Page 8 of Between Us

“You'll tell me if he doesn't treat you right, you hear me?”

Despite her current state of mind, Alessandra wanted to laugh. “And what could you do about it, Matty?”

Something dark crossed his face. “Let me worry about that.”

She shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. “Do you know anything about him? Should I be worried?”

“Can't say I've had the pleasure to chat with him, Ale. I ran into him a few times over the years, and he's everything you could expect from a Russian—cold and with an ego the size of this house.”

Alessandra didn't bother to point out that Italian men weren't so modest in their perception of their self-worth either.

4

“My head is fucking killing me.”

Roman looked up from the papers he was reading and had to keep himself from chucking the led lamp on the desk at his brother. “Next time, you should consider to stop drinking after youfirstbottle of vodka.”

They had spent the previous night in one of the Bratva-owned nightclubs. As usual, Alek had gotten shitfaced and was now complaining about the aftermath. Roman was in no mood to listen to it.

Sensing his brother's irritation, Alek gave him a half-hearted grin. “And miss out on all the fun? Nah, I'm good with the headache.”

Roman let out an annoyed sigh before going back to his lecture. Alek managed to be quiet for all of thirty seconds.

“So, how's the wedding planning coming along? All I hear about is how hot your future bride is.”

Roman grunted out a noncommittal sound. Alessandrawashot, but he didn't care to hear about it from other people. In fact, to his complete surprise, she was more beautiful than he could have hoped for, and if this was a small compensation the universe had given for his sacrifice, then he was going to take it without much complaint.

Alek chuckled. “You don't look too excited about it,brat. What's wrong?”

“Besides having to marry a teenager, nothing is wrong.”

“Young pussy can be fun. You get to teach her all the things you like.”

“You should marry her, then.”

“If she’s got the sweet ass everyone’s talking about… well, I wouldn’t say no.”

Roman rubbed his eyes. “Why are you here, again? Don't you have shit to do?”

“I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by. That, and I could really eat. Have lunch with me?”

Lunch sounded, in fact, like a good idea. Since they were in a restaurant, and Roman was running the place, Alek regularly took advantage of his brother’s position in the brotherhood to get free meals whenever the occasion arose.

“Steak and something green for me.”

Alek took the hint and stood to go place their orders in the kitchen. “You and your fucking diets,” he muttered.

Roman didn't see the point in correcting him. He hadn't been on a single diet in his entire life, but he did try to be mindful of what he ate, whenever possible. A body like his didn't maintain itself. It required regularworkouts in the gym and healthy meals. Alek, on the other hand, was basically a carnivore. If it didn't have meat in it, he wasn't going to touch it. Between that and his love of junk food, it was a miracle he still looked as good as he did. Their joint sessions in the gym seemed to be doing the trick.

After reading and signing the papers in front of him, Roman pushed them into the first drawer and got to his feet. Buttoning up his suit jacket, he headed after his brother. He already knew he would find him at the table that was usually reserved for family and friends, drinking coffee to get over his hangover.

“Look at this shit.” Alek slapped that day’s newspaper on the table just as Roman sat down.

“When did you start reading the newspaper?” Roman asked, but his eyes were already perusing the title written in bold letters.

Unidentified man found floating in Chicago River. Mafia involvement suspected.

“They found the body near Columbia Woods, and it wasn’t us, that’s for damn sure.”

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