Page 46 of Bratva's Stolen Bride
“Okay, we think you should all put your weapons away, and be friends, since we’re sisters, and she loves him.” Payton points at Greenwich. “And I love you.” She smiles sweetly at me.
Richmond looks as though he swallowed a parrot.
“How about they leave, and I won’t kill—?” I suggest to Payton, who gives me puppy eyes.
“That only solves the immediate problem,” Harlsden interrupts. “Once we’re back in London, the full force of the London Maths Club?—”
“You have to join their club,” Hayley says, like this is easy.
Richmond groans and Greenwich shoves his hands in his pockets and looks up in resignation as though expecting heaven—or my drones—to strike him down.
“Do you want me to join the Maths Club?” I ask Payton.
Her gaze flicks between all the stern-jawed mafia men, then settles on me.
“Yes,” she says clearly.
Okay, I’m helpless against that. This truly is love.
“The first of many things that are totally against my instincts that I will do for you, lisichka.” I nod my head towards the pickup. “Fine. There are cold drinks in the fridge, and it’s very hot out here.”
“Oh good idea. Thank you!” Payton goes up on tiptoes to kiss my cheek, then grabs Hayley’s arm and leads her off the jetty.
“Westminster is going to kill me when he finds I’ve let you into the Mafia Syndicate,” Richmond grumbles. “You’d better behave yourself.”
I bare my teeth in an approximation of a simile.
“Feliks, will you drive?” Payton calls from beside the pickup.
I pause, because if I don’t have the controller in my hands, the drones take longer to deploy. But I glance between my wife and her sister’s partner, and the men who came to fetch and defend Payton.
Really, I have no quarrel with them so long as they don’t touch Payton. With a sigh, I send the drones back to their bases, and close the app. “Let’s get out of the sun before everyone turns into a beetroot.”
With Payton and Hayley squashed into the passenger seat, and the rest of the visitors in the flat bed of the pickup, we’re in the house and cracking open beer and soft drinks within ten minutes. Since I can’t keep my hands off Payton, and Greenwich is Hayley’s huge lumbering shadow, we end up all talking.
And I confess he’s not a total idiot. Before long, there’s a festive atmosphere, and snacks out, people sitting on the decking, and it’s altogether not what I expected for a mafia get together, never mind a rescue attempt.
Greenwich shares an anecdote about his data collection from the cafes he runs, and given my business in drones, security software, and defence, it’s annoying to find that not only is he a decent guy, I suspect we could do some work which would benefit us both.
He apologises again for Ivan and tells me how he killed him for threatening Hayley. I shrug. Shot through the head was better than my son deserved, and a quicker death than he’d have had from me.
Everyone has rolled up sleeves, has taken off their suit jackets, and two of the London Mafia Syndicate members are comparing guns, and debating the advantages of a printed custom weapon versus an old-school pistol. A shrill tone cuts through the voices, and I reach for my gun.
So does Greenwich, and it’s only when Payton laughs that I pause.
“Thats’ my phone!” In a second, she’s found it from where I discarded it, and blinks at the screen. “It’s the private investigator. Hello,” she answers before I can say it might be a trap, or Hayley can finish the exclamation of surprise she’s beginning. Then Payton’s eyes go wide. “You’ve really found her?!”
“Oh my god. They’ve found Taylor?” Hayley gasps.
“Yes, yes. Hold on, I need to go somewhere quieter to talk,” Payton says.
“I didn’t even know Payton had a PI searching for Taylor,” I hear Hayley explain to Greenwich as Payton takes the call onto the beach. I grab a pen and notepad and follow my wife, handing both to her.
She gives me a surprised look then a grateful smile, and I’m as warmed by providing for her and the appreciation that reflects back as the tropical sun.
“You know,” she says as she puts the phone down several minutes later. “Indirectly, you paid to find Taylor.”
Through my son giving her gifts, and her selling them.
