Married to the Mafia Boss

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In the hospital, it was almost too calm.

The comforting white walls, the tranquil room where all I could hear was my breathing, and the sound of Yuri’s monitor was a sanctuary at this point.

I stood over Yuri’s body, watching him sleep. He’d regain consciousness soon enough, but he looked peacefully asleep for now.

Peaceful because he didn’t know that Katya had been kidnapped by that bastard, if he did, I wondered if he’d be able to sleep as well or if he’d be like me that hadn’t been able to get more than an hour of sleep each day.

We were razing down Triev properties one after the other and every time turned up as empty as the last.

It was as if all my effort was futile, a waste, but I had no plans of letting up.

Somebody knocked on the door, and my brothers entered, quieter than they ever did in my office, out of respect for Yuri.

“I thought you’d be here,’ Frankie said, coming to stand beside me. Dome went around the bed, to lean on the windowsill.

“Nothing still?” I asked them both even though I already knew the answer. They’d have called me the moment there was new intel.

“Nothing about Katya yet,” Dom answered, frowning. “I’m starting to think maybe his taking her wasn’t something too many of his people knew. No matter how high up.”

Frankie nodded. “That’s very likely, it would have been the cunning thing to do.”

“But we’re practically undoing all the progress they’d managed to make in the city so far,” Dom opined, “I mean, we’re tearing down a lot of properties he’d managed to acquire for his family, and he still refuses to make a move.”

“That’s true. He’ll be making demands soon enough.”

I nodded at what Frankie said.

As if on cue, my phone rang, and I answered it without bothering to check who the caller was.

Maxim would call with a burner phone.

I wasn’t even surprised when I heard his voice.

“I’d hoped you’d take longer with your demands,” I said coolly into the phone. Both my brothers looked at me, listening quietly.

His laughter irritated my ears especially through the phone. “Come now, I couldn’t let you ruin everything I’d laid down.”

“What? Besides sorry excuses for businesses and warehouses, what else does the Trievs have?”

“Well, I’m sure compared to you we probably don’t have a lot, now, do we? Except maybe your precious wife.” I gripped the phone tighter and narrowed my eyes. “Who, may I say, is downright seductive, especially when beaten up. If I’d known she was in the market for a husband, I might have snatched her right up…earlier than I did, I mean.”

“I will say this once, Maxim, so listen carefully. I will forgive everything you have done so far, from my cargo ship to kidnapping my wife, but only if you return her now.”

He whistled into the speaker. “Well, that’s great, Ales. Exactly what I was hoping for because I do, in fact, plan on returning your precious Katya. But first, I have demands, as you might have already guessed.”

I didn’t say anything, he’d start listing them soon enough.

“No, wait, I have just one demand actually, aren’t you a lucky man? I want all your assets in New York.”

That made no sense.

“In exchange for my wife, you want me to hand over everything in my territory?”

Maxim laughed again, and the sound of it reached inside my ear for my brain, to grate it. “Come one, Ales, I am not a fool. I know how to make demands. I meant hand over your New York territory. Since the merger with the Petrenkos, I’m sure you are managing such a large territory must be straining.”

He was being unreasonable, and if he was as sneaky as I suspected, it might have been on purpose.

It hurt to say, but as much as I loved Katya, this exchange was completely unreasonable. “I will do nothing like that,” I stated clearly.

“I’m sure I can change your mind, Ales. I really can, but I cannot guarantee you will like my…methods.”

He was using Katya to threaten me.

“Give me a reasonable offer I can accept. I won’t trade everything we have built here for her.”

Frankie’s eyes narrowed when he heard what I said.

“Oof! I’ll be sure to relay the message, I’m sure she’d love to hear just how little she means to you. Honesty is, after all, the best policy. Be expecting my mind-change methods soon, Mr. Sorvino.”

The call ended.