Page 23 of Possessive Bratva’s Kidnapped Virgin

“Thanks for being here, brothers,” I uttered as I sat down in the vacant chair on Mikhail’s right.

Mikhail nodded once. Viktor blinked.

The door opened again, and my two sisters breezed in.

“Sorry for being late. Anya delayed me,” Katerina rushed, going straight to the seat opposite Mikhail’s, the tail of her pale yellow dress flowing behind her.

“You’re here now,” Mikhail uttered.

“Thanks for throwing me under the boss,” Anya replied, settling into the seat beside Viktor.

“Of course, it’s always the junior lawyers,” Dmitri uttered, shrugging.

“Say whatever you want,” Anya, our youngest sister and Dmitri’s banter partner, answered.

She bumped her upper arm against Viktor’s. “I’ve not seen you in weeks.”

“You know where to find me, Anya,” he answered.

“Dmitri said you’re entwined with an American woman,” Katerina said, looking from Mikhail to me.

“There’s a situation,” I said.

“We know about the woman,” Mikhail said. Not unkindly, direct but never cutting, the kind of precision that came from a man who had learned the difference between efficient and cold— and had chosen efficient. “Dan briefed us.”

“Proof that Viktor is also capable of wasting your time. I’m not the only one. Talk about quizzing you about why we’re here when he already knows,” Dmitri said.

“Shut up,” Viktor answered, his tone light.

“Uh, we missed the memo,” Anya revealed.

“This asshole brings this lady as collateral to the poker room. Restrained and all. Lex opposes. Plays against the guy and wins the girl,” Dmitri explains.

“And that could set off a chain of events from this guy’s end,” Katerina concluded. “The lady has become a visible weakness. A liability. Unprotected.”

Katerina’s elegance and PR position at the Golovin casino made people surprised at how sharp her brain was. But it was no shock to any of us in the meeting room.

Mikhail nodded in the affirmative.

“Then I’ll skip the background.” I looked around the room—at Viktor’s crossed arms, at Dmitri’s poorly suppressed enjoyment, at Anya leaning forward. “I intend to marry her.”

Viktor uncrossed his arms. “Alexei, are you joking?” he scoffed.

“The threat assessment supports it. She’s been made visible in networks that don’t—”

“I understand the threat assessment.” Viktor’s voice was measured, which meant he was being careful. Viktor was not, constitutionally, a careful man. The care was a deliberate overlay, something his marriage to Sofia had refined in him. “What I’m questioning is the execution. Marrying a civilian woman to protect her from a problem we created by winning her at a card table is—”

“It’s the correct move,” Mikhail cut in.

Viktor looked at Mikhail.

“Siroc White brought her into our room,” Mikhail continued. “That’s a line he crossed on our territory. What happens to her now is a reflection of our organization, regardless of whether we act or don’t. If we act and it’s marriage—” A small pause. “That’s a statement.”

“It’s a very large statement,” Viktor said.

“Siroc made a large move.” Mikhail looked at me.

“What do we know about her?” Katerina asked, a hint of a smile on her face.