“So you will give her what she needs and make her fall in love. When the baby comes, she will stay,” Maxim sums up his take on the situation.
I purse my lips. “We’ll see.”
“Am I the only asshole to point out that families are against the Code?” Nikolai asks. He wasn’t separated from his twin when they joined, despite the edict, but they were an exception.
The mirth drains out of the room. Oleg sits forward, a crease on his forehead.
I don’t answer. Of course, this has been on my mind from the beginning. I’m also at the point where I tend to make my own rules.
But it would open me up for replacement. Breaking the Code would mean I’d have to worry about someone burying a knife in my back to send me on my way.
“I mean, I’m not challenging you, Ravil. You know that.” Nikolai takes on a conciliatory tone. “I’m with my family.” He tips his head toward Dima. “But he’s also in the brotherhood.”
I give him a nod.
“Someone in Moscow could challenge you,” Maxim says. “Especially if Igor dies.”
Oleg’s meaty palms form fists, the frown on his forehead increasing. I think that means he has my back, but it’s hard to say. He was fucked by his own cell back in Russia. He’s been nothing but loyal to me, but I don’t know what his feelings on breaking Code are. And well, Oleg doesn’t communicate much.
“Would it be better,” Pavel starts, then holds up both his hands in surrender— “I’m not saying you should… but would they be safer if you left them alone? Kept some distance between you? You could keep her like a side piece, the way Igor has his mistress and daughter.”
“She stays here,” I growl.
My baby. His beautiful mother. In my building.
As it should be.
“I will protect them. And if any of you” —all the men immediately start shaking their heads— “want to challenge me on breaking the code…?” I slap an icy stare on all of them, even though they’re clearly not going to. “Good. Then you’ll have my back.”
“Always,” Dima murmurs.
“Da,” Nikalai concurs. Maxim and Pavel also give their assent.
Oleg nods.
“Thank you.”
I take a seat on the sofa beside Maxim. “Anything else of interest on that laptop?” I ask Dima.
“You can see for yourself.” He hands me my laptop, which was open beside him. “I made you a link to everything, but here’s some of the sites she landed on, if you want any pointers.” He grins as a smack and a cry sound from the laptop, and he flips it around to show us some amateur porn scene with a girl bent over the back of a couch.
“Mention this again, and you die,” I say coolly. “I won’t have her mocked.”
Dima instantly sobers. “Sorry. Of course not.” He ducks his head but not before I see his lips twitch.
Fucker.
Chapter 5
Ravil
Lucy doesn’t attempt to come out of the room when her massage is over, even though I haven’t locked the door nor stationed a guard. I’m still toying with how hard a line I draw with her.
I have to keep reminding myself that she wanted to raise our son without me ever meeting him. That she thinks so little of me, she does not think me worthy of parenting him.
Maybe I’m not. I had lowly beginnings. I was a poor son of a prostitute. I ran through the snow and slush of Leningrad in boots with the soles flapping open, stealing produce or digging in the garbage for enough to eat.
That was where Igor found me. Where I learned the Code of Thieves. Pay for nothing you can steal. Forsake all family for the brotherhood. Rise up through the ranks with my loyalty and courage.
The bratva became my identity. Within it, I am respected. Within my circles, I am God. Outside, though? On the streets of Chicago? A man covered in prison tattoos with a Russian accent doesn’t command a lot of respect.
I suppose that’s why I created the Kremlin. Bought this building in the most coveted area of Chicago and filled it with my own people. It’s why I demand everyone here practice their English. Learn the culture and laws, so they can be manipulated to benefit our kind.
Lucy’s rejection—knowing the beautiful attorney who is well-bred and well-respected in this city—didn’t find me good enough… Well, it stabs me where it hurts.
And so, I intend to hurt her a bit in return.
No one takes my son from me.
I step into the room where I find her standing at the window, looking out at the lights of the yachts out on the water.
My dick gets hard because she’s wearing nothing more than a pair of tiny shorts and a camisole, both stretched tight around her pregnancy curves.
Blyat.
I want her now.
But operating from desire is never a winning strategy. I adjust my straining cock.
She turns and looks over her shoulder at me, her mouth in a tight line.
“What happens to the baby?”
Ah. Finally the question I’ve been anticipating. And yet my answer to it has changed in my own mind several times. Still, I’m going to play hard-ball. She can work on softening me if she likes. She has four months to try.
“The baby stays here, in this building. If you wish to be a part of his life, you will play nice with me.”
She stands very still. Only the slightest flaring of her nostrils and tightening of her fingers show her ire. She expected this.
“You can’t—”
“You know I can, so let’s drop the pretense. Your laws can’t touch me. If you tried, I would go underground with the child in a matter of hours. You’d never see him again.”
I’m ready for any argument she throws my way. What I don’t expect is for her eyes to grow bright with tears.
It does something raspy and harsh to my insides.
She blinks them back without changing anything on
