by Maura Rose
Kelly blinked, trying to put everything back into focus. Fuck, this was what being concussed felt like, didn’t it?
She had to keep distracting him, she had to give Shane time to get out. She staggered to her feet using the shelves to push herself up, willing her body to stand under its own power even as her ears rang.
“Trooper,” Bates said, nodding. “I like it. You know, I was going to let you live. We had so much in common, you and I. You were always so good at listening, always took what I said to heart.”
“We called you uncle,” Kelly spat. “You were family. We trusted you! My brothers trusted you!”
“A mistake on your father’s part, I’m afraid,” Bates replied. He dropped the scalpel on the counter and pulled out his gun. “He should’ve had me killed, same with the other two from before. Can’t leave any of the old regime standing when you do a hostile takeover.”
“It wasn’t a hostile takeover, you shit,” Kelly replied. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, behind Bates—over his right shoulder. One of her father’s men? Someone from the car coming to pick up her and Shane? “He was named heir, it was planned for years.”
“Shane led me to believe that I would get it,” Bates shot back, referring to her brother’s namesake, her father’s cousin. “He let me think that, let it motivate me into doing all of his dirty work for him. Then he brings in this two-bit nobody from the backwaters of Ireland and names him, just because they share the same blood. Blood doesn’t mean anything.”
Kelly could see the person better now. It was—but it couldn’t be.
She had to have hit her head harder than she’d thought, because his plane wasn’t even supposed to have landed yet, but…
That was Ivan.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ivan moved silently, his gun at the ready. There was a black sedan in front of the dispensary, and he had a feeling that it didn’t belong to Kelly or any assigned guards.
The guards who were supposed to be keeping a lookout, he found in the alley. Shot in the head and the heart, respectively. The attacker had to have gotten pretty damn close to pull off such accurate shots. Most people couldn’t hit the heart from a distance, although headshots were pretty easy once you practiced enough, as most of them had from childhood.
That meant it was either someone who was a very, very good actor and could get the guards to let him close enough to talk to them… or it was someone the guards knew and trusted.
Bates.
They hadn’t told anyone about Bates turning traitor. They didn’t know what moles he might have in the O’Gill family and hadn’t wanted to tip him off. Not to mention, most lower grunts in a mob were terrible liars. They’d have started acting differently around Bates and he would’ve caught on immediately.
It could be a mole that Bates had planted, some lower level grunt who was pretending to come in and relieve the guards on duty or something. But instinct told Ivan that it was Bates, that he was coming in to finish the job himself.
What kind of bitterness, he had to wonder, drove men to murder the children they’d helped to raise, just to get back at the man they felt had stolen from them?
Ivan grew up in this world, and he knew that shit like that happened, but he didn’t understand that. He hoped that he never would. He’d almost killed his own brother, once, and the anger and bitter bile that had filled his throat in that moment terrified him to remember. He never wanted to be that consumed by hatred ever again.
But if Bates was in there… Kelly had wanted to kill him.
An almighty crash sounded from inside the dispensary. Ivan flicked off the safety of his gun and walked quietly around to the entrance, peering inside.
Kelly was against the wall, pulling herself to her feet, her eyes glazed and disoriented. Bates was there, and he was—holy fuck, he was pulling a scalpel out of his chest. Had Kelly stabbed him with that?
Good girl.
He opened the door carefully, silently, as Bates drew out his own gun. The guy was delivering some kind of monologue because of course he was. People like Bates who bottled up their emotions, when they finally let them out they just couldn’t shut the fuck up.
Ivan considered his options. He saw the way that Kelly’s eyes slid past him. Smart—if she’d darted her eyes right to him, Bates would have known she was looking at something. By sliding her eyes over him and towards something else, and then looking at other things, she just made it look like she was still disoriented, or perhaps looking for a weapon.
The problem right now was that Bates had the gun on her. If he fired, then Bates might instinctively fire at Kelly rather than in the direction of the actual gunfire, hurting her.
He couldn’t let Bates hurt her.
Ivan looked at Kelly, then flicked his eyes over to Bates.
A steely resolve came into Kelly’s face and he knew that she’d understood what he meant. Ivan cleared his throat, interrupting Bates. “Hey, fucker.”
Bates whirled, bringing his gun up, but Kelly was faster. She leaped at him tackling him and knocking him off balance. Bates dropped the gun but grabbed at her, sending them both sprawling. Ivan couldn’t get a clear shot off, not without risking hitting Kelly. He stood there, frozen, unsure of what to do.
Kelly fought well, like a goddamn tiger or something, her rage giving her an edge—but just as she reached for the scalpel on the counter, Bates grabbed her, putting her in a headlock. Kelly screamed in rage, still struggling.
Ivan felt an odd rush of pride. That was Kelly—not even giving into fear, treating a headlock like it was a mild annoyance rather than a life-threatening situation.
“Go ahead,” Bates spat. “Typical, can’t even fight their own battles themselves. Had to call you in to handle things, a wet behind the ears puppy who can’t even find his way out of a paper bag. Go ahead, shoot, see if you manage to shoot me and not her.”
Ivan felt his phone buzzing in his pocket with a phone call. It rang one, two, three times, then the person hung up.
The signal from Pavel—they had the upper hand. They were winning.
“Funny,” Ivan said, his mind racing, trying to figure out what to do. He saw Kelly’s hand inching back towards the scalpel. “Because this wet behind the ears pup and his men are kicking your asses. You should be getting the news any second now, if you want to check your phone. You’ve lost.”
Bates narrowed his eyes. “You’re lying.”
Ivan felt a slow grin spread across his face. They weren’t out of the woods yet, not until Kelly was safe, but for the first time, he felt like he was saying something based on real confidence, not on bullshit. “Do I look like I’m lying?”
Kelly’s hand seized the scalpel. “Ivan, now!”
She brought it up, stabbing it into Bates’ cheek. He howled in pain, dropping her. Kelly let herself fall to the floor, out of the way, and Ivan fired. One, twice, three times, right into Bates’ chest.
Kelly rolled out of the way as Bates fell to the ground. Ivan held out his hand and she took it, letting him pull her to standing. His arm came around her waist automatically, his other hand releasing hers so that he could feel along her spine, her neck, checking for damage. “Are you okay? You’re all right?”
Kelly nodded, giving him a small smile. “No need to do the white knight routine,” she told him. “I’m good.”
“Right, because it looked like you had it all under control until I got there,” Ivan pointed out.
Kelly sobered at that. “I’m not saying that I did. I was… unprepared. I should’ve had a gun on me. I let him catch me off-guard.”
“Then why the hell were you fighting him?”
“To give Shane time to get out,” Kelly explained. “He woke up right before Bates got here, I told him to go out the back while I held him off. I was just—I was only trying to distract him.”
Ivan squeezed her around the waist, holding on tighter. “You—” Had she not planned on getting out of this alive?
&
nbsp; “Well, I didn’t exactly plan on dying, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Kelly shrugged. “I just was prepared for the worst. If my brother was okay… that was what mattered.”
“You’re not allowed to do that again,” Ivan told her, his skin growing hot and his throat tightening at the thought of losing her. “God, five days without you was insane, I’m not going the rest of my life without you.”
“Aww, did you miss me, Sokolov?” she asked, grinning mischievously.
Ivan figured he could tease her back, and maybe on another day he would, but… not today. Not right now.
“I did,” he admitted. “I wanted you there. I kept waiting for you to say something, I kept looking over my shoulder for you.”
Kelly stared at him, her eyes going a little wide in surprise. The pink was back in her cheeks. “You—you really did miss me?”
“Trust me, I was just as surprised as you are,” Ivan told her. He brought his hand up to brush it through her hair, getting rid of any broken glass or debris in it. “Turns out my life is kind of boring without you. And a lot more stressful.”
“You’re not just saying this,” Kelly said, narrowing her eyes. “You’re not just having me on, this isn’t some kind of elaborate form of Russian humor that I just don’t get.”
“I have several Russian jokes I could share with you if you want,” Ivan told her. “They mostly involve bears. But this isn’t one of them.”
Kelly took his face in her hands, searching his eyes, peering into them like she was trying to see all the way down into his soul. “What are you trying to say to me?”
“I’m trying to say that… that you’re not allowed to go into a suicide fight,” Ivan said. “You’re not allowed to be reckless like that, not without my say-so.”
“What, because I’m your wife?”
“Because somebody’s got to help me run this damn family, and you’re the best person for the job, and also I don’t like the idea of the woman I love being in mortal danger just because she’s stubborn as fuck.”
Kelly’s face went even pinker and she stared at him. “Okay, now you’re really having me on.”
He shook his head. “No. I realized… in Moscow, without you, how much I’d grown to expect you in my life. How much I wanted you to be a part of it. I didn’t want anyone else. I just wanted you. It was all… dull, without you. And god knows you know more about how to run a family than I do.”
Kelly cleared her throat, avoiding his gaze. “Well, I guess—you’re not so bad yourself.”
“Oh?” He tightened his hand in her hair, using it to tilt her head back and force her to look into his eyes. “Is that all you have to say about it?”
“Why would I have anything else to say?” Kelly retorted. “It’s not like—being in love with you, that would be stupid, and ridiculous, and very much not—that’s not what I—”
He kissed her, and got exactly one second of resistance before Kelly melted against him, her arms looping around his neck. He pulled back, but only far enough that he could brush their noses together and say, “It’s okay to admit you missed me, too.”
Kelly huffed, like it was pulling teeth for her to say it out loud. Ivan grinned. She was never going to give him an inch, she was going to make him take every single one, and he couldn’t wait. “Maybe I did miss you. And maybe… maybe I’ve realized that I’m. A little bit. In love with you. But only a little bit, and it’s probably only because of the sex because it’s not like I find your whole stubborn alpha personality thing hot or anything—”
“Uh-huh,” he told her, kissing her again. And then again, and then again, because he could and she was being very obliging, kissing him back with fervor and fuck he wished they were in a bedroom. “Sure. Nothing about me is charming whatsoever.”
“Nothing,” Kelly whispered fiercely. “Not the whole take me on a date gentleman routine, not the fact that you can pick me up and fuck me against a wall, definitely not that you just put your entire business on the line for my family and shot a guy for me, none of that is at all charming.”
“I’ll just have to do better than, now won’t I?”
Kelly smiled against his mouth. “I guess you will.”
Then they were kissing again, and Ivan really wasn’t going to be moving from this spot for god or money, not even if Pavel strode in and said he’d given the Murphys an unconditional surrender. Which he wouldn’t have, seeing as they’d won and all, because he might actually have planned a good battle strategy. Because he might actually be good at this thing.
Until then, though, he was just going to keep kissing Kelly senseless. She was making those lovely noises in the back of her throat again, her body pressing against his, and maybe if he hauled her up onto the counter she’d spread her legs for him and…
“Oh my god,” came a whole new voice.
Kelly pulled back, her face flushing bright red. “Shane!”
Ivan turned to see Shane standing in the doorway, breathing hard. “I heard gunshots,” he said. “I couldn’t just sneak away like a fucking coward.”
“You have multiple gunshot wounds,” Kelly yelled back at him. “You could’ve popped your stitches! You’re in a hospital gown! What kind of good did you think you were going to do in your condition?”
“At least I’m not making out over a dead body,” Shane replied, and hoo boy, Ivan was definitely seeing the family resemblance now that Shane was awake and capable of sass. “Is this the guy you’re marrying, or are you already lining up boy toys?”
The growl that Ivan let out was completely involuntary. The very idea of Kelly being with someone else made him want to smash something.
“Easy there,” Kelly said, smirking at him. Then she went back to glaring at her brother. “This is my fiancé, asshole, and I don’t remember me giving you a hard time for the several side dishes you might or might not have had at my apartment over the years.”
“My sister is making out over the body of a dead guy,” Shane said, covering his eyes. “I’m going to need therapy for this. My big sister. Practically having sex—”
“Oh my god, it was not practically having sex, we were barely using tongue…”
They had been using a hell of a lot more tongue than just ‘barely’ but Ivan knew that if he wanted to live to actually marry Kelly he was going to keep his damn mouth shut right about now.
“—forget the gunshot wounds, this is what will traumatize me—”
“I sat by your bedside for a damn week and this is how you repay me, typical.”
Ivan cleared his throat. “So, war? Between two families? Might we save the sibling banter for another time?”
“Fuck,” Kelly said, pulling her cellphone out of her pocket and stepping away. “Father, he’ll want to know about Shane, about…” She looked down at Bates’ body. Spat on it. “That.”
Ivan went over to Shane, holding out his hand. “Ivan Sokolov, boss of the Sokolov family.”
“Shane O’Gill, heir to the O’Gill family,” Shane said, shaking his hand. “But then, I think you already knew that.”
Ivan nodded. “Your sister’s been real worried about you. We’re glad to see that you’re okay.”
“And I’m sure you were a real comfort during that time,” Shane said suspiciously.
“No threatening my fiancé!” Kelly yelled from across the room. “Oh, what? No, Father, sorry, Shane’s just been awake for five minutes and is already an ass…”
Ivan grinned helplessly at her. It seemed that nothing could shake Kelly’s unflappable attitude, including her cutting remarks.
“Huh,” Shane said.
“What?” Ivan asked, turning to look at him.
Shane slowly smiled, looking a lot like his sister in that moment. “You really are in love with her, aren’t you?”
Ivan knew he probably looked like an idiot, grinning like he was, but he didn’t care. “Yeah.” He looked back at Kelly, who was already on top of damage control, talking into the phone and
sending various texts and/or emails at the same time. Already handling things. “Yeah, I really am.”
Epilogue
Ivan double-checked his tie in the mirror. It was an important day, and one that he should probably be a bit more nervous about if he was in his right mind. But he’d done plenty of preparation, and he wasn’t the same person that he’d been a year ago. That person had been unsure of himself and his place, just scraping by, wondering if he was going to live up to the expectations placed upon him.
Now, he was being invited to the Caparelli’s holiday party.
Well, they had another holiday party, one that everyone got invited to, but this one—the dinner—that was one that people would kill to get an invitation to. And he meant that literally. It as a sign that you’d made it, that you were considered one of the most prestigious and powerful families in the city.
And Ivan had an invitation.
There were going to be about ten families there in total, and he had to be prepared. He couldn’t insult anyone or create any enemies, but he wasn’t allowed to create any outright alliances either—strictly against host rules. This was supposed to be a party for pleasure, not business. But he could sow the seeds, start planting some ideas in the minds of the other guests.
And he’d have plenty of help.
“You look fine,” Kelly told him, coming up from behind and wrapping her arms around him, tucking her chin over his shoulder and making eye contact with him through the mirror. “Stop worrying.”
“I’m not.”
“Sure, checking your tie five times in the last few minutes, that’s not a sign of worry at all.”’
“Remind me why I married you and not some wife who’d actually let me rest for two seconds?”
“Because your life would be boring as fuck and you don’t want that.” Kelly smiled up at him, her cheeks going the slightest bit pink. She still got a little embarrassed when it came to talking about how they felt towards one another. She was insecure, at times, about their relationship, and Ivan couldn’t blame her. He’d built up a reputation that was still sometimes hard to shake, but he was determined to prove to her every day—he meant it when he said he loved her, that he needed her.
