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“Well, maybe I’ll meet him when I visit Roman.”
I look down at her. “You want to go to Dominic’s house?” My heart speeds up at the thought of her leaving the safety of the penthouse, but if she picks up on my nerves, she hides it well.
“Yeah, I want to go today. I need to see for myself that Roman’s okay.”
I scratch at the stubble on my jaw. “What about a video call?”
She lifts a brow at me. “I’ll go get ready.”
I know Alina well enough to know arguing with her about this is pointless, so I just kiss her head and say, “I’ll let Dominic know we’re on our way.”
It’s only after she walks off that I realize she’s barely eaten anything on her plate. She’d picked at it mostly, managing to eat half of one biscuit, but the sausage and eggs are untouched.
“Well, that’s not going to cut it,” I mutter, pushing the plate aside.
“She’s still getting used to everything,” Lev says, trying to make me feel better.
I look over at him. “You saw how thin she is. She needs to eat more.”
“It’s one of the many ways Konstantin likes to exert his power.” Katya’s speaking low, but I hear every damn word. “Even the women he employs at the house are only allowed to eat what he gives them.”
“What does he give them to eat?” I ask her.
“From what I could see, it’s mainly very bland things. Oatmeal, toast, sandwiches, that sort of thing, and never anything that would actually fill someone up. The portions were very small. He liked to control every aspect of their lives.”
She stops talking when she hears Alina coming back up the stairs. I walk around to meet her, whispering a quick thanks to Katya on my way. She’s still wearing my hoodie, but she’s switched the yoga pants for jeans and put on a pair of sneakers. Even without makeup, she’s effortlessly the most beautiful woman I’ve everseen.
“Ready?” I ask her.
She nods and says a quick goodbye to everyone while I send a text to Dominic, letting him know we’ll be there soon. His response comes a few seconds later.
I’ll let my men at the gate know.
“I can’t believe he saved my life last night,” Lev groans. “He’s never going to let me live that down, and it makes me feel slightly guilty about shooting him.”
Jolene hugs him tighter while I give a soft laugh. “Yeah, he’s never going to let you forget it. It’ll be interesting to see how he calls that favor in. You’ll probably have to agree to let your firstborn join his mafia.”
“Like hell,” he growls. “The next generation of Melnikovs are taking over this Bratva so we can fucking retire.”
“Sounds good to me,” Danil says while Jolene and Simona look less than thrilled. Katya doesn’t seem surprised. She grew up in this life, so she knows what’s expected of the children.
Simona pats her stomach. “Well, we have lots of time to discuss future plans.”
“Yeah,” Jolene agrees. “No need to make them Bratva members just yet.”
Lev smiles and kisses her forehead. “Malinkaya, I hate to say it, but they became members of the Melnikov Bratva the second they were conceived.”
The look she gives him clearly says,we’ll be talking about this later.
Grabbing Alina’s hand, I pull her into the elevator, leaving my brothers to dig their way out of the mess they’ve gotten themselves into.
“That should be a fun conversation,” Alina says, watching me push the button for the parking garage.
“Katya understands. Maybe she’ll help smooth things over.”
“I don’t think there’s any smoothing over the fact that their sons will one day be running a Bratva and constantly be putting their lives in danger.”
“Their husbands do it,” I remind her with a grin.
