Page 21 of Married with Blood
Elena gasped. “Tomorrow!”
I held up my hand, already clued in to how she was clearly thinking this would be some romantic ordeal. “It’s not like it’s a real marriage,” I clarified.
“It isn’t?” Adrik asked.
I sighed. “It will be a real, legitimate marriage, but Elena, don’t get your hopes up on having a sister around or anything like that. Carina was arranged to marry me. It’s not like you and Adrik…”
She huffed. “Not like how my father gave me to him as somethingto own? As a payment for his sin of double-crossing him?”
I furrowed my brow, unable to escape how similar our paths were. John Morovov had given him his daughter. As a transaction. Whereas Arturo Garcia was permitting an arranged marriage with me and his sister. It was different. I wasn’t in the situation to “own” Carina. She’d be my wife to symbolize that the Volkov and Garcia trade agreements were still on.
Adrik hadn’t intended to marry at all when he was given Elena. They’d come to that understanding much later after she’d been here and ended up working as our in-house accountant genius.
“Is that the situation with the Cartel?” Adrik asked bluntly. “Did Arturo Garcia offer his sister in marriage as an act of an apology for that shipment ending up in enemy territory?”
Viktor spoke up. “No. We think he’s sending her as a spy.”
Adrik tossed his napkin to the table and cursed. “That makes it so much better.”
“We’re not sure what Garcia’s motives are,” I said, “but if there is any way to use this offer to our benefit, why not?” I shrugged.
Elena gawked at me. “She’s going to be family.”
All three of us replied in unison. “It’s only an arrangement.”
She frowned again.
“You should have at least brought this to my attention first,” Adrik said. “Before you fucking agreed to anything.”
I shook my head. “Calm down. It’ll be fine. We had a problem with the Cartel and I’m in the process of solving it.”
He didn’t lighten up, frowning at me. “It sounds like you’re just asking formoreproblems.”
“Maybe not.” I laid out my idea of wondering if Garcia was trying to turn away from our trade agreement to look for another avenue of doing business. That alluded to Gregori, and he didn’t—and couldn’t—argue with me about the necessity of learning what our potential enemies were doing where our uncle was involved.
“So she might be marrying you to spy on the family,” Elena summed up after we finished talking, “and you’re marrying her to spy on what she might be spying on?”
I shrugged. “I guess. It’s just business.”
“It’s planning a wedding in a matter of hours,” she exclaimed.
“And we have plenty of staff to handle it,” Adrik said.
His skepticism lingered. I could tell. We were often on the same page and the same wavelength like this to intuit what the other was thinking. That was what happened from our growing up so close. At the same time, though, he was able to allow me the space and freedom to solve the problems that popped up, like this shipment of arms that had ended up in the wrong hands.
“I guess you'd better hurry home and help your fiancée prepare for the wedding tomorrow,” Adrik said once we’d all left the table.
“She’ll be fine.” I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“Things have been icy so far,” Viktor commented with a smirk.
Adrik arched a brow at me, likely assuming my surprisingly rash decision to get married would backfire. Arturo had sprung the idea on me seemingly out of nowhere, but I had thought it through. Viktor and I assessed the pros and cons while we quickly analyzed the what-ifs that seemed most pertinent.
“She seems…” I chewed on my lip for a second, searching for the right word.
Sexy.
Stunning.
