Arranged Bratva Love

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I didn’t consider myself aconnoisseur of women. I had no way of knowing what they were thinking or what made them tick. Some of them I understood. Money and power spoke volumes. Others wanted stuff that made them feel special. I did know there was something wrong with my wife. I didn’t know if Sophie said something to her, or the whole shopping experience had upset her. But women loved to shop, that was a constant.

I had to keep reminding myself that my wife wasn’t like other women. She was different. From what I’d come to learn of Charlotte, she didn’t have a normal childhood.

Even last night, she didn’t know how to play fucking games. What kind of life hadshe lived?

I didn’t know how to deal with her, or what to do. She’d gone quiet. There was no smile on her face, and she sat next to me in the car, not even looking out the window. When we’d taken her, she’d never been this withdrawn. Had I scared her?

Sophie had pissed me off. Yes, the one date I’d taken her on had been a fucking nightmare. She had flirted the whole night, and then at the end of it, she’d begged to suck my cock, to give me a good time. I took her home, and knew she was trying to bag herself a man of power.

When it came to women, I’d liked them easy without complications. Sophie screamed all the wrong things. This was the first time I had seen her since that disastrous date. I hadn’t wanted her to go anywhere near my wife. Her catty behavior had shone through, and now my wife was miserable.

“Were there any clothes you didn’t like that Ichose?” I asked.

“I don’t know what youchose.”

I frowned. “Why not?”

“I’m there to play my role, I don’t care what I wear.”

“Charlotte, what is going on?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“I cannot fix the problemif you don’t tell me. Did Cathy say something? Sophie?”

“Why? What are you going to do? Force them to their knees to apologize?”

Was that it? Had I scared her?

“I will not allow you to be treated like that.”

“And you think it’s okay to do that?”

“Yes, especially when it’s against my wife.” I was not going to argue about this.”Even when it’s against a woman you took on a date, who clearly had a crush on you and thought there was something more going on?” Charlotte asked.

I turn my full attention to hernow.

“You were cruel for no reason. Sophie was good enough to go on a date and have sex with, but not to marry?”

This made me chuckle. “Are you jealous?” I asked.

She shook her head and I’m pretty sure I spotted a tear in her eye.”It’s nothing. Can we just leave it alone?”

Any other day I’d be glad to dothis, but for some stupid, fucked-up reason, I couldn’t bring myself to just leave well enough alone. Running a hand down my face, I tried to ignore the woman beside me, but I don’t know why I even cared.

“Why are you crying? That woman purposefully wentout of her way to humiliate you today. You’re my wife. No one does that to me or to the Volkov Bratva.” She should be happy I hadn’t killed the bitch. No one disrespected my wife and got away with it. I was going to make sure she couldn’t get a fucking job. I’d make it my responsibility to see that she was miserable. I smiled at the very thought. I liked that idea very much.

“It’s nothing. Can’t I just cry for no reason?”

I was about to respond when atext came through, and I had no choice but to return to business. It was from Vlad. The women had been captured and were currently with the police force, more specifically the men on our payroll. This was a good thing, but I still wasn’t happy. If word got out that women had been taken, or even the intention of taking from me, there would be backlash.

I should have known thelittle trick Ivan played of faking his death would come back to bite me in the ass. Not only that, Ivan’s death had created a ripple of problems, the main one being Oleg’s territory. All that traitor needed was one implied weakness and he’d gone out of his way to exploit it. We were all forced to deal with the consequences.

Now Ivan had plans to put a brand-new brigadier in place. He had two people in mind. I had my suspicions of the two, but there was no way he’d be able to choose between them. Not only that, I didn’t believe The Butcher and The Beast could be the two people to bring Oleg’s territory back into control. There was just no way that could happen. Both were not known for being “clean” about it. They had kill rates that rivaled each other. They would turn the territory into a bloodbath.

Now that the women had been returned and were going to be processed, there was nothing for me to do other than work. The only problem I had was Charlotte. She couldn’t come with me to work. The casino was no place for her. I leaned forward and gave Hubert the details of dropping me off, and then taking Charlotte home to my penthouse suite where I’d been staying during this past month.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“I’ve got work to do.”

“And what do I need to do?”

“Get ready for this evening. The clothespurchased for today will be delivered in a couple of hours. Wear the red dress for this evening when we join Ivan for dinner.”

Ivan’s dinner invitations were always few and far between. In fact, I think I could count on one hand the number of times he’d invited me to dinner. I’d been aware of the dinners he had with Slavik and Andrei, but they had only come since they’d been married.

Was his only interest in my wife? I had to wonder if Ivan took the women out for a test drive? No, that was complete nonsense. Ivan wasn’t the kind of man who shared. If there was a woman he wanted, he’d keep her to himself. I knew enough about Ivan to know he was a selfish bastard. Hubert pulled up to the casino and without waiting for him to let me out, I did so, slammed the door closed, and slapped the top of the car, letting him know he could leave. I waited against the sidewalk, aware of people staring. I was a powerful man who drew the eye.

Once the car was back in traffic, I made my way back into the casino, and this time, I went straight toward the elevator, which would take me up to the main office. I didn’t have any other business to conduct, so I needed to get to my desk. The moment I did, I sat down, and Vlad knocked on my door. I called for him to enter.

“Everything is taken care of?”

“The women are currently being processed and will be returned totheir homes. I also made sure to include some compensation for their troubles.”

I leaned backin my chair. “And their … health?”

“Most of them were scared. They’d been drugged but it didn’t look like they’d been beaten or hurt. A rather sloppy and amateur setup.”

“Like it was last minute?” I asked.

“Exactly.”

I frowned.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering if our good friends Hank and Benjamin are being controlled by someone else, someone bigger?”

“How is that possible? They’re two nobodies.”

“Risingthe ranks of power, and easy puppets to use as no one would suspect.”

Vlad frowned as I stared at him. It would make sense as to why they were stepping up theiroperations, but also how they’d been able to set up such a sloppy trafficking gig.

Professionals had men in place. They had private places not easy to locate. They moved quickly, swiftly. Drugging girls took a lot of time, a lot of movement, as they were unable to move quickly. There was a lot happening now, and I didn’t want to take anything for granted.

“I can look into it,” Vlad said.

Benjamin and Hank were two rival city drug pins. They were low level, sneaky, but stupid at the same time. I’d dealt with them a couple of times over the years, and they’d been easy to squash.

Tapping my fingerson the desk, I thought about how hard it was to go from drug running, to creating a new drug that inhibited women, and then stealing them away. It wasn’t as simple as it sounded. Shit like that was easy to detect.”I want you to get the information on the clubs where these women were last known to be.”

“In one of our clubs.”

“We have more than one, Vlad. If Hank or Benjamin had stepped foot into one of our nightclubs, I’d have been alerted to it.”

“Do you think they’ve got someone else?” Vlad asked.

“Theyeither have someone else working for them, or they paid off one of my men to keep quiet. Either way, I need answers, so I can deal with each part accordingly.”

If my men could be easily bought off, then they had to go. I didn’t accept disloyalty. I wouldn’t even tolerate a bad word said about Ivan. If I ever heard of discord with the Volkov Bratva, I took care of it personally.

“I’m on it.”

I didn’t stop Vlad as he left my office.

Sitting back, I brought up the security screens of my casino, and checkedto make sure everything was running smoothly. In the last twenty-four hours, I’d attacked Hank and Benjamin’s places and burned them to the ground, as well as removed their potential business avenue with the girls. There would be retaliation, I just had to wait for it to happen.

The text came through seconds later to say Charlotte was at the penthouse suiteand Hubert would be taking care of her. The reminder of my wife brought with it a question of why she’d been fucking crying. I don’t even know why I cared so much. Women cried. It was part of their DNA.

Putting my cell phone down, I thought over this morning. I’d taken her shopping, dealtwith the rudeness directed at her. Swiftly nipping it in the bud, because it was unacceptable. I didn’t like any of this.

Something didn’t feel right. I understood the cheekiness of Hank and Benjamin. They wereamateurs, but even they knew their limitations, which once again told me someone else was pulling the strings, but who? Why? Where? I didn’t like not having answers to my questions. I needed to find them and soon.