“He made a deal with Luca Moretti behind my back. How can I ever be ok with that?”
“But if you cemented an alliance with Alek, you would also have Luca on your side. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“I don’t want to work with an Italian,” he grumbles and gets out of the car. I scream when he wrenches the back door open and pulls me out.
“Dimitri,” Katya says, aghast.
“If Alek wants to make deals without me, then he can suffer the consequences.”
“You’re not going to hurt Nina, are you?”
Dimitri sets his intense eyes onto me and I can’t help but lean back and recoil. In this very moment, something shocking happens: I think of Luca. I think of his stern face. I think of how flustered he makes me. And I think of how much he wants to help me become a better person.
What will he think of all of this?
“I’m not going to hurt her,” Dimitri says. “But she is going to stay here until Alek gets some sense knocked into him.” He tugs me along until we enter the house. “I can’t risk her leaving.” I try to put up a fight but Dimitri practically throws me into a guest bedroom and shuts the door, locking it from the outside.
“Dimitri,” Katya says.
I can’t hear Dimitri’s response – if he even gives one. All I can do is slump onto the bed and hope that things will work out somehow.
Luca
Alek calls me. “We have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“The one where Dimitri Ivanov has your wife.”
I startle out of my chair and rush out of my office, checking the living room and the kitchen but there’s no signs of Nina. I didn’t even hear her leave. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, Dimitri took Nina because he’s upset over the deal we made. So, I am telling you this, Luca, so we can make a new deal with Dimitri. I’m already married to his sister. I’m sure we can make Dimitri see eye-to-eye but I need you on this deal with me or it will never work.”
“Where did he take her?” I growl.
He pauses before sighing. “Luca…”
“Where did he take her?”
“Possibly to his house. I’m not sure.”
“Give me the address.”
“Luca, don’t do this.”
“He took my wife, Alek. I am doing this. Text me the address.” Then I hang up and head out the door to go after Dimitri for stealing my wife. Alek is delusional if he thinks peace will happen.
No one goes after my wife and gets away with it.
Chapter Ten
Nina
It’s Dimitri’s wife, Sofiya, who comes to see me. “I’m sorry for my husband but he can be stubborn.” She remains by the door like she’s afraid of getting too close to me.
“He kidnapped me. Again.”
“I know. When he found out you and Luca got married, he was upset. He thought Alek was screwing him over. He’s never fully forgiven Alek for marrying Katya.”
