Defiance: Smirnov Bratva, #3

By T.L. Smith

She was promised to me. 
I was promised to her. 
She was the daughter of a drug lord, I was the cousin of one. 
Together we could have been beautiful. 
Oh, so beautiful. 
But beautiful doesn’t factor into my life. 
Death. 
Destruction. 
Pain. 
That was my life. 
She’d had her taste of it. 
But was she really ready for it?
Because I lived in hell, and my wife would soon be Satan’s bitch.
She wouldn’t be prepared. 
She could never be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: T.L Smith
• Release date: Sep 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386717294

T.L. Smith

T.L. Smith is a USA Today bestselling author who loves to write about characters with flaws so beautiful and dark they’re hard to turn away from. Her books have been translated into several languages. She can be found in her home state of Queensland, Australia, or off traveling the world—sitting on a beach in Bali or exploring Alcatraz in San Francisco or walking the streets of New York.

Book preview

Defiance

An act of Defiance

Dictionary

Pakhan – Mob Boss

Bratva – Russian Mafia

Sasha's Dilemma (Dilemma #1)

Adam’s Heaven (Dilemma #1.5)

Sasha’s Demons (Dilemma #2)

Krinos (Take Over #1)

Kalon (Take Over #2)

Kratos (Take Over #3)

Pure Punishment (Standalone)

Antagonize Me (Standalone)

Degrade (Flawed #1)

Twisted Perception (Flawed #2)

Black (Black #1)

Red (Black #2)

White (Black #3)

Distrust (Smirnov Bratva #1)

Disbelief (Smirnov Bratva #2)

Lovesick (Standalone)

She was promised to me.

I was promised to her.

She was the daughter of a drug lord, I was the cousin of one.

Together we could have been beautiful.

Oh, so beautiful.

But beautiful doesn’t factor into my life.

Death.

Destruction.

Pain.

That was my life.

She’d had her taste of it.

But was she really ready for it?

Because I lived in hell, and my wife would soon be Satan’s bitch.

She wouldn’t be prepared.

She could never be.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Prologue

Freya

I remember the day I was told I was to be married off to another. It wasn’t a day I particularly liked, it was a day that dismissed all my dreams as a young girl.

My brother’s friend—now there’s a man I had a crush on. He never saw me, but I saw him. I had no boobs and my clothes always covered me completely. My blonde hair was short and untidy. They treated me as if I was a little girl and I guess I was in some ways.

Soon after, I learned I wasn’t a little girl at all and that shortly I’d be sent to America to learn their ways, to get ready to marry who my father had chosen for me. Someone strong who would protect me, someone I would follow.

I hated those words, ‘to follow someone.’ I did that enough already and certainly didn’t want to do that when I grew up. It wasn’t something that I had planned.

You don’t have a choice, Freya. You will marry, and you will be his queen. You will do whatever is asked of you. It’s all for the family, it’s the reason we do everything, my father had said.

So, as I sit here at this table with men that I’ve only known for a short period of time—one I was meant to marry mind you—to tell the man who I like that he must now marry me. I feel like that little girl all over again. Yet, here I sit as a woman, with still no recognition of what I want or how I want to be treated, because it’s all chosen for me.

They say you don’t marry for power, but power is precisely what I’m marrying for.

Greed.

Money.

Power.

Those are strong in our family, so I’ve come to learn. It plays a huge role in a lot of people’s lives I guess. I hoped it wouldn’t in mine, I was hoping the man I’d marry I would love.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I knew I was to be married to the man of my father’s choosing and was told it was Kazier. I had hoped before our marriage we would be able to build a relationship, and that we wouldn’t have to rush into it straight away.

That changed. It all changed, and now I’m marrying a man I think is sin, delectable sin at that. He makes my heart race, he makes me angry, but most of all he gives me feelings I don’t quite understand as of yet. He doesn’t know, though, not yet that he’s now marrying me instead of his boss. They haven’t told him, and the date is fast approaching for my father to arrive.

I walk into Kazier’s house, everyone’s here. The news will be delivered tonight when he will find out. I hope he doesn’t hurt me when he knows, he could kill me if he really wanted to. There would be consequences for him, but he could.

Death and Pollie sit next to each other not too far away from me, Kazier, Anton, and Viktor are across from me. I know they’re slowly working up to it, to telling me that soon he is to be my husband, it fails when Kazier’s father walks through the dining room doors and he says something to Kazier, who ignores him then he turns while holding his glass to Viktor. I try hard not to clench my hands too obviously at what he’s about to say and do.

You’re marrying Freya next week. Congratulations. He cheers his glass in the air, and I turn to watch Viktor’s reaction. At first it’s shock, his mouth drops open and he looks to Kazier. When Kazier doesn’t say a word, throws his seat back and stands so he can see all of us, his eyes firmly on Kazier and I flinch.

This is a joke, right?

No one answers him. Anton looks down and is ultra-quiet, which is very unlike him.

You all knew, didn’t you? Viktor’s nostrils flare, his fist is clenching and unclenching.

You fuck, I scream, I’m anything but a joke. Standing up, my hands clench the plate in front of me. So I look up to see Viktor still angry and I throw it at him aiming straight for his head. As I wait and listen for the plate to crash on the floor, I hear it splinter then crack. Staring directly at him, I’m hoping to give him my best ‘fuck you’ stare and walk out of that room before anyone else can say anything.

My car is out the front, but what I don’t expect to see is Elina. She’s standing there in high heels and leaning against my car, she spots me when I step down the stairs and pushes herself off the car to stand straight.

Didn’t go well? she asks.

Her voice, why isn’t she a sex phone operator? I think to myself.

She’s everything I’m not, I don’t see anything that could link us. I don’t answer her and unlock the car walking to the driver’s side. As I put the keys in the ignition and turn the car on, she climbs in and sits next to me.

I look at her with wide eyes. What the fuck is she doing?

Want to go and get drunk?

I turn back to look at the road, then shrug my shoulders. You’re buying, I tell her pulling out. She laughs at me.

I wonder if I could like her? She is, after all, married to my supposed ‘to be husband,’—I will be seeing her a lot. Let’s hope my family doesn't kill her before I make up my mind.

Chapter 1

Viktor

I want her! The minute I set eyes on her, I knew it. I don’t want to admit it, I didn’t want to want her. I keep thinking she’s not it for me and she was meant for him. Freya could even rival him with her temper, and that’s a hard match for someone like Kazier, the leader of us all.

She’s opposite of everything I am. Where I’m quiet, she is loud. Where she’s open, I am closed. I didn’t understand her, but I knew I’d protect her with my life.

My shirt feels like it’s closing in on me like it’s strangling the life from me slowly. I can feel my hands sweating. Kazier’s hand slaps on my back just as the sound of the doors open. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Do I really want to turn to face the music? I don’t know if I do. I hear the people stand, so I step to the side and slowly turn my body around to face the front doors. When I do, I feel my heart beat hard in my chest.

Today is the day, I’m meant to be getting married.

Correction, I am getting married.

To my right is Kazier, Anton, and Death. Who might, I add, hates the fact that he’s in a suit. I’ve never heard him bitch so much about putting one on until Pollie walks in. She’s dressed in lavender, a dress that matches Elina’s except Pollie has a round belly that pushes the fabric of her dress out in front. Her hands run along Death’s suit, she whispers something in his ear, and his constant bitching stops. Thank God.

We were meant to have a traditional Russian wedding, one that can last for up to one week. We aren’t, I thank God again.

It’s one day and it’s today.

Any second now.

Fuck.

Kazier’s hand comes down on my shoulder, he’s trying to calm me down but it’s not working. I’m fidgety and stressed. I don’t want this, nor do I like this. You’re meant to be in love with the person you marry. Look at Kazier and Elina, they can’t keep their hands off each other. Then there’s Death and Pollie, he can’t keep his hands off her, literally. He’s always holding her hand, touching her when she’s near, following her when she walks away.

I feel the need to protect Freya and that feeling has been evident since I met her. But to marry her, sleep in the same bed as her, I don’t know if I can do that.

She’s a virgin, I’m sure of it. Me, well, fuck... I am anything but a virgin. Far from it as possible.

Turning to look down the aisle—the one that’s full with guests on either side—Freya’s family is on one side all the way from Russia, and there’s men that look scarier than me. Her father being one of them. And my side full of my family. My mother is seated at the front with a look of happiness on her face. I am, after all, marrying Russian royalty. The music begins to play, and it's seconds away before she steps out.

Smile, it’s your wedding day, Kazier says.

Can I kill him now?

A week to prepare to marry Freya, and I haven’t seen her since I was told.

Fuck off! I don’t say it loud enough for anyone to hear but him, and Anton who cracks a smile and refrains from laughing.

You like her... now you get to fuck her. I don’t see the problem.

I want to stab him in his eye, I do. He may be like a brother, he may be my boss, but I still want to stab him, hard.

Fuck off! I repeat again.

He takes a step back and doesn’t push me again. I look to her side of the aisle, her father sits front and center and stares at me hard. He’s definitely a man to be feared. A scary man, scarier than anyone I’ve met. It’s not his looks that scare me so much, it’s more in the way he holds himself. Like he knows he could kill everyone in here and walk away without a scratch to himself. He’s wearing a black suit, a white clean, crisp shirt and a dark tie. His suit looks like it’s the most expensive suit you could purchase and it quite possibly is.

I hear the door open, her father excuses himself and walks away. People start to stand and I know it’s time for her to come down the aisle to me.

How will I feel when I finally see her?

I don’t know, I don’t even know how I feel now. I do know I want to murder someone, especially the man next to me who says I’m to marry her.

Well, I guess I’m fucking marrying her.

Fucking mafia.

Never said those words before but today, fuck it all.

Kazier should be the one standing in my spot, it was him who was meant to marry Freya. But instead, he married the family enemy, who’s now being death stared as she stands across from us. I see her fidgeting and I realize she doesn’t want to be here either. It would be the last place she’d want to be—in a room full of people who want nothing better than to see her family dead.

The doors remain open and I see a glimpse of the white dress, her feet are covered by it. She isn’t tall. Actually, Freya is quite short. She holds onto her father’s arm as they take their first step down the aisle. I can feel my palms growing sweaty as I watch her, as my eyes slowly make their way up her, to her face. She has on a classic white dress, which hugs her small frame perfectly. It’s not large and flouncy like some dresses I have seen.

Freya’s eyes aren’t on me, they’re looking down to the floor. Her dark blonde hair is tied up, and a light veil is covering her hair flowing down her back. She walks slowly to me, and I wonder if it’s too late to run, to escape.

Could they find me faster than I could run?

Anton maybe, the rest not so much.

Freya finally reaches me, her father placing her hand on mine. I attempt to not show the anguish I’m feeling, but I feel her hand shake when it’s in mine. She’s just as nervous as I am, maybe even more so.

The man in front of us speaks, I hardly listen to a word he says until I’m nudged by Kazier to say ‘I do’ then the exchanging of rings is next.

Rings we didn’t even pick.

Or maybe she did?

I don’t even know.

I place hers on and manage to do it fast. Freya fumbles and almost drops the ring when she tries to do mine but manages to finally get it on.

Every time I look up to her eyes she’s looking away from me. Maybe this isn’t easy for her either. But she knew she would be married off by her father. I wonder if she had any choice in the matter. Just as I’m lost in thought, those words come that most people getting married want to hear, unless they’re us.

You can now kiss your wife.

Wife! What the actual fuck? I’m single, have been for a very long time, now I’m fucking married, to a woman I haven’t even dated let alone fucked.

I feel her freeze, I see it when I look at her. She’s solid, but she knows we have to kiss, even if it’s the last thing we want to do.

I take a deep breath.

I can kiss Freya.

I find her hot.

I like her.

I may not be in love with her, but something in me nudges me forward to grab her face and place a soft kiss to her lips. She doesn’t even move under my lips,