“Perfect,” I state, shifting Anika’s weight to lower her back onto her feet.
As soon as I release her, she steps away from me, her body language tense and defensive as she glances at the bed, then scans the room like she’s searching for a weapon. “Don’t touch me,” she warns, backing quickly toward the far side of the bed when she can’t find an object to hit me with.
I hum my amusement, turning my attention to inspect the room for any dangerous items I shouldn’t leave her with. “Don’t let her escape,” I warned Vittorio standing in the doorway before I head into the ensuite bathroom.
Aside from a soap dispenser and a bedside lamp, the room seems devoid of objects that could be used as a weapon, and seeing as I’ll be the only one coming to visit her for the time, I’m not too worried about them.
With a jerk of my chin, I instruct Vittorio to head back out into the hall.
He does so, closing the door behind him as I approach Anika with slow, measured steps—like one might approach a rabbit caught in their garage.
“What are you going to do to me?” she asks, flattening her back against the far wall in her best attempt to get away from me.
Her sky-blue eyes are flat with distrust, her delicate features carved from stone as she watches me, and as I stop less than a foot in front of her, she has to tip her chin up to meet my gaze.
“I’m going to marry you.”
Anika’s lips part on a gasp, the look of horror in her eyes as sharp and scathing as if I’d told her I intended to kidnap her firstborn child.
I shouldn’t find it funny, but considering her alternatives, I would think she’d be a bit more receptive to the idea, and my lips twitch with amusement.
“Don’t look so appalled,Tesoro,” I murmur. “I promise you’ll prefer it to me letting you run and see how far my men let you get.”
A visible shudder ripples through her body, and while I’m aching to reach out and touch her, I think she’s at the end of her rope.
“I’ll see you again soon,” I promise, then I turn to exit the room, securing the door behind me.
I’ll need to find a proper solution to taming Anika’s hostility toward me, but for now, I need to get the house in order and prepare for any potential counterattacks.
“Watch the door. She doesn’t get to leave until I say so. Understood?” I instruct Vittorio.
He gives a curt nod, stationing himself in front of the room.
“Good. I’ll send someone to relieve you in a few hours.” Heading back down the hall to the stairs, I descend to the front room, where my brothers are already getting things back in order.
“We’ve gathered members of the staff in the great room and put guards on them,” Gio says. “A few teams are on cleanup duty, and several of the men are stationed at the front gate.”
“Excellent. Designate a rotation to patrol the perimeter as well. As of now, we’re locking this place down and maintaining twenty-four-hour surveillance. It’s not a question of if the remaining Bratva will try to take it back, but when, so we need to be ready.”
Gio nods and calls one of the men over to issue an order in our native tongue.
“What else have you found out?” I ask.
“Pyotr stocked this place pretty well. It has plenty of weapons, provisions if we need to wait out an attack. Honestly, it’s not a bad defensible location. He just got too cocky,” Raf states.“There are a few buildings toward the west where the men can bunk. They look like staff housing, but at least half the rooms are unoccupied. This will be a solid location to start rebuilding our forces.”
Sandro jerks his chin toward the stairs where I took Anika. “You want to tell us what happened?” he asks.
Just thinking about the woman waiting for me there makes my pulse quicken, and I push down the instinctive desire to mark her, claim her as my own.
That’snotwhat my decision was supposed to be about, but something about Anika is like a siren call to me, and I can’t say I’m sorry if this is the best solution to manage her fate.
“Pyotr’s dead. That’s his widow, Anika Novikov.”
“I thought she looked familiar,” Gio says, nodding as his eyes shift toward the stairs.
“Yeah, well.” My eyes travel back up to the second-floor hallway and the beautiful Russian doll waiting there for me.
My pulse surges, my curiosity piqued. It’s going to take all my effort to stay focused on our mission today. “We all know what would have happened if I’d let her walk out that front door. No one deserves a brutal end like that. Marrying her is the only sure way to keep her safe.”
