Page 47 of Unwilling Bratva Bride

Adley held up her hands again, this time like she was surrendering. “Oh, no. I said nothing. You cannot put this on me.”

And just like that, the awkward meeting was over. We were chatting, Vlad doing his phone thing, and it all felt so…normal. We were just shooting the shit about dumb nonsense that both mattered and didn’t, and Adley told my brothers more about the bodega.

Some of it I was hearing for the first time, too, and I was intrigued to learn that her great-grandparents had come over from Ireland and the shop had been passed down through the generations.

It was beyond evident that it meant a lot to her, but I could also hear what she wasn’t saying. That running it had been her parents and grandparents' dreams, not hers.

“Sounds like you’re going to need to hire someone to take over when they can’t work it. Any thoughts?” I cocked a brow at her as I circled the table, collecting the plates.

“God, no. That would make my life easier. I’d always assumed it would be me, but if…” She got quiet, staring down at her napkin on the table.

I looked up at Abe, and he just shrugged. God save the person that ever hooked up with him. He was fucking terrible at small talk. And relating, and really anything to do with maintaining a relationship that wasn’t about killing people for the Vadims.

I mean, hell, he wasn’t great with me or Vlad for that matter.

As I carried the plates across the room and set them in the sink, I called over to the dining room. “But it’s that a good thing. It doesn’t sound like you actually enjoy running the shop, just that you do.”

Adley’s head shot up, and she glanced over at me with her brows up to her hairline. “I never…”

But we both knew I was right.

“Shit. Well, yeah. I guess I don’t. But that doesn’t exactly solve the problem for my folks now, does it?”

“No, but putting out an ad will. There’s plenty of people looking for a job, and you can fire them if they don’t work out.”

She gaped at me slightly, and I couldn’t help but smirk back. Sometimes, it took an outside perspective to see the simplest way to solve a problem. The Unholy Trinity was good at finding the answer to any issue that might plague our clients.

“Yeah,” Adley offered, “I guess wecoulddo that. I’ll…I’ll tell Molly to get it set up for them.”

“And there ya go.” I smiled, rinsing off the plates and then walking around the island to meet Adley back at the table.

As I did, the hallway that led to my office stole my attention for a moment, and that smile turned dark. I still had plans for Adley, and they were going to be very fun.

“I cooked. You assholes do dishes.” Abe rolled his eyes, finishing his beer and standing up. “Adley, why don’t we retire for the evening? I have something I’d like to…discuss with you.”

Her eyes flared wide, and I watched her swallow down the immediate nervous tension that filled her.

Very, very fun, indeed.

Chapter 19 - Adley

When I was little, before the twins, I’d dragged a chair in from the dining room to reach the cookies my parents kept hidden on the top of the fridge. My mother had heard the chair sliding across the floor from the other room and came in to see what I was up to.

She waited until I had my hand in the literal cookie jar before she cleared her throat. I’d jumped so much that I smashed my elbow down onto the lip of the fridge. It hurt like a bitch, but nothing had compared to the panic crawling up my spine from being caught.

Right now, as I followed Ivan up the stairs to his room, that same welling terror surged through my veins.I am so fucked.

He had to have figured out I went through his desk. It occurred to me just as we started climbing the stairs that I hadn’t locked the drawer back up again. I’d just run off because I was spooked.

A sigh escaped me, and I closed my eyes briefly, holding onto the banister to guide my steps upward.

Why did he wait until after dinner? Why not say something before I got all cozy with his brothers? Ugh, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Ivan stopped at the top of the stairs to open his door. I waited behind him, the swell of adrenaline making me tingle everywhere. I was even a bit dizzy from it all and just kept chewing on my lip.

Not knowing what someone was going to do and what the consequences of your actions would be was probablyworsethan anything they had planned.

At least, that was true in most cases, but this was Ivan. I was sure his retribution would be…unique.

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