Page 55 of Plus-Size Bratva Bride

I lean down and gently press my lips against hers. “I won’t be long. Maybe two hours at most.”

She nods. “We can go for an early dinner when you’re done.”

“That sounds great. I’m already hungry,” I admit. “And I’m really not in the mood to listen to my brothers arguing over routes.” I chuckle.

Leaving her feels wrong. It feels like there is a string tied to my chest and someone is tugging at it. They tug harder the further I get from her. It feels unnatural to be away from her.

But I do have a duty towards my businesses that cannot be ignored.

Driving through the city towards my brother’s place, everyone is at Rodion’s house, hosting the meeting there. I can’t pull my thoughts away from Jade.

She has fit so easily into my life. No, that’s not entirely true. It hasn’t all been easy. I smirk. In fact, she was rather feisty and cold for a long time, but right now, for whatever dose of luck the universe has granted me, she is treating me as though I might be someone special to her. Someone who holds meaning in her heart.

But how can I jump to that conclusion?

Is it just because the connection we have is so intense? Is that connection purely physical? Not for me. For me, it’s more than that. My protective nature flares around her. My heart warms and my skin burns to be near her.

No. It’s not just physical. I’ve had purely physical relationships in the past and not one of them felt like this. I hardly gave those relationships a thought in between the random nights we spent together. And I grew bored of them quickly.

I could never grow bored of Jade.

Something about her gives me a constant sense of curiosity and enticement.

I smile as I park the car alongside my brothers and climb out, walking towards Rodion's front door.

I don’t knock, I just push the door open and make my way to the dining room where we usually hold meetings like this.

They are all standing, leaning over the table and staring at a map. Rodion has his finger pressed against the massive sheet of paper.

“Here, if we come in from this side of town—“

“Hi,” I say, dropping my things onto the table and leaning forward too. “Where are we at?”

Between Rodion, Ruvim and Renat, all speaking at once, they catch me up on what is bothering them about the route they originally chose. Road work, a fire in a building and a construction site that have all developed over the past week have upset the flow of their plan.

Rodion is an overthinker when it comes to making sure operations go perfectly. He worries for our safety, he takes on that responsibility as though it was his alone to bare but it isn’t.

“Alright, I get it. Ok, so, why is it difficult to choose another route?” I run my eyes over the map, over the lines they have drawn in erasable marker.

“School on this route, and you know our rule about driving operations near children.” Ruvim points to the red marker line.

“There is a church parade for a shelter on this route on the same day we are running the route,” Rodion sighs in frustration pointing at the blue line.

“And the yellow?” I ask, glancing around the table.

“Nobody fucking likes the route for no fucking reason.” Renat throws his hands in the air. “I don’t get it. There is nothing stopping us from just switching to the yellow route.” He’s deeply frustrated, and I can immediately see I’ve hit the contention they’ve been struggling with in the meeting.

“It gives me a bad feeling,” Rigor says, clenching his jaw.

“A bad feeling?” Renat mocks him. “What did you do? Consult the oracle before you came here this morning?” He rolls his eyes.

“Pipe down,” Rodion warns him with a stern glare.

Renat mutters something no one can hear, and we all ignore him.

“Here. If we take the school route, but skip that street and travel two streets behind the school. It might add a few minutes to the drop, but we can factor that into the travel time. Nowhere near the kids, or the parade, or Rigor’s bad feelings,” I smirk and wink at Renat, who chuckles.

I’m just trying to defuse the tension.

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