Chapter Twenty-Seven - IVAN
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
IVAN
WAKING UP WITH Emma in my arms brings a deep sense of relief. Those two days I spent in a blind rage thinking she may be gone for good were the worst days of my life. I slept deeply last night, but only for about an hour at a time. My body kept waking me to check that Emma was still in my bed.
I look over at her to watch her sleep. She looks so peaceful that all I want to do is stare at her. At least, that’s what I do until I hear someone knocking on the bedroom door.
I get up, careful not to disturb Emma, and quietly walk to the door. When I open it, I see Dmitri and Mikhail standing in front of me.
“This better be good,” I tell them.
“Everyone is assembled downstairs,” Mikhail says.
“We also have guests in the basement,” Dmitri adds.
“Shit. Give me five minutes. Dmitri, go wake up Lidiya and ask her to stay with Emma,” I say to my brother.
“Right away,” Dmitri replies.
I close the bedroom door and walk back to the bed. I don’t want to wake Emma, but I also don’t want her to be scared if she wakes up and I’m not there.
“Emma,” I say, gently shaking her shoulder. “I need you to wake up, lyubimaya.” Emma stirs and rubs her eyes.
“Is everything okay?” she asks drowsily.
“Everything is fine. I need to meet with my brothers downstairs,” I explain to her while rubbing circles on her shoulder with the pad of my thumb. “I need you to stay in the bedroom with Lidiya. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes. Stay in bed. Don’t leave. Lidiya will be here,” Emma repeats.
“Good girl,” I tell her as I lean in for a kiss. Emma’s eyes flutter closed, so I walk towards the bedroom door to leave as my sister enters the room.
“Thank you for staying with her,” I tell Lidiya.
“Anything for you, Ivan,” she replies, patting my arm.
I walk downstairs to my office and the bratva members waiting there. Declan Callaghan and his Irish mafia have started a war they will not win.
“Let’s get through this quickly,” I tell the assembled men as I walk through my office door. “What do we know?”
“Vladimir Zaytsev and his associates were killed at the house where Emma was found,” Dmitri starts.
“There weren’t as many as we expected, which means either they weren’t all present, or some of them defected after Zaytsev allied himself with Callaghan.
His reduced numbers could also mean that the reassignment of his funds is working and he can’t pay his men. ”
“Callaghan has been spotted at his home in the city,” Maksim adds. “He’s pissed things went south yesterday. He’s planning to hit us back, but we don’t have details yet.”
“Get them by lunch today,” I tell him. “What do we know about Patrick O’Brien? Where the fuck is that mudak?”
“Callaghan’s new underboss is dead,” Grigory offers. “I put the bullet in his head myself, and a few more in his chest just to be sure. His body was left on Callaghan’s doorstep last night.”
“Good,” I tell him. “That’s one less thing I have to worry about today. Do we have eyes and ears on Popov?”
“Yes, pakhan,” Alexei Rostov speaks up. “Several of my soldiers are in contact with Popov’s men and reporting back.
Popov is still allied with Callaghan, and planning to make a move against us.
It is said that he’s more motivated now that Zaytsev is out of the picture and can take Zaytsev’s share for himself. ”
“What kind of move is he planning?” I ask him.
“An ambush to take out you and your brothers. This would allow him complete takeover of the bratva. Allegedly, he also plans to marry one of his sons to your sister,” Alexei adds.
“His son would have better luck with a grizzly bear,” I say with a chuckle. “Denis, you were always good with customer service. Take care of our guests in the basement. Take your time or make it quick. I leave that up to you.”
“Right away, pakhan,” Denis replies. There’s a familiar glint in his eye that I catch as his lips curl into a sinister smirk.
“Mikhail, work with Dmitri on any security issues today,” I instruct him. He nods in acknowledgement.
“Everyone has their tasks. Check in at regular intervals every two hours. That’s all for now.” I dismiss the men in my office and let out a sigh. “Mikhail, a word.”
“What do you need?” Mikhail asks me, hanging back while everyone else files out.
“See that I am not disturbed for a few hours unless it’s an emergency,” I tell him. “The men will be checking in with me and my brothers, and I need you to handle everything else.”
“No problem. How is Emma?” he asks.
“Rattled. Scared. Tired. The doctor ordered her to rest today,” I reply.
“Then I know where to find you if needed.” Mikhail shakes my hand before leaving.
I find Mrs. Ivanova in the kitchen on my way back upstairs. She’s got the kitchen counters covered with all the stuff needed to make breakfast for about twenty people. I can already smell the bread baking in the oven.
“Can you please send breakfast upstairs later for Emma?” I ask her.
“Of course. She needs to regain strength if she’s going to put up with you,” Mrs. Ivanova replies. “I also bring up coffee in a half hour.”
I nod my thanks and make my way back upstairs to our bedroom. That’s what it is now. Our bedroom. Mine and Emma’s. She’s the only woman I’ll ever have in my bed for the rest of my life.
Emma is sleeping soundly when I open the bedroom door. My sister is sitting in one of the side chairs, reading a book. She gets up when she sees me enter.
“Thank you, Lidiya,” I say, giving her a hug.
“Happy to help,” Lidiya says. “We take care of family, and you need to officially make Emma family.”
“I’m working on it.” I smile at her. Lidiya gives me a knowing look before walking the bedroom door and closing it behind her.
I lock it from the inside and turn to look at Emma. My chest tightens at the thought of how much I love this woman. My sister is right. I need to make Emma my wife sooner rather than later.
Emma stirs as I lift the covers to climb back into bed with her, pulling her close.
“You came back,” Emma says sleepily.
“I made you a promise,” I reply. I lay on my back with one hand tucked behind my head.
Emma snuggles into my side, her head resting on my shoulder and her arm laying across my stomach.
My other hand wraps around her upper body and keeps her close.
Her body is soft and warm against my own, and I let out a sigh as I settle into the bed.
“Did your meeting go well?” Emma asks.
“It did,” I tell her without going into detail. Emma knows what I do away from the public eye, and she’s taking it better than I expected her to. “Are you ready to talk about what happened?”
“I honestly don’t remember a lot of it,” she starts to tell me. “Patrick pushed me into the car, and I saw Igor on the sidewalk. Oh shit! Is Igor okay?”
“Yes, lyubimaya, Igor is fine and will recover,” I tell her. “You don’t have to worry about Patrick anymore.”
“Why?” Emma asks, sounding serious.
“He was killed during the shootout yesterday.”
“Oh.” Her face scrunches and she sounds surprised at the news that her former neighbor is dead. The surprise turns to relief when she fully realizes he’s gone.
“If he had survived the shootout, I would have killed him myself with my bare hands for touching you,” I say as I place a kiss on her forehead.
“I was starting to get a bad feeling about him, anyway, before you made me move in with you.”
“In what way?” I ask, looking down at her.
“It’s like I mentioned before the first time you asked me how well I knew him,” Emma begins to explain. “He had loud friends that would come over and claim they were just watching football or playing video games. Then there was the feeling of being followed, and Patrick showing up.”
“I remember,” I tell her.
“After all that, he’s the one who pushed me into the car and drugged me.”
“Anything else you would like to share?” I ask. I’m trying to keep my voice as calm as possible so Emma feels safe.
She pauses before saying, “Right before the explosions and gunshots started, Patrick had me brought into the living room to force me to marry him. He called me his reward from Callaghan for his new promotion,” Emma replied.
“He also called me ‘little clover’, and I can’t even begin to describe how disgusting that made me feel. ”
I sigh heavily as I process everything Emma is saying.
I’m glad that Patrick O’Brien is dead. There’s no need to tell Emma that Grigory was the one who killed him.
That part doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I will serve up Callaghan’s head on a silver platter to her after I kill him so that she knows she’s safe and he can’t come after her again.
There’s a soft knock on the bedroom door, and I get up to answer it. Mrs. Ivanova is there holding two cups of steaming coffee.
“Breakfast will be ready soon. I send some up for you both,” she tells me before turning and going back downstairs to the kitchen.
“Coffee smells good,” Emma says as she sits up in bed. I hand her one of the cups, and she inhales deeply before taking a sip.
“I may have more meetings today,” I tell her, sitting beside her on the bed. “You need to continue resting like the doctor said, so you can either stay here in bed or we can set you up on the couch in the living room.”
“Can I just stay here?” she asks.
“Of course,” I tell her. “When I am not in a meeting, I will be right beside you.”
“Do we have time for a shower before breakfast?” Emma asks, setting her coffee cup on the side table and leaning over to kiss me. The question has my dick instantly hardening and tenting my pants.
“There is always time for a shower with you before breakfast,” I say with a smile.
I put my own cup next to hers before kissing her deeply.
I lead her to the bathroom and turn on the shower.
The next twenty minutes are spent giving each other orgasms then washing each other’s bodies.
I love the feel of Emma’s hands on me, running over my shoulders and down my sides.
When all of this is over, I’m going to have to teach Emma how to take me down her throat.
I could spend all day in bed with Emma today making love to her, but our reality is that Callaghan and Popov are coming for us, and we need to prepare for it.