Two Weeks. Four Days. Eight Hours.
Today is the day. Ivelisse’s family has been planning the wedding and all I have to do is show up. I don’t even mind that fact except I was turned away at the door last night. After the night I had last night, all I wanted to do was sleep with her in my arms. Her dick of a brother told me that I wasn’t seeing her the night before the wedding and I almost put my gun to his head for even saying anything, but then I saw her.
She was coming down the hallway and she looked beautiful in her sweats and messy hair. Every part of her pulls at my heart and I don’t know how I could possibly function without seeing her smiling face every day.
She gave me a sweet kiss at the front door before she shooed me away for the night. Her parting words were, “It will be worth the wait.” I know it will be, but I needed her to calm me. To wash away the memories of what I had to do.
Instead, I got to sleep alone in my bed with the sounds of Ruslan’s babbling and the cries of Harlyn in the otherwise quiet house.
Walking through the house, I find Harlyn sitting in the rocking chair, watching Ruslan sleep. “Hey,” I say softly. Her head turns towards me and she eyes what I’m wearing.
“Hey, yourself. You look great!” Her eyes come up to mine and I see a sadness in them. “I actually wanted to talk to you,” she states before I can say anything.
“What’s that, babe?” I ask.
“I know you’re getting married today and I don’t want to intrude on your new life with your wife. You offered to find us somewhere else to live and I want to take you up on that.”
I watch her for a second and I see the certainty in her eyes. She wants to do this, but I don’t know if she’s ready yet. “You sure?”
“Yeah. You’ve done so much for me and Ruslan and I can’t thank you enough for helping me get my head on straight. But I don’t want to intrude on you and your new wife.” Her words are sincere and part of me doesn’t want her to leave because I want to be able to keep an eye on her in case she goes back to being depressed and sleeping all day.
“If that’s what you really want,” I state. She nods her head and I walk over to her and press a kiss to her forehead. “I love you like a little sister. You ever need anything, call me.” She gives me a small smile as she looks up at me.
I look over the side of the crib and see Ruslan sleeping peacefully. Turning back to her, I tell her that I’ll get working on finding her a safe location. “Thank you,” she whispers before turning her attention back to her little boy.
By the time I get to the church, I have an apartment lined up for Harlyn and one of my men finding a security system that will be installed in the next few days. Almost everything is done before I even step foot inside the church. I see people are already starting to gather from both families. Walking down the aisle, I see Uncle Viktor talking to someone I don’t recognize.
As I reach them, I see the man’s stare directed at me. The woman to his right is hot in a slutty kind of way, but I don’t pay her any more attention than a quick glance. “Ah, Nikolai my boy,” Uncle Viktor says with glee. “This here is Michael and Maelin Lucha, your bride’s parents.” The names click and I try to recall their driver’s license pictures.
I reach a hand out to shake her father’s hand. He tries to squeeze my hand as tightly as he can, but it isn’t much. He isn’t part of the Abelli Family that much is sure. His wife isn’t the typical mob wife either, that’s probably why no one knew that Ivelisse was the daughter of Petrus Salvi.
Maelin puts her hand in mine next and I press a kiss to her knuckles. “Nice to meet both of you,” I murmur. I’m trying to be polite, but it’s hard. Now I understand why Ivelisse said her mother didn’t want her wearing the dress from the engagement party. She didn’t want her daughter to outshine her. I was lucky enough to not meet them at the engagement party. If I would have, I probably would have said something rude to her mother for being such a selfish bitch.
A hand comes down on my shoulder and when I look to my right, I see Ilias standing there. He nods to Viktor but doesn’t say a word to anyone but me. “We have a problem.”
“Excuse me.” I dismiss myself and follow Ilias towards the rooms to the right of the pews. They are covered so you don’t see anyone as they walk around the building, but clearly he knows exactly where everything is.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“It’s Ivelisse.”
I feel my temper rising as he says her name. I don’t even know what the fuck is going on, but when I find out, I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt her.
We come to a room and he knocks three times before the door opens slightly. “I have Nikolai with me.” The door opens the rest of the way and we make our way inside. When I see her, she’s wearing a thin tank top and a pair of sweats. Her hair and makeup look like they were done, but she has tears trailing down her face. She’s wringing her hands together and pacing the room.
Moving into the room, I walk straight over to her and pull her into my arms. “Nikolai,” she whispers.
“What happened?” I ask her. My lips come down on the top of her head, but she doesn’t say anything at first. She just clutches me tighter. “Ivelisse,” I say a little louder.
“Someone put a dead rat in my bag. Who would do such a thing?”
My body stiffens and I push away from her for a second and look down at her face.
“Where is your bag?” I ask as calmly as I can right now. Someone putting a rat in her bag only means one thing; they think she’s a rat.
“Over there,” she says quietly. I let her go and walk towards the bag.
“Clear the room, Ilias. Only you two stay.” He nods and kicks everyone out of her room. I’m going to find out who the fuck did this and I’ll make them pay. She isn’t a rat, that’s one thing I know for sure. She knows nothing about the Abelli Family or the Levin Family.
Grabbing her bag, I open it up and see all her undergarments. Moving her lingerie, I see the dead rat at the bottom of the bag. It’s missing its head and I know who did it. There is only one man who uses that calling card and he’ll be lucky if I don’t kill him by the end of the night.
Ilias comes over to me and looks inside the bag and sees the same calling card I do. “Find him,” I ground out. He nods his head and walks out of the room quickly. I close the bag and set it on the floor before walking back over to Ivelisse.
I pull her back into my arms and put my chin on the top of her head. “Are you okay?” I ask. She nods her head and I feel her body shiver.
“Why would someone do that?” she asks sadly. “Of all days, why today?”
“He’s making a statement doll.” I try to school my tone, but I know she can see right through it.
“You know who did it, don’t you?” She sighs and puts her forehead against my chest.
“Yeah. I just don’t know why he thinks you’re a rat.” She pulls her head off my chest and looks up at me with wide eyes.
“You mean like in the movies? The person who tells on someone in the mob and then they end up being killed for it?” The expression on her face tells me that she’s terrified. I don’t know if it’s because she’s guilty or because she is legitimately scared.
“You haven’t done that have you?” I watch her expression turned from scared to angry in a matter of seconds.
“You really think I would say something to someone? What the hell would I even say? All I know is that supposedly I’m a mafia princess but never knew it and I’m being married off to the next in line for the Levin Family. I know you do bad things, but I care about you way too much to ever say a word to anyone about you. I love you.”
I feel the blood drain from my face. Did she really just say she loves me?
“You love me?” I stutter out. I’m never one to have a problem with words, but she’s got me having issues getting the damn words out right now.
“Yes, I love you, Nikolai. At first, it was a stupid crush that I never wanted to have gone any further, but the more you came into the bar, the more I fell for you. I didn’t even know your name and I was slowly falling for you. Every night like clockwork you would show up and buy a drink, leaving me a huge tip. It was like you came in just for me.”
I can’t help but chuckle at that. “That’s because I did only come in for you. I happened to stop by one night after a really shitty day and then I laid eyes on you and couldn’t stop coming back for more each night after that.” She beams up at me and I tighten my grip on her and kiss her lips gently just as the door opens.
“What is going on in here?” A high pitch yell comes through the room. Ivelisse’s body tenses up and I look over her shoulder and see her mother standing there staring at us. “You two are not supposed to see each other until the ceremony starts.” She comes towards us, but I angle Ivelisse away from her mother.
“Something happened and she needed me. It isn’t your concern,” I bite out. Her mother rubs me the wrong way and judging by my girl’s reaction to just her voice, they don’t get along very well.
“It is my concern. She is my daughter.” She narrows her eyes at me, but it doesn’t intimidate me like she probably thinks it does. I couldn’t give a fuck about who she is.
Before I can say something else, Ivelisse turns to face her mother. “What I do from today forward doesn’t concern you. Get out of my room.” I wrap my arms around her now shaking body and pull her back to my chest. The shaking stops almost immediately and I stare at her mother who now has her mouth open.
“You heard my fiancée,” I state firmly. She scoffs at me and turns on her heels, stomping towards the door.
Before she walks out of the room, she stares right at Ivelisse and says, “If your father were still alive, he’d be disappointed in you. Marrying the brother of the man who killed him.” She shakes her head before slamming the door shut behind her.
I close my eyes because I know what’s going to happen next. She gasps and then turns in my arms. Her skin is pale and her eyes are wide. “What did she mean by that?” Her voice is hesitant, almost like she isn’t ready to hear the answer.
Sucking in a breath, I try to think of the best way to say this shit. “When Stavros and I were kids, your birth father killed my father in cold-blood. My old man was the right hand to the boss of our family. My father ran the day-to-day shit and took a bullet that was probably meant for my Uncle Viktor. We went our whole lives without a father because of what your father did. When I found out who your real father was, I was pissed. That’s why I left. I couldn’t fall in love with the daughter of the man who took away my father.” She pulls away from me and starts to wring her hands again in that nervous tick that she seems to have.
“I found out Stavros killed him. I don’t know more than that. It was retribution, but no one outside of this room knows about it. My family doesn’t know how your father died, but we know he’s dead. Even though I didn’t want to fall for you, I did. I couldn’t stay away and worship your body every night even though I was pissed. It was the only way I could get through it all. I can’t stay away from you even if I tried.” She still doesn’t come closer to me and I don’t blame her, but she won’t have the option to leave me at the altar. This wedding is going to happen.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tears fall down her face and I reach out to grab her wrist. She pulls away just before I can grab her. I don’t give her the chance to do it again. This time I grab her and pull her closer to me.
“How did you expect me to break your heart like that?” She doesn’t say anything and I just hope she sees it from my point of view. I wasn’t going to hurt her if I didn’t have to. She means more to me than that. “Do I care that your father’s dead? No. I would have killed him myself if I had the chance. I hope the bastard burns in hell for what he did, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about you.” I wipe the tears off her face with my thumbs and watch her lip tremble.
I don’t know how this shit is going to end, but I hope that at the end of it, I have her willingly walking down the aisle towards me.