Page 12 of The Bratva's Beast

One quick workout for the Volkov boys and a car ride later, we were back at the company building after dropping our bounty off at the police station.

Stopping right next to me, Stepan refused to meet me head-on. "Go wash up and take a quick break, then we'll meet in my office to go over some things." Stepan told me with a nod towards the employee locker area before turning his full attention to me once Lev slinked off to do his own thing.

"You did great, good job." His praise and smile was brief, but the warm bloom in my heart was anything but.

"Thanks, I always give my best and nothing else." I replied with a soft smile while gritting my teeth to hold myself back from grinning like a fool.

After a quick rinse, I changed into a fresh pair of black pants with a white, short-sleeve blouse with a black leather jacket thrown over, and a pair of black ankle boots on my feet. Then I made my way to Stepan's office and made myself comfortable on the couch next to Lev after he patted the spot.

Stepan was caught up in a quick meeting, so I was stuck with Lev for the time being. The two of us sat in the suffocating office filled with our tension.

"Still fucking salty, but good job out there." Lev grumbled after a while, averting his eyes from me while running a hand down his face.

"Thanks… But no hard feelings? Ya know I was just doing a job, not like I was purposely upstaging you." God this felt so awkward.

Lev was the asshole for keeping this stupid grudge against me. Honestly, I had no qualms with him because we were both just doing our jobs. Unfortunately, the job put our warring paths together, but I really didn't think anything of it.

Sure, was it annoying to have him take my bounty from me the few times he did? Yes, but nothing a small hissy fit or some drinks couldn't fix. I never hung myself over it at the end of the day.

"Are you going to quit taking my bounties and being a bitch to me?" Lev shot back with a raised brow and straight face.

"I've never been a bitch to you." Okay, maybe I might have flipped him off a few times, but not like I gave him much or any trouble beyond that.

"Maybe not in your book, but you've definitely been one in my eyes." He cracked a slight smirk before reaching up with one hand and flicking my forehead with a chuckle. "We'll get along just fine."

"You two behaving in here?" Stepan asked with a faint chuckle as he entered his office, shutting the door behind him.

"Oh please, if I were to kill her then it wouldn't be in your office and get this nice couch dirty with blood." Lev's tone lightened when he responded to his brother.

"I was more worried about her making a mess with beating your ass, but whatever helps you sleep at night, bratan." Stepan retorted with a smirk and glanced at Lev as he passed his brother to the desk.

Settling behind his desk, Stepan leaned back in his chair and got comfortable. "So, how did you think that went?" Stepan settled his sharp eyes trained on me as his fingers tapped at the arm of his chair.

Taking a deep breath, I spend a moment in my head. "Better than I expected, honestly. It was nice and quick, not too much damage to me or the target, no collateral damage either." Granted, the whole thing occurred in a wooded area away from civilization.

"I agree, it did go very well. Now, one experience is hardly enough to judge you on, but if you're consistent with what I witnessed earlier then I should see no problem if I were to employ you. I'm not going to lie, I went in thinking you were going to display yourself to be some liability like Lev." Stepan's eyes quickly glanced at Lev who protested his brother with a glare.

"I've learned to be mindful of my surroundings and actions. I've dealt with my fair share of blowback during my early years of bounty hunting." I replied with a confident smile as I leaned back in my seat, ignoring that he tossed me in the same category as Lev.

Unfortunately, being a bounty hunter didn't mean I was above the law. I could care less about roughing up runaway criminals, though. I got my kicks from my more illegal hunts, so I didn't need to worry about running my energy out with my bounty assignments.

"Good. Well, like I said, I think it went very well from what I saw. Although, your methods are a little straightforward when it comes to surveillance, so maybe just be a little less risky there and everything should be fine." Stepan's short, soft chuckle warmed the room briefly.

"I'm usually not that risky, promise. It was just I was on a time constraint and kind of jumped the gun, and I wanted to show you how I did things." I grinned somewhat sheepishly. "Don't worry, I'm usually a lot more patient and careful." Somewhat. I did tend to be a little impatient at times.

The reason why my clearance rates were so high and quick was due to my riskiness. Spending months tracking and locating a target got tedious at times, so I got into a poor habit of tailing close to stick a tracker on them whenever I could. Worse comes to worse, I get made and have to expedite a takedown.

Well, I would dial it back if I got the job.

"Hope you stick to that. Well, either way, excitement is over, now for the boring stuff." Stepan beckoned me over with his fingers.

"Hope you're better than Lev at reports too." He teased with a soft smirk as he got out of his chair.

Chapter 8

Hanna

"Woo! I'm so fucking happy for you!"