Page 93 of Between Us

“Cool,” he parroted, his focus already back on his work.

As Alessandra left, she closed the door behind her, and he appreciated the thoughtful gesture. He worked in silence for the next forty minutes, the only sounds in the room coming from the laptop's keyboard as he replied to e-mails and followed up on some offshore transactions.

Roman was good with numbers, algorithms and everything that required logical thinking. Had been for as long as he could remember. It was one of the reasons why Vitaly had tasked him with most of the financial-related aspects of the Bratva's various businesses. That meant an increased workload for him and little free time, but Roman couldn't deny that he also enjoyed it.

By the time he was done for the day, more than anhour had passed. Powering off his laptop, he stood from the desk and headed for the living room. Alessandra was stretched out on the couch on her stomach, holding a pillow under her chin as she watched something on TV.

“I see you started without me,” he said, discarding his phone on the coffee table. Grabbing her calves, he lifted her legs and sat on the couch. Alessandra turned onto her back, keeping her feet on his lap.

“It's just some sitcom.”

Roman had been busy for most of the day, but now that he was more relaxed, he remembered there was something he wanted to discuss with his wife. “I talked to Laney about house renovations, and she has someone for us. We can set up a meeting for next week.”

Alessandra sat up, seemingly interested in the subject. “So, about that. I was thinking that I'd like to convert one of the guest bedrooms into a study room for me.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “Let's see; we have your study room, my gym, the master bedroom, the patio area. Anything else?”

“I think that's it for now.”

With a nod, he turned his attention to the TV. “What are we watching?”

“We have two options: The Conjuring or It.”

“Horror again? I thought you said you were done with horror flicks after the last time.”

She shrugged one shoulder as if to say that was in the past. “I'm just getting a taste for the genre.”

“I'm not holding you tonight when you're too scared to sleep on your side of the bed.”

With a knowing grin, she crawled up to him on thecouch, her arms going around his neck. “Yeah, you will,” she whispered against his ear.

A smile pulled on his lips. “Maybe I will.”

They eventually settled on watchingIt. Alessandra even made a bowl of microwave popcorn and brought Roman a beer from the fridge.

They managed to actually watch the movie for about twenty minutes.

As soon as Roman's hands were empty, they started wandering, and it didn't take long before Alessandra was straddling his lap and they were making out, the movie forgotten.

???

It was almost midnight when Roman made his way downstairs for a glass of water. On this way back from the kitchen, he walked past the living room and something caught his eye in the dark. Pausing, he looked into the room and noticed that his cell phone's screen flashed with an incoming call on the coffee table.

Before he could reach it, the phone went dark again.

Roman drained his water, put the empty glass down and grabbed his phone. He froze when he saw nine missed calls, the last one from Stepan. A chill ran down his spine when he realized most of the calls were from Alek.

Tatyana was his first thought. He'd always insisted that she needed more protection, but she was too damn stubborn for her own good. If anything had happened to her, it was Vitaly's fault for letting her do whatever she pleased, all the damn time.

With a sense of dread slithering through his veins, hepressed his thumb to his brother's name on the screen and brought the phone to his ear.

Alek answered almost immediately. ”Roman, thank fuck.”

“What happened?”

There was a cacophony of noise in the background, and Roman already knew where Alek was before he even spoke.

“I'm at the hospital. Dad's been shot. He was leaving the club and... it's bad. It's really fucking bad.”

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