Page 42 of The Bratva's Bounty
As crazy as Nicole was, after hearing about her softer side, I found a new fondness blooming for her. It would seem that her overly confident front was more or less a shield from what Angel and Bao have told me. Yes, she was a powerful and confident woman deep down, but she piled it on more than needed to make her mark in society.
No matter, she didn't need to do any of that with me. There won't be a second in our relationship where I wouldn't treat her like the queen she was. I'd stand before her out in the world, protect her from everything so she could live her best life. Then, at home, she could rule all she wanted over me.
"Little lion, there you are!" Her sweet voice brought an internal groan to my peaceful thoughts.
Lulling my head back, I watched Nicole come over to me with a bright smile beaming on her face. Just as she was about to sit down on the ground next to me, I threw my arms around her waist to pull her into my lap with a soft smile of my own. "I thought I made it clear that my lap is your seat from now on," I teased with a widening grin, earning a chuckle and a playful smack to the chest from her.
It only took a second for her face to twist into a stern and concerned expression. "What's wrong? And don't you say nothing or give me nothing either." Sighing heavily, Nicole straddled my lap to face me fully. "I know things have been really good between us the past few days, but we're both deluding ourselves into the whole white picket fence dream. There's a lot we have to talk about that we've been kind of actively ignoring."
Well, glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought so.
Smiling rather flatly, I reached out and tucked her hair away from her face. "I don't know where to start," I admitted with a sigh of defeat.
Pursing her lips in thought, Nicole laid her head against my shoulder. "Well, let's see, my parents stole my company from me, tried to ship overseas to marry me off for business connections, I ran away and basically went psycho, and now I got you," she lightly joked with a chuckle. "In all seriousness, though, we'll figure something out with my parents on a later day after I chat with Angel and Bao some more, once I get settled here."
Taking a deep breath, she snakes her arms around my midsection, squeezing me tightly. "Besides that, we need to talk about us." And here came the dreaded topic. "It's been quite a bit for both of us the past few days, and I know you've said you're fine and all every time I checked in on you after sex, I'm still just worried about you because I know this is all new for you." Leaning her head back, she looked up at me with scrunched eyebrows.
Assuring her with a confident smile, I leaned down and kissed her longingly. "Yes, I really am fine, and more. Yes, it's just taking me a little longer to process everything, but it's more of a me thing." Smiling tenderly at her, I stroked her cheek with the back of my finger. "I mean, I shoved my finger in your ass yesterday, and you took a few minutes to fully process it, so imagine it for me." I teased with a soft laugh.
Rolling her eyes, she flicked my nose. "Fair point, but it just worries me a little when you go a little quiet or disappear to go think without really letting me know." Her smile faltered into a lopsided frown. "I'm just afraid of you not coming back to me because I had pushed some limit I shouldn't have or done something wrong, or that I'd wake up to some note saying you can't do this anymore." She voiced her worries to me with a cracking voice.
The tension in my face softened as I cupped her face and shook my head in denial. "Zhizn moya, no, never. I would never be such a coward to slip from you like that without some word or explanation to your face," I assured her firmly.
The words gnawed at my tongue, but I couldn't get them out.
I love you too much to hurt you.
Chapter 21
Nicole
Kissing Lev deeply, Ilet my hands caress the back of his head and neck before following the edge of his collar to the loop. "One step at a time, we'll make it," I assured him confidently. "As long as we communicate with each other, that's what matters."
I knew this was easier said than done. Communicating with a team or others without too much care for their feelings or knowing they don't have personal ties with me was different than communicating with my intimate partner. With Lev, I had to worry about hurting his feelings, wording things a certain way, watching my tone, and whatnot. I didn't want to be a dick to Lev, so I couldn't treat him like I would have my workers.
"I don't know what to do with my parents yet, as I've said. I mean, it would be easy to pull everything out from under them right now, but my gut is telling me it's a bad idea because no doubt they have some other plans in case shit goes belly up." Sighing, I gnawed at my bottom lip with irritation. "We just need to shut down all their escape routes before we strike."
My stomach churned with unease whenever I thought about what Lev told me about my parents doing some business off the books. I needed to figure that out before doing anything else. I already had a list of their business associatescompiled from their electronic footprint, and I had other connections to reach out to get anything amiss if they didn't have some record of it online.
Which reminds me…
"You want to go out on a date tonight? Angel and I, along with the others, are gonna hit the autumn festival in Asian Village later tonight." It was meant to be a friends' trip for us to catch up and have fun, but Nikolai insisted on going with Angel, which then led to Stepan tagging along because of Hanna, so might as well add a third Volkov brother into the mess. "I'm also meeting up with some associates of mine to see if I can get more information about my parents."
"Like hell am I letting you go alone then," Lev immediately agreed with a stern look at me. "I would have agreed anyway because no way am I passing up a date with you, but knowing you're going to be conducting dangerous business? Like hell am I staying home after hearing that? What kind of boyfriend will I be if I let you go to a shady meeting alone?" His words rambled on and on about how I would even think about doing something so stupid alone and yada yada yada.
He didn't shut up until I grabbed his face and kissed him. "Got it, don't go anywhere without myd?i ca," I teased with a giggle. "It's going to be nice knowing I don't have to be on guard all the time out on the streets now, so thank you." The mere thought of Lev being my personal bodyguard calmed my nerves. Even before we solidified our dynamic, when he was stalking me, I felt safe knowing he was there.
"How's bratva business?" I wasn't too involved much with his family business, not even with tech-related things. I used to help Angel a lot until I got too busy with my business, then after that was taken from me, I enjoyed my early retirement. For the most part, Bao handled things perfectly fine. Occasionally, I'd help if more manpower was needed or if the rare thing was out of Bao's scope—and that was really rare given how Bao knew all I did.
Lev took a deep breath before answering me, "Good, for the most part. Overall, everything has been pretty smooth, just some trouble stirring with those who were with the Qing Triad before getting a little too comfortable with us and trying to pull some shit."
Honestly, and I didn'twant to say anything about it out loud, but I was thoroughly surprised at the lack of uprising from Lady Qing's loyalists. However, I wasn't at the same time, given the load of blackmail the bratva had on nearly all the members with their shutdown of Lady Qing. Now, digging out all the corpses from everyone's backyards was rather interesting, and I did take part in that because it was such a big project for Bao to handle alone.
Still, blackmail or not, I was surprised at the lack of resistance to the merge of the triad into the Volkov Bratva. I know a lot got screwed over with the merge. Well, screwed over in the sense that they couldn't run their business dirty anymore. The Volkovs ran things rather cleanly and had rules, while Lady Qing didn't. Honestly, the merge was akin to that of taming wild wolves with the acquisitions from the fallen triad.
So far, the brothers have done a rather good job keeping everyone in line, and if anyone dared to step out of it, then, well, there'd be a new person behind the line. That wasn't common, though, not after the house cleaning Nikolai and Angel did.
Unfortunately, some slimeballs, like my parents, remained. Of course, they had a close eye on them, but rats would be rats. There was no way for every second of their life to be tracked and reported.