Page 39 of The Enemy of My Enemy: Pt. 2

“Marrying you doesn’t erase that I have a family of my own,” I shot back.

“I’m your fucking family!”he roared in my face.“I’m the most important family that you have!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I still have parents, Viktor,” I almost yelled back.“I have brothers, cousins, nieces, and nephews.I wasn’t an orphan when you married me, and they deserve to know if I’m in trouble or not.”

“This is not about them knowing if you’re in trouble,” he argued.“This is about them trying to take control of the situation, and that’s unacceptable.”

“It was a Marchetti that kicked this off,” I reminded him.“Of course, it’s their place to take care of the situation.”

“It was a Marchetti who ordered the hit, but Armen was a Korolev,” he fired back.“And not only did he work for us, but the hit also took place on our territory, which makes thisourproblem to handle.”

I threw my arms up in frustration.“Jesus Christ, you guys are over here bumping dicks like territorial idiots when the truth is that I don’t needanyof you guys to handle this for me.I can take care of whoever is behind this myself.”

“Over my dead body,” he spat as he grabbed my arm, yanking me towards him.“I almost lost you once, and if you think that I’m willing to ever go through that again, you’re very mistaken,zhena.”

I jerked back, freeing my arm as I said, “You’re not comparing apples to apples.We were unaware about the set up when I’d been attacked, and that’s the difference.”

“It’s not me missing the point, it’s you,” he flung back.“I am a Korolev, the first son.What do you think would happen to the structure of things if it got out that we allowed the Marchettis to avenge you?”Before I could remark on that, he added, “I’d die before ever allowing your family to have that level of power over us.”

“That goes both ways, Viktor,” I bit out.“Someone in their fold betrayed them, and you’re out ofyourmind if you think that they’ll just stand back and do nothing.Besides, I thought that we were all in agreement about who would handle what.”

After my father had shut down the conversation about cheating, we had discussed possible strategies and all kinds of other stuff pertaining to the attack.We had narrowed down suspects, and it’d even been agreed upon that Kasimir would speak to Armen’s sister and niece, minus the usual torture methods that the man was used to.

“We did, but this is about you not knowing your place,” he shot back, and fire licked down my spine like a coiled viper, ready to strike.

“Excuse me?”

“You still think that you’re a Marchetti, and you’re not,” he said, ignoring the warning in my tone.“You’re a Korolev, and it’s time that you start acting like it.”

“Or else what?”I challenged.

“Don’t do that, Aurora,” he warned.“Do not test me when I’m feeling like this.”

A normal woman would have listened, but I was definitely far from a normal woman.

Chapter 19