Page 54 of Hating the Bratva

The front door slams, causing both of us to jump.

“Delaney!” Alek calls. I place a hand over my chest, and my mom lets out a short laugh.

“In the kitchen.”

He comes around the corner. His jaw is clenched, and his muscles are coiled so tight I can see the tension under his long sleeve shirt.

When he sees my mom, he nods his head. “Mrs. Miller.”

“Alek, it’s nice to see you. I should probably get going.”

I hug her before walking her to the door. When I come back to the kitchen, Alek is ruffling through one of the kitchen drawers.

“What’s going on?”

He pulls out a small gun and tucks it in his pants. “Fucking Xavier. I sent him to Detroit weeks ago to do a job, and it’s still not done.”

Ah. I walk up to Alek and wrap my arms around his warm body. His breathing seems to slow at my touch before he rests his chin on top of my head.

“Can’t you send somebody? You have to go yourself?”

“Yeah, Bunny. I just took over. I have to show the men that I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty and dull out punishments if needed.”

I shiver when he says punishments.

“You know we haven’t had a proper honeymoon.”

He pulls back to look down at me. “We will. Once everything is more settled.”

I want to laugh at that statement. Now that Alek is Pakhan, we’d have to travel with an army to go anywhere. He already has this house guarded like a fortress. We both turn around at the sound of a light thud. We turn to see Harriet has climbed onto the counter.

“Oh, come on, get down,” I say, waving at her. Alek chuckles as I struggle to get the cat down.

When I’m done, he plants a kiss on my lips. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to him kissing me whenever he wants to. I run a hand over the stubble across his jawline. He hasn’t been home much lately. He’s been dealing with the fall out of Ivan’s death. I haven’t asked many questions about it because, to be honest, it terrifies me. Alek set up a kill on one of his own. That’s punishable by death, but yet he stands here as the new Pakhan.

“Let me come with you.”

He shakes his head. “I’ll make it a fast trip, I promise.”

I hate that I’ll be alone, but I take comfort in the fact that guards surround me, and Alek wouldn’t leave if he thought there was any kind of danger. He stares at me with those bright green eyes. The eyes that I always knew I would end up waking up to every single morning. We had a weird way of getting to it, but we’re here, and that’s all that matters.

The End