Page 48 of The Enemy of My Enemy: Pt. 2

Chapter 23

Viktor~

I kept thinking that I couldn’t get any more pissed than I’d already been, but my wife kept surprising me in a way that was going to send me to an early grave, and not from a bullet.Aurora had my blood pressure spiked in a way that threatened a heart attack at any moment.

After Kasimir had called me about Aurora wanting to speak to Darya and Zoya Orlova herself, it’d been on the tip of my tongue to automatically deny her request, but I’d thought about what Roman had said about trusting her, and so I had agreed to let her go with the stipulation that Kasimir be with her at all times; that had been non-negotiable, except that I had underestimated my wife once again, and Roman’s words were really beginning to register.

Finally.

Convinced that letting Aurora question the Orlovas had been the right thing, I’d given a little more when Aurora had texted that she’d wanted to go get something to eat and had promised to take Isaak and Dima with her.As much as I’d wanted to insist on Kasimir escorting her, I’d chosen to try my hand at picking my battles, and it had become quite clear that I was no good at that particular endeavor when I couldn’t get ahold of my wife again.

Once I’d gotten home and couldn’t find her, I had called Kasimir for more details about their meeting, then after getting off the phone with him, I had sent her a text, asking where the fuck she was.Thirty minutes had gone by before I had called Isaak, demanding that he bring my wife home immediately, and that’s when he had hit me with another inconvenient truth about my wife.

According to Isaak, Aurora had instructed them to drive her to Ivory Street, assuring them that her Italian guards would see her to her father’s house.Now, while my first instinct had been to kill both Isaak and Dima for handing her over to the Italians, they didn’t know that the person behind the hit on her life was a Marchetti, so I could see how they had believed that she’d be in good hands.However, that didn’t help me in finding my wife, because knowing her the way that I did, I had no doubt that she had ditched her guards, if I could even call it that.Along with her father and brothers, Aurora had ruled Marchetti territory for so long that they probably let her do whatever the fuck that she wanted.

Nevertheless, once again, Aurora had me by the balls.No matter what, I couldn’t go into Marchetti territory uninvited, and it was clear from my conversation with Roman that he trusted his daughter to handle anything that came her way, so what in the hell did she need me for?

So, once again, I was pacing the floor of my office, calling my wife and trying my hardest not to just march into enemy territory and murder her anyway.It was also clear that this was about more than just me viewing her as an equal, because it was becoming quite obvious that she didn’t see me that way, either.If she did, then I’d know where the fuck she was right now.

“Maybe you guys should just lead separate lives at this point,” Kasimir drawled out as he walked into my office, making me stop to look over at him.

“What?”

“I know you, Viktor,” he said.“I know you better than anyone else, and I can see you actually strangling your wife one day, and that won’t be good for anyone.”

I shot him a look.“While I appreciate the sage advice, my wife doesn’t get to live a life without me.”

“Hate to break it to you, but it seems as if she already is,” he retorted.“It would explain how you don’t know where she is again.”

“I will fucking kill you,” I warned him.“I’m at my wit’s fucking end, Kasimir.”

The asshole just grinned at me.“Well, at the very least, your wife isn’t a dullard.”

I eyed my brother as I leaned up against my desk.“I can’t wait until you finally fall in love.I’m going to rub it in your face every chance I get.”

Kasimir genuinely laughed at that threat.“Unlike you, if I ever find a woman who’s unfortunate enough to be the object of my affections, she won’t be able tobreathewithout me knowing about it.”

“You don’t say,” I drawled out.

“Well, in all fairness, there’s not a Mafia princess in my future, so that’s easy to say,” he replied, another easy grin on his face.

Ignoring his bullshit, I said, “I need to find my wife.”

Kasimir let out a low breath.“Well, we can always go back to the Orlovas and find out if Aurora said anything to them.”

My eyes immediately narrowed at him.“I thought you said that you were with her the entire time?”

“I...I was,” he hedged.“Uhm, except for when she asked to speak to Darya Orlova privately.”

My entire body stiffened.“What?”

“Relax, I was in the kitchen the whole time,” he went on, not making me feel any better.“I held the daughter hostage to make sure that nothing untoward happened.”

I could feel a vein in my neck pulsing wildly.“Why would you leave her, Kasimir?”