Chapter 1
Viktor~
It was the next day, late afternoon, and I was in my father’s office with my brother, and I knew that I was being unreasonable, but I did not appreciate how Kasimir hadn’t brought me the head of who did this yet. Yeah, we were only a day in, but I didn’t care.
“I get it, I really do,” Kasimir said as he poured himself another glass of vodka. “But we’re still trying to identify the men.”
“It shouldn’t be this hard!” I roared. “We have their goddamn pictures!”
“Not everyone in the country is registered to vote, Viktor,” he drawled out. “It stands to reason that these men might be nomads.”
“He’s right, son,” my father remarked. “No one with a family would dare cross us. The risk would be too high.”
“And Armen only has his sister and niece, which...” Kasimir shrugged. “I mean, we could torture them if you want to, but-”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped.
“They can still be questioned without the torture,” my father pointed out. “Since neither the sister nor the niece are minor children, I do not see the problem.”
“We’re missing something,” I said as I began pacing the room. “If the other men were truly nomads, then how in the fuck did they know Armen? How did Armen know them? How did he know that they’d be trustworthy enough to do this?”
“You know, you talk as if all Russians are limited to Korolev territory,” my father said. “If those men aren’t from here, they could have easily come from a million different places, blending in perfectly.”
“But that still doesn’t tell us how they got in touch with Armen or vice versa, assuming that Armen was the one behind this,” Kasimir replied. “I mean, was he behind this or just another pawn.”
“Well, if he wasn’t the one behind this, then that means that Aurora is still in danger,” I said, the words like shards of glass in my throat. “If it wasn’t him, then the man who wants my wife dead is still out there, and we’re not doing a fucking thing about it.”
“Hey, that’s not true,” Kasimir automatically denied. “We’re doing what we can without sounding alarms all over the place.”
I stopped my pacing long enough to look over at my brother. “Yeah, no...you’re right.”
While I wanted to tear this city apart to find out who was behind this, if it really was the Chinese, Romanians, or Germans, then we didn’t want to tip them off without a plan in place, and we couldn’t put a plan in place if we didn’t know anything, which we didn’t.
Plus, we didn’t need to announce to our enemies that the Korolevs and Marchettis might be going to war with each other over this, doing their dirty work for them.
All-in-all, we needed to play our cards close to the vest on this one.
“If it’s any consolation, we’ve ruled out Dushenka,” Kasimir remarked, and quite honestly, it hadn’t even occurred to me that it could be her behind this. Not for nothing, the woman was too stupid to pull off a successful birthday party, much less orchestrate an assassination.
Still...
“How were you able to eliminate her?” I asked, better safe than sorry.
“She was one of the first people that we questioned, and...” Kasimir shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know how you managed to fuck her as long as you did. She’s insufferable.”
I shot him a look. “Focus, Kasimir.”
“She was a mess,” he continued. “As soon as we pulled her aside, she turned into a hysterical disaster, and taking this from someone who’s tortured more than his fair share of people, you just can’t fake that kind of meltdown.
She begged us to believe her, swearing that she’d never cross a Korolev. ”
Ignoring that, I said, “We need to tear Armen’s life apart. We need to know why he’d agree to this, whether he was the originator or not.”
My father shrugged, something that he didn’t do often. “Could be a simple case of not agreeing with the marriage,” he stated. “And after you made your intentions clear at the reception, maybe he or whoever is behind this saw killing her as the only way out.”
“He’s got a point,” Kasimir agreed. “Not only was the arrangement rather rushed, giving no one any real time to digest the idea, but you can’t just command people to trust her, Viktor.
Despite her legal last name, Aurora is and will always be a Marchetti, and the hate that our people have for her family has been nurtured for years. ”
Before I had time to give his statements some real consideration, my father was there to throw more logs on the fire.
“There’s also a very plausible chance that it could be someone from her camp.
I can’t imagine that the Marchetti family members are any happier about your marriage than our own people are. ”
“So, we’re back to the possibility that it could be anyone,” I drawled out, frustration crawling at my throat. “That’s a lot of fucking help.”
“Viktor-”
“Don’t,” I snapped at my father. “Do not tell me to relax or that you understand how I feel, because I can’t relax, and neither of you can possibly know how I feel.”
“Fair enough,” my father replied, talking to me like I was about to take a match to the entire world, and he wasn’t necessarily wrong. “Nonetheless, you need to keep your head in the game, and it’s worrisome that I need to keep reminding you of that.”
“Someone tried to kill my wife!” I thundered. “I watched a video of four men putting their hands on her, hurting her and trying to end her life, so don’t fucking tell me to get my head in the game! It’s the only thing that fills my thoughts since the second that I saw what they did to her!”
Just then, Kasimir began humming that familiar tune, and my father shot me a look that wasn’t that of a concerned father.
He was looking at me like the Korolev Pakhan, and no matter the current situation, he wasn’t about to let me ruin everything that this family had built, and letting Kasimir loose on a murdering spree would do just that.
I was also very aware that I was the only one that could pull my brother back from wherever his mind was taking him.
“Despite how it came to be, Aurora Marchetti is my daughter-in-law, and I will make it clear that I have also taken this attack on her personally,” my father said, silently urging me to take the baton in an effort to calm Kasimir down.
“Okay, let’s...let’s continue to make discreet inquiries until I’ve had a chance to speak to Aurora,” I suggested. “Since she understands Russian, she might be able to narrow things down for us.”
Kasimir immediately stopped humming. “And what makes you so sure that she’ll be willing to speak with you?
I mean, if she thinks that you’re the one who tried to kill her, why would she want to have anything to do with you?
” Before I could answer, he added, “Not to mention that those brothers of hers aren’t going to let you anywhere near her, never mind Roman. ”
I hated how he sounded so reasonable about it, but I still had an answer for him. “Because they all want the same thing that we do, and I’m counting on them wanting to avoid a war to get answers. After all, that’s why Aurora and I got married in the first place, remember?”
Kasimir scrunched his nose, and it reminded me of when we’d been little boys. “I don’t know. Stefano Marchetti doesn’t appear the reasonable type.”
“Oh, really? Do tell,” I deadpanned, shooting my brother a look.
My brother grinned. “Hey, I only call them like I see them.”
Luckily, despite his cheekiness, Kasimir was no longer humming, and since I didn’t need any more shit to deal with, I considered that a small win. My father was also no longer glaring at me, so there was that.
“Let me worry about my in-laws,” I told him. “I actually only need to get past Roman to talk to Aurora. Santino and Stefano will not go against the Marchetti Don, no matter what.”
“Well, I’ll keep questioning anyone who might know something,” Kasimir stated. “Let me know what the adskaya koshka says.”
“Do not call my wife a hellcat,” I drawled out.
“Why not?” he quipped. “That’s what she is. I mean, I saw the video with you, Viktor. It’s quite clear what she’s capable of.”
“If you’ve nothing more to offer, leave us, Kasimir,” my father instructed, and once again, my brother just grinned before heading out of the office.
Once he was gone, I looked over at my father. “I’m going to keep calling Aurora, and if she refuses to speak with me, then I’ll go to Roman.”
“She’s his only daughter,” my father said pointedly.
“She’s my wife,” I countered. “She’s my wife, and the Italian man in him won’t ignore that.”
He gave me a terse nod, but it was clear that he didn’t quite believe me. “Very well, if you’re convinced that I don’t need to step in, then I’ll step aside until you ask otherwise.”
“Thank you,” I replied sincerely, needing his support on this more than I’d ever needed it before.