Page 50 of Married with Blood
With time, more of the guards and soldiers would come to see her with the same level of faith that they’d put in Elena after she’d come here.
But it didn’t escape my notice that she was withdrawn in a different respect. Almost as though she’d been struggling with how she’d been sent to marry me with no farewell to the life she’d lived.
In the morning after a late-night planning exercise where we devised another way to test who in the distribution and smuggling industry was changing their loyalties, Lev commented on her seeming glum and more distracted than usual.
“Maybe she’s pregnant?” he guessed.
I shot him a look. “Isn’t that a lame and stereotypical guess?”
He shrugged. “I’m assuming it’s a valid one.”
It was valid only in the sense that Carina and I never used protection. And neither of us could keep our hands off each other.
“She would tell me,” I said.
He arched a brow. “Would she?”
I supposed he was thinking of how Elena had acted differently and more subdued when she knew she was pregnant and hesitated to own up to it with Adrik. Reminded of how my brother had been so excited to become a father prompted me to wonder howIwould react. I had enough of a headache in the beginning of balancing my responsibilities of overseeing shipments to incorporate the burden of fitting a wife into my life. At least, I had viewed it as a burden.
But a child?
It’d be something else to pull at my attention, but as the concept simmered in my mind, it wasn’t a bad one. Fatherhood didn’t intimidate me as much as marrying had, perhaps because I knew that Carina and I wouldbothbe in charge of raising our son or daughter.
Enough. She’s not pregnant. She would’ve said something, and it’s only been two months since she’s been here.
“I would like to think so.” I sighed, watching her with Nikolai and Alexei as they conferred about other ways to test who could be under Gregori’s influence. “I think she’s feeling… stuck.”
“Stuck?” He smirked. “She’s got to be getting used to the idea of being married by now.”
“Not just the marriage.” I rubbed my jaw. “But something more like a displacement. I suspect Arturo didn’t arrange for her to marry me out of any show of good faith between our families.”
He shrugged. “You thought that since the beginning.”
“Yes, but now that I’m picking up on how much she thrives on being valued and how much she seems to enjoy earning the praise for her intelligence, I think she’s realizing how little he valued her.”
“Kind of like how John Morovov used Elena to do the accounting for him.”
“Yes and no. Morovov didn’t even know how to do any bookkeeping. He assumed that aligning with Gregori would be the solution to getting an easy life.”
“Like Arturo might be with the Cartel if he’s shifting that way.”
I nodded. “Instead of ever acknowledging how much Carina knows about the smuggling operations and letting her help him with advice, he got rid of her to have her out of the way.”
He faced me fully, contemplating it.
“From the little she has said, she views Arturo as impulsive and selfish.” I furrowed my brow at the uneasiness that gnawed atme with the thought of Carina being unhappy for so long. “She makes him sound as though he’s not receptive to advice.”
He grunted, shaking his head. It did sound like a ridiculous concept, because it was one we didn’t embrace. Adrik was taking over as the interim Pakhan for my father, but we all worked as a team. Always. None of us would ever let the power get to our heads.
“If Arturo’s lured to go with Gregori’s network and cut out of our trade agreement, Carina would be the person to tell him not to. She’s too passionate about caring what happens to the Cartel. She’s proud to call herself a member of the Garcia Cartel. And I think in her eyes, she views herself as someone who should be an ambassador between our families, with true goodwill and intentions behind this union.”
“Yeah, that would applyifArturo isn’t going to the dark side with Gregori.”
“Until we can tell what he’s up to…” I shrugged.I just have to have faith in her and her willingness to really be mine.
That night, though, I couldn’t ignore how sullen she was. How down she seemed to be since Enrique had tipped her off about the Cartel being ruined.
After she showered and went to bed, I cleaned up and wondered how to approach it.
