Page 54 of Kidnapped Bride

Vlad scowled at me. "That's a massive job, Boss," he said.

"Then get more eyes. Hire people if you have to. I don't care what it costs. Markin's not gonna run product through my port and I'm not gonna sit here guessing which box it's hiding in."

Gregg stepped in and lowered his voice. "Well, Boss, there's more…" His eyebrows tilted downward as they drew in. "He said he's gonna kill you, and that you're not safe no matter where you are."

I looked at Gregg and then at Yakov who'd gone still beside me. A direct threat wasn't Markin's style. He preferred to let his actions speak, which meant either he was rattled enough to make it personal or he was trying to spook me into making a mistake.

"Good," I said. "Let him come. I'd rather deal with a man charging at me than one hiding in the dark."

I told Vlad to stay at the port and oversee the tracking operation and to call me the second anything looked off. Then Gregg went with him and Yakov and I walked back across the yard to the car.

We pulled out of the port and merged into traffic heading west. Yakov drove and I sat in the passenger seat going through my phone, checking messages from my guys posted on the block we'd reclaimed. For now it appeared that all was still quiet and holding peacefully as repairs finished up.

"You really think Markin's gonna try to kill you?" Yakov asked after a few minutes.

"Markin has wanted me dead since before I took Kira. Any head of any family in this city wants me dead. Nothing's new… Markin's just saying it out loud now instead of pushing in quietly."

"I don't like it, Boss." Yakov and I had been together since we were in diapers probably, and having him around was like having a brother. If I fell, he would rain fire down on my enemies until I was avenged. It was why I slept peacefully at night.

"Neither do I. But we stay the course…" The car bumped over a few potholes as I continued. "Markin's learning, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd like, but he'll see everything he's doing is futile. We have enough manpower to destroy him, and he pushed me to the point where I don't even care if the whole city knows. I'm not taking his shit anymore."

Yakov turned onto the avenue that ran along the east side and I was looking out the window as we passed the Tatiana. I was supposed to take Kira to dinner there, and knowing what I knew now, I believed I would've liked it very much.

It made my mind wander to her, sitting in my home wasting away. For the past almost six weeks now she'd done nothing but wilt like a flower. Her hasty arguments and vibrant personality was fading down to controlled resistance, and she was losing weight too. Every time I saw her she looked more fragile and pale, refusing meals, not getting out of bed until noon some days, or so Anya reported.

What she needed was fresh air and maybe an outing to perk her spirits. Kira was a socialite, trained to harness the power of connection at every turn. Locked in my home she was out of her element entirely, and I had just the thing.

"Stop by that florist on Nineteenth please…" I told Yakov, whose eyes flicked at me like I was crazy. But I had a plan formulating in my head that energized me.

"Sending funeral flowers or something?" he asked, turning on the next cross street to move north.

"No, I’m taking my wife some flowers… And I'm going to take her to dinner tonight to show her off." Yes, that would work perfectly. Kira would get out of the house to lift her spirits and when people saw her on my arm in public it would confirm to every one how very real our wedding was.

Markin would be forced to comment, if not to me, then to his allies. The silence would end, and he would come crawling out of the woodwork like the cockroach he was so I could step on him and end this once for all.

Then I'd figure out how to handle his beautiful daughter who had become my kryptonite. She might not be fond of the idea of being married to me now, but maybe that would change over time.

Regardless, she was mine, and I wasn't letting her go.

18

KIRA

I sat on the bed sipping the awful ginger tea Anya had given me when I told her my stomach felt like rot, and I had to choke it down. The taste was disgusting, almost enough to make me vomit just from a tiny drop, but she wasn't wrong. The ginger did soothe my belly and help the nausea go away. Just further proof that my deepest fear had come true. I didn't need a test to confirm a pregnancy. My body was doing a good enough job of screaming every symptom at me.

But I still hadn't even hinted at it when anyone was around. I wasn't foolish enough to trust one of Nikolai's staff members with my fear. And telling him would only go to his head probably. He'd gloat or claim some extra control over me. And after the past few weeks of peace I'd had, minus a few bickering matches about his wound not healing properly and him needing a doctor, things had calmed down. I would've said I almost enjoyed being around him at times if it didn’t make me look like I was desperate.

But the days passed uneventfully. Between Vlad, Yakov, Anya, and even Nikolai's offers to get me things to help me pass thetime, I had just about everything I wanted. Though I'd have killed for a phone to check my social media, but that was apparently off limits to me.

I was seated on his bed engrossed in the early evening news when he strutted through the door to the bedroom carrying a bouquet of some sort of wildflowers. His hair was disheveled and his tie was loose, but he was just as handsome as the day I'd met him.

"Well," I sighed, "look what the cat dragged in." My eyes lingered on the flowers, wondering what they were for. Nikolai wasn't the romantic type, or I hadn't figured him to be anyway. He seemed to notice me staring, but didn't alleviate my curiosity in the least.

"I'd like you to dress for dinner tonight," he said, adjusting the bouquet in his hands awkwardly. It was less of an invitation than it was an order, but it piqued my interest.

I looked at the flowers and then at his face, lifting an eyebrow. "Didn't peg you for a flowers and chocolates sort of guy."

His face cracked into a smile before he chuckled and set the flowers on the nightstand. "There's no chocolate. Just the flowers and a reservation."