Page 15 of Unwilling Bratva Bride

My skin prickled. I wasn’t unfamiliar with talking to people like this, and the truth was I’d had a pretty damn good education from tutors and the like, thanks to my own Russian bratva family’s insistence on it. Still, I didn’t use my “bullshit businessman” voice unless I needed to, and unfortunately, right now, I did.

“Adely will be receiving sixteen thousand a month, which includes funds for room and board. I’ve provided a signing bonus immediately of just over twelve thousand to get the payments on your bodega current.”

The room was so quiet you could hear a fucking pin drop, and everyone in the room was guilty of letting their mouth fall open.

“You…That can’t be right. You…You paid off our debts?” Eleanor’s voice was shaky, and I could see the tremble snaking through her.

Conall pulled her closer, and he frowned at me. “If this is some scam.”

“Please, call the bank and confirm for yourself.”

Adley’s parents stared at me, but her father held out his hand toward Adley, silently requesting the phone. She took the cordless handset out of its dock and placed it in her father’s subtly shaking hand.

After a few moments on the phone, her folks realized I wasn’t lying to them, and they both sat on the couch in shock. Eleanor’s eyes were a bit glassy, and Molly had come up to her, kneeling in front of the sofa as she took her mother’s hand.

“This is huge. Do you think…do you think we’ll be able to save up for school then?”

“School?” I asked.

“The twins want to go to college in the next few years. And yes, Molly, you’ll both be able to go with my paycheck,” Adley replied. “And Ivan has some friends who love to support local businesses, so they’ll probably be stopping by the bodega a lot to have lunch and stuff.”

Smooth, Adley.

Her parents looked up at her from their position on the couch, and Adley stepped up to her father, holding his hand.

“You’re leaving right away? It just feels so fast, but…” Conall glanced over at me before returning his attention to Adley. “I suppose if you think you’d like to work for him, then of course. With that help, I could hire Johnny from down the street to help at the shop. He’s young and needs money for those movie games and whatnot.”

“It’s video games, Dad. And yeah, I’m sure he’ll take you up on the offer if you tell him he can have a store discount. His mother is obsessed with the roast beef we get in.”

He stood up, hugging Adley, and they both pulled back from the encounter with glassy eyes. It felt beyond awkward to be standing there for it, and I averted my gaze by focusing on the hallway where they’d come from.

“I’m going to go up to my room to pack a few things, but I’ll be sure to call you guys when I get settled.”

The entire family circled together around Adley, giving her a hug, and my chest did something weird as I watched from the corner of my eye. It wasn’t a mystery that I didn’t have much of that going for me, and really, it was only my brothers who I trusted like that.

Back in Russia, our father had been a particularly ruthless bastard in the bratva. His own men had taken him out, and weleft, wanting nothing to do with them. We built up a name for ourselves—the Unholy Trinity—and used our skills to prove we were useful to the local bratva here in Chicago.

The Vadims were the closest thing we had to a family organization here, but we outsourced our skills to anyone who could pay.

Adley’s situation wasn’t anything like that. This was a real family who loved and respected each other, and taking her away from it…well, I almost felt guilty for half a second. But I was a bit of a bastard myself, and when I saw something I wanted, I took it.

“I’d be happy to help you get your stuff, Adley. The least I can do for taking you away from these lovely people is carry your bag.”

***

I’d followed Adley up another set of obscenely steep stairs to a tiny attic space that acted as her room. It was definitely cramped, but it was also littered with the things that symbolized who Adley was. There were a few knickknacks I could see that were probably given to her by family members—Irish momentos like small figurines and little flags—but the rest of the walls were covered in drawings.

“You really like to sketch, huh?”

She looked over at me from where she stood near her closet. There was a duffle bag on her bed, and Adley had already filled it quite a bit.

“Oh, yeah. I was… never mind.”

Turning back to her bag, Adley tossed in the pile of clothing she held and zipped the duffle shut.

“Okay, I’m all set. I just want to grab some stuff from the bathroom, and we can go.”

I cocked a brow at her, holding out my arm so that she couldn’t walk past me and out into the hall.

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