Mafia Princess by Kennedy Slope

Chapter Eight

“How are things going with my daughter?” Isaac asked, as he brought me into his office.

I didn’t care to be alone with the man who had ordered hits on multiple members of my family, until myself and my brother were the only ones left.

But now, technically, we were family, which meant that I couldn’t enter his home armed with a gun, and several men.

“That’s probably a question you should ask her,” I said. “I don’t want to speak for Sasha.”

I wasn’t sure what Sasha would say. I had spent the last few weeks doing everything I could to avoid being alone with my wife. I wanted nothing more than to fuck the sweetness out Sasha, but she wasn’t some hooker I paid for, she was my wife, and I needed to treat her with respect.

It was challenging, which was why I stayed away.

Petrov’s face didn’t change from the fake, congenial smile that was on his face. Petrov hated me just as much as I hated him.

“I thought we could take some time to talk business,” he said. He was dressed like a middle-aged man about to go play a few rounds of golf. If I didn't know how deadly he was, I would have thought that he was just a harmless father-in-law.

But he wasn’t, he was the Pakhan, and he was as deadly as they came. “We do,” I said. Undoing the button on my jacket before taking a seat. “The territory you gave me is shit.”

Petrov’s mouth turned down, and it was clear that he had expected me to play nice now that we were family. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't the type of person who played by the rules.

This marriage had secured our alliance, but it didn’t mean I had to kiss Petrov’s ass, especially when I suspected that he hadn’t taken the Blanchi family out of his crosshairs.

“I gave you the most precious thing that this family has,” he said.

It disgusted me that he was talking about his daughter as if she were something to buy and sell. I might not have been happy to have Sasha as my wife, but now that she was, I was determined to treat her with the respect that her position in my life demanded.

“We had an agreement about the type of territory you would give me,” I reminded him.

“I gave you what we agreed upon.”

“The territory is practically useless,” I growled.

“Perhaps, you are the problem, not the territory,” he said. “I sent you Sasha’s dowry months before your marriage.”

It pissed me off that he was right. I had to undergo a campaign to convince my men that marriage to the Petrov’s was a good idea. It had kept me distracted, and I had assumed that Isaac wouldn’t be trying to screw me over, especially since his precious princess was going to be living under my roof.

“Don’t look so displeased,” Petrov said. He got up from behind his desk and walked to his bar cart. He poured himself two fingers worth of vodka. “You're new to this.”

The condescension in his voice made me wish I had my gun. “Sasha feels as though you’ve abandoned her,” I said. It took everything in me to keep my voice even. “I wonder if she’s right.”

Petrov’s face barely moved, but I’d been at my father’s feet my whole life, and I’d learned early on to read men. Even the most hardened men had their ticks, and Sasha was her father’s.

“Sasha is a Blanchi now,” he said. “I would assume that you would want to protect what is yours.”

“We both know that I would use Sasha in a heartbeat to destroy you,” I said. It was true. I was generally against harming women, but I still wasn’t sure that Sasha was someone who could be trusted. Her parents were two of the most duplicitous people that I knew. I couldn’t imagine that she had turned out differently, despite the innocence that she tried to portray.

I watched Petrov closely. His face gave away nothing, but I watched as his hands closed tighter around his glass.

He might have thought that he was going to screw me over, but ultimately, he had given me the most important thing in his life, and right now, he was considering how that might have been a huge mistake.

I smiled. “Now,” I said, “we should discuss how you are going to make this right.”

Petrov said nothing as he walked towards his desk. I watched him with a tense anticipation. I tried to hide. I was Don, but I couldn’t hold onto my position if my men didn’t trust me, and right now, I was fielding a lot of questions about what we actually got out of my marriage to Sasha.

“If you harm Sasha…”

“Sasha will remain safe and marginally happy as long as I get what I want,” I told him. I hadn’t set out to harm my new wife, but I would if she or her father gave me reason to do so.

“And if I don’?”

I leaned forward. I wanted Petrov to understand that I was serious. I had a reputation as a killer, and while it was well-earned, a lot of things had been attributed to me that I hadn’t had a hand in. In moments like these, I was more than happy to lean into it.

“I’ll cut Sasha up into little pieces and mail her body to you one by one.”

I watched closely as Petrov’s face went completely white. I knew his weakness, and I wasn’t above exploiting it. He had already lost his son, so I was sure that he would do anything he could to keep his daughter safe.

“You wouldn’t,” he said.

I snorted. “I would. Sasha means nothing to me.”

“She’ll be the mother of your children…”

I shrugged. “I grew up without a mother because of you. I’m sure any children we have will be fine.”

I didn’t tell him that while I wanted nothing more than to fuck the innocence out of Sasha, I had no intention of impregnating her.

Petrov finished his drink, and I felt myself tense as I watched him go back to his desk. I was taking a calculated risk here, and I wasn’t sure how it would pay off. If he didn’t give me territory that I could work with, I was fucked. My men would want to retaliate, which would put me in a difficult position. If Petrov wasn’t willing to play ball, I was going to have to hurt Sasha to make it clear to him that she wasn’t as safe as he thought she would be.

“How would you like my best port?” Petrov asked.

I raised a brow. I hadn’t expected Petrov to fold so easily. “That sounds much more appropriate for your beloved daughter’s dowry.”

“Then, I suppose that we should go for lunch,” he said, dropping the glass on his desk with a loud thump. “I’m sure the women are wondering what is taking us so long.”

I said nothing. I simply followed Petrov out of his office. I wanted to believe that I had won, but I knew better. Isaac Petrov was Pakhan of the New York Bratva. I couldn’t believe that he would fall so easily.

But for now, I would count this as a win. I would deal with whatever fallout came later, and there would likely be fallout.

I knew that marriage to Sasha Petrov was going to be complex, but I didn’t think that I would be considering how I might have to kill her just a few months in.