The Final Hour (Volkov Bratva #3)(23)

Noticing her standing to the side observing him, he gave a half-smile, turning back to what he was doing. “No need to look so surprised, Lauren. This will be yours soon enough.”

“How much do you keep in there?”

Closing the vault back, he pocketed the key, reaching for her hand as he led them out. “A little less than twenty.”

“Twenty…”She trailed off, thinking over the number before her eyes widened, “Million?”

He smiled, unabashed. “Like me better now?”

“Maybe.”

“Ah, is that why you agreed to this then?” He asked outlining one of the stars.

“Please. I would have agreed to this a lot sooner if you’d bought me Sam Smith concert tickets. I’m easy, Mish.”

“Of course.”

They were interrupted by Mishca’s phone chiming, his tone shifting to business mode as he answered. Lauren tuned him out, her thoughts going back to the wedding.

It just felt so odd to her, planning for everything without actually having a venue first. It seemed like that should have been at the top of the list, because if they couldn’t find a place to have the ceremony, everything else couldn’t go on, but she couldn’t think of a good enough location that she thought was appropriate.

Neither of them were particularly religious, and she didn’t think it right to have their wedding at a church, not with their multitude of sins. Any place else would probably have needed to be booked months in advance, which only made her life more difficult.

They were just crossing the street when Lauren noticed it.

The architecture of the building was what had caught her attention—Amber instilling in her an appreciation for good aesthetics—and as she dragged her gaze up the entirety of it, she saw just a hint of people moving around on the roof, beautiful foliage peeking out over the edge.

A rooftop wedding.

The thought had never crossed her mind before. She was thinking ballroom or something grand like that, but on a modest sized rooftop, it could be more intimate, just what she wanted.

Clasping Mishca’s hand—she’d been dragging him along anyway since he was hardly paying attention—they crossed the street, going through the revolving doors of the hotel.

Leaving him to his conversation, Lauren went over to the front desk, smiling at the attendant standing there. He was a man in his late fifties, with snowy white hair, who looked like he might’ve worked at the hotel since it opened.

“Welcome to The Grand Berlin, how may I assist you?”

“Do you all hold weddings here?”

If not for just the rooftop, they could definitely have them in the lobby alone. It was designed with royalty in mind, at least that was what Lauren assumed. Soft shades of peach and butter yellow, as well as bolder colors like burgundy and midnight blue adorned the surfaces of most of the furniture in the room. Gold gilded pillars stood tall, elegant fixtures hung along the walls.

“Yes m’am. We are proud to host many events in either of our ballrooms, as well as—upon special request—access to our rooftop gardens.”

“What would be the best time to tour those gardens?”

He went over to the desktop set up on the other side of the desk, patiently typing. It took a minute, and by the time he was finished, Mishca was done with his call, and joined her.

“We have an opening next week? Is that agreeable?”

Lauren gave her name and got the time they would be available to do the tour. She and Mishca did return a week later, with Alex in tow, still carrying her checklist of what she would need from them for her to agree to this place.

The resident manager, Abigail, led them up to the roof, reciting the history of the hotel as they went. She was mostly speaking all of this to Alex, since she had figured that she would need to win over Alex to make the sell.

Abigail smiled, one hand on the door as she turned to them with a smile. “Are you ready?”

Not waiting for their answers, she swung the door open, sunlight momentarily blinding Lauren as she took a step forward to see more clearly, and what she did see, she absolutely loved.

While it had certainly been cleared out from the last time they had been there and Lauren had only caught a glimpse of people up here, she could see what it could be, how different it would look with the chairs set up, the runner going down the middle of the aisle, the podium at the end.

Even better, there were cherry blossom trees on either end.

She nodded before anyone else could voice their opinion. “I’m sold.”

“Excellent. Our next opening isn’t until six months from now, but—”

That was when Mishca spoke up. “We need it next week.”

“I’m sorry, but we just don’t have the time to prepare, and—”

He sighed, like he was used to this kind of response. “Whatever number your putting together in your head, done. Just write it up, yes?”

“I’ll get started on the paperwork.”

She walked past him, leaving them to look around more as they waited for her to return.

“Money makes the world go round,” Lauren said with a shake of her head.

Not even twenty minutes later, Abigail returned with a contract for them to sign, and a request for a nonrefundable deposit.

One step closer.



“I think your sister is more excited about this than all of us combined,” Lauren commented after they had dropped Alex off at home, Mishca telling her they needed to make one more stop.