Page 39 of The Bratva King's Twins

I couldn’t hide the news forever, but I was trying to put it in the back of my mind in the meantime.

I wanted to enjoy our time together, even if hiding it from Ari was slowly eating at me.

When the tennis ball eventually hit his side of the court, Ari chased after it in a light jog. “That’s interesting. Usually, kingpins train their sons to take over the business…”

As much as I was trying to answer his questions to the best of my abilities, I couldn’t ignore the skepticism moving through me. I didn’t know what he was getting at, but seeing as he didn’t ask about them often, he had to be on to something he wasn’t sharing with me.

“I suppose so,” I murmured, watching as he bounced the tennis ball several times before catching it again.

As he looked at it in his hand, many thoughts moved through his eyes as if fighting some internal battle. He squeezed it, looked like he was about to serve it, then didn’t. His hesitation was worrying me.

Ari let go of a deep breath and looked over at me. “If they were to surround this place right now and ask you to come with them, would you?”

My brows furrowed at that, confused as to what he was talking about, and I relaxed out of my poised position. “What?”

I genuinely wasn’t expecting him to ask me anything like that. He didn’t seem to work in hypotheticals, and seeing how much it seemed to weigh on him, I knew something was up.

He ran a hand down his face, gazing at me with an expression I couldn’t read. “What I mean is, would your loyalty be with me or with them?”

Aware of how much weight that question carried, I knew I had to get to the bottom of his questions. I didn’t understand why all of that mattered so suddenly.

“What’s going on, Ari?” I asked, approaching the net again.

Ari looked away, not meeting my eyes like he normally did. It seemed out of character for him as he absently fiddled with the tennis racket. “I shouldn’t concern you with this…”

But that only made me more concerned. Lifting the net, I walked beneath it so that nothing stood between us. With the game completely out of our minds, I looked at him directly.

“If something is happening with my family, I should know about it,” I said, determined not to be left in the dark.

I didn’t mind not knowing the gritty details of his work, and I honestly preferred it that way. But knowing how things went down with my family, I felt like I had a right to at least be told if anything was going on.

If we were married and planning on making it mean something, then I didn’t want there to be any glaring secrets between us. Even if I wasn’t the greatest at following that philosophy myself just yet.

Ari still didn’t say as he bounced the ball, only to let it go as it rolled across the court aimlessly. “I know, and you’re right. It’s just…I don’t want you to worry any more than you need to.”

“But now I’m going to worry until you tell me,” I told him, hoping he could hear my sincerity. “I don’t mind answering your questions. I just want to know why you’re asking in the first place.”

Knowing I was right, he sighed and looked at me as if I had worn him down. “Alright. We’ve been getting reports lately of your family looking into us. We’re still monitoring the situation, and we haven’t pinpointed exactly who it is, but it seems like they’re trying to gain insight into our operations.”

Those words settled into my skin, hitting me at once.

While it wasn’t a complete surprise due to the way Ari had stormed into our home and forced everyone into submission, I couldn’t imagine any of my family going to that extreme or planning anything against the Levovs.

It would complicate everything.

Not knowing what to say, I could only think about what that would mean, and how that might make our situation worse.

Ari relaxed his shoulders at my visible shock, and he reached for my free hand. While he seemed empathetic, his eyes were serious and almost silently pleading. “Vivian, I need to know. What would you do if they tried to interfere?”

The question hit me even harder after knowing more about it.

In the beginning, I would’ve gladly gone with them. I had been silently begging for them to come take me back home, even if I’d be returning right back to the poor situation I was already in. A part of me wanted to believe they would do that for me, but as time passed, I assumed they wouldn’t.

But if they really were out there, looking for an angle to get me back, I didn’t know how to feel about it. It was a bittersweet thought now.

Before, I thought there was nobody worse than Ari. I thought he was a brutal monster who only cared about landing on top. But with time, and after we managed to connect after everything, I realized he was so much more than that.

Beneath that hard, mob-boss exterior, there was a gentle, thoughtful man who was actively doing everything he could to not only earn my trust but also to make me feel the love and affection I had never known before.

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