Page 94 of Paved in Hate

I smile at the image and kiss his chest. Vitaly may not be able to give me a crime-free life, but I always knew I was never going to have one of those. What he does give me more than makes up for the times I’ll worry about him. I focus on the steady beat of his heart and imagine the future that I never once dreamed I could have.

* * *

Vitaly

I look down at my wife’s peaceful face, knowing she’s going to be pissed about falling asleep. She’s worried about tonight and wants to spend every second with me until I have to leave, but she gets sleepy after multiple orgasms, and I’m afraid I wore her out again. I smile at the memory of her in the shower, her perfect ass in my hands as I held her against the tiled wall and slammed into her until she screamed my name. Fuck, just the memory of her inner muscles clenching around me has me getting hard again. God, she drives me fucking crazy.

My eyes drift over her stomach before I pull the covers up to keep her warm. I can’t believe I’m going to be a daddy, and I still can’t believe how goddamn giddy the thought makes me. Smiling, I kiss her forehead and tuck her in before leaving our room and heading downstairs.

I find Matvey in his room, pacing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the city below. Sunset is still a few hours away, and soon the view will be lit up by the skyscrapers in the distance. My eyes scan his room, noticing the way he’s mixed Alina’s things with his own. He brought most of her stuff with us when we came to America, and he’s always kept everything out, ready and waiting for her when she comes back.

“You doing okay?”

He stops and turns his head to look at me. “I can’t sit still.”

I watch him start pacing again, his hands clenching and unclenching with every step. “I see that.”

“What if he doesn’t bring her?”

“He will. He wants to show her off, and even if he doesn’t, it won’t change anything. We’ll just do the original plan and get her at the mansion. Either way, we’re getting her back tonight.”

He runs a hand through his hair and then scratches at the stubble he hasn’t bothered to shave. “Tell me everything again.”

I sigh and sit on the edge of his bed. He’s going to see everything for himself tonight, so there’s no point in lying. I still hate to make him hear it, though.

“She’s not in good shape, but it could be a lot worse. She’s too thin, and she has a lot of bruises.”

“She was naked?” he asks, even though he knows the answer already.

“She was.”

“And he made her fucking crawl?”

“He did.”

His dark eyes meet mine. “And she really gave him my last name?”

“Yeah. She tossed her phone out so they couldn’t find out anything on us, and she took your last name.”

“Do you really believe she’ll be okay after all this?”

I think about it while he paces, and knowing that he deserves nothing less than the truth, I tell him, “I’m not sure, Matvey. She’s been badly abused for two years, and that’s something that’s going to be incredibly difficult to fully recover from, but I saw glimpses of the old Alina, and that makes me think that one day she’ll be able to heal from this. She perked up at the mention of all of you, and when she briefly thought that you’d married, she’d looked devastated and started crying.”

Matvey groans and turns to face the window. “Thank you for telling her I hadn’t. I can’t stand the thought of her thinking for one second that I could ever be with someone else, that I could’ve forgotten about her and moved on. Fuck, that was never going to happen.”

“When I told her that my brothers would be very interested in seeing her, she gave me the tiniest smirk. You know the one she always used to give when she was up to no good?”

Matvey gives a soft laugh. “Yeah, I remember. She gave me that look when I pulled her out of that damn bar on her birthday. I told her I needed to get her home and that she wasn’t ever going out in public dressed like that again. She’d given me that smirk and said if I didn’t want her to wear it, then I’d have to take it off her myself.”

I laugh because I can easily picture Alina putting her foot down and forcing Matvey to act on his very obvious feelings towards her.

“She’s been in love with you for so goddamn long. She wanted that dress just so she could get your attention.”

“She didn’t need to dress like that to get my attention. She’s always had it, even if it did change over time. I don’t know how in the hell she went from being Roman’s little sister to being the woman I couldn’t get out of my damn head, but she did it, and it’s been that way ever since. She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

He gives a harsh laugh and shakes his head. “Fuck, brother, she’s the only woman I’ve ever allowed to touch me. It doesn’t bother me when she does it. With everyone else, it’s like bugs crawling on my goddamn skin. I can’t fucking stand it.”

“We’re getting her back, Matvey. Tonight.”

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