Chapter 17
Viktor~
After my wife had killed Martin Azaev-as was his name once upon a time-I’d driven her back home to shower and change, leaving Kasimir to clean up the mess, and to say that I was worried about her was an understatement.
While the need to avenge my wife was licking at my heels in a relentless reminder, even I knew enough not to attack the Marchettis without more proof than some hired gun’s word.
However, not my wife.
Once she’d gotten re-dressed, I had watched as she had pulled one of her suitcases from the closet, then opened a false bottom, revealing some very heavy artillery, and it was like she was on a mission to impress the fuck out of me on a regular basis.
In fact, Aurora was so damn impressive that even Kasimir was warming up to her.
At any rate, without any explanation whatsoever, Roman Marchetti was escorting his daughter and son-in-law to his office, and the fact that he hadn’t questioned Aurora as soon as he had opened the door told me that I wasn’t the only man who underestimated this woman from time to time.
It wasn’t until Roman shut the office door behind us that Aurora finally spoke. “Lock the door.”
That simple order had all three Marchetti men stiffening, and I didn’t blame them. Her tone suggested that none of them fuck with her right now, and if they were smart, they wouldn’t.
Of course, once Roman locked the door behind us, Santino asked, “What’s going on?”
Wasting no time at all, she said, “The hit on my life came from a Marchetti.”
As much as I disliked the men in her family, the looks on all of their faces exonerated them in my opinion. Not only did they all look like they’d been hit with a stun gun, but the disbelief was clear in their eyes.
Roman was the first to return to his senses. “What?”
“Kasimir Korolev found the fifth man,” she informed them. “I waited to tell you because I wanted to find out if he even knew anything, but he knew enough to know that a Marchetti was behind the attack.”
“That’s impossible,” Santino said, finally snapping out of his shock. “There’s no way that a Marchetti would...no. I can’t even credit it, Aurora.”
“Except for the fact that he knew about my photographic memory,” she shot back, making Stefano blanch.
“Uhm, should we be talking about...that with him here?” Stefano asked, jerking his head my way.
“Right now, he’s the only person that I’m confident isn’t trying to get me killed, so I don’t see a problem,” she snapped, and if I wasn’t already in love with her, this moment would have done it for me. “Besides, he already knows.”
“Okay, I’m going to ignore what you just said because it’s obvious that you’re upset,” Roman said. “However, if you ever accuse us of such a sin again, there will be hell to pay, Alba. Understand?”
“Don’t threaten my wife,” I said, stepping up behind her. “I get that tensions are high and that everyone is upset, but do not make the mistake of threatening my wife again.”
“You need to remember where the fuck you are,” Stefano hissed. “I mean, who’s to say that you didn’t pay off a Marchetti, if it’s even true.”
“Enough!” Roman roared. “From everyone!”
Then, being the diplomatic one, Santino said, “Just...just tell us what happened, Aurora.”
Without adding any flare to her story, Aurora quickly gave them all a quick rundown of what had happened, what’d been said, and then had pointed out again that no one outside of this room knew of her photographic memory. Yeah, Kasimir now knew, but that’d been after the fact.
When she was done, Roman said, “That’s not entirely true, Alba. There are a few others who are aware of your gift.”
“Who?” Stefano asked.
“Well, Marco’s been with her since birth,” Roman answered, and I could only assume that he was speaking about Aurora’s personal Marchetti guard. “Then there’s Georgio, Decio, and any other number of people that are privy to the sensitive matters of the business.”
“It also brings more credit to how one of her assailants had made that remark about not raping her,” Santino added. “Only someone who’s emotionally invested in this would have cared.”
“So what the fuck are we supposed to do now?” Stefano asked, the news hitting him hard. “Kill every Marchetti that’s ever met Aurora?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Santino drawled out.
“We were betrayed, Santino,” Stefano snapped. “Don’t you get that?”
“Yes!” Santino yelled.
“Okay, calm down,” Roman ordered. “Everyone just needs to calm down a bit.”
“Someone from our camp tried to kill my sister, so I think I’ll have to pass on calming down,” Stefano practically snarled, and the only reason that Roman wasn’t putting a bullet between his eyes was because he was standing in this room as their father, not their Don; I was sure of it.
After a moment, Roman said, “So, are we all in agreement that the objection is Aurora’s marriage to a Korolev?”
“Of course,” Santino automatically replied. “What other reason could there be?”
“Well, since Aurora shot the only person with any information, what the fuck are we supposed to do now?” Stefano asked, clearly annoyed and not handling any of this well.
“Yeah, every man from that night is dead and no good to us,” Santino agreed.
“While that’s true, Armen had a sister and a niece that we can still question,” I informed them, knowing that they were our last and only lead.
Santino shot me a look. “Are you seriously suggesting that we torture two women who could possibly be innocent in all this?”
“Are you seriously suggesting that those two women matter more to me than my wife?” I countered.
“Okay, stop,” Aurora ordered. “We are not going to be torturing Armen’s sister or niece. However, what we can do is question them and search their home. If nothing was found at Armen’s, then it’s possible that he may have hid something significant at his sister’s house.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Roman replied, aging right before my eyes. “Though I’m not against torturing them if we have to.”
“There is no we,” I clarified. “We will handle whatever needs to be handled on the Korolev side of things, and we’ll leave you guys to handle whatever comes of the Marchetti side.”
“You can’t honestly expect us to just stand by and do nothing,” Santino said, and it was hard not to feel for the men in this room, enemy or not. “That’s not how this works.”
“Listen, Marchetti, someone from your camp conspired with someone from ours to kill my wife, and until I find out which Marchetti it was, I’m not letting any of you near Aurora if I can help it,” I bit out. “She will never be at risk again. Ever.”
Then Stefano said something that almost had me pulling my gun out. “Why do you care so much? Isn’t there a blonde already waiting on the sideline to take her place?”
My chin went up, and it ate at me how I had to take the hit, Aurora not speaking up on my behalf, letting her family think that I was cheating on her.
Did I deserve it? Yeah, I did. Nevertheless, I’d lost my opportunity to be good enough for this woman in their eyes, and I couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t sting a bit.
Especially, when you considered that I wasn’t a cheater, nor did I have any desire to be.
Reining his youngest back, Roman said, “Let’s focus on the situation at hand, Stefano. This isn’t the place or time for personal grievances, and Aurora has already made it clear that she doesn’t expect fidelity from her new husband.”
That was it.
“Are you really not going to say anything?” I asked her,
Aurora looked at me, her dark gaze unwavering. “What would you like me to say, Viktor?”
“You know that I didn’t cheat on you,” I replied. “Why are you letting them believe otherwise?”
Then, as a reminder that I really didn’t know who the fuck I was dealing with, she said, “I only know that you told me that you didn’t cheat on me. However, where’s the proof that you didn’t? Your word? Sorry, it’s still too early in this marriage to take your word as gospel, Korolev.”
Incensed, I nodded, letting her know that I’d heard her clearly. “Okay, if that’s how we’re going to play this, then I’m game.”
Before she could say anything to that, Roman was back to taking control of the situation. “Again, that is a conversation for another time and for you two only. We need to talk about what our next steps are, and we need to know who all knows about this.”
Turning from me, Aurora said, “Unless Kasimir is telling people, then only Aleksei, Kasimir, Viktor, and you three know what’s going on.”
Anger holding me hostage, I didn’t say anything else as my wife and her family spoke of strategies, and with the lines clearly divided, it looked like children would no longer be in the picture.