With This Ring

“Don’t you have work to do?”

His eyes sparkled with amusement at my irritation. “My flight to Macau is in an hour.”

“Well then get going. The airport is not exactly next door.”

His grin grew even wider as he rose to his feet. “I’m excited,” he said. “Very excited to see how it goes down with you and the wild mustang. You never lose and she doesn’t seem like one who gives in easily either.”

An idea occurred to me. “Perhaps your fiancée could pay her a visit?”

Levan frowned. “Why?”

I shrugged. “To drop off your wedding invitation.”

“Maybe, but I don’t want her to go alone. We’ll go together when I get back to town.”

“I don’t want you there. You’ll just remind her of me,” I said.

“We don’t look that much alike so I very much doubt Freya will mistake me for you.”

My gaze turned hard, but my brother was his own man and he didn’t budge.

“I’ve never been enemies with Freya and we’ve all known each other for a long time. Bianca is a stranger to her, and I don’t see Freya as someone who will open up to a stranger just because they’re both women.”

I said nothing even though I agreed with him on his assessment of Freya.

“Besides, no way in hell am I letting Bianca go alone to meet Fedorov’s daughter. One wrong word from Bianca and she could have a gun at her head. I’m not taking any chances.”

“Forget I asked then.”

“Too late,” he replied coolly and walked out of my office.

Chapter Thirteen

Freya

“Who was it?” I asked looking up from the vintage earring drawings we had been studying on the kitchen counter before the doorbell rang and Britney went to hang her head out of the window to see who it was.

“Some Russian panty-melter called Levan.” She pulled a face. “He’s with a woman though. Why are all the good-looking ones always taken, and why do they keep coming to find you recently?”

“He’s Maxim’s younger brother,” I replied shortly.

Her eyebrows shot up. “Ah … the plot thickens. Do you want to see him?”

“I’ve never had any problems with him.”

“What about the woman? Is she with him?” she asks hopefully.

“I have no idea who she is, but there are no females in their family.”

“Then perhaps I have a shot then? Let’s let him in.”

The sudden shrill ring of my phone made me jump. There was no caller ID, which gave me a pretty good idea as to whom it was. These mafia folks were all so damn intrusive. I was never one to cower, and from what I knew of Levan neither was he so I might as well face this head-on. I picked up the phone and answered the call.

“Yes,” I barked frostily.

It was not Levan who answered. It was a woman. “Hey,’ she said in a friendly tone. “I’m Bianca Russet … Levan’s fiancée. We heard about what happened to you and decided to come visit you. Levan says he’s known you from when you were both children, and we’d love to see you, and we also brought our wedding invitation and some homemade cake. Actually, I made it myself. It’s a new recipe so you must tell me if you like it.”

She must have been nervous, because she spoke very fast and stopped abruptly as if she’d suddenly realized she was babbling. I took a moment to digest all she had said.

“Who is it?” Britney mouthed.

I hit the mute button. “His fiancée.”

“The woman is his fiancée?”

“Sorry.”

Britney’s face fell and it somewhat amused me. “Trust me, you’re not missing out on anything. The worst fate in the world is to get involved with that miserable family.”

“Let’s let them in,” she said, brightening immediately. “I’d love to see how an engaged mafia couple interact with each other. Especially since it doesn’t seem likely I’ll ever get to see that from you.”

I gave her a hard look, but unfazed she grinned and skipped away to let them in. I stood up and followed her into the living room. While we waited for them to come up the stairs, Britney looked at me.

“Well, isn’t this exciting?”

“Actually, it’s not,” I said sourly.

“You grew up with this, but I didn’t so it is pretty freaking exciting to me.”

At that moment there was a knock on the door and Britney rushed to open it.

First in was Bianca Russet. She was beautiful and quite… normal.

I looked from her to Levan and wondered what the hell was going on. Did she not know of his world, and the darkness that it came with?

She smiled brightly at Britney, then walked straight up to me and held out the box in her hand. “This is for you, Freya.”

“Bianca is a baker,” Levan explained, his watchful gaze on me. “She has a little bakery not far from here, on Allen street.”