Owned By The Bratva King by Jagger Cole

19

Yuri

Lettingher watch me die was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Letting her think I was gone, even if was barely for a day, was like torture. But now, she’s here. She’s back in my arms, where she belongs. Where I’m never letting her leave from.

I hold her close, pressing my face to her neck and inhaling the scent of her. We’re sitting in the huge study of the old hunting lodge that once belonged to Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, brother to Tsar Nicholas the Second. I’m in a huge chair by the enormous fireplace, and the woman I love is back in my arms, snuggled into my lap with a blanket surrounding her.

She’s clinging to me tightly, like she’s afraid I might blow away. It breaks my heart that I’ve brought her to this state. But my hands stroke her gently. My lips kiss her shoulder as I hold her close.

Maksim nods firmly. We don’t say a word out loud. But I don’t have to say anything for him to know how grateful I am for him for bringing her back to me. He pulls a thumb drive out his pocket—the latest intel from his playing spy in Semyon’s organization. He sets it on the table near my chair, alongside the gun he “shot” me with back on the boat.

With a final nod from both of us, he turns to make his way back to Semyon’s mansion. He’s taken a huge risk with all of this. But he’s done it all as he does everything—with absolute dedication and grim resolve.

“How…” River turns to look up into my eyes. Since we crashed into each other outside, she’s mostly just been holding me tightly, and burying her face in my chest. But now that she’s realized I’m real, and not a dream, I can see the questions in her eyes.

“It was a matter of time before Semyon tried something drastic,” I growl quietly. “I know him, and I knew pushing him and the fragile truce we had by taking you would take him past his control. It is why I allowed him to think he had an ace in the hole with me.”

She frowns.

“Maksim.”

My top captain was never happy with this arrangement. Even when we planned it out for all of the most likely scenarios. I’ve known Maksim since he was eleven. I practically raised him as a son or nephew. Telling him his new orders were to defect to my enemy was not easy for him.

“For the last few months, Maksim has been a ‘double agent’ with Semyon. That stupid little troll has thought he’s had a spy in my upper ranks. When in truth, it’s the opposite. When I took you…” I lean my lips down to kiss her shoulder again. “I knew it would bring Semyon to the edge. But since ‘his’ man was actually my man, it allowed me to know what was coming.”

She stares at me. I can see anger start to simmer beneath the surface. “You knew that was going to happen?” She hisses quietly.

“No,” I growl. “Not exactly how it did. Semyon moved much faster than I expected. And Maksim only had a few minutes notice about what was happening.”

River trembles, looking into my eyes. “I-I watched him shoot—”

“Blanks,” I say softly as I hold her tightly. “Semyon’s plan was always to have Maksim assassinate me on my boat. If he trusted Maksim to do it himself, we were simply going to lie about the events. And if his men were going to be present, we’d use the blanks to sell the story.”

She stares at me. “Why would you let Semyon try and kill you?”

“Because with him thinking I was out of the picture, his guard would be down,” I mutter. “He’d be reckless and unguarded, which would allow me to strike without him being ready.” I frown. “The yacht getting blown to hell wasn’t exactly part of the plan, though.”

Her face pales, and I know she’s thinking about all of my people from the boat.

“Everyone got off, kiska,” I say gently, stroking her cheek. “The second Semyon messaged Maksim what was about to happen, he had our people on the escape pods and launching. He was never told that they were going to torch the whole damn boat. But he had everyone off of it to avoid unnecessary loss, and because Semyon expected him to have my protection dealt with.”

She hugs me tightly.

“But all of them are safe. And you are safe,” I growl quietly as my arms tighten around her.

“And where’s Maksim off to now?”

“Back to Semyon’s mansion.”

Her mouth opens in horror as she states at me. “He can’t go back there! They’ll know he helped me—”

“Oh, you didn’t escape.” I smile thinly. “You died.”

River goes still. She stares at me. “I’m sorry, what?”

I frown. It’s a grisly detail to the plan I don’t relish. But I did what I had to.

“In a few hours time, Semyon’s guard patrol will discover your body on the ground beneath the bedroom where you were being kept.”

River looks horrified.

“You couldn’t see last night since it was dark, but Semyon’s mansion sits on a cliff. It’s a two-hundred foot drop from that bedroom window to the rocks below.”

Her face pales. “Who…”

“In your country, they call it a ‘Jane Doe.’” I say gently with a frown. “It doesn’t bring me any joy, but she was an unknown. An addict most likely. The morgue director I am friends with pinned her death on an overdose.”

River shakes her head. “No…”

“She has similar hair to yours. Everything else doesn’t really matter though, not from two-hundred feet up. The lock on your window will appear to have been broken, and Semyon will have lost the prize he broke our loose treaty for.”

Her hands tighten on my shirt. “That’s awful,” she says quietly.

“It is not a pretty business that I am in, River,” I growl gently as I hold her. “But in the meantime, he will think we are both dead. He will be irrational, and unguarded. And that’s how I will destroy him.”

She nods as she pulls tight to me. My arms circle her, keeping her as close to me as I can get her. We sit in silence for a little while, just watching the fire. It’s been a grueling, long twelve hours. I can only thank the fates that I picked the swim team over the running team when I was a boy. Being as strong a swimmer as I am is the only thing that saved me when the whole goddamn boat went up.

The fire crackles, glowing through the dark room. And slowly, I realize she’s asleep against me. I smile as I press my face to her hair, drowning myself in the scent of her. Letting the warmth of her softness fill me.

I want to lie to myself that this is a flawless plan. But it isn’t. Semyon is an idiot, but not a complete one. Soon enough, he’ll understand that he’s been had, and his fury will be enormous.

I smile grimly. But mine is already greater than he can imagine. It’s tempered right now because the woman I love—my heart—is curled in my arms once again. But like I said once, I did not bring us to the brink of this war. But it’s a war we’re going to have. Petya can pick sides or sit it out and wait for the dust to settle. But either way, I’m going to crush Semyon and the entire Belsky Bratva under my heel.

He was a nuisance before when I took what I knew he wanted. Then I realized she was never his to have, because she’s always been mine. Now that he’s tried to take her from me, the line has been crossed.

Semyon’s poked the bear. And he has no idea the fury he’s awoken.

But that’s later. For now, all I know and all I want to know is her—in my arms, in my bed, close to me. She barely stirs as I stand and carry her up the sweeping staircase of the old royal hunting lodge to the master bedroom. She’s still fast asleep as I lay her in the bed and peel away the pajamas she arrived in. I pull my own clothes off too and slide into bed next to her.

I’m tempted to kiss my way between her legs and have my fill of her. But she needs to rest. She’s been through hell: thinking I was dead, being taken by Semyon, and all the mind-fuck’s she’s had to swallow over the last hour or so.

For now, we will sleep.

I pull close to her, kiss her neck, and close my eyes. The last thing I know is the feel of her heart beating against mine.