Page 26 of Untouchable Queen
Stepping forward, I shut my men down, with a sharp warning in Russian. “I thought you were grown men, but if you want a mother, then maybe you shouldn’t be here at all.”
My men fall silent, their shoulders tensing as they grow instantly still and quiet. Lucian’s men share several sidelong glances, silently drawing some conclusion about me, and my pulse quickens.
Squaring my shoulders, I take advantage of the quiet, switching to English to address the entire room. “We called you all here today because we’re not oblivious to the fact that skirmishes continue to break out between our families. It has to stop. I don’t care who is starting it. When Lucian and I said our vows, we did so to unite our families. To make us stronger rather than allowing one or the other of us to be destroyed. We will be working closely with each other and that means we need to set aside our differences and learn how to cooperate. You might not agree with the decision, but your opinion is not what matters here. Your loyalty does. You swore to serve me—or Don Lucian. And despite our history, that means it’s time to put aside your anger and find a way to work together.”
I glance toward Lucian, signaling that now is the time for him to add something if he wants, and my heart flutters at the open attraction and pride in his intense hazel gaze.
Stepping forward, he joins me, turning to speak directly to his men. “I took Tatiana to be my wife because I believe we can find a cooperative peace—one that can benefit us both greatly. I can respect that the Bratva has its own hierarchy, and I have no intentions of inserting myself into that order. But for my men, know that any word from Tatiana is as good as direct order from me. I expect you all to act accordingly.”
Shock jolts through my body at his statement because I’ve made it perfectly clear to Lucian that he will have no authority over my men—and my eyes snap in his direction, my lips parting at the way he so effortlessly hands control of his men over to me. Like he trusts me to command them with the same kind of intelligence and respect he would. It’s a massive sign of trust I wasn’t prepared for at all.
Lucian seems to read the astonishment on my face as he lifts an eyebrow for only me to see, daring me to contradict him now. My lips twitch with sudden amusement, because this, like everything else, just seems to be a game to him. He’s teasing me—even as he hands me the keys to his kingdom. An electric excitement crackles between us as I get the first glimpse of a possibility that this is more than just some nightmarish joke he’s decided to play on me. He really wants this alliance to work.
Then a voice from the crowd shatters the moment. “I won’t be taking orders from a woman.”
It’s one of the Italians. I can tell by the accent, and Lucian seems to recognize who it is as his humor vanishes, his eyes snapping in the man’s direction as his face transforms into a rigid mask of cold fury. The man’s first instinct is the right one as he flinches, but when the men around him shift to look at him, Lucian’s man tips his chin, choosing to stand his ground.
For the breadth of a moment, no one moves.
Then all hell breaks loose as my men move as one, breaking across the invisible barrier between my men and Lucian’s toget to the man who disrespected me. His shirt is shredded, his nose broken and gushing in a matter of moments. The display of loyalty is entirely unexpected, given how hard a time my men have given me these past few months, and for one frozen moment in time, I stand stunned as a full-on brawl breaks out.
Then Lucian’s voice of authority cuts through my astonishment, and as he reins in his men, I do the same with mine, stepping forward to the edge of the raised platform.
“That’s enough! Stand down!” I shout in Russian, ready to step off the stage and start pulling them apart if necessary.
But I’m touched by their display of loyalty after they’ve done nothing but challenge my leadership since I took over for my father. Grudgingly, my men release the Italian with a snarky remark, shoving him to the ground as they turn their attention back to me.
“I just told you to play nice with Lucian’s men,” I scold in Russian. “What in the hell are you doing?”
Renat steps forward, setting his jaw as he meets my gaze with a firm one. “We might give you a hard time,pakhansha, but no one gets to disrespect you and just get away with it. You’re ourpakhansha, and we’ll crush any filthy Italian who thinks he can speak about you like that.”
Stunned, I honestly don’t know how to respond. Against all odds, it seems that this alliance with the Italians might have actually helped unite my men beneath my rule—even if it’s against our supposed allies. But all I can feel is gratitude for my men showing the kind of loyalty to me that they’ve always shown my father, and it brings the sting of tears to the backs of my eyes.
“Thank you,” I say, pressing a palm to my stomach to try and collect myself.
Then a scuffle to my right catches my attention, and I turn to find two Italian men dragging the one who insulted me up ontothe platform. They force him to his knees in front of Lucian, and my blood turns to ice as the man pales.
His eyes are wide and pleading as he looks up at his don, suddenly not just contrite but utterly repentant for what he said. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but from the fear in the man’s eyes, whatever it is won’t be pretty.
The warehouse falls deathly silent, both my men and Lucian’s rapt attention is on the platform as the don stares down at his man with cold fury.
“Thatwomanyou refuse to take orders from is my wife. Look at her.”
The man hesitates, his head jerking as if he’s unsure of whether he should actually look at me or if that will only get him in worse trouble. But when he doesn’t do it fast enough, Lucian grasps his jaw and cranks his neck to the side so he has to look at me.
“I assure you, her happiness is far more important to me than your life, so the next time you want to question whether you have any right to an opinion about whose orders you will follow, I recommend you take that into account first.”
The man nods, his eyes dropping to the ground at my feet as his entire body starts to tremble. My stomach knots as a dark sense of foreboding consumes me. Humiliation won’t be the end of this man’s punishment. I can tell by the frigid stillness of Lucian’s men. And when Lucian turns the kneeling man’s face to look at him, I can almost hear the man’s teeth start to chatter.
“Open your mouth,” Lucian commands, his voice cold and detached—just like the night he came to kill my father.
The man whimpers, his chin quivering as he slowly opens his mouth a fraction. In one fluid motion, the two men who dragged the offender onto the platform snatch his arms, hauling them behind him as one grips his hair and forces his head back.
My heart stutters to a halt in my chest as I stand rooted to the spot, unable to tear my eyes from the scene, though I’m confident it’s something I don’t want to watch. But like a witness to a train wreck, I just can’t seem to look away.
My stomach lurches as Lucian grasps the man’s jaw and reaches into his mouth. I almost miss the flash of steel in his hand, but then a fountain of blood sprouts from between the man’s lips as a bone-chilling scream rips through the air. The man collapses to the ground, his hands covering his mouth as soon as the men release him.
It takes all my self-restraint not to cover my own mouth when Lucian tosses the man’s tongue onto the platform at his feet and points to it with the bloody tip of his knife.
