AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A confident chuckle shook at my body as I took his hand off my leg to intertwine his fingers with mine. "Besides the fact I look like one, it's because of my violent streak. I used to look bad before I got tattoos to cover up most of my scars, and paired that with my level of violence and craziness, it just kind of stuck. Although, it was more of a joke at first that Angel made after seeing how crazy I got with beating people up. The little moniker never bothered me, I actually like it because of the shock and fear I see in people when they see me or hear about me."
Although I've no shame about my title, a small aspect of it fitted illy. "And it was just kind of fitting. I looked hideous with a piss-poor attitude and personality. Ugly and doomed to never be loved."
A flinch snapped at my body in reaction to Stepan flicking my forehead. "None of that kind of thinking and talking. You have a great group of friends who are your family, and you have me now. So, I don't want to hear any of that shit or I'll start tallying." Well, it's a good thing my self-doubt was nil to none at this point in time, so at least I'd be avoiding that lot of punishment.
Tension pulled my eyes back and around as I grabbed his hand and held it in mine again. "Tell me something about you since you just found out something about me. Might as well kill the time." As dandy as we were, Stepan rarely—never—talked about his past or anything too deeply about his family. Hell, I knew more about his family from his brothers than him.
Though true, I knew he was messing around with me by how jovial his voice was. "Not much to know about me. Father was a bastard. Mother was an angel. Obviously I got fucked up along the way hence why I'm the way I am." That earned him a playful smack to the chest from me.
"Tell me about your family. I mean, I know about your brothers, but your father and mother I know nothing about. Even if it's a bucket of shit, I want to know everything about you." I knew it was a sore subject; even with his brothers, I couldn't pry any of that information from them.
"Well, my family immigrated over here from Russia when I was little. Family life was… Goodish… Well, at least life with my mother and brothers was grand. My father made all our lives hell though. Out of the five of us, the twins had it the easiest since my father couldn't get away with too much shit over here in the states. Nikolai got it the hardest being the oldest, being groomed for the roll of Pakhan since he was born. I was second though, the contingency just in case something happened to Nikolai, and I was trained to be his protector and second in command." His body tensed with each hardening word while his breathing dragged out heavier and heavier.
"What happened to them? Your parents." He'd have to tell me at some point. Otherwise, this relationship wouldn't work. He knew things about my past, and I was more than open with him now about everything. So, it was only fair that I received the same from him.
"My brothers and I killed our father after he killed our mother for no other reason than he was done with her. Well, that and he hated the good influence she had on all of us. We locked him up in the basement and each took a turn at him for five days before Nikolai took the kill shot. Then we burned the house down to the ground with his body in it. Then we buried our mother with our sister in the gardens of the estate where Nikolai built the mansion." He wasn't torn up about the fact he tortured his father, no surprise there, but his voice did crack a little when he brought up his mother and sister.
Speaking of, "Wait, you have a sister?"
"Had. Had a sister. Natasha was born before the twins, best sibling of the bunch in my opinion, but the most tragic." Hesitancy chopped his wavering voice while his hands white-knuckled the steering wheel.
"What happened? If you don't mind." I had enough for now, so I didn't want to push him into some dark corner by forcing him to talk about the hurt in his life.
Stepan's eyes grew distant for a split second before his words came out almost scripted because of his restraint. "My father arranged her off into a marriage with another Pakhan to create an alliance. Needless to say, he was worse than alleyway trash. We all tried to stop the marriage, even went as far as hiding my sister, but they found her in the end and dragged her to the alter kicking and screaming. We never saw her again after the wedding, not even at the funeral because Nikolai demanded it be closed casket for our sakes, especially our mother's. Nikolai was the one who went over to Russia to identify her remains when she was found months later, and he was the one to retrieve the body back to the states, but he refuses even to this day to tell us a single detail about the state she was in when she was found. I don't know about the others, but I was stubborn and got my hands on the coroner's report. I've never had an urge to kill so bad until I read the thing."
"Did you get him in the end? Make him pay?" If he didn't, then I would love to have a go at the guy.
"Yeah, we wiped out the whole bratva in one bloody night." I'm not sure if the twisted grin on his face was intentional, but it almost seemed too giddy to be a controlled one.
"Is your sister the reason why you and your brothers hate arranged marriages and go against them?" Angel had told me about how their bratva had a ban of sorts on such relationships, and it made sense now if his sister was the reason.
His chest rose and fell in a steady movement before his head nodded in response to me. "Yeah. We didn't want any chance of that happening to any of us ever again or our children."
"Speaking of children—"
Then, we were off. The road, I meant.
We were—literally—on the road one second, then we were off the next.
Just as I was about to tell him the good news.
Chapter 48
Stepan
"Stepan, stop! You have—"
"No! Don't you dare fucking tell me to calm down!" Did I feel a little guilty about snapping at my pregnant sister-in-law? Yes, after the fact.
"Hey! Cool it." Nikolai warned me with a calm voice filled with silent anger. "You're not going to do any good with your mind frazzled."
As if I didn't know that. "I can't. They fucking took her!"
"And we will get her back. They fucked with the wrong family. You need to breathe, just take a second to recollect yourself before you do something stupid." Alexei told me, shoving me back into my seat at my dining table.
Turning my gaze outside the window, I gripped my hair and rubbed the back of my neck while taking heavy, erratic breaths. "Evenly, you're going to hyperventilate if you keep that up." Alexei sighed heavily.
"Stepan, she'll be okay out there until we get to her, she can handle herself just fine. If it's Lilian who took her then she'll be alive when we find her. If Lilian wanted her dead, then she would be." Angel tried to assure me with a worried smile.
