She meets my eye and smiles.
“She’s coming!” I tell Oleg.
For one second, I think he’s going to bolt. He surges forward to stand, but Dima and Nikolai each clamp a hand on his shoulders and hold him back. “Be cool,” Nikolai tells him.
Story comes over. Her smile is curious, like she’s not sure if we do know each other or what I’m going to say.
“Hey, great show,” I tell her, stretching out my hand. “My name is Sasha.” She shakes it. “You were phenomenal. I had to come see because I know my friend Oleg thinks the world of you guys.” I gesture toward Oleg.
“Oleg,” she repeats like she’s been wanting to know his name. She stretches out her hand to him.
Now he surges up from the table, and this time the twins let him. He clasps her hand in his and doesn’t look like he wants to ever let it go.
“We haven’t formally met.”
“He’s mute but not deaf,” I explain because she’s obviously waiting for him to say something. “He loves your music. We all do,” I amend, gesturing to the rest of the guys, who lift their hands in greeting.
“Where are you from?” she asks.
My accent is thicker when I’ve been drinking. “Russia.”
“All of you?” She’s looking at Oleg, who still hasn’t released her hand.
“Yes.”
“Can we buy you a drink?” Maxim asks, standing beside me. When Oleg frowns, Maxim amends, “Oleg’s always good for an after-set drink. Anytime.”
“I can’t tonight but maybe next time.” She pulls her hand out of Oleg’s grasp. “Thanks for letting me fuck with you tonight. You were a good sport.”
“The pleasure was his,” Maxim fills in after the awkward pause when she realized he couldn’t answer.
After she walks away, Oleg sinks into his chair, glowering at the table.
“You can’t kill us because Sasha did it,” Maxim says, winking at me. “My brilliant wife.”
His brilliant wife.
I warm in the glow of three words I never imagined I’d hear from Maxim’s lips. Straddling his lap, I kiss him. This was fun. I feel like I belong, like everything is easy and light—like my college days.
Maybe Maxim was right.
Maybe my father did choose a husband for me who he believed could make me happy.
Nah, that’s assigning him too much credit. But at least it seems like his stupid scheme for me wasn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened.
Chapter 15
Maxim
The next day, Ravil seeks me out when Sasha’s in our bedroom.
For all the glory of our penthouse, we don’t have any office space. It’s why Dima’s set up in the living room. Ravil had a desk installed in his suite for Lucy to work from, but his is out in the living room, too. In the past, that worked. We’re all in the same business. No one needed privacy to conduct business. Now that we have women living with us, I suspect that will need to change.
There are plenty of office spaces and meeting rooms on the lower floors of the Kremlin, so we could set up a separate business suite.
“Any word from Galina?”
“Sasha spoke to her. She’s fine, just lying low. She’s with Viktor.”
“Viktor who?” Ravil looks suspicious.
I shrug. “He was just a brigadier. I think he played bodyguard to Galina and Sasha. Who knows, maybe they were lovers.”
“Ah.”
“How are things shaking out in Moscow?”
“Leonid Kuznetsov and Ivan Lebedev both are claiming power. Whether they will divvy up Igor’s cells or one will kill the other remains to be seen.”
“Hmm. My money’s on Leonid, how about you?” I remember the cell pakhan. He was smart and ruthless. A little too greedy, a little too proud, but he’d make a decent leader.
“Same, yes. He’s asking for our support.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“Yes. I’d rather deal with him than Ivan. That man is unreasonable.”
“Agreed. So it doesn’t seem like Sasha or Galina were part of this coup? Have you heard anything?”
“No one seems to care. Other than the initial call when I heard Galina was missing, no one’s mentioned her again. No, I don’t think they were part of it.”
I exhale a breath I’d been holding since Ravil first called with the news when we were in California. “Thank fuck.”
“Yes.” Ravil considers me. “She’s becoming more willing?”
I remember the image of my beautiful bride on her back this morning, her legs over my shoulders, moaning my name. “We seem to be getting along.”
Ravil’s lips twitch. “Good. That’s better for everyone.”
“Tell me about it,” I say drily. For a while there, marrying Sasha felt like a prison sentence. I know she felt the same way. “I’m keeping her on constant watch until Dima’s worked out some kind of alarm system to let us know if any bratva member enters this country. Even without Sasha in the picture, it will be a good mechanism to have in place.”
“Yes. We don’t need Ivan sending someone over here to install his own team in our place. I already upped security on the building the moment Vladimir was killed.”