Page 29 of The Enemy of My Enemy: Pt. 2

“I don’t want options,” I fired back.“I want you.Above everything else in my life, you are the only thing that I want, and if the traitor ends up being my father or brother, I will handle that.”

“And that’s what I’m trying to save you from,” she insisted.“It’s easy to say the words, but if it really came down to it, that’s not a decision that you’re going to want to make.”

I reached out, grabbed her chin, then yanked her forward.“Though it’s quite obvious that you don’t believe me, I love you.I love you in a way that I hadn’t ever imagined possible, and if you think for one minute that I’d ever just stand by and let you go at this alone, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

Not backing down, she said, “You’ll just get in my way.”

I let go of her chin, then leaned back before I strangled the fuck out of her.“I’m going to say this only once, and I need you to really, really fucking listen, Aurora.You don’t have an option here.While I can admit to you having me wrapped around your finger in this room, outside of it,myword is law.I give the orders, and I expect you to follow them, no matter what you’re capable of.Do you understand me?”

“You can’t honestly expect me to agree to that,” she replied, almost as if nothing that I’d said was registering.“You can’t seriously expect me to follow you blindly, husband or not.”

“I expect you to honor your fucking vows andobeyme when I tell you something,” I bit out, and it was clearly the wrong thing to say, but I wasn’t backing down on this one.

“And maybe if someone hadn’t tried to kill me on your watch, I would,” she fired back, cutting me off at the knees.“So, a little piece of advice, Viktor; do not turn this into a pride thing, because it’s not.This is about a sonofabitch trying to kill me and nothing more.”

“And that’s the difference between you and me, Aurora,” I replied.“To you, this is just another day at the office, another Marchetti problem that needs to be taken care of.However, to me, this is about how someone tried to killmy wife, and I can’t see it any other way.Besides, the last thing that I’ll ever allow is for your family to have a reason to take you from me, and cowardice would be a valid reason.”

“Viktor-”

“I said no!”I thundered, done with her bullshit.“I said no, and so help me God, if you defy me on this, I will handcuff you to my wrist, and freedom will become a long-forgotten memory for you.Now, have I made myself fucking clear,zhena?”

Aurora arched a brow.“Crystal.”

“Good,” I bit out.“Now get some sleep.We have to meet with my father in the morning.”

Luckily, she didn’t argue with me, but that really didn’t make me feel any better.

Chapter 14

Aurora~

Once again, I was back in Aleksei Korolev’s office, and while it was necessary, I wasn’t all that thrilled at having to have this conversation.While Viktor and I were at a crossroads in our marriage, I still didn’t trust Aleksei or Kasimir Korolev, and so I was struggling with having to tell them the truth about what had happened at the pier.

As for Viktor’s nonsense last night, I’d chosen sleep over pointless arguing, especially since Viktor had to know that I wasn’t about to sit this one out.He could beat on his chest all that he wanted, but it wouldn’t make any difference in the end.No matter what, I was going to find out who came after me, and Viktor was just going to have to deal with it.

“I’m glad to see that you are doing well,” Aleksei said, kicking off the meeting.“We were all quite worried about you.”