Bratva Bride (Bratva Series Book 1)

The sound of my office door opening made me look up from the screen I was glaring at, filled with so many numbers it was giving me a fucking headache. Vincenzo was standing directly in front of me, his dark hair styled neatly for once and wearing a light grey suit with a black tie.

‘What do you want?” I asked, looking back to the iPad in front of me. I didn’t have the time to talk right now, not unless it was important.

As Underboss, I oversaw all our Capos, making sure they were doing their job and keeping our soldiers in line. There was a certain hierarchy to the Cosa Nostra. My father, as Don, was in charge of everyone and everything but he delegated certain tasks to others. Vin was our enforcer, responsible for dealing out punishments to those who deserved it – and he was usually brutal about it. I not only dealt with our Capos and lower rank soldiers, but also kept the books for our businesses, making sure everything matched up.

We owned several different companies as well as a few small-time businesses, which all required monitoring on a daily basis. We also had our not-so-legal enterprises. We owned the drug trade here in New York. If you wanted a little something, it came from us. Coke, meth, heroin, weed. You name it, we had it. And we were the only ones to sell it.

If we caught anyone else selling shit in our territory, we made an example out of them, making sure it was crystal fucking clear what happened when you sold in our territory. Right now, I was sifting through our accounts, running the numbers on our latest drop. Something wasn’t adding up. We were missing money and I had no idea why. Over $50,000 just poof, gone…into thin fucking air.

Vin took a seat, leaning his big body back into the chair and kicked his boots up onto my desk. ‘You don’t look so good, big brother. Tired?’ he smirked.

I scowled at him and knocked his feet back to the ground. ‘Don’t put your shoes on my desk you little shit. What’s so important you had to come in here and bug me?’

Vin straightened and his green eyes connected with mine, all sense of humour vanishing from his face. “What’s going on? That’s your ‘I’m going to kill someone’ voice.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have a voice like that.”

“Uh, ya, you do. Now spill.”

I cracked my neck, trying to relieve some of the tension in my body and handed him the iPad. “We’re missing money.”

His eyes flew over the screen as his fingers scrolled through the figures. “Shit,” he breathed. “That’s, what-”

“$51,365,” I growled, my anger soaring.

“Fuck. Does Dad know?”

“Not yet.” I took the iPad back and placed it on the desk. “Who’s responsible for handling the cash at the drop houses?”

“Marco’s in charge of the houses north of the city and Diego’s responsible for the south.”

We had five drop houses altogether spread throughout the city. It was where we stored all our cash until it could be laundered safely through our businesses and into our accounts. The houses were small and inconspicuous so as not to attract attention. They weren’t even in our name. On the off chance they got raided, we didn’t want the money traced back to us. Anyone with access was now a suspect.

I kept meticulous records of everything, from how much of our drugs have hit the streets to how much money we should have for said drugs. Once a week, I visited every drop house to confirm the cash on hand matched what we had on file. And this was the first time that it didn’t. It meant someone was skimming off the top, taking a little bit of cash here and there and hoping we wouldn’t notice.

“I want a list of everyone who has access to the drop houses. From the handlers to the soldiers guarding the place. I want everyone.”

“On it,” Vin pulled out his phone, running the names down.

I was going to find out who was responsible, who had the gall to steal from us, and I was going to flay them alive and dump their body in the fucking street so everyone could see what happened when they fucked with us. With me.

“In the meantime, we’re going to pay a visit to Marco and Diego, find out what they have to say about this shit.”

Vin looked up from his phone and smiled, a truly dark and evil smile. “Sounds good to me. Oh, by the way, did you tell Gabriella yet? That you’re no longer planning to marry her?”

I winced. No, I hadn’t. I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. Gabriella and I had known each other since childhood. It was never written in stone but it was always assumed we would marry. Ever since she turned eighteen, my father had pushed me to wed her. She was now twenty-four and had waited the last six years for me to propose.

She was a beautiful woman and came from a good, strong Italian family. She was well behaved, never fought with anyone, never argued. She was always polite and spoke appropriately. The perfect little stepford wife who lived for pleasing a husband and doing whatever he commanded.

I always thought that was what I wanted in a wife. Someone who listened unconditionally and wouldn’t question me. Then the hurricane that is Illayana Volkov swept into my life and blew all of that out of the water. I realised after meeting her that I didn’t want a weak, docile wife. I wanted a fighter. A Queen.

When my father first told me he was stepping down as Don, he told me I had to marry before he would allow me to take his place. He suggested I finally bite the bullet and marry Gabriella. I didn’t want to, but I would have if I hadn’t met Illayana.

When Gabriella finds out that I’m marrying someone else instead, someone who wasn’t even Italian, she was going to lose it. She could have married three times over by now if she wasn’t waiting on me.

“I’m going to take that look on your face as a no,” Vin chuckled. “What are you going to do?”

“What do you think?” I asked sarcastically. I picked up my phone and after a short conversation, hung up.

There was a knock at my office door a few minutes later. I leaned back in my chair and told them to come in.

Enzo walked in, his face hard and body tight. He was tall and lean, with thick dark hair and even darker eyes, eyes that showed he had been through a lot in his life and he was scarred because of it. He was one of our most loyal and devoted Capos. He was also Gabriella’s father.

He came to a stop in front of my desk and bowed slightly. “Boss.”

“Enzo, thank you for coming.”

He nodded and widened his stance, arms clasped behind his body, waiting to find out why I had called him into my office.

“I wanted to discuss something with you. As you know, we recently had a meeting with the Bratva to establish an alliance and gain some new weaponry against our fight with Nero Gambino.”

“Yes, boss. Did you manage to get what you were after?”

“Oh, he did alright,” Vin whispered under his breath, and I glared in warning.

“We did. A case of high-powered machine guns will be delivered within the week,” I answered.

“That’s great, boss.” He looked around the room uncertainly. “What, uh, did you need from me?”

I sighed and looked him in the eye. “To strengthen the bond of our alliance, a marriage was proposed.”

He stiffened, nostrils flaring but didn’t say a word.

“Please apologise to your daughter on my behalf, but our engagement will not be going through. I will be marrying a Bratva woman.”

Anger flashed across Enzo’s face. He licked his lips and glanced between Vin and I. “Is this a joke, boss?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Do I seem like a joking man, Enzo?”

“It doesn’t make sense otherwise, sir. For the past six years it has been discussed that you would marry my daughter and now, now it’s no longer happening? You can’t do this.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m going to allow that brief lapse in etiquette because I know how confusing this must seem to you. But that is all I’m going to allow, do you understand?” I said darkly, letting my voice drop. “I want you to take notice of the fact that you said ‘discussed,’ not arranged. I never said that I would marry her. Yes, there were discussions of it over the years, but that’s all they were. Discussions. I have made my decision, and this is how it’s going to be. Understood?”

He stared at me, shock and anger radiating from him. He nodded stiffly. “Understood. Was there anything else?”

I waved him away and he left, his feet stomping loudly on my Italian marble flooring.

Vin blew out a breath. “That went well,” he chuckled sarcastically.

I grunted and stood, buttoning my suit jacket. One problem down, another to go. “Get your shit, we’re going to see Diego and Marco.”

My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket, glancing at the screen.

Illayana.

Vin groaned. Loudly. ‘I know that look. We don’t have time for you to have phone sex with your girlfriend right now, we’ve got shit to deal with.’

‘She’s my fiancé, not my girlfriend. And you’ll wait,’ I commanded as I accepted the call.

‘Kotenok, chto ya mogu sdelat’ dlya vas?” Kitten, what can I do for you?I asked in flawless Russian.

‘Don’t freak out,’ her voice came through strained, like she was tired.

The hair on the back of my neck immediately went up and my body became rigid. Her tone of voice didn’t sound distressed, but her words had me concerned. Vin gave me a confused look as I slowly sat back down. I had a feeling I should be sitting when she spoke next.

‘There’s been an. . . incident.’

My hand gripped the phone tighter. ‘What kind of incident?’

‘Arturo, you need to be calm. I can hear the anger in your voice already and I’ve barely spoken.’

‘I’m not angry. I’m fine,’ I said a little too quickly. ‘What happened?’

She took a deep breath in and exhaled, like she was preparing herself.

“Illayana,” I growled, my frustration growing the longer she remained silent. “What. Happened?”

‘We were ambushed. Ten thugs cornered and attacked Lukyan and I. I can’t be sure, but they might have been Los Zetas. One of them spoke Spanish.’

My anger spiked all over again. Rage pounded into me like a drumbeat. That stupid motherfucker Nero. I didn’t anticipate him going for Illayana, though I should have. He would do anything to hurt us and going after my future wife was a good fucking way to do it. He didn’t have the balls to go after us directly anymore, because we came out on top every time. Instead, he played stupid little games, hitting our trade routes and stealing our drugs, trying to fuck up our business and cut us off. Since the Los Zetas joined the fight, he’s grown more ballsy, encroaching more and more into our territory but then pulling back before we had a chance to strike back.

Now he’s gone after Illayana.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, trying to calm myself like she said. It didn’t work. No one touched what was mine.

‘Fuckers!’ I yelled, slamming my fist on the desk. The wood splintered from the impact. ‘Are you okay? Where the fuck was Lorenzo?’

‘Arturo. Calm,’ she soothed. ‘I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt and Lorenzo was with me.’

‘He was there? He protected you?’

She laughed. I had no idea what the fuck was so funny right now.

‘I don’t need protection Arturo, but yes. He was there. As well as Adrian, my other bodyguard.’

Vin was still watching me intently. He could tell something was up and he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

‘I’m sending another guard to you. Two’s not enough, especially if they’re sending that many men after you. Where are you now?’

I balanced the phone between my ear and shoulder as I scribbled a note on a piece of paper and handed it to Vin. He took it without question and read it. He gave me a quick nod and he typed something into his phone, putting it to his ear as he walked out of the room.

‘On my way home. I’m covered in blood and in desperate need of a shower.’

‘Blood?!’ I roared. ‘You said you weren’t hurt!’

‘It’s not mine, Arturo.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good. That’s good. Look, when you get home, I want you to stay there. Don’t leave. I’m coming.’

‘No, there’s no need. I’m honestly fine. My father has gone into overprotective mode and I couldn’t be safer at the moment.’

‘I don’t give a fuck! The jet is being prepped and will be ready in a few hours. I’m coming, Illayana. I’ll be there by tonight. End of discussion,’ I snapped.

She sighed, but didn’t argue anymore. ‘Fine then. Would you like to hear some good news?’ Her tone of voice instantly changed from strained to downright giddy.

‘Sure. I could use some good news right about now.’ Vin came back into the room and took a seat. He gave me a subtle nod to inform me the jet was being prepared, but other than that remained silent.

‘We have a prisoner.’

I immediately sat up straight, a smile spreading across my face and excitement bubbling through me. ‘A prisoner, you say?’

She giggled. ‘Yes. My father plans to have a few words with him.’

‘I bet he does. I want to talk to him, too.’

‘Hold on.’ She started speaking to someone, though I couldn’t hear exactly what was being said. The voices started to get louder and more pronounced until finally she returned. ‘My father’s agreed to wait until you get here to question him. But if you take too long, he’ll start without you.’

‘That’s fair enough,’ I replied, leaning back in my chair. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘I promise I’m fine. You worry too much,’ she chuckled. ‘I have to go. We’re pulling up to the house.’

‘Okay. I’ll be there later tonight, Illayana. And I’m gonna make that fucker pay.’

‘You’re gonna have to get in line. There’s a lot of people who want to have words with him.’

‘I’m at the top of the line. Everyone else can have what’s left over.’

‘So bossy,’ she chuckled. ‘I’ll see you later, Arturo’

‘Ciao gattina. Stai attento.’Goodbye kitten. Be safe. I said in Italian.

‘Anche tu.’You too.

I swear, whenever she speaks Italian, I got goosebumps. I hung up the phone and looked at Vin.

‘Bad news I take it?’ he asked, tilting his head to the side.

‘You’ve got no fucking idea,’ I grumbled as I got to my feet. ‘Come on. Let’s go see Marco and Diego. I’ll explain everything on the way.’

We pulled up in front of Bare Essentials, one of the many buildings we own located in downtown New York. At night, it was a high end strip club. But during the day, it was where we packed and distributed our drugs.

Both Marco and Diego were meant to be here, but whether or not they were doing their jobs or getting their dicks sucked by the girls was anyone’s guess.

I stepped out of my Mercedes, buttoning up my suit jacket. I was wearing an all-black suit, with a black tie and black shoes. I looked dark. Evil. Just the way I liked it. Vin stepped up and walked beside me as we made our way to the entrance. A black SUV pulled up behind my car and four of my men got out, moving to take up position behind us.

“I can’t believe those fuckers sent ten guys after them,” Vin said, shaking his head. “How the hell were they able to hold off that many? It was just the four of them?”

I had no idea. Ten was a lot for four to handle. I knew the Bratva were skilled in their training and I knew Illayana was capable of fighting. She proved that the night I broke into her house. But still, how did they manage to beat that many? Not that I’m complaining.

“Got no clue,” I grumbled. “As far as I know it was just Lukyan, Illayana and her two bodyguards.” I was still pissed that she’d been attacked to start with, and I was itching to get my hands on that prisoner they had.

“You gotta admit, that’s pretty badass though.”

“I don’t have to admit shit,” I hissed. “She shouldn’t have been attacked in the first place.”

“Calm your farm, I highly doubt it’s the first time she’s been attacked. She’s the daughter of the Pakhan. She’s probably attacked weekly.”

I glared at him and his hands shot up in a defensive gesture, his palms facing outwards.

“Whoa, I was just sayin’.”

“Just shut your mouth, how about that?”

“Righto, cujo.”

Two men were stationed outside the strip club, guarding the front door. As we made our approach, they both nodded. One of the men turned and opened the door, allowing us to step inside. The place was completely empty, apart from the stages, tables, and stripper poles distributed throughout the room.

‘Did you tell them we were coming?’ I asked Vin as we made our way over to the office at the back of the building.

‘Nope,’ he replied, popping the ‘p’.

‘Good.’

I opened the office door and wasted no time making my way over to the bookcase. I searched through the books until I found The Art of War and tilted it back. The bookcase shook as it opened wide, revealing a hidden passage. We followed the staircase down into the basement until we came to a large steel door. A keypad was on the wall on the right-hand side of the door, and I quickly put in my personal eight-digit code.

The red light above the keypad turned green and the door swung open.

The room was filled with half naked people, all working to cut, clean and package our drugs. Most were women, dressed in just their bras and underwear. The few men in the room were guards, stationed along the walls and monitoring the floor. No one acknowledged us as we moved throughout the room, which was exactly the way I preferred it. I was paying these people to do a job and mind their own business.

I flicked my wrist at two of the men, who came inside with me; Christian and Luca. They were identical twins who have been at my side for years. They were both big guys, packed with muscle and were incredible fighters. Dark-haired and blue-eyed beasts.

‘You two, stay out here and monitor the work. I want to know if anything is amiss,’ I commanded as I continued to the back office.

‘Yes, boss,’ they both said at the exact same time.

Fuck, I hated when they did that. It was creepy as fuck.

Vin and my remaining two guards, Stefano and Thomas, stayed close by my side as I stood in front of the door. I turned to Vin and he gave me a cheeky smile.

He was way too excited for this.

I raised my leg and kicked in the door.

‘Knock, knock,’ I sang as I stepped in.

I was greeted with a high pitch shriek of terror and Marco’s bare, white ass. Lovely. A red-haired woman was on her knees in front of Marco, her hair dishevelled and lipstick smudged. All she had on was a skimpy lace outfit and what had to be at least six-inch hooker heels.

‘What the fuck?!’ Marco screamed as he pushed the woman to the side and turned to face us, grabbing a gun.

The second he saw it was me, his smile dropped. He was a short, stumpy guy, about 5’6 with short brown hair. His eyes were frozen wide open in fear, the gun in his hand trembling.

‘Mr-Mr De Luca,’ he stuttered. ‘What a surprise.’

‘Ah, so you do know who I am.’ Vin moved from my side, walking menacingly around the room. He took out a knife from his sheath and started spinning the blade in between his fingers. His go to scare tactic.

‘Of course, sir.’

‘So why the fuck are you still pointing a gun at me?’ I growled.

He paled and immediately lowered his gun. ‘I’m sorry, sir.’

I pointed at the redhead cowering in the corner. ‘You. Out.’

She got to her feet instantly and ran from the room at full speed. Marco’s lips twitched, like he wanted to say something but luckily for him, he stayed quiet. I moved to the large wooden desk in the centre of the room and sat behind it, leaning back comfortably in the black leather chair. It was a classic power play. I wanted him to see that even if this was his office, his desk, I owned it all.

Marco frowned. ‘I wasn’t expecting you sir.’

‘I bet you weren’t. Nevertheless, I’m here. And we have an issue to discuss.’ I narrowed my eyes and felt an odd sense of satisfaction as he squirmed underneath my gaze.

‘Is-issue sir?’

‘Stop stuttering,’ I snapped. ‘Where’s Diego?”

“Diego? I don’t know sir.”

“You don’t? He’s meant to be here with you, isn’t he?”

“Well, yes, but he called earlier to say he couldn’t make it in. He’s sick.”

“Sick?” I repeated, my voice dropping low.

Marco gulped. “Yes-yes, sir.”

“You’ll have to do then. Remind me what your job is, Marco?”

He glanced uneasily around the room. “M-my job is to oversee the distribution of the coke and meth and deliver the cash to the drop houses.”

I smiled and kicked my feet up onto the desk, crossing them at the ankles. “Correct. And if a problem were to arise, say a large sum of money went missing, who would be responsible for that?”

Fear flashed across his face and he turned white as a sheet. “Missing, sir?”

“Missing. Poof. Gone, like magic.”

“Is-” he licked his lips nervously, “is this hypothetical, sir?”

“I don’t know Marco, is it?” I whispered darkly.

He shifted from one foot to the other, avoiding eye contact. Vin continued to circle him, his knife flipping through the air. “Sir, I don’t know what’s going on-”

Enough games.

I grabbed a pen and with blinding speed, jumped over the desk and jammed it into his neck. He screamed and tried to back away, but Vin placed his hands on his shoulders, holding him in place. I kept my hand around the pen as I pushed it further in.

“Now, I just punched a hole in your carotid artery. That means you have about sixty seconds before you pass out,’ I drove the pen a little further in, enjoying his scream of agony. ‘Talk. Now,’ I growled.

‘Sir, please! I have no idea what’s going on!”

“You don’t? Are you sure? You don’t know a little something about where my money went?”

“No! I swear!” His body shook, blood pouring freely down his neck, drenching his clothes.

“Well, someone has to know something, Marco. You’re in charge of the money, you and Diego. So, if it’s not you, then it has to be Diego. Is that what you’re telling me?”

“Yes! Yes, it has to be Diego. Please sir, don’t kill me.”

I eyed him suspiciously. I couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth or not. I’ve come across some magnificent liars in my time. He could be one.

“Well, don’t worry Marco, we’re going to get this matter straightened out right away. We’ll find out who’s taken my money.” I ripped the pen out of his neck and he screamed, dropping to his knees. I pulled a silk handkerchief from my pocket and held it to the wound, applying pressure.

I crouched and locked eyes with him. “And when we do, they’re going to pray for a swift death. I promise you that.”

I rose to my full height and looked at Vin, nodding to Marco sobbing on his knees. “Patch him up and take him to the dungeon. We’ll continue this when we find Diego.”