Shattered Crown: A Dark Mafia Age Gap Romance (Kozlov Empire Book 4)

I’m jolted awake far too early by raised voices outside the bedroom. Morning light filters through the curtains, and the distant hum of Manhattan traffic buzzes below. Considering I only slept a few hours, my body is heavy and tired.

I’ve barely propped myself up against the pillows when Maxim reenters the bedroom looking way too fresh despite the few hours of sleep he’s had. Instead of his typical perfectly tailored suit, he’s dressed in gray sweatpants and … nothing else.

I find it hard to tear my eyes away from his chiseled torso. He’s fine with a capital F. No, scratch that. I don’t even try to look away as he grips the door frame overhead, causing his biceps to flex.

My breath catches seeing Maxim so unlike the uptight business oligarch who, up until last night, I would have happily killed in his sleep. It feels as if the world has shifted on its axis between yesterday and now. My chaffed breasts and sore thighs are proof of all that we shared.

He’s looking at me with the same hungry expression I’m surely giving him. I crook my fingers, inviting him back into bed. If he’s going to look that delicious, we need to finish what we started.

He stalks forward with a chuckle. “I wish we could, but we have guests.”

Guests?

“So early?” I make a face.

“It’s ten. Not too early. But I think you’ll want to come out and greet them.”

My eyebrows knit together as I tug the duvet up to my chin. “Why?” I’m not usually involved in Maxim’s business.

‘Because…’ His thumb traces over the swell of my bottom lip. ‘It’s your family.’

“What?! My brothers? Why the hell are you being so casual about this?”

I fling the duvet off and stalk through the room, looking for something decent to wear. There’s no one in the world I love more than my family and friends, but this seems like a very inopportune time to have a family reunion.

“And Alyona.”

“Jesus Christ, you told me her and Leo are in Italy.”

“They were, but now they’re back. And they want to see you.”

In the bureau mirror, I catch sight of myself—hair mussed, eyeliner smudged, lips swollen, my cheeks flushed with a satisfied glow. I consider taking a shower so I look less disheveled, but an insistent knock at the door relieves me of that idea.

“Kira? What’s going on?” Alyona sounds worried.

“I’ll be one second,” I holler back, wrestling to get a T-shirt over my head while Maxim looks on with amusement.

I narrow my eyes. “What’s so funny?” I whisper-yell.

“We’re married. It’s not a crime to have relations with your husband.”

I hold up my hand so he stops talking. I can’t even begin to go there. Maxim is Aly’s father and the man my brothers hate. They’d probably declare war on him if they could. So yeah, them seeing proof that we’ve been intimate is beyond awkward.

I fling one of his dress shirts off a chair towards him. “Can you put on some clothes please? Your bare chest is distracting me.”

He shrugs, leaning back against the wall. “I’m good.”

“Ugh,” I let out a thoroughly annoyed groan. He’s doing this to torture me, I’m sure of it.

I dart into the bathroom, pee, brush my teeth, and run my fingers through my hair, but honestly, it’s a lost cause. I can’t put this off any longer, so I slip on last night’s hoodie and head out of the en suite. Maxim isn’t in the bedroom, so I assume he’s already with our guests—or my guests.

I swallow down my pride and head to the main sitting area. Raised voices float to me as I round the corner into the open space.

‘What the hell do you mean the Black Company was behind the attack?’ Andrei, my eldest brother and the Kozlov Bratva pakhan, stands by the floor-to-ceiling window, his broad shoulders tense and his jaw held tight as he addresses Maxim.

Unfazed, Maxim doesn’t respond when he sees me enter the room. Instead, he rises, pours a coffee, and brings it to me before I can say otherwise.

All eyes in the room shift towards us and his small act of thoughtfulness.

‘Kira!’ Aly is the first person out of her seat, her eyes filling with tears that she attempts to blink away. Her arms circle me tightly, her breath shaky against my neck.

The scent of her familiar perfume wraps around us, and emotions clog my throat because I’ve missed her so much. Trying to keep my best friend and brothers at bay this whole time has been exhausting.

“I was so worried when we heard…”

Heard about what? It takes me a minute for my brain to figure out she means yesterday’s attack at the auction house. With everything that happened afterwards, the attack seems like a distant memory. Which is messed up.

“Sis!” Daniil’s booming voice sounds beside me and as Aly releases me, my middle brother wraps me in his arms, kissing the side of my head.

Leo is the next to embrace me in his big, powerful arms, and finally Andrei steps in with a tense hug.

“You okay?” he whispers into my hair.

“I’m okay, I promise. Can we … sit down and talk?”

In the space of a heartbeat, Maxim wraps a protective arm around my shoulder, lowering me beside him onto the couch. My brothers take a seat opposite us. It feels like a standoff, with tension lacing the air. Aly’s eyes ping-pong between all of us before she lowers into the space beside Leo. Though it’s probably a really bad time to squeal in delight at seeing my brother and Aly in love and finally together, I can’t help but flash her a smile. She smiles warmly back at me.

My brothers don’t. They’re frowning, all three of them staring at Maxim’s arm slung around my shoulder and how close we’re sitting. I’m relieved to notice that Maxim threw on a T-shirt while I was in the shower. Still, we do look pretty damn cozy.

I clear my throat and try to put a few inches between us, but he straight-up stops me with a firm squeeze, his fingers lightly tracing circles on my knee. My brothers might look tense, but Maxim seems completely unbothered.

Talk about awkward. Last they saw us together, guns were pointed, Maxim was surrounded by legions of guards, and threats were being made. Now, well, the fact that Maxim practically pulled me down into his lap makes it pretty obvious where things stand.

Since no one speaks, I decide to break the ice. “I’m fine, really. I don’t know what you heard, but Maxim was on my attacker so fast I didn’t even register what happened.”

Aly arches an eyebrow at Maxim. Her father. “You risked your life to save her?” she asks in a quiet voice.

Maxim makes a dismissive gesture as if to say, Of course. “She’s my wife.”

His words ignite a warmth in my chest.

Leo points accusingly. “It’s your fault she was in danger in the first place. What the fuck were you thinking parading her out in New York if you’re about to go to war with the Black Company?”

Beside me, I can feel Maxim bristle at Leo’s aggression.

‘You seem to forget,’ I say with a slight smirk, ‘I was born into this life. Danger is something I’ve always known.’

Leo ignores my attempt at lightening the mood. He sees Maxim as a twisted opportunist who granted his daughter freedom only when a better opportunity was presented. From the outside, that’s exactly what happened, but I know that in his own fucked-up way, he cares about Aly. He let her go because it was best for her.

Aly lays a hand on Leo’s shoulder and whispers something in his ear, likely telling him to take it down a notch since he’s still vibrating with anger.

“It’s okay, Leo.” I give my brother a weak smile. “We were well protected. Maxim’s men surrounded the room. It was one of those things…”

Leo continues to shake his head in disgust and I hold my breath, not sure how this is going to play out.

Maxim speaks, his tone low and serious. “My head of security believed they wouldn’t attack on American soil, and I agreed with him. We were wrong.”

My head snaps towards him. Why is Maxim blaming himself? It was a private event and we were well guarded, but he seems to think everything that happens is his responsibility, which is messed up.

Andrei crosses his ankle over his knee, his expression intense. “So you’re at war with the Black Company now?”

“Going to war,” Maxim clarifies. “They don’t appreciate competition in the wine fraud market.”

Daniil cocks a brow, raking a hand through his hair. “You’ve got more money than you know what to do with. How can selling a few bottles of fancy wine possibly be worth going to war for?”

Maxim chuckles and runs a thumb along his bottom lip. “It’s true, I’m not in it for the money.” His warm hand lands on my thigh, causing a shiver to blast up my spine. “I’m in it to prove a point.”

“And that is?” Aly asks, even though her eyes are glued to where Maxim rests his hand possessively on my body.

“There’s nothing more pretentious than rich people with more money than sense. If these idiots think it’s worth spending hundreds of thousands on a bottle of old wine, let them give their money to me and I’ll make sure it goes to a better cause.”

“What, like your palace on the sea?” Leo shoots back.

“Sure, something like that,” Maxim says, but I know there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

“Listen,” I say to my brothers because I suspect they need to hear this. “I’m happy here. I’m fine, I’m well protected, and Maxim and I have a deal. I need to see it through.”

“What kind of deal do you have?” Daniil asks, sitting forward.

I look towards Maxim, and he gives me a little nod of approval. “Our marriage serves as a distraction, something for the press to focus on while Maxim deals with the Black Company. And in the meantime…” I hesitate, feeling a little nervous sharing something I’ve kept locked away for so long. Aly and I have barely even spoken about it. “He’s going to help me find the people that killed Aunt Masha.”

Aly shakes her head, clearly confused. “Didn’t your father kill your aunt?”

“Yes, he ordered the hit, but someone else carried it out. Whoever helped lure her out of hiding and killed her will pay.” I laugh bitterly and stare down at my hands, not knowing how to tell my family this but knowing they need to hear it. “I thought Maxim was her killer. That’s why I married him. To get revenge.”

The whole room is quiet for half a second until everyone starts talking at once. I get it, my family has a lot of questions. My news is a shock.

Andrei’s voice carries above the rest. “Jesus, Kira, talk about putting yourself at risk! Why is it that you’re convinced he didn’t murder her?”

“He can prove it.”

Daniil scoffs. “Not if he needs you alive to keep up his important image.”

Maxim rolls his eyes. “If I had killed Masha, I would have had a good reason and you’d know about it by now. Oleg and I had history, but it’s not a good one. I disliked him as much as anyone.”

‘Maxim has no reason to lie,’ I speak up.

Defending him in front of my family feels strange, but I’ve spent a lot of time considering what motivation Maxim might have to lie, including not alienating Alyona. In my gut, I know deception isn’t his style. He’s always been brutally honest, even when it hurts.

Leo’s face falls. “Why didn’t you come to us? We would have looked into it for you. We would have helped you get your revenge so you didn’t have to marry this … this⁠—”

“I didn’t want to burden you with my past. I thought it was the best way.”

“Well, that certainly explains a lot,” Aly says, eyes wide. “I never understood your motivation for marrying him. My father.”

When he glances my way, his eyes hold a trace of softness, a contrast to his usual guarded expression. “Kira is my wife, and I will find out who was behind Masha’s death and help her get the revenge she deserves.”

Andrei shakes his head. “You don’t need to. She’s our sister. We’ll figure out⁠—”

“Did you miss it when I said she’s my wife and, therefore, my responsibility?”

I’ve never heard anyone interrupt Andrei like that and I tense, preparing for Andrei to lunge across the coffee table between us. But my brother doesn’t move, just keeps glaring daggers.

Maxim lifts my hand and shows off the big, honking diamond ring that heralds to the world I’m a taken woman. “My. Wife.”

My heart hammers in my chest—I’m not sure if it’s anxiety or excitement at his possessiveness. Or both.

Aly rises from Leo’s lap, cutting through the silence in the room. “Kira, can I talk to you alone?”

“Of course.” I stand and follow her into a small room, closing the door behind me.

Nerves jump in my stomach because I don’t know what to expect.

Before I say anything, she has me wrapped in her arms. “Fuck me. I’m so sorry.” I pull away to find tears in her eyes and her face clouded with worry.

“You have nothing to be sorry for!” I insist. “How were you supposed to know?”

“That’s the point.” Her expression falls. “I knew you married Maxim for some other reason, and I didn’t push the issue. I left you alone with him—a monster.”

I pause, not sure how to explain that he’s not entirely the big bad wolf we thought him to be. “He’s not a monster.” The words fall from my lips, revealing a truth I hadn’t fully acknowledged until this moment. ‘He’s complicated and dangerous, yes, but not quite the nightmare we thought he was.”

He shields me from my nightmare. He made the mayor pay for his sins. He held me when I couldn’t hold myself up. He’s going to hunt down my aunt’s killer. He gave me the best orgasm of my life.

Aly’s brows pull together. “Huh?”

This is not easy to share, but Aly has a right to know that my feelings for Maxim are complicated. “Things … have changed.” A softness invades my tone. “I’ve seen a different side of him.”

Her eyes take me in from head to toe. When she’s done with her inspection, she frowns. “So you actually want to be married to him? Are you together now?”

“No. Definitely not,” I’m quick to counter. We haven’t talked about it, but it’s clear Maxim has no desire for this to be real. “It’s an arrangement until he deals with the Black Company and helps me get my revenge. And then…” I shrug because I don’t really know what happens next. “We’ll probably go our separate ways.”

Her expression carries a hint of disappointment, as if I’ve let her down in some way. But I can’t lie to her and continue to portray Maxim as all bad, because he’s not. “Why would you trust him? After everything he did to you, to us?”

I shift from foot to foot, pulling at my hoodie like that’s somehow going to distract her. “He’s shown me a different side of himself. He’s done some shitty things, I won’t deny that, but he’s not all bad. Give him a chance to explain to you why he did what he did. To show the other side of him. He’s protected me, he’s taken care of me during a terrible nightmare, he even kicked an attendant off our flight when… Whatever, that’s a long story.”

Her forehead creases. ‘Honestly, I’m not sure I can forgive him that easily. But if this is what you want, I’ll support you.”

Guilt washes over me, making me question if I’m siding with the enemy. But the truth is, the only thing I care about is Maxim helping me get my revenge. And I guess it remains to be seen if he’ll actually deliver what he promised. “The only thing I want is to bring my aunt’s killer to justice,” I answer, truthfully. “After that, we’ll go our separate ways.”

It’s impossible to imagine what happens after this. Would I like to go back to my old life working with my brothers and having my family and friends close by? Hell yes. But something inside me has shifted. I don’t know what’s next or what I want, but I do know that deep down, Maxim has left a mark on me that can’t be easily erased.

“And in the meantime, you’re gonna keep on sleeping with him?” She pulls a face, and I can’t help but smile.

“I’m sorry, this is weird to talk about with you. Maxim is your father.”

“That’s not how I think of him.”

My mouth tips up. “So you don’t think of me as your stepmother?”

She snorts. “God, that’s fucking weird. No.” She heaves a sigh. “Okay, fine. Promise me you’ll be careful. I still don’t fully trust him, no matter what he claims about helping you find your aunt.’

I lay a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’ll be cautious,’ I promise. “But there is something you should know.” Her eyes search mine, waiting. “Maxim didn’t let you go because I offered him an alternative. He let you go because he didn’t want you to be unhappy and he knew that Leo would keep you safe. In his weird way, he cares about you.”

A long, slow breath leaves her lungs as she shakes her head. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Right now, it sounds like a convenient story.”

I understand Aly’s wariness of Maxim, and honestly, I’m not sure if time alone will be enough to heal the wounds he inflicted. But I want her to understand that there’s another side to Maxim. Not for my sake, but because it’s tough to believe the worst about your own family. I should know—my father was genuinely evil. I don’t know what Maxim is, but he’s not that.

But now isn’t the time to push the issue, so I take the opportunity to change the subject.

“How are things between you and Leo? I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you, but I’m always a phone call away.”

Her eyes go soft. “We’re good. We’re really, really good. I never imagined things would work out between us, but Leo makes me so fucking happy. We’re planning the wedding, but I don’t even care about that. All I care about is the life we’re building together.” She frowns. “To be honest, the only dark spot in my world has been worrying about you.”

“I know, babe.” I wrap my best friend, who is also a full head above me, in a tight hug. “But you don’t have to worry anymore. I’m okay. I’m better than okay. I’m putting some old demons to rest.” Knowing Maxim will use his money and power to find Masha’s killer is a huge relief.

She keeps one arm around my shoulders. “Please don’t get yourself hurt, crazy lady. You have no idea who or what you’re dealing with.”

“I won’t,” I promise, sincerely hoping I can keep my word. And then I take a chance. “Will you stay for tea? I think it would be good for us all to talk.”

Aly twists her lips. “If it’s important to you, I will, but I’m not ready to have a relationship with Maxim.”

“I get it.” I squeeze Aly’s hand. “Just tea for now.”