Page 40 of Midnight Wedding

And now I have a mission in life: find all unsafe, off-limits areas of the house and thoroughly violate them.

I give him a big smile and a cheesy thumbs-up. He doesn’t look reassured one bit.

Chapter 14

Arsen

Iexpected a big fight. I figured she’d resist as hard as she could but eventually break down. Instead, the second we were alone together, she crawled into my bed, curled into a ball, and went to sleep.

No convincing necessary.

It was strange, having her body beside mine in the darkness. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a woman in my bed for longer than an hour. Her breathing was the only sound I could hear even though the old house creaked around us like there were footsteps in the walls.

And now, in the morning, she’s still there, sprawled on her side and snoring lightly. Her bushy red hair’s a big mess and she’s got a puddle of drool rolling down her mouth.

But fuck, she looks beautiful.

I sit there and watch her for a while, drinking her in. It’s how vulnerable she is in sleep, how young she looks, how small. My baby’s growing in her, and I might’ve just gotten everyone I care about killed to have this girl in this bed right now.

And it was worth it.

Fuck, all the coming blood, it’ll all be worth it if I get to wake up to this snoring, undignified mess every single fucking day.

I dress and leave quietly. Maud is awake and cooking breakfast. I leave instructions with her to keep an eye on Lena and make sure she’s comfortable. “Most of all, don’t let her go anywhere. I’ll be back later.”

Maud salutes me with her spatula and forces a little scrambled eggs on a muffin into my hands. “You look tired. Eat something.”

Only my housekeeper gets to talk to me that way. Mostly because the mansion would be a wreck without her, and partially because she’s such a good damn cook.

Tigran’s already at the warehouse when I show up an hour later. The morning shipment’s getting unloaded on the docks and the place is crawling with people. Most of them nod, smile, and say good morning, and I’m polite as hell back to them. We all love to play pretend like this is a real business.

“I sent Mikah’s cousin Ricky over to Garen with the message.” Tigran takes a box cutter and wrenches it through some tape. The pallet cracks and opens up. “He should be there by now.”

“Garen’s not a stupid man. He knows what his pride is worth.”

“Better be fucking cheap because I don’t think you offered enough concessions.”

I snort at him and lean back against a metal shelving unit as he opens up the box. “I offered him half my fucking territory to run all by himself. The other bosses are going to be absolutely livid.”

“Maybe they’ll start another war.”

“None of them are smart enough.”

“I hope you’re right.” Tigran flicks the cutter closed. A big, simple blue-and-white logo’s splashed across smaller boxes inside:COMPUTER ENTERPRISES.

About as generic as it gets. Just the way I wanted.

Tigran lifts out what looks like a square computer graphics chip. There are cables, a little circuit board, even a plastic fan built onto the side. He carefully cracks open one end and tips the card onto its side.

Little baggies filled with white powder drop out into his waiting palm.

“Not bad,” he mutters and squints inside. “This one’s light.”

“We’ll check the others. If there’s a supply problem, I’ll deal with it.”

“Exactly what we need. A fucking overseas nightmare to handle in the middle of all this.”

Tigran calls over a couple of our trusted men and they begin removing the remaining bags of coke from the other fake graphics cards.

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