Chapter 25
Viktor~
I was still furious, but I could admit to being confused also. In fact, I wasn’t too sure that Aurora wasn’t leading me to my own execution, because why else would she have called me? Why else include me in something that she could easily take care of herself?
Or else she had finally succeeded in driving me fucking crazy.
Nevertheless, after assuring me that she had cleared it with her father and brothers, I was finally driving down Aluvial Street, turning left on a dusty dirt road, looking for a rundown barn that reminded me too much of a horror movie scene.
Yeah, I was geared up with enough guns to buy me some time if Aurora really had lured me here to kill me, but still.
This was not how I had planned on spending my Tuesday night.
When I finally came up to the barn, a black sedan was parked nearby, but that was it. I also knew that it wasn’t my wife’s car, so I could only imagine where it was or how she got here. Knowing her, she probably parachuted her way in, and at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if she really did.
At any rate, after checking to make sure that all my guns were secured on my person, I got out of the car, then made my way to the barn.
It was dark, and there was a symphony of woodland creatures everywhere, but as long as there was no one out there waiting to put a bullet through my head, I was fine with whatever lived out here.
As I finally approached the barn, I didn’t even have to push the doors open to enter. They were barely hanging on by a thread, and so all I had to do was slip through the opening, though my body was too big to make it through without jostling the hanging wood.
When I glanced around the room, it was to see Aurora standing next to an empty metal chair, smiling at me like she was greeting me after a long day of work, the bloody man seated behind her notwithstanding.
Doing everything in my power to trust her, I walked over casually as I asked, “So, what did I miss?”
Aurora looked back at the man, and even I could admit that she had already worked him over good, and she probably really didn’t need me for this. “Well, this is Decio Fontana,” she answered. “He’s been my father’s guard for years, and before this, we had considered him part of the family.”
“What changed?”
My wife turned to face me again, and even with bits of blood splattered on her skin and clothing, she still looked fucking amazing. “I’m going to give you the Cliff’s Notes version because every breath he takes is an insult to me, and I don’t do very well with insults.”
“So I’ve learned,” I drawled out.
She just shot me a look before continuing with her little spiel. “He would have preferred to go to war than me marry you, and when he overheard that there was a possibility of me developing feelings for you, he figured that killing me would be the answer to all his problems.”
My brows rose in surprise, but not that she’d been betrayed by someone so close to her.
I was surprised that she’d spoken about having feelings for me and that she’d even admit such a thing.
I knew that she was attracted to me, and I knew that we had some explosive chemistry between us, but I never imagined that she’d actually confess to feeling anything for me, other than contempt.
Trying to focus on the man’s betrayal and not my wife’s soft admission, I asked, “Did you learn anything else?”
“The Russians weren’t Korolev, though you already know that,” she went on. “They were just some poor bastards looking to make a quick buck, though it was a pretty significant buck.”
Glancing over at the man, I asked, “And how did he end up meeting Armen?”
“The guy with the crow tattooed on his neck was their connect,” she explained.
“When Decio had set his plan in motion, he had scoured some of the homeless camps, and when he came upon a couple of Russians, he paid them to test the temperature in your territory, and that’s how he found out that Armen had been against the marriage also. ”
“So, send in a wolf in sheep’s clothing to live among the other sheep to find the shepherd,” I surmised. “Simple, yet effective.”
“You basically know the rest,” she said as she shrugged a shoulder.
There was so much that I wanted to ask her, but I didn’t want to do it in front of an audience, so rather than get personal, I asked, “And what’s this about our children being mutts?”
Aurora smirked, and her beauty really was going to send me into an early grave. “That was one of the reasons that he wanted me dead. Not only am I a Russian scum’s whore, but my children would be Russian mutts...the whole thing being an abomination, really.”
A dark shot of rage hit my spine, and it didn’t matter if Aurora could defend herself or not. “He called you a whore?”
“A Russian scum’s whore, to be precise,” she said, still smirking. “But considering all of the things that I’ve let you do to me, it didn’t exactly feel like an insult.”
I was angry, no doubt about that, but the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice had my dick ready to show her just what it was that she did to me, and if that wasn’t insane, then I didn’t know what was.
We had the man responsible for trying to kill her tied to a chair, but all I could think about was how my wife had just admitted to enjoying being a whore for me.
Fuck.
“Baby, now is not the time,” I rushed out seriously.
Aurora just shrugged again. “Anyway, after that remark about our future kids, I figured that you deserved a crack at him, too.”
“Y...you...don’t...en...ha...have chil...ren...” Decio stammered painfully, his head lulling to the side, Aurora really having done a number on him already.
Ignoring him, I eyed my wife. “How did you get him here?”
With that one question, Aurora’s entire demeanor changed.
No longer was she seemingly flippant or relaxed about having a man that she’d known most of her life beaten and tied to a chair.
Instead, she was looking at me like the Mafia princess that she was.
However, she was also holding herself up like I’d always imagined that a bratva wife should.
“While it’s true that Darya Orlova and Zoya Orlova-Kuzmin didn’t know anything about what Armen had been up to, Decio hadn’t known that,” she answered. “So, taking a chance, I had Darya text Decio, blackmailing him for her silence, and he bought it.”
Motherfucker, she was good.
“That’s why you insisted that Kasimir wait in the kitchen, isn’t it?”
Aurora nodded. “There’s also one more thing.”
“What?”
“In exchange for her help, I promised that nothing would ever happen to her daughter,” Aurora informed me, surprising me a bit since she was usually rather bloodthirsty. “Since they are completely innocent in all this, I guaranteed that no harm would come to Zoya at the hands of a Korolev.”
“Aurora-”
“And you need to honor it, or I’ll leave you,” she said, and she sounded serious enough that I believed her.
This wasn’t a threat that she was issuing.
Her word meant everything to her, and if I didn’t respect that, then I’d lose her for good; I knew this without even having to think about it for long.
I reached for her, cupping the right side of her face with my hand. “On my word as a Korolev, I promise you that no harm will come to either woman by our hands.”
“I mean it, Viktor,” she said, and the fact that she had called me Viktor just cemented how serious she really was. “I mean it.”
“I know, baby,” I said. “I know.”
“Wha...what...you...you’re-”
The sound of gunfire shook the rickety barn rafters, and enough dust kicked up that I was half-assed concerned that the entire structure was going to come crashing down on our heads.
Still, I didn’t regret getting my gun out to shoot that motherfucker in the head.
While it would have been nice to torture him some more, get some of my own personal licks in, I wanted to get my wife home more.
“Wow,” Aurora chuckled. “I hadn’t expected you to be such a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of killer.”
“Maybe I’m just eager to get out of Marchetti territory,” I suggested.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” she muttered quietly, and for the first time since our wedding, I cared that she had a legitimate reason not to feel comfortable in our home.
I took her face in my hands again as I said, “Aurora, I’m still pissed off.”
“I know,” she replied evenly, but she didn’t look the slightest bit worried about it.
“Let’s get you home,” I sighed, stepping back.
“After we talk to my dad first,” she said, and once again, I was picking my battles.