Page 46 of Unwilling Bratva Bride

“Hmm?”

I heard Adley and turned my attention to her end of the table. Vlad held out his phone to her, and Adley shakily accepted the thing, reading the message he’d typed out. Her eyes went wide again, and she looked up at me and then back over to Vlad.

“Vlad, do we need to revoke phone privileges?”

“No, no. He’s fine.” Adley answered for him, and I furrowed my brow at her. “Can I…?”

She waved the phone a little before handing it back to him, and Vlad just shrugged, leaning back in his chair and taking a swig of his beer.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Adley’s eyes circled over the table before landing on me again, and she offered an awkward smile. “He just said that you, umm…seem to be in a better mood than usual. He said thanks.”

I looked over at my brother, who just shrugged again, and I couldn’t hold back the short bark of laughter.

“Oh really? Well, fuck. I guess we do have you to blame for that.” I stared into Adley’s eyes, enjoying the way she felt put on the spot more than I should. “Should I give you a reward or something?”

She blushed, waving her hands in front of her. “No, no, no. That’s so…No. I’m good.”

“Well, good because we don’t dole out bullshit prizes for non-existent sports. No participation trophies."

Abe’s words cut through the air as sure as a blade, and I sighed, rolling my eyes at him.

“If only we could find a mood booster for you, Abe. Take that stick out of your ass.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m very happy with my current situation. Being pulled around by the short hairs in a desperate attempt to get some tail isn’t my thing. I’ll leave that to you.”

My pulse ticked up another notch, and I could feel the vein in my temple throb. Abe was barreling toward a beating just because he didn’t like that I had someone. Jealousy or not, I wasn’t about to let that one go.

“If you think—”

“Excuse me, it was Abrahim, correct?” Adley’s voice was level and strong as she shoved her way into the conversation.

Abe's brows shot up as his mouth dropped, and even I was about ready to fall out of my chair from the shock. Hell, Vlad had sat forward in his chair again, his fingers poised on his phone like he was ready to play the bell that meant “everyone back to their corners.”

Leaning her direction and putting one hand on his hip, Abe glared at Adley, his brows down low over his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Excellent.” Adley met his stare, unflinching. “Well, Abrahim, it occurs to me that my presence here is weird. Hell, it’s downright astonishing. But I can assure you that I’m not pulling your brother around by any hairs. That’s not why I’m here. My parents run a bodega that was about to go out of business for good. Ivan stepped up to help, and part of that agreement was that I would be here with him. It’s unorthodox at best, but I’m not manipulating him for some ulterior motive. I did what I had to do to protect my family. From what I understand, you’ve done the same for your brothers.”

The table hung in silence, and I looked between Adley and Abe. They were both frozen in place for several long secondsand just as I was about to break the silence, Abe let out a hard chuckle that shook the whole room.

“Well, hot fucking damn.” He looked over at me, his mouth turning down at the corners as he nodded. “I’ll say I’m fucking impressed. It looks like my brother has better taste in women than I thought.”

Relief threaded through my muscles, and I relaxed the fists I’d made. “Get fucked, dickface.”

We both laughed, and even Adley was smiling. Vlad clinked on his glass, holding it up for a toast. It was as close to a “blessing” as I would get from either of them, and I was a bit surprised at how much that actually meant to me. Abe was quick to follow suit with his glass, and Adley and I joined right after.

“To Adley. You’re way out of Ivan’s league, and if you’re ever looking for a job—”

“That’s good, Abe.”

He smirked at me while I heard Adley do her best to hide a chuckle.

“I’m just saying if you want to retire, Ivan, I think I found a better negotiator than you.”

I threw my napkin down on my plate, grabbed my beer, and pointed it at Abe.

“You are fucking dreaming. I can’t believe I’m getting booted by my own guest.”

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