Page 155 of Bratva Menace

“Okay, so I think we’re all wondering the same thing,” Tatiana began as Lukyan pulled out a chair for me to sit down. Oh, god. What? What are they wondering? When my obsession with Lukyan started? How many times I snuck into their house? What weird, crazy things I’ve done to make Lukyan mine— “What’s with the book in your hands?” she finished, her fork pointing right at my scrapbook.

Oh.

I smiled, holding it up with pride. “This is my scrapbook.”

“Scrapbook?” Illayana asked, putting some chicken on her plate. “Of what?”

“Lukyan, obviously,” Nikolai said, giving her a do you seriously need to even ask that question kind of look.

Illayana glared.

“Yes. Lukyan.” I opened it up, flipping through the pages. “These aren’t all my images. Just my favorites. Like this one”—I pointed to a picture of Lukyan walking down the street, a pair of Ray Bans over his eyes, an ice cream cone in his hands, his tongue swirling around it—“And this one”—I flicked to the next page and tapped the picture on the bottom left corner. It was one of Lukyan sleeping. “It’s kind of dark because it’s night time, but he looks so cute here. Oh, and this one.” The next photo I pointed out was one of him in the warehouse. He was shirtless, hair up in a bun with a few loose strands cascading around his face, sweat dripping down his abs. Cloth was draped around his hands, and his arms were out wide, a triumphant, smug smile on his face. “This one I have as the screensaver for my phone because I love it so much.” I held up my phone to show them, smiling.

My smile dropped slightly when I realized everyone was just staring at me. I smashed my lips together, looking awkwardly around the table. Shit. Maybe showing them the magnitude of my obsession might not have been a good idea⁠—

“Did you pose for this one, Lukyan?” Drea asked, laughing.

“What? No.” He looked at the last photograph a bit closer. “But it is a good one, isn’t it? Can you send me that, actually? I look pretty good in it.”

Illayana sat forward eagerly. “Do you have any embarrassing ones?”

“Yeah. Like any of him falling on his face?” Nikolai smirked.

“Or getting beat in the ring?” Aleksandr joined in.

“Excuse me, if I remember correctly, you’re the one who got your ass beat the last time we were in the ring,” Lukyan said smugly, winking.

“You cheated!” Aleksandr snapped. “You know you’re not allowed to kick in the nuts!”

“Father said no rules.” Lukyan shrugged. “Nuts are fair game. Wasn’t my fault you didn’t think of it.”

Aleksandr stood abruptly. “You wanna go again? Let’s go. Right now.”

“Sit down, Aleksandr,” Dimitri commanded. “It’s dinnertime.”

Aleksandr sat, grumbling under his breath.

“I’ve never seen you so worked up before, Aleksandr.” Tatiana’s smile was full of amusement. “I gotta say, it’s hilarious.”

“I’m not worked up,” he rushed out. “But I was undefeated before that day. It’s not fair he ruined my undefeated record by cheating.”

Illayana snorted. “Lukyan cheats. We all know that.”

“Hey!” Lukyan blasted. “I resent that. I don’t always cheat.”

“Mmm, you kinda do,” I added in, laughing. “Cedric told me how you kept cheating in Uno.”

“You can cheat in Uno?” Autumn asked, frowning.

Lukyan nodded, placing his elbows on the table and leaning forward eagerly. “Yeah. It’s actually really easy. I’ll show you one time.”

“What’s that?” Arturo asked, his eyes narrowed in thought.

“What?” I looked over the scrapbook. “Oh, this? These are dental records.”

“You have his dental records?” Drea chuckled.

I nodded. “Yep. And his last physical from the doctor. Also this”—I flipped to the next page, showing them the lock of hair I had taped to the inside—“It isn’t the first one I got. That one is here, on my wrist.” I showed it to them with pride. “But I wanted another one just in case I lost this one.”