Page 53 of The Bratva King's Twins

As I moved down the hall and headed down the stairs, listening to how his yelling only got louder, dread filled my chest.

As much as I wanted to believe they were leaving things alone, I had the sinking feeling it was because of my brothers.

Ari hadn’t told me anything beyond what he mentioned that one day about them snooping, but that didn’t mean everything was perfectly fine on that front. He could’ve been trying to spare me from something worse, which didn’t make me feel any better.

I just hoped they weren’t the reason, and nothing else would come of it.

Leaning against the stairwell wall, I tried to listen for any indication if it was about my family, but it was too general for me to understand what was going on. Then, Ari murmured a final demand before he ended the call and let out a heavy breath.

Gingerly walking down the rest of the way, I found him running an irritated hand down his face as he stood by himself in the kitchen.

“What was that about?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet to not alarm him.

As if realizing he hadn’t been quiet enough, Ari glanced over at me and sighed. “It was just something work-related. Sorry if I woke you.”

Not believing him, I walked further into the kitchen with my brows furrowed. “That sounded pretty serious. What’s going on?”

“You don’t need to worry about it,” he mumbled, ignoring my obvious concern.

“Does it have anything to do with my brothers?”

When the words hit him, Ari looked away, silently confirming my suspicions. That pit in my stomach only grew more.

Leaning his forearms against the countertop, Ari looked like he wanted to keep it from me still, but he was already caught. He surely knew I wasn’t prepared to give it up until I heard the truth.

It was a correct assumption.

When he met my gaze, he seemed exhausted. “I didn’t want to tell you because I don’t need this compromising the pregnancy in any way. You shouldn’t have to stress over my work, too.”

Understanding his reasoning, I also knew it wasn’t enough.

Still, I did my best to be empathetic as I approached him and put a hand on his arm.

“I get that, Ari, but if my family is causing issues, I need to know. You may not want me to stress about it, but I don’t want you carrying this on your shoulders alone,” I told him, offering him my support. “We’re partners in this, remember? You can tell me.”

Ari looked conflicted at first, but as he thought about it more, he eventually nodded as he came around. “They’ve attempted to hit our warehouses multiple times now. One of our higher-ups just informed me they’ve hit another this morning, and this one caused the most damage. They’ve been getting bolder over the last few weeks, and I’m worried this might cross over into Andrei’s territory. He doesn’t need to get pulled into this, and I don’t need this getting any worse.”

My skin went cold as that reality sank in, and at least a part of me felt numb.

As much as I wanted to believe I could handle hearing the truth, I couldn’t deny how it hurt to know my family was causing problems, and there was no telling exactly why it was happening.

“We believe they’ve been trying to poke holes in our defenses to see where they might find success, but other than that, we don’t know what they’re after,” Ari continued, clenching his jaw as he spoke. “I believe they’re trying to throw us off so they can hit us big. Maybe even so they can get you back.”

“To get back at you for embarrassing Dad,” I murmured, connecting those pieces in my head.

Ari nodded. “I’d assume so. We won’t know until I can either get more intel on the situation or until I can confront them face to face.”

That struck panic through my system. “You’d do that? Face them directly?”

“If that’s what it takes. I’m sorry you had to hear this, but we can’t always handle things by proxy. If this keeps up, I can’t guarantee they’ll come out of this alive.”

It was hard to digest that fact, but to my surprise, I wasn’t concerned about them.

As far as I could tell, they were messing with something they shouldn’t have, and if they were poking the Levovs despite their reputation, they were asking for it.

“I’m not worried about them,” I said, realizing I needed him to know that his safety mattered the most to me. “I don’t want you or your family to get hurt because of my brothers and their stupid revenge.”

Ari softened at that, and he put a hand on top of mine. “I appreciate that, Vivian, but if it comes down to it, there’s nothing else I can do but tackle it head-on.”

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