Filthy Secret

Nikolai

I pace the floor, unable to control the rage that’s burning through my system. Stefan has Adele. That’s the good news, but my woman is currently lying in a hospital bed still unconscious. The door behind me

opens and I turn and glare at whoever it is.

“Mr. Vasiliev,” the doctor says as he steps into the room. His lips pressed into a hard line, a deep furrow between his brows, he’s pissed, no doubt about the protocols that I have in place. Only a handful of people are allowed to see Lena, and they have to show their identification to my men before being allowed to enter.

“Is she okay?” I ask him, needing to know. Having only just been allowed in to see her. It had been almost two hours since we entered the hospital and the doctors went to work.

The blood has been cleaned from her face, her cheek is bandaged, as is her head where that fucking bitch Adele hit her. Not to mention her right arm is in a cast. She’s bruised and pale.

She won’t wake the fuck up.

“Ms. Alekseeva has multiple contusions, her wrist is fractured in two places, she has a concussion, something that we are monitoring. Her pregnancy is in its early stages…” He lets the words trail off.

My chest tightens at his words. She’s pregnant, but she’s very newly pregnant that she could still lose it.

“How long will she be asleep for?” I manage to grit out. My anger and worry are batting against me like a sledgehammer.

He glances at Lena and then back to me. “That, Mr. Vasiliev, is something that I can not give a definitive answer on. It’s ultimately her body’s way of healing. She’ll wake up whenever she’s ready. Until then, pray, Mr. Vasiliev.” He gives me a tight smile and leaves.

I move to the bed, she looks so young lying there. My hand is pressed against her stomach where our unborn baby lies. I place a kiss against her head. “I’ll be back, malenkaya,” I promise her. “Rest, dorogaya,” I whisper as I press yet another kiss to her head.

I take one last look at the woman that I love lying in the bed and turn on my heel. The moment I step out into the hall, my men turn to look at me. All seven of them are standing tall and braced for action, ready to intercept any threat that may occur.

“Kostya, Pasha, Ira, and Kodiak, you will stay here and guard Lena’s room. No one in unless they have permission from me or her doctor.” My men nod, knowing what honor I have bestowed on them. Having them protect the woman that I love means that I trust them, that I value them as my men.

“Stefan, Ilya, and Konstantin are with me,” I instruct them as I move further away from Lena’s door. Every instinct in me is telling me to stay, but I can’t. I have two people I need to deal with before I can go back to her. I need to ensure that she’s safe, that when our baby is born that he too will be safe. But as long as Adele is alive that isn’t going to happen.

Stepping out of the hospital building, it’s the middle of the night and the rain has started to fall. The cool air wraps around me like a cloak. My jaw clenches as I stride toward the parked vehicle, I need to get this shit done, the sooner I can return to Yelena.

“Boss,” Ilya says as he climbs into the backseat beside me. Konstantin is driving and Stefan is in the passenger seat. “Adele is pissed, she’s demanding that we call you.”

My lips twitch at that. “Is she now?” I’m wondering where the bitch gets the gall? She’s playing a game, but unfortunately for Adele, she played against the wrong person and now she has to pay the price for her actions.

“The suka really thinks that she’ll sweet talk her ass out of this?” Stefan questions.

“Imagine how she’ll react when she finds out that she’s not really your wife.” Ilya grins. “I knew there was something off about the entire farce you wanted to call a wedding. You hate the woman, so I didn’t understand why you’d marry her. So I went snooping. The marriage wasn’t real, there was no wedding certificate. Adele Taylor was never your wife.”

My men chuckle, pleased about the news. “Honestly, Ilya, I’m surprised you didn’t figure this out sooner.” He’s usually on my back about the women I’m with, especially when I started this illusion with Adele. He made it clear, not just to me, but to her that he didn’t like her.

“I should have,” he grumbles. “Please tell me the suka is going to die.”

My chuckle is dark and humorless. “Oh she’s going to die alright.” She set out to have the woman I love killed-my unborn child killed-she doesn’t get to live.

Stefan rubs his hands together in glee, happy to be witnessing bloodshed. “Who tries to kill their daughter?”

This isn’t the first-hell not even the second-time she’s tried to have her daughter murdered. The first time when Lev died, then by sending the Croats after her, and again tonight. She fucked up, she went after someone precious to me and that means that I get to play, and Adele is going to finally know what it means to get on the wrong side of me.

The moment the car comes to a stop, I feel a calmness wash over me. Knowing that this cunt is going to die eases the worry that I have for Lena. I step out of the vehicle and nod to the men guarding the house that Stefan discovered Adele owned; the stupid bitch had been staying here for the last week or so.

Entering the house, I hear Adele bitching. “Nikolai is going to kill you,” she tells my men. “I am his wife.”

I shudder at the thought. Fuck no, I knew better than to marry a golddigging whore who wanted the status along with the power that would be bestowed on her once we married. Hell, the bitch started bossing my men around long before she thought we said I do.

Her eyes widen the moment she sees me walk into the room where she’s currently tied to a chair, her hair is in disarray and judging by the split lip and black eye, someone wasn’t careful with how they handled her.

“Do you see what that animal did to me?” she cries, something that I’m immune to. Her crocodile tears are as fake as her breasts.

“Who?” I inquire.

She seems to take my question as though I’m going to help her. She’s deluded, but I’ll allow her to think that for a few more minutes. “Stefan,” she hisses. “He’s an animal, does he not realize who I am?” Christ, what the fuck is her deal?

“What happened today, Adele?” I ask as I take a seat opposite her.

She raises her chin as she sniffs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was minding my own business here at home, when your goons accosted me. What on earth is going on?”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

She’s good. She could win an Oscar with her performance.

“Why are you here, Adele?”

The bitch swallows hard and glances around at the men in the room, she’s finally realizing that the men in this room aren’t here for shits and giggles.

“This is my home, Nikolai, where I lived before we got married, sometimes I need a break.”

“What about your daughter?”

She bristles at my question. “What about her? Are you going to do something about Stefan? He put his hands on me.”

“Yes,” I answer simply. “I will be doing something about it.” She preens at my words.

“He’ll be getting a raise,” I tell her and watch as her face falls, my men chuckle, Stefan included.

“Nikolai-” she whines but I lift a hand to stop her.

My men continue to laugh, they’re happy that the bitch is finally going to get what’s coming to her. “Adele, I know what you’ve done.”

Her demeanor changes in an instant. “You fucked my daughter and think that I’ll sit back and allow my husband to disrespect me like that, that

I’d allow that whore to take what’s mine.”

“Not going to lie,” Ilya begins, “I’d do Lena over you any fucking day of the week.”

The rest of my men nod in agreement.

“Enough,” I snarl, pissed that they’re even fucking thinking about my woman in this way. She is mine, not for my men to ogle over.

“Sorry, boss,” is echoed around the room, coming from all the men except for Ilya. He never apologizes for his words. But he gives me a small nod letting me know that he understands that he has overstepped the mark. “You think that you can just replace me with my daughter?” she snarls at me, pulling at her restraints.

“You tried to have your daughter killed,” I growl, my anger at seeing Lena’s unconscious, beaten body pulses through me. There’s not a fucking chance in hell this bitch will ever give a crap about Yelena. “It wouldn’t be the first time you tried and failed, would it?”

Her face pales and she presses her lips together, finally learning to keep her fucking mouth shut and not lie. “What?”

“The attempted kidnap that resulted in Lev dying, that was you. You organized it in the hopes of ridding yourself of your daughter and husband. You set the Croats to take her down, knowing that they were after The Bullet, you decided to out your daughter’s identity and have them kill two birds with one stone.”

Her mouth twists into a snarl. “It didn’t fucking work,” she hisses. “She’s like a damn cat with her nine lives. I never wanted her. I wanted the status that came with being the Pakhan’s wife. But it was no use, as soon as the bitch was born everything changed.”

Anger rolls through me, she really is a fucking suka.

“Lev died and I was left with her. I had to deal with the bitch constantly. But then Maksim took over and trained her.” She pulls against her bindings and cries out as the rope cuts into her wrists. “Then the moment she came here I knew you wanted her. Do you think I’m blind? Hell you didn’t even wait a day before you fucked her on the table.” A sinister smile plays on her lips. “You’re not the only one who has cameras in the house. I watched you with her.”

I merely raise a brow. I don’t give a fuck if she saw us.

Ilya on the other hand has no qualms in dishing out shit to her.

“Jealousy is such an ugly look on you, Adele.”

“Jealous,” she scoffs. “What the hell do I have to be jealous of?”

“That your daughter is more of a woman than you’ll ever be, or maybe it could be the fact that she’s fucked Nikolai and you haven’t.”

Adele’s eyes flash with anger. “He’s my husband, not hers. I always wanted the status of being the wife of a Pakhan. With Lev, it didn’t work, the men didn’t like me. Here-” she smiles brightly. “Here, the men respect me. I am Nikolai’s wife.” The smug grin on her face makes me want to rip her head off.

“Ah, that is where you are wrong,” I tell her. “We were never legally married, therefore you are not my wife. But rest assured, Lena will be.”

Her tears are real this time as her scream fills the air. She should have known better than to go against me.

“You are going to die for what you did to her,” I hiss as I get to my feet, reaching for the gun in my back holster. I nod to my men telling them to leave. The moment they do, I crouch down so that I’m level with her face. “Your grandchild will never know you, Adele, he or she will never know what a Shlyushka you are.” (Cunt.)

Her sharp intake of breath is more than enough for me to know that I hit deep with her. “Grandchild?”

“You tried to kill my woman while she was pregnant with my child. Tell me, Adele, at what point did you think I wouldn’t kill you for what you have done?”

“You’re a bastard,” she hisses at me.

“How did you get working with the Croats?” I demand. Needing this conversation over with so I can get back to my woman.

She shrugs carelessly. “Before I met Lev, I had been with Marko Babic. He was the man that I loved. But he had been promised to another.” She sniffs. Does she think crying will make me feel sorry for her? “We never stopped our fling, when I needed something, he was always there to help. He was more than happy to take out Yelena, it meant hurting Maksim and that was a plus for Marko.”

“You’ll die for what you’ve done,” I tell her. My words are final.

There’s no way she’s getting out of this.

Her eyes widen. “You were my husband.”

I shake my head. “I’ve never been that. I’ll never be that. I wanted you for one reason only. The Bullet, and I’ve got her. You,” I say as I raise my gun to her face. “Are nothing more than a Shlyushka, you’ll never be remembered.” I pull the trigger, not an ounce of remorse for doing what needs to be done in order to protect my family.

“Find out what the Croat knows about what his boss is up to and why he’s here in Texas and then burn this place to the ground,” I tell Stefan. “I’ll be back at the hospital, call me when it’s done.”

Konstantin and Stefan stay behind with the other men to ensure they extract the information that I need, whereas Ilya joins me as we return to the hospital.

“So, Lena’s pregnant?”

The fucker eavesdropped. “Yes,” I reply as I tighten my hands on the steering wheel. “It’s early.”

He nods somberly. “They’ll be okay,” he assures me. “She’s probably awake now.”

I fucking hope so.