Page 40 of The Bratva's Innocent Sold Bride
“I thought it was hypocritical that it was okay over there when I was eighteen or nineteen, and not here, so I just decided since I was an American, I’d go by our rules.”
“But why follow the rules at all? I was… You don’t want to know how old I was when I had my first drink of vodka.”
“I thought they put it in the baby bottles over there,” she sassed, looking healthier as she moved around the room, hanging up her dress and wrapping her lush body in my robe. “I guess I should move in more permanently,” she said shyly.
“Definitely. But let one of the maids do it. Let’s go out and do something fun today.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t have any work to do?”
Quickly checking my phone, I found that there were no new emergencies, and the shipment had gone down without a hitch. Masha, despite her bender the night before, was on scene and keeping me updated. “I don’t have any work to do,” I answered.
She asked if there was anything I especially wanted to do, and I assured her I hadn’t seen anything of interest except the insides of my companies.
“You pick. Be my tour guide.”
She mentioned a rose garden, a couple of museums, and a cathedral, quickly dismissing that one, saying I had to have seen more impressive ones in Moscow. “Do you like hiking? There are some nice trails in Mountain View.”
“You up to a hike in your condition?”
She swore she’d be as good as new after eating something and chugging more water, already excited and talking about bringing the dog. Of course, I couldn’t say no when she was smiling so brightly.
While she went to get some food in her to sop up the leftover alcohol, I did a search on the trail she mentioned, deeming it safe enough if my driver, who doubled as a guard,tagged along. I didn’t like that Anatoli had brought CJ up at all, and would have to double down on security for the foreseeable future. There was no way he was getting anywhere near my wife.
The weather was perfect, sunny and cool. We headed out, laden down with snacks and drinks and all of the dog’s gear. I always thought dogs were supposed to be simple, laid-back pets, but Artem had a harness, a leash that attached to the seatbelt, a leash for walking, a collapsible water bowl, his own bag of snacks, and a blanket to cover the car seat. After a short discussion that was on the verge of getting heated, I managed to convince CJ he’d be perfectly fine riding up front with the driver.
She treated that dog like a baby, but under my feigned annoyance, I wondered if I was getting a glimpse of how she’d be with our children. That wasn’t a subject I’d be bringing up any time soon, though. All in good time.
We chatted about everything and nothing, as easily as if we’d been together for years instead of weeks, and as if we’d fallen in love the old-fashioned way instead of CJ being payment for her father’s debt.
Once we were there, we’d barely been walking along the shady, wooded path for twenty minutes when my phone buzzed relentlessly. As much as I wished I could turn the damn thing off completely, it wasn’t possible in the current circumstances. Too many things could go wrong, and fast.
It was Garik, telling me he just got word that one of CJ’s father’s charity offices had been ransacked within the last hour. So far, no one at the agency was aware their office had been broken into, and the attackers had bypassed the security systems, so the police hadn’t been alerted yet either. I put him on hold to speak to CJ.
“Isn’t the Taurus Welcome Center the charity you chaired?”
She nodded. “They help immigrant kids learn English.”
I’d already learned in my research into her father that all his charities were little more than money laundering schemes, but they did end up doing some good, and they kept a low profile. There was no reason for a raid on a place like that, and so seemingly out of the blue. Only I knew it was no coincidence when Anatoli had mockingly spoken about CJ the night before. His people had not only chosen one of her family’s charities, but the one that CJ was most closely affiliated with.
I let Garik know that I’d personally go check out the damage, then turned and growled for the guard to take CJ and the dog home in a hired car.
“What?” she yelped. “What’s happening? Is it something with the charity?”
“I don’t have time to explain,” I said, already moving back up the path and toward where we’d parked the car.
“Stop,” she said, running to catch up. Grabbing my arm, she stared up at me with confusion and a simmering anger in her eyes.
Trying to shake her off, she clung on tighter. “You’re not part of this,” I snapped.
“It’s my charity,” she snapped right back. “I am part of it. I have a right to know what’s going on. Were any of the staff or volunteers hurt? Oh my God, the kids?”
I softened at her fearful concern and shook my head. “It was something at their offices, not the welcome center itself.”
With a sigh of relief, she kept up with me as I continued my quick pace, the guard holding Artem’s leash only a few yardsbehind us. “You’re not keeping me out of this,” she said, a ring of steel in her voice I’d never heard before.
Was I considering taking my wife and dog to check out a raid? It seemed that I was. All Garik’s intel believed the damage was done, the offices left in shambles, but really no more danger. As we walked, I called him back, asking him to tell me exactly what he knew.
His information came from security cameras we’d hacked into to monitor all of CJ’s father’s buildings. It looked like it had been a smash-and-grab, and as far as he could tell, a group of six men entered and six men left. There shouldn’t be any danger, especially if she stayed outside while I surveyed the damage.
