Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Lucia
Ididn’t realize how long I stayed in the study until the quiet started to press in around me. I didn’t remember when I’d picked the folder back up, but I stared down at it now, my fingertips white because I held on to it for so long.
The paper felt heavier now than when I’d first opened it, and no matter how much I tried to block it out, I couldn’t make any of this feel normal. I didn’t understand it, all not the full picture or all the details, but I understood enough to know it wasn’t something I could brush off.
I set the folder back exactly where I’d found it, making sure it looked untouched. My fingers lingered for a moment before I stepped away from the desk, my gaze moving over the room as if I might find something else that explained everything.
I left the room without looking back. The hallway outside was quiet, but not empty.
A guard stood near the far end, his attention shifting to me the second I stepped out.
He didn’t ask what I’d been doing, but I saw it in the way he straightened slightly.
He knew I’d been in Alexei’s study, but he’d never question it.
He’d never overstep his duties and roles with Alexei and his wife.
That realization—that I held some power—filled me suddenly.
I moved through the house with no real destination in mind, just trying to settle the unease sitting in my chest. The staff shifted around me in a way that didn’t go unnoticed.
Conversations stopped when I entered a room, and whatever task they were working on wrapped up quickly before they stepped out, leaving the space to me.
It felt like this was how things were supposed to be now. Like I had a place here, whether I was ready for it or not.
I found myself out on the terrace, needing air. The land stretched out in front of me, wide and quiet, but it didn’t ease the tension in my body. My thoughts kept going back to what I’d seen, and all the things my mind conjured up.
I didn’t know how long I stood out there, but I felt my husband right behind me before I heard or even saw him.
“You shouldn’t be out here alone.”
His voice came from behind me, low and close, and I turned to face him. Something in me tightened. He stood just inside the doorway, his attention fixed on me, taking in every inch of me.
“Hi,” I said breathlessly. “I just needed some air.” A lump formed in my throat when he took a step closer. Alexei was silent for long seconds. “I didn’t expect you to be home yet.”
“I finished what I needed to, so I came straight here,” he replied, stepping closer. “I needed to see you.”
His gaze moved over my face slowly, and I knew there was no point pretending I hadn’t been somewhere I wasn’t meant to be. I was a shitty liar, and my poker face was laughable. His expression, even as stoic as ever, told me he already knew something was wrong.
“What’s wrong, moya devochka?” he asked, his tone was even and controlled, but softer when he said the endearment.
“I found a file on your desk,” I said, my voice quieter than I meant it to be.
The words came out fast, and I felt that flicker of guilt for going through something that wasn’t mine, but I didn’t take it back. He was my husband.
In this world, there were things wives were expected not to ask about, not to look into, but I had never been good at pretending I didn’t see what was right in front of me.
“It had names,” I continued, forcing myself to stay steady. “Dates. Places. I don’t know exactly what I was looking at, but it didn’t feel like normal business. My head’s been going in circles trying to make sense of it.”
Alexei didn’t speak, but his expression was open, and I knew he wanted me to continue.
I let out a slow breath before continuing.
“It looked like… people,” I said. “There were names with ages next to some of them. Different locations. Dates that lined up like they were being moved from one place to another. And the money… it wasn’t set up like business accounts, but like it was tied to each name. ”
I should have been terrified admitting all of this to Alexei. But, I wasn’t.
I paused, trying to keep my voice steady.
“I’ve heard enough over the years to know what that can mean.
The way men talk when they think no one’s listening, the things they don’t explain but don’t bother hiding either.
It looked like people being handled like something you could buy, move, and pass along.
” I swallowed, my chest tightening. “So yeah… my mind went there. And if that’s even close to what it is, I can’t just pretend I didn’t see it. ”
I held his gaze when I said all of that even though part of me didn’t want to hear the answer. He didn’t respond right away. He just watched me, taking in every word, every reaction, like he always did when something mattered.
“You read all of it?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And you understood it?”
“Not all of it,” I admitted. “But enough to know it’s not something… good.”
He stepped closer then, closing the space between us until I could feel the heat of him. His hand came up, settling against my jaw before sliding to the side of my neck. The touch was firm and pulled me out of my own head.
“Look at me,” he said quietly.
I hadn’t realized I’d looked away until he gave me the low, commanding order.
“I don’t want you involved in the ugly side of this world, but I know I can’t shield you from it all,” he continued. “Do you understand me?”
I swallowed. “That’s not what I was asking.”
“I know,” he said, his thumb brushing slowly against my skin. “And I’m not going to lie to you. There are operations that move people. Some are worse than others. Some don’t give those people a choice. That’s the truth of this world.”
My heart was racing now, an unspoken question hanging on the tip of my tongue.
“But I’m not involved in that, Lucia. My family isn’t involved in that ugly side of business."
His voice stayed low, and just hearing that had me exhaling fast and hard in relief.
I searched his face, trying to read if he was lying to placate me, if he was giving me something easier to hold on to.
“It’s a tracking ledger,” he said. “Routes, movement, and people tied to those routes. Workers, couriers, and contacts. It looks ugly on paper if you don’t know what you’re looking at, but it’s not what you’re thinking.”
I didn’t answer right away. Part of me wanted to believe him without question. Another part of me needed it to make sense. “And you’re telling me that’s all it is?” I asked quietly.
“I’m telling you I wouldn’t keep something like that under my own roof if it was what you’re afraid of,” he said, his voice steady, not defensive, not dismissive. “Not with you here. I would never lie to you. You ask me something, you get the truth. Always.”
He said that with such certainty and finality that I knew it was the truth. My shoulders loosened just slightly, the tightness in my chest easing enough that I could breathe without feeling like something was pressing down on me.
“Okay,” I said, and I meant it.
“But there is something you need to know,” he said.
The shift in his tone was subtle, but I felt it immediately.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as my anxiety rose once more. His touch should have calmed me, but it didn’t stop the unease sitting heavy in my chest.
“What you saw,” he said, his voice low and controlled, “isn’t random. It’s tied to someone building something they shouldn’t be.”
I frowned, trying to make sense of it. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer right away. His eyes stayed on mine, watching me in that quiet way he had, like he was already a few steps ahead and deciding how much to give me. “Alessio,” he said finally.
The name meant nothing to me, and I didn’t try to pretend otherwise. “I don’t know who that is.”
“No,” he said, just as steady. “You wouldn’t.”
A slow, creeping feeling that I wasn’t going to like whatever came next filled me.
“He’s your half-brother.”
For a second, everything in me went still. My breath caught before I could stop it, my mind trying to grab on to something that made sense, but there was nothing there.
“That’s not possible,” I said, slower now, like I needed to hear the words out loud to believe them. “My mother and father only have my sister and me.”
Alexei stayed silent, letting me sift through my thoughts.
“Yes, your mother and father have you and your sister.”
It all settled in, and I shook my head, my mind trying to deny what Alexei meant. “My father had a child with someone else?” My husband’s silence told me that was exactly what this all meant.
“Alessio is your father’s bastard son, one your father knows about but doesn’t claim. He’s been making moves on his own,” Alexei continued, his tone steady and controlled, like he was laying out facts instead of dropping another fracture into the middle of my life.
“He’s been organizing his own crews, setting up his own routes, and making deals like he has something to prove. He’s using a last name he doesn’t officially claim to build something that is encroaching on shit he should know nothing about.”
He leaned back slightly, his gaze never leaving mine. “There was a hit on a Bratva warehouse and shipment. It left several of our men dead and the product destroyed."
His jaw tightened.
“We thought it was your father, but we found out Alessio orchestrated it without your father’s knowledge.” His voice dropped lower then, rougher around the edges in a way that sent a cold knot into my stomach.
I stared at him, trying to process the words, trying to understand how someone I’d never even heard of had somehow been tied to the violence surrounding us from the beginning.
Alexei’s expression hardened as he watched me absorb it all. “The difference is that now he’s getting reckless,” he said quietly. “And reckless men make mistakes that cost them their lives.”
His eyes darkened as he leaned forward slightly, his voice turning deadly calm. “The biggest mistake he made was forcing himself into my life… and putting himself anywhere near you.”
My heart was pounding as I stared at my savage, handsome husband.
I let that sit, my thoughts struggling to catch up. A brother I had never known about. A name that should have meant something and didn’t. A piece of my life that had been hidden so completely it might as well not have existed at all until now.
“And he’s dangerous?” I asked.
Alexei’s thumb stilled against my skin for just a second before moving again, slower this time. “He’s reckless and already made enemies,” he said. “And men like that don’t stop until someone makes them.”
Silence filled the space between us. I could feel the air thin, not just from the conversation, but around him, like something had already been decided and I was only just catching up to it.
“You’re sure you’ve never heard of him?” he asked, his voice quieter now, but no less controlled.
“I haven’t,” I said. “I swear to you.”
He watched me for a long moment, searching my face, looking for anything that didn’t line up. When he didn’t find it, he gave a small nod, like that was all he needed. “I knew as much,” he said.
Something cold settled in my chest. This wasn’t just about whether he believed me. It was about what came next. Whether I wanted it or not, that tied me to Alessio in a way I couldn’t undo.
Alexei’s hand tightened slightly at my neck enough to make my breath catch and remind me exactly who I was standing in front of. When I looked at him, there was nothing uncertain in his expression. No hesitation, or question. Only intent.
“This doesn’t touch you,” he said quietly, his voice dropping lower, rougher now. “I won’t let it. I won’t let anyone fucking get near you. Do you understand me?”
I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure I fully believed that was possible anymore.
His grip didn’t loosen, but it felt safe, almost comforting. “But I’m putting a stop to it,” he continued, his gaze locking on mine. “And it ends soon and fast.”
A chill ran through me at the way he said it, not because I didn’t believe him, but because I did.
Because I could already see it in his eyes. Whatever Alessio had started, Alexei was going to stop it.
The Butcher—my husband—was going to handle it.
And there wasn’t anything in me that believed he would not spill a whole lot of blood over this.