Page 103 of The Disputed Legacy
“He won’t have any issues being here?” I asked again.
“No.” Maxim was curt, very direct, and prone to rolling his eyes at the many things that peeved him, but I learned very quickly that he was a sucker and a softie for his wife. Sloane complemented him, and it was sweet how he wouldn’t hesitateto give her what she wanted. The man worshiped the ground she walked on.
We’d formed a decent friendship so far, too, all the way to the point that I’d asked him if he’d walk me down the aisle. Sloane, already more emotional with her pregnancy hormones all over the place, had teared up when I asked him.
“If you don’t want to, I understand.”
He laughed once. “Just so long as you promise not to punch me.”
No punching would be necessary ever again. Now that I knew how devoted he was to keeping the family safe, and that he’d come to my apartment that day because Saul expected him to protect me while he handled another threat, I couldn’t be mad at him for doing his job.
Nik confided in me that he thought I’d earned a lot of respect from Maxim by fighting back, proving that I wasn’t a weakling or coward.
“My father is going to be happy as soon as this wedding is over because it means there are a lot of family members and members of our force in one place at one time.” He arched a brow at me. “That would make this an easy target.”
I cringed.
Sloane approached and tugged on his sleeve. “What the hell are you telling her now? You’re not supposed to scare her on her wedding day.” She narrowed her eyes, then faced me. “If he’s telling you about what Saul was like before he met you…”
I laughed. “No. I’m fine.” It had amused me when everyone explained that Saul was kind of a player before. He’d stopped when his brothers started settling down. And besides, it was all in the past. I couldn’t fault him for having one. I had a past too, and it wasn’t pretty either. All I cared about was the present, the future, and those would mean that we only had each other.
As soon as Sloane returned to her maid of honor position, she turned and lifted two fingers to point at her eyes then turned to point one finger at Maxim. She smiled slyly, almost naughty as she gestured that she had her eyes on him. I glanced at him smiling with a heated look, and Sloane sighed, lovesick and horny, probably.
“But I thought that with the Romanos dead and the Kozlovs dead, no enemies would look at this wedding as a chance to…”
He patted my back. “Easy. I’m not going to let you freak out at your wedding.”
I shot him a dubious look.
“Listen, that’s just how it is. There will always be danger. If it’s not in our faces now, it might be brewing and building for the next generation or the one after that.” He blew out a deep breath. “We are an organization with power, wealth, and authority and there will always be something or someone else who will covet it. That’s just a fact of life.”
“Yeah. I get that.”
He glanced at me again. “But regardless of what threats might be forming, we will all be safe.”
I smirked, getting impatient to get this ceremony going. Oscar had seemed overwhelmed this morning as we got ready. My sixth sense warned me that he could be feeling under the weather, but he insisted that he was just tired.
This was a big deal, and we’d been planning and preparing for the production over a short time. Still, I wondered how he’d hold up for the long night of the reception too.
Oh, who am I kidding?If I so much as mentioned that I was worried that Oscar might be tired or ill, Saul would be on it. He’d beat me to him and carry him to bed, such a doting, loving father.
“I promise that, Willow, as your brother,” he said seriously. “I know it’s a big adjustment to join our family. But we would all lay our lives on the line for you. That’s who we are.”
“Spoken like a true leader.”
He almost smiled.
“The Boss.”
He nodded. “It still doesn’t feel official.”
“How does it not?” I laughed. Only yesterday, Grigory announced that he would release all his duties. He’d already said something like that, to make Maxim the newPakhanso he could relax and retire to be a grandpa. But there were still some official things that he had to give up, and he had.
“You’ve been in charge for over a year now. Launched huge… war things. And you still don’t feel like the boss?”
He shrugged. “I feel too young to be the boss. I feel like a father before I feel like a leader.”
“Then it’s a good thing you and your brothers work like a team.”
