Chapter 24
Viktor~
I glanced down at my watch again, and with every tick of the second hand, I found myself growing more and more pissed, and that wasn’t proving well for my wife.
Earlier today, Aurora had called me, explaining how she needed to visit her father again, giving me some story about how they were having problems with her cousin’s access to whatever the fuck they needed for their gambling endeavors, and while I hadn’t believed her, I’d still given her permission to go.
After all, I could see how the last visit had probably made her homesick, and for all that I was supposed to hate her, the thought of her being unhappy had not sat well with me.
So, I had let her go.
However, it was now ten at night, and not only was she not home, but she wasn’t answering her phone, and worse than that, it was actually turned off, my messages going straight to voice mail.
Now, while Dima and Isaak had confirmed that she’d been handed over to the Italian guards safely, that’d been almost eight hours ago, and the radio silence had me close to losing my mind.
It also didn’t help that her father and brothers weren’t answering my calls, and while I could see them not answering just for the sake of being assholes, that was still a problem.
Right now, I had no idea where my wife was or if she was safe, and I was about to storm Marchetti territory to find her; that’s how fucking pissed off I was.
Nonetheless, if I didn’t want to get shot on sight, I needed a plan of some sort.
Despite the fact that Aurora was legally my wife, if she didn’t want to come back home, I could see her family doing everything in their power to keep that from happening.
Plus, if something did happen to her while on her visit, I could see them wanting to make sure that she was okay, though that was my job now.
Still, not ready to call my father with this bullshit, I dialed Kasimir, even though I was pretty sure that he was still annoyed with me. While he had no problem doing his job and honoring his commitments, he’s done his best to stay away from me all week long.
“Yes?” he answered, surprisingly rather quickly.
“Aurora’s phone is turned off,” I told him. “And none of the Marchettis are returning my calls. Is there any way to track her phone if it’s turned off?”
“No,” he answered, and the sound of his voice was one that I was very familiar with; the one where his brain was thinking faster than usual.
“Plus, it’s been well established that your wife is not stupid, Viktor.
Her phone is probably not even on her, and if she’s in a situation or somewhere that she needs a phone, then she’s most likely been supplied with a burner. ”
“She said that she needed to visit her father to help with her cousin taking over their gambling ventures,” I told him.
“And you believed her?”
“No,” I quickly rushed out. “I’m not that fucking stupid.”
“Then why let her go?”
“Because I figured that she was missing her family but just too stubborn to admit it,” I told him. “I figured that it’d be a quick trip to assure them that I’m not beating her on a daily basis, but that’s it.”
After a bit, he said, “Well, it’s not surprising that the other Marchettis won’t answer your calls, but you’d think that they’d tell her that her husband is trying to get a hold of her, especially if it’s a case of her phone simply dying.”
“Have you ever let your phone die?” I asked pointedly.
“Never.”
“Right, never,” I agreed.
Now, given the world that we lived in, it’d be the height of stupidity to let our phones get to the point of possibly dying on us, and even if they did or got broken somehow, we always had a backup, and I couldn’t imagine that it’d be any different for the other syndicates.
There was just too much hell right around the corner for any of us to be caught without a phone, so Kasimir throwing out the possible scenario was just plain ridiculous, and we both knew it.
“Hey, I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate for your wife,” he chuckled.
“Why?” I asked, taking my frustrations out on my brother. “It’s not like you’re a fan of hers.”
“Because she’s a Korolev,” he immediately shot back. “She can flaunt her Marchetti blood all she wants, but at the end of the day, she is a Korolev. She is Aurora Korolev, and it’s about time everyone starts acting like it.”
“So, what do you suggest?”
“Well, you definitely can’t go into Marchetti territory with all your guns blazing,” he said. “And before you deny that you want to, remember who you’re talking to.”
Taking his point, I asked, “Then what are my other options?”
“Hate to break it to you, but you don’t have any,” he answered, hitting me with the truth in a way that I really didn’t want to hear.
“Even if you do drive over there, do you really think any of those people are going to let you drag Aurora back by her hair if she’s unwilling?
Not for nothing, even without Roman Marchetti’s balls and influence, Santino and Stefano Marchetti aren’t little bitches, either. ”
“She’s my wife,” I bit out.
“Yes, she is,” he agreed quietly, probably knowing that I was already at my wit’s end. “But she is their blood, Viktor. Until you have children together, the only thing connecting you to her is a marriage certificate that can easily be undone with a divorce.”
“Aurora is never divorcing me,” I said, needing to say it. “Never.”
After a few seconds, Kasimir said, “Christ on roller skates, you’re falling in love with her, aren’t you? That’s why you can’t keep it together when it comes to her.”
“She is my wife, no matter how I feel about her, and that matters,” I hedged, not admitting but also not denying it. “She’s my wife.”
“Well, I didn’t see this coming,” he muttered, clearly calling me out. “I mean, I get it...she’s fucking beautiful, and that fearlessness of hers is sexy as hell, but...damn, I really hadn’t expected you to trip over your dick like this. At least, not this fucking soon.”
“Are you going to help me find my wife or not?” I snapped, feeling exposed and none too happy about it.
“If you’re asking me to join you in storming the castle to get your wife back, sure,” he said happily.
“It’d be a hell of a good time to meet the Marchettis on their territory.
However, if you’re asking me to try to track her, I can’t do that if her phone is off, Viktor.
No one can. The best that Poppy can do is track when and where her phone was last located before being turned off. ”
Now, while Kasimir was smart as fuck and could dabble in technology quite effectively, he wasn’t a hacker or IT genius, so we had someone on our payroll for that.
Poppy Montgomery was a thirty-six-year-old computer phenom, and she’d started working for us about ten years ago, her younger sister needing protection from a drug deal gone bad.
Ruin Montgomery had been dating a real loser when his debt had become hers, and Poppy had been willing to do anything to save her.
Ten years later, Poppy still worked for us, and her sister was reputedly doing well.
It also helped that we paid her a god’s ransom for what she did, solidifying her absolute loyalty.
“I mean, if nothing else, you’ll know if she was still in Marchetti territory before she went radio silence,” he went on. “You could also call Dad and ask him to call Roman.”
“Yeah, I’m not doing that,” I drawled out. “The last thing that I’m going to announce to the world is that I can’t control my wife.”
“You can’t,” he stated evenly.
“I underestimated her,” I corrected. “It won’t happen again.”
Kasimir just laughed. “I love how men always think that they’re still the ones in charge once love enters the picture.”
“I never said that I was in love with her,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, right,” he snorted. “Honestly, I should have known it when you hit me.”
“Kasimir-”
“It’s fine, Viktor,” he said, forgiving me. “If I’d known that you cared for her like that, then I would have acted better. There’s a difference between Aurora being your wife and her being your wife.”
“There really isn’t,” I replied.
“Oh, but there is,” he laughed again. “Feelings are a messy thing, but if we’re going to get shot up in a hail of Marchetti gunfire, let it be for love, I say.”
I shook my head. “You really need some therapy, you know that?”
“Says the man who fell in love with the enemy after only one week,” he retorted. “Honestly, that sounds like the need for immediate counseling if you ask me.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he drawled out. “Call me if you need company with the Marchettis.”
Yeah, Kasimir was an unstable fuck, but he was also a loyal one.