Page 65 of Paved in Hate

“Yes,” I tell him, coming back to stand by Vitaly.

“Where is she now?” Lev looks from me to Vitaly. He clenches his hand and then shakes it loose, reminding me that he’s a dangerous underground fighter and probably seconds away from losing his shit. Vitaly wraps an arm around my shoulder, pulling me against him, reminding me that I’m safe and making every fear instantly vanish.

“She’s here,” Vitaly says, “at his mansion.”

Lev shakes his head, pissed off and refusing to believe what he’s just heard.

“She was there while we ate supper?” Danil asks.

“She was,” Vitaly confirms, and then he tells them everything. He explains what happened to me when I was young and why I can’t do anything to help the women I see, and by the time he’s finished, his brothers look just like he had—disgusted and distraught and filled with an anger that’s threatening to consume them. I have no idea what Vitaly has planned, but I know that if he’s not careful, this is going to blow up and end up being completely out of anyone’s control.

Chapter12

Vitaly

Lev and Danil look like they’re seconds away from storming out of the penthouse and going straight over to Konstantin’s house and killing every Lebedev fucker they can, and this reaction is nothing compared to what Roman and Matvey are going to want to do. If I can’t get these two to calm down, then I don’t stand a chance with the other two.

“We can’t do anything right now,” I remind them.

“I can think of lots of things we can do right fucking now,” Lev mutters, starting to pace again.

“Yeah, lots of things that will just end up putting Alina in danger.” I look to Danil for help.

He sighs and looks over at Lev. “He’s right. We need a fucking plan.”

I smile, because I knew Danil’s need for planning and order would win in the end, or at least I hoped like hell it would.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lev groans. “Everything needs a fucking plan.”

Danil shrugs. “It’s true.”

“You didn’t have a fucking plan when you jumped out of the SUV and faced off with Dominic the night he was following us,” Lev reminds him.

“Yeah, and that could’ve easily gone a very different way, and you know it.” Danil says. “I never would’ve chosen to handle things like that if I’d had a choice.”

Lev scowls but relents with a sigh. “Fuck, I know, brother.” He looks between me and Danil. “Matvey is going to lose it when he finds out, and Roman’s not going to be much better.”

“I know. That’s why I told you two alone. I’m going to need your help because I think it’s going to take all three of us to keep them from running out of here and straight to Konstantin and Osip.”

“I’m still not convinced the three of us will be able to stop them,” Lev says.

Danil sits back down. “Maybe a pregnant wife will help, at least with Roman. He would never do anything to put her at risk.”

“True,” I say, already grabbing my phone. We have a big group chat with all of us in it, but this one has to be private. Finding Emily’s number, I quickly type outThink you can waddle your way up to our room without anyone noticing? It’s important. Don’t tell Roman.

Her response is immediate and exactly what I was expecting.I don’t fucking waddle! Yeah, he’s in the shower. I’m on my way. Give me a few minutes. Not because I’m waddling, smartass, but because I need to take it easy on the stairs.

She ends it with the smiling emoji because my sister-in-law can never stay mad at me. I send her the pregnant woman emoji, and then because I can’t help it, I also add in the duck emoji, because the woman fucking waddles now.

“You’re terrible,” Katya says, looking over my shoulder at the emojis I sent.

I lean down and kiss her cheek before whispering near her ear, “You’re going to look fucking adorable when you waddle, baby.”

Kissing her ear, I pull back and smile at the blush spreading up her cheeks. Yeah, my baby is going to look cute as hell when she’s pregnant. When I stand back up, both my brothers are looking at me. Danil is fighting a smile while Lev makes no attempt to hide his. His pierced brow is raised, adding to the already smug look on his face. Every part of him is screamingI told you so, but instead of irritating me, it just makes me laugh.

We all know what’s at stake with Alina, and the weight of what she’s going through is hanging heavy on all of us, so the smiles and laughs aren’t because we don’t care. They’re because we do fucking care. We care so goddamn much that if we didn’t have these moments of happiness, we’d all go fucking insane. The last couple of years have taught us to embrace every second of happiness we can find, because that shit is fleeting. It can all disappear in the blink of an eye, and none of us will ever make the mistake of taking someone we love for granted again.

The soft knock at the door pulls my attention away from Katya’s blushing face and my brothers’ smug grins.

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