Page 18 of Broken Embers

“What about me, boss?” Lev asks, standing and positioning Elena, who has taken to Lev and thinks he’s here solely to play with her. He puts her on his hip as if he’s been doing it his whole life.

“You will stay here and take care of Elena,” I tell him.

“Of course,” Lev nods. I know he wants to get in on the action and find Sabrina as much as we do. But I need him here, not just to watch over Elena, but to be my eyes and ears while I’m gone.

“So you’re going to Dragunov Village?” My aunt looks at me.

“Like you said, I have no choice,” I reply.

As my team files out, Nikolas saunters in, carrying a file and dressed like he is heading out.

“Going somewhere?” I ask, looking from him to my aunt.

“I’m coming with you,” he says simply. “If it’s an ambush, you’ll need backup. You may just need backup to stop you from killing that fucker that was so rude to your aunt.”

“Oh, darling, then you’re not the right man.” Galina laughs and kisses Nikolas on the lips before taking the documents from Nikolas and turning back to me. “You’re going to need these.”

Curious, I take them and then freeze when I see what they are—the proposed marriage contract I had drawn up about five weeks ago in case the Dragunovs started to get restless now that Irina was dead.

“Fuck that!” I say, shoving the documents back at her. “This is no longer an option.”

“Like you having to go to the village, you have no choice, Oleksi,” my aunt points out. “It’s the sacrifice we make for who we are.”

“Again, fuck that!” I spit and spin away from her, fury blending with my frustration and boiling together into something ugly and feral. “I may have to go to that fucking village but I don’t care if I have to do a hostile take over of that pissant village to secure that port—I’m not marrying a Dragunov—I don’t care how beautiful she is.”

That would mean my child would be born a bastard, and no way in hell I will do that to them or Sabrina.

As I storm out toward the SUV I notice my aunt or Nikolas already has waiting, I start to brace myself to prepare for war against a tiny fucking little village that has such a significant impact on our business.

7

OLEKSI

The SUV handles the climb like a beast, its armored tires gripping the frozen mountain pass better than I expected. But even sitting inside this rolling fortress, I can feel the cold gnawing through the seams.

Nikolas mutters under his breath, one hand light on the wheel as he steers around another patch of black ice.

“Fucking steppe,” he grumbles. “Nothing but wind, rocks, and death.”

I snort. “Could be worse.”

He glances sideways at me. “How?”

I jerk my chin toward the windshield where the sleet is starting to whip sideways in angry gusts. “Could be raining.”

Right on cue, a gust of sleet pelts the glass, rattling the armored shell.

Nikolas growls low in his throat. “Or fucking snow.”

“Great, now you’re just tempting fate.” I lean back in the seat, flexing my fingers. “I think what could be worse than this is being crammed in the drafty piece-of-shit truck that bounced us from Moscow to the Morozov farm. I held my breath, counting each mile it managed to make it to. It sounded like it was wheezing, coughing, gasping like an eighty-year-old chain-smoker.”

Nikolas chuckles under his breath, the sound thin and grim. “You’re right, that would be worse.”

“Elena enjoyed most of the ride.” A smile tugs at my lips, and my heart warms thinking about my little niece. “She squealed in delight at every rattling bump like she was on a fair ride.”

“Elena is showing signs of being someone who’s going to live life on the edge,” Nikolas agrees, turning to me, smiling. “Having her around has stopped me from missing Adam too much.”

“How is your grandson?” Guilt rips through me at the mention of Adam. He is the son of my cousin, Radomir, and Nikolas’s daughter, Leigh. I haven’t spoken to Rad in over a month and don’t know if he knows what’s going on or not. “Does Leigh know about Sabrina and Tara?” I find myself asking before I can stop myself.

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