Page 81 of Born into Blood

“No worries,” Svetlana tells her. “I’m just going home anyway.” She gives a playful eye roll. “I’m not allowed to have an exciting life, remember? All my nights are spent with this guy watching over me like a hawk, like I’m some sort of troublemaker or something.” She laughs, ignoring the glare she’s getting from Vitya.

“She’s definitely a troublemaker,” I tell Lara before looking over at my cousin. “Try not to corrupt her, Sveta.”

Svetlana laughs. “No promises.”

I’m not happy about letting Lara out of my arms, but I know Vitya will make sure she gets there safely, and as soon as I’m done inside, I’ll be coming to get her. I give her one last kiss before helping her into the back of the SUV.

“I’ll text you as soon as I’m on my way,” I tell her. I buckle her in and then cup the back of her head. “I love you, kisa. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“I love you too.” She smiles and kisses me. “Hurry up.”

I grin back at her. “I will.”

Stepping back, I shut the door and turn to Vitya. He’s put the tinted window down so I can see him, and when I meet his eyes, he nods, letting me know that he’ll guard her with his life, and it’s all the confirmation I need, but that doesn’t stop me from switching to Russian and saying, “Walk her to her apartment and make sure her mom doesn’t see you.”

He nods again, confirming it’ll be done just as I ask, and I relax a little at knowing she won’t just be getting dropped off in the parking garage. Svetlana can complain about him all she wants, but he’s one of our most trusted men for a reason. He’s damn good at his job, and if he wasn’t already assigned to my cousin, I’d be making him Lara’s personal bodyguard. Arkady is a good man, though, and I know he’ll keep Lara safe. He knows exactly what will happen to him if he doesn’t.

I watch the SUV drive off and then head back inside, not at all looking forward to what comes next. Everyone is already waiting in Dominic’s office when I walk in and take a seat next to Max and Val. They both give me an inquisitive look, and I give them a subtle shake of the head to let them know that now isn’t the time to ask questions.

Max leans back, extending a long leg out while lightly tapping his fingers along the arm of the leather couch like he’s playing a piece of music, and Val crosses an ankle at his knee as we wait to see what the hell is going on.

Dominic gives voice to what we’re all thinking when he says, “Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

My Uncle Danil holds up his phone. “I have certain things flagged on the internet so I’ll be alerted when they pop up. It’s been so fucking long since I’ve had a hit that I’ve gotten a bit lazy about checking on some of them.” He sighs and says, “I got a hit on Osip Lebedev.”

Val and Max dart their eyes to mine, but they don’t say a word.

“What?” Dominic asks.

My Uncle Matvey grips the back of the chair my dad is sitting in like he’s about to break it in two while my Uncle Danil says, “Someone’s been looking for information about him.”

“Someone?” Dominic asks.

“It looks like he has a daughter,” my dad says.

“What the fuck?” Dominic growls while Max leans forward and asks, “Who is Osip Lebedev?”

“We destroyed their Bratva,” my Uncle Danil says.

My dad looks at me. “It happened right before you were born. We killed them all, and we wanted to keep it from you.” He shakes his head, looking every bit like there’s a heavy weight on his shoulders. “To spare you from it, from what they did to our family.”

“What did they do to our family?” Val asks, looking between his dad and uncles.

It’s my Uncle Matvey’s deep, gravelly voice that answers. “They took Alina and tortured her for two goddamn years.”

“Jesus,” Max whispers.

“We spent two years searching for her,” my dad says. “We infiltrated their sex-trafficking ring, doing whatever the hell we needed to do to get to her, and when we finally found her, we killed every last one of them.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell us?” I ask him. “This is important shit that we need to know about.”

“We wanted to put it behind us,” my dad says, “and we swore when we killed those fuckers that their name would die with them, that no one would remember them or give a shit about them. We wanted everything to die with them.”

“What about other threats because of it?” Max asks. “Shouldn’t we have been aware of it for that reason alone?”

“Give me some credit,” his dad says. “I kept a very close eye on everything for years, and there was never any threat of retaliation. Another Bratva stepped in, just like we knew they would, but they’ve never once tried to come into our territory, and once they realized we weren’t coming after them, everything settled down. This is the first peep of anything in two decades.”

“There’s more to it than that,” my Uncle Vitaly admits. He looks at his brothers. “If we’re going to tell them, then we might as well tell them everything. When we were trying to get close to them, Konstantin and Osip suggested we unite the families through marriage.” He looks at Val. “That’s why your mom and I got married.”

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