Mafia Boss’s Arranged Bride by Bella King
Chapter 8
Annika
Imust leave the house for some fresh air. I told Michail that I’d be back soon, that I only needed a few minutes, but it isn’t true. I’ve lied to him so that I can get out of that horrid, stifling atmosphere. I need to escape the sickening words, the bragging, and the putrid breath that Michail has been blowing into my lungs for the past hour.
This is not going well. I’m lucky that my mother is nowhere to be found, or she would be scolding me like no other for making such an awkward impression on Michail. Just like with everything else, she pretends she has been in my exact position and knows exactly how she would handle it if she were me. She has a fake strategy for every scenario she knows she’ll never find herself in just so that she can pretend I’m stupid and inferior to her.
I hate it, and after these few days of meeting with Michail’s family, I hate them too. I have half a mind to call off the entire wedding, but what would I do then? I’d be thrust out of the protective cocoon of the mafia, made to walk the streets by myself, vulnerable and alone.
No, I can’t walk this decision back. I have to go through with it. Maybe once it’s just Michail and me, things will be calmer. We could get to know each other for real, and perhaps I would find that little spark of warmth that could turn into a raging flame of love.
I laugh to myself at the thought. Impossible.
I walk briskly through the yard, circling around to the back of the house while turning my new reality over in my head, examining it from all angles like an intricate sculpture suspended in space. I’m so consumed by this exercise that I almost don’t notice Nikolai’s legs hanging out of the second story window.
My eyes snap up to him, and a jolt of anxious energy runs through me when his bright green eyes meet mine. He swings his legs on the ledge playfully before jumping down and landing in the damp grass with an earthy thud.
“Hello there,” he says, walking up to me casually, as though he hadn’t just leapt from the window to interrupt my stroll.
“Hello,” I say blankly, unsure of how to respond to his approach. My stomach is twisted up again, and my legs feel almost as weak as they did when I had my panties down in front of the mirror.
Shameful. He could’ve seen me there, and I’d never be able to go through with the wedding.
Nikolai looks around, checking if anyone else is around before stepping up so close to me that for a moment, I think he intends to knock me over into the lawn. “You’re alone,” he says.
I nod. “Indeed.”
“Where is my brother?” he asks, squinting his eyes and looking me over.
“I left him inside,” I admit. “I just got tired of…” I trail off. I don’t want Nikolai to know that I’m already fed up with Michail and the dull things he has to say.
“Of Michail,” he finishes for me. “But aren’t we all? He’s been the most insufferable one at the house ever since our father decided that he’d be the heir to the family throne. It’s not a literal one, but it might as well be with the way he sits at dinner.”
I let out a small laugh. “He doesn’t seem to like you either.”
“No, I suppose not,” Nikolai replies, tasting the bitterness of the words in his mouth. “I could use a drink. Would you like to join me?”
“Join you where?” I asked, perking up immediately.
“I know a place. It’s not far from here, but don’t let Michail know you’re going with me. He’ll blow a fuse, and my entire family will come down on me with the wrath of Satan.”
“Are they really that bad?” I ask, already knowing the truth. I’ve experienced enough of my own family to know that his can’t be much different. If anything, because they hold more power, they’ll be worse.
“They’re bad, but I’m worse,” he says with a grin. “So, what do you say, how about a drink?” He extends his hand to me, and my belly warms with that familiar ache I shouldn’t be feeling. Does he really expect me to take his hand and flee the house with him when my husband-to-be is waiting for me inside?
“I don’t know if I should?” I say, rocking back on my foot to put an inch or two of distance between us. He’s just so close, too close, in fact, for me not to do something silly if he were to lean in and prompt it.
“Nikolai,” I hear Michail’s deep voice shout from across the lawn.
Fuck, this isn’t a good look.
Nikolai turns on the balls of his heels, shooting a nasty look to his brother and laying his large hand on my shoulder. The heat from his skin permeates through the fabric of my dress and melts into the muscles that hold my head to the rest of my body. I’m afraid I might collapse under it.
“What brings you here?” Nikolai asks, as though it wasn’t obvious he came for me.
Michail scowls at Nikolai, and the two exchanges death glares as Michail approaches. He walks on his toes, I suppose in an attempt to be menacing, but it just comes off as superfluous and silly. If it came to blows, I’d bet on Nikolai for the knock-out.
“Get your fucking hands off my fiancée,” Michail says, coming to a sudden stop in front of us.
I wriggle out of Nikolai’s tight grip, not wanting to anger Michail further. This is the first time I’ve seen him angry like this, and if I know anything about men in the mafia, they tend to lash out and anyone and everyone nearby when things get heated.
Nikolai scoffs at Michail’s harsh words but doesn’t attempt a rebuttal. He knows that he’s not supposed to be out here with me, inviting me for a drink while his brother sits inside and waits for me to return.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Michail says, suddenly looking down at me instead of up at his brother. “What were you doing out here with him?”
“Me?” I ask, shrinking under his intense gaze.
“Don’t play like an innocent doe, Annika. What were you doing with him?” Michail snarls, clamping his hand down on my shoulder in much the same way that Nikolai did.
I’m at a loss for words, but Nikolai fills the dead air with his own choice words. “She was sucking me off, or at least planning to. I know a whore when I see one.”
Shock runs through my core at Nikolai’s words. Not only was I now doing anything of the sort, but I’m certain that he’s going to start a physical fight with how much jealousy he must be stirring up within Michail. I don’t particularly favor Michail, but I wouldn’t go as far as to abandon him for his brother so close to the wedding.
“You’d better shut your fucking mouth before I make sure you can never open it again,” Michail warns.
“Is that a threat?”
“Absolutely.”
“Michail, please,” I whimper from beside him.
“Shut up,” he snaps at me, digging his thin fingers into my shoulder so hard that I wince in pain.
“Michail!” A new voice joins us, and guttural Russian slurring that causes me to turn my head sharply. Dimitri moves swiftly across the lawn toward us.
Michail’s hand drops from my shoulder, and his eyes grow wide with guilt. He’s not keen on angering his father, unlike Nikolai, who is pulling a cigarette from his nearly empty pack with a smug expression on his lips.
“We need you to come in and talk,” Dimitri says as he comes forward, completely ignoring the obvious confrontation he interrupted. “I know you have more understandings of the lower east side of the city than the rest of us,” he says to Michail.
Michail lets out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I guess I do,” he agrees, the color of irritation draining from his cheeks quickly. Nikolai knows how to get him worked up, but he’s still listens to his father with the utmost attention.
Michail shoots Nikolai one last warning glance before pulling me away and walking back to the house with Dimitri. Nikolai follows us in from a distance, unwilling or unable to climb back into the house through his second story window.
When I’m brought inside, my mother is leering at me from across the table. Clearly, she is catching a buzz of her own, just like Dimitri has. I swear nobody in this family ever stops drinking.
“So, son,” my father begins, already referring to him as family. “Tell us what you know about the lower east side, the kinds of places we could expand and set up without catching too much attention.”
Michail frowns, clearly confused by the question. “I don’t know if I understand. I didn’t spend any time out there scouting the buildings or industrial park or anything,” he replies.
Dimitri scoffs, butting into the conversation. “Yes, you did, Michail. You and your friend, uh, Anthony, you’d always get caught breaking into abandoned buildings over there. I remember!” he says as he takes a drink.
“You’re confusing me with Nikolai, I think. You might want to ask him,” Michail says tentatively, shooting Nikolai a concerned glance.
I take it that he doesn’t enjoy being confused with his brother, particularly since Nikolai doesn’t seem to be held in high regard by anyone around here. Personally, I think Nikolai is the most normal one in the family, but with what I’ve witnessed so far, that’s not saying much.
Dimitri shakes his head belligerently. “No, no, I know it was you because you would tell me what you found, but I have a shit memory, so I need you to tell me again.”
“No, dad, I was in military school at the time. You’re thinking of Nikolai,” Michail says with more certainty. He tries to hide the fact that he’s hurt that his father has him confused for Nikolai, but I can read it on his face like the words were written on his smooth skin in black ink.
“Dad, Michail’s right,” says a smokey voice behind me.
“Nikolai, this has not and never will concern you,” Dimitri says with a wave of his hand.
Nikolai laughs to himself. “Fine, then you don’t want to know about how I knew how to disable the cameras near the bay then? By the shipyard? No problem, not like a gigantic shipyard like that would be what you’re looking for anyway,” he says.
My father joins Nikolai in laughter. “Maybe we should be marrying off Annika to that one, Dimitri!” he says as Dimitri and Katya glance uncomfortably around the room humorlessly.
Michail’s expression turns from hurt to panic at the suggestion, but Nikolai’s face lights up like he’s about to receive the world’s best present – me.
I shift uncomfortably, feeling awkward to be involved in their conversation. I know nothing about what they’re discussing. I’ve always been left out of the business side of things, and I prefer it that way.
Nikolai winks at me as he leaves the room, but I wish he hadn’t. Now I feel even more guilty for having touched myself to the thought of him, even if I didn’t know that it was him when I did it. I’m losing grip on this arranged marriage, and even Michail can feel it now.
