Chapter Thirty-Eight
Igor
“Does this make you feel better, Igor?” Dmitry looked up at me through one swollen eye, a half-smile on his tired face. “Torturing me changed nothing.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” For the past hour I had removed strips of his skin as slowly as I could. “These strips of flesh,” I spat on the pieces of flesh on the floor, “they are for each of the family you took from me.”
“The way you took mine?”
I sighed. “That is the life we have chosen, Dmitry. You took your need for vengeance too far and instead of ending my line, I will now end yours. Possibly all of it.”
His eyes widened. “But he is just a little boy.”
I got in his face and laughed bitterly. “You were quite content to kill my unborn child and the woman carrying him so don’t you fucking dare tell me he’s just a little boy.
” My chest heaved as I thought about Mikhail, who lay dead beside Dmitry, holding a gun to April.
“Maybe my need for vengeance won’t be quelled with you.
” I ran the tip of the blade down his arm where the skin was already removed, enjoying the gut-wrenching cries he let out.
“He has nothing to do with this life.” He pleaded and he begged for the boy’s life.
“Neither did Boris’ wife and unborn baby.”
“She was the wife of the Bratva head. Fair game.”
“And April is not yet she was fair game.” I drove the tip of the blade into his skin and pushed it deeper and deeper, and I did it slowly because I needed it to hurt.
“The good news for you, Dmitry,” I began and pulled the blade out, moving it over a few centimeters before I slid it in again, “is that you won’t be here to find out either way. ”
Resignation settled into every inch of his being. “Just get it over with,” he growled angrily.
I smiled. “Are you ready to die Dmitry?” I wasn’t quite ready to put him out of his misery. “You want me to get it over with when you were content to torture and annoy me for months. Years, even.”
“You now have the upper hand,” he conceded. “This is beneath you.”
“It’s not, really.” I ran the blade across his chest, leaving a trail of blood dripping down.
“You have caused me a great deal of trouble and for what? The loss of your junkie son who would have ended up dead either way. Did you know he was hundreds of dollars in the hole to his dealer? You didn’t, did you?
” I shook my head. “He stole from who he thought was a wealthy man because he was too high to realize it was one of my father’s men. ”
The moment that reality came crashing over him was the moment I hadn’t realized I’d been waiting for.
Our gazes locked and we both knew what was coming next.
I held the serrated edge of the blade against his neck and sliced from left to right.
Blood shot out and sprayed my face and the surrounding area, forcing me to step back and watch as the life slowly drained from his body.
Dmitry sputtered and choked, fought like hell, the inevitability of what was coming until the last ounce of fight left his body.
My greatest enemy was now dead.
I was free.
Free from this enemy with many more who would gladly line up to take what I had. What I loved.
Looking at Dmitry now, lifeless and no longer a threat, a weight was lifted from my shoulders. He was just a man. A sad old man I let guide the course of my life for too long. I let his anger and pain become my own and it cost me the life of one of my dearest friends.
It also brought me to April. And my son.
And I couldn’t be angry about that.
The only thing I could do was move forward with my life and never let another Dmitry happen. Period.
“Are you okay?” Maxim posed the question in his usual, quiet way when I stepped out of the shed and headed back to the mansion.
I nodded but I considered his question carefully. “I fucking hate that April had to go through what she did. You remember your first kill?” That was the thing that bothered me, almost more than the trauma of being kidnapped and having a gun aimed at her.
He nodded. “Never forget it, but I was eager to get it over with.”
“Exactly. We grew up knowing this life was in our future and we were excited about it, ready to prove ourselves to our fathers. April didn’t sign up for this.”
“She knows her way around a gun.” I didn’t have to look up to see the smile in his voice.
I smiled at his words and told him about my first meeting with April.
“I was sure Dmitry or one of his men had followed me when the fucking shots rang out. Instead she was shooting bottles and cans to cure her anger.” We shared a laugh.
“Voronov is dead and that’s a good thing.
I don’t feel bad about it, especially after what he did to April and tried to do with my baby.
He’s exactly where he belongs, burning in hell. ”
“Speaking of,” Maxim began.
I nodded. “Get rid of everything but that ugly fucking tiepin and his pinky finger. That should be enough to ease the mind of his Bratva.” With Dmitry out of the way I was hopeful that we could have a more civil relationship.
“You think it’s possible to coexist?”
I nodded as we stopped just outside the house and stripped out of our clothes. “If not, we’ll have our work cut out for us, won’t we?” I gripped Maxim’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “For now, I have more important negotiations to handle.”
He smiled. “Good luck.”
We parted ways and I rushed upstairs where I rushed through a hot shower because I was eager to get things settled with April. Now that I was sure about everything and nothing else stood in our way, it was time to lay it all out for her.
I just hoped she was receptive.
I knocked lightly on her door and prepared myself for what I had to do next, except there was no time to prepare because the door flew open and April stood there with wet hair and wide eyes. “April.”
“Igor.” She stepped forward and pulled me close, wrapping her arms around me. “You’re okay.”
I smiled at the relief in her voice. “Did you doubt me?”
“Of course not,” she sighed and squeezed me once more before she stepped back. “It’s just, well I thought it would be quicker.”
“I needed to take my time with Dmitry.”
Her eyes widened in shock and then she nodded. “Is he gone?”
I nodded once. “He is not someone we have to worry about anymore.”
Her hands went to my face and her eyes searched mine. “Are you okay?”
My smile came easily. “Me? I’m perfect. Almost.”
April took a step back and her smile dimmed as her hands slowly slipped from my face. “Right. We need to talk.”
I hated the distance between us, but it was up to me to bridge that divide. “We do.” I took her hand and led her into the sitting room. “There’s a lot of things we never talked about.”
“Okay.” She drew the word out into four syllables, her nerves evident in the way she fidgeted with the fabric of her nightgown.
“My original plan was to ask you to stay on after the contract period to look after the child. Maria and I had an agreement that she would be the caretaker but when she was killed, I needed a new arrangement.”
Her eyes widened at first before the filled with tears she refused to let fall. “I can’t do that.”
“I know.” I gave her a sad smile because everything she thought, everything she felt was written on her face. “I know that you could love and care for him but that is no longer what I want.”
“Of course.” With every word I spoke she drew in on herself a little more, clearly misunderstanding me.
“It was a good plan. I would provide for you and your brother, quite handsomely, and in exchange you would care for my son and any other children that came along. But I can’t do it.”
A breath rushed out of her, and I wasn’t sure if it was relief or disappointment. “Okay. But you didn’t ask me to do that, and you don’t want it, so what are we talking about here, Igor?”
I smiled. “One of the things I like most about you is that you don’t bow down to me, except in the bedroom. You tell me what you think, what you feel without regard to how I might receive the message.”
“Thank you?”
“That was my plan, April. To make the offer to you and move on with my life, running my organization and doing as I damn well please. That was my plan until you blew it all to shit.”
Her brows dipped. “How did I do that?”
“You made it impossible for me to imagine a life without you. You made it too fucking irresistible to wake up with you in my arms, to listen to the sound of your slow, even breaths when you fall asleep. That smile. The gentle way you touch me that tells me you feel the same way? How can I live the rest of my life without that? How?”
“Igor.” My name was a soft whisper on her lips.
“That’s what we have to talk about, April. I want you in my bed every night before I drift off to sleep. I want to wake up to your smiling face every morning. And I want to spend every fucking second in between knowing that you love me as much as I love you.”
“Holy shit.” Her hand went to her chest, and her eyes were filled with shock. “You love me?”
“Is that such a surprise?”
Laughter bubbled out of her. “Um yeah, it’s one hell of a surprise Igor. I was waiting for you to tell me it was safe to go back home and to let you know when I went into labor.”
“Is that what you want?” It had occurred to me that maybe she didn’t feel the same way, but I would’ve sworn she did.
April didn’t respond right away. She stood and turned away from me, staring out the window that overlooked the gardens. “I spent the past hour preparing to learn to live without you.”
“April?”
She turned to face me with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t think you and me were possible and I didn’t want to make you feel guilty for not loving me back.”
Before she could say another word, I was in front of her and gathering her in my arms. “I do love you. I want us to be possible. We’re already an us, and the only thing left is to make it official.”
She laughed. “I’m carrying your baby and living in your house. How much more official do you need things to be?”
“I want you to be my wife. To have my name. To have my children.” The more I spoke the more I could see our future laid out in front of me. “The life we could have together, April. It could be perfect.”
She smiled as the first tear fell. “Your wife. We haven’t dated and you want me to be your wife?”
I laughed. “Hell yeah, I do. I know everything I need to know. You’re sweet and sexy, kind and willing to help a complete stranger, the same as you help Jacob. You’re strong on your own. You don’t need me to protect you because you can protect yourself and our babies.”
“I’m not strong,” she insisted.
“You are. Most women would have crumbled under the pressure of what happened today, but not you April. You didn’t wait for me to save you.”
“I knew that you would.”
“But I would have been too fucking late to save you, so you did it yourself. Not only is that sexy as fuck but it tells me you are the perfect woman for me. Say yes, April. Say you want to be my wife my partner, my everything.”
“I do, Igor. I want to be all of that and so much more. Yes. Yes! Yes!”
I never expected to find love as a Bratva leader. The best I hoped for was a loyal woman who understood her role in my life, but to find everything I needed and love in a spitfire who was shooting away her anger was one of the greatest surprises of my life. “You won’t regret it.”
“I know,” she answered before she pressed her lips to mine and showed me just how perfect we were together.