and focused. “But it’s time to work. Where are we at?”
This was the love and support I could always count on. We’d always be a team.
“Simon?” Emil asked, indicating for him to go ahead.
The hacker nodded once and clicked his mouse. Big screens on the wall behind him served as visuals to all that he wanted to share.
For the next three hours, we reviewed the latest intel he had for us. Maps pinpointing where Riveras had been spotted. Tracking routes that our Dubinin men put on lower-ranking members of their family so we could find a rendezvous area where they seemed to meet up.
Gathering intel was a lengthy process and Simon had taken his time to be thorough with it.
No target could be too hard for him to find.
It didn’t matter who it was or where they went.
Simon was skilled enough, with the help of others who worked for us, to track anyone we wanted to eliminate.
He’d had plenty of practice of doing just that when Emil worked as an assassin to take out targets all over the world.
They could try to hide, they could try to wait us out, but we would get them.
After the failed attempt at trying to kidnap Kalina from the cabin, they were obviously trying to stay off the radar.
“But we got them,” Simon said in conclusion. “We can move in tomorrow.” Maps on the screen behind him showed it. The running surveillance footage he’d gotten proved that we indeed had a location for the Riveras.
“What about the other two?” Luka asked.
“Eric and Yusef,” I clarified even though they’d all know.
Simon shook his head. “They have gone deep undercover. I don’t know if they are hiding or if Marco Rivera captured them and has them.”
“There have been no sightings of either of them anywhere,” another man who assisted Simon reported.
“Then we move fast,” I said. “We attack the Riveras, kill them all, but keep a couple alive for more clues about where to find them.”
“Hey, for all we know,” Emil said, “they might’ve killed them already.”
I nodded. “Maybe Marco was so mad about their screwing them over with this negotiation to buy Kalina that they punished them for it.”
Simon shrugged. “Maybe? But from all I’ve seen and heard so far, I doubt it.
Maybe they would’ve killed them for failing to deliver Kalina because it was a sign of disrespect.
Not that she had anything to bring to the table.
” He frowned at me. “I don’t say that as an insult.
I’m only stating that Kalina came from an ordinary family.
Her parents weren’t close with Petrov politics.
Erik and Yusef weren’t affiliated as any actual Mafia members. And Kalina didn’t represent an heir.”
“No offense taken,” I said sincerely. He wasn’t saying that the love of my life was worthless. Just that she hadn’t been targeted specifically as a bargaining chip for any power or wealth. She wasn’t a Mafia princess like Raisa had been.
“We all know how little it takes to piss off those Italians,” Luka grumbled.
“She has no other family,” Simon added. “There won’t be any other surprises for us to uncover either about why all this trouble could be going on. It really does just seem like a bad business deal gone sour, one that we have a vested interest in resolving how we see fit.”
Yes. As in Kalina is free to be with me and not worry about anyone trying to fucking control her ever again.
“No complications with Konstantin Petrov or anything like that,” Simon added.
Luka nodded. “Good. Then if we can wrap this up now, there is nothing to stop you from starting the rest of your life with her,” he told me.
That was exactly what I couldn’t wait for.
“Preferably before she has this baby,” he said wryly.
“We’ve got a few months to go,” I replied with a smile.
He deadpanned. “Don’t jinx it.”
Emil chuckled, no doubt recalling how we had gone to stop a secret alliance from forming the very same day both Sadie and Gabriella went into labor.
For the rest of the meeting, we discussed more tactical details. Who would be where. Which person would handle what part of comms. And all the nitty-gritty facts and timelines of how we would carry out the attack.
Emil was more used to calling the shots like this, and I admitted his ability to do so now. He stepped right back into the role of directing the mission and leading. While he had taken a step back since marrying Sadie, he still had it.
“We will move in tomorrow and it’ll be over,” he told me as we later walked out of the room, side-by-side.
“I’m glad I won’t have to wait much longer,” I said.
“And just in case you might be thinking with your heart and not your head, too close to the case, know that I’ll have your back.”
I smiled. “I know.” I would always be able to count on them to keep me safe, and I would return that favor likewise.
In love and hate, in life and death, my family would always be there for me. Once Erik and Yusef were dead, Kalina would understand how much that concept would apply to her for the rest of our lives as well.
Because she would be the mother of my child.
My wife.
Mine.
No one else’s, not because I bought her but because we took the chance to trust in our love for each other.