Page 62 of All the Dangerous Things

“The answer is no,” Dmitry bit out. “Absolutely not.”

“It’ll be safe, brother.” Nikolai’s brows lowered. “I’ll even bring Amara. She’s been wanting to check one out since the last time she snuck her perfect ass into the underground.” He turned his head to stare at his wife. “Remember,kotenok?”

Nikolai leaned in and dragged his nose along the shell of her ear. I held in my cringe at seeing my brother being sexual with his wife.

“I had to kill those assholes who thought they could even look at you.”

Amara slowly blinked, and a blush spread across her cheeks. Nikolai kissed her temple before looking at Dmitry again. He held out his hands, palms up, before dropping them back down.“See? It’ll be a family outing. We’ll bring in extra security, keep a safe area sectioned off for the girls, and they can getan adrenaline rush watching D'yavol beat some poor sap to death.”

Dmitry’s jaw was clenched tightly as he squared off with Nikolai, who just smirked.

“What do you say, Gio?” Nikolai asked, saying those words slowly and with purpose.

Gio was silent for long seconds, then responded, “Maybe watching the fights will open their eyes to their world more.”

I shifted on my seat at the fact that I’d see Gio fight again, although I didn’t know who at this table knew D'yavol’strue identity.

“But don’t think I’ll let this caveman shit fly with my sisters,Russian,” he added.

Nikolai sobered instantly after Gio spoke, all amusement fading as he stared at the other man. “Your sisters are married. They aren’t under your protection anymore, and you sure as hell don’t make the rules.” He leaned forward and growled curses in Russian before saying, “Don’t think you can tellmewhat to do.”

“Okay,” Amara said. “That’s enough. Claudia just got married, and this is supposed to be a nice after-ceremony meal. All of you are ruining it.” The anger in my sister-in-law’s voice was thick and made meproud as hell that she stood up to these Neanderthals.

Nikolai leaned back in his chair, Gio shut up, and Dmitry laughed softly.

And just like that, the atmosphere changed. Everyone calmed the hell down, and we had a nice rest of the afternoon.

But internally, I was a ball of nerves because something inside of me said this moment—tonight—was the start of everything coming to a head.

Life as I knew it was never going to be the same again.

25

TATIANA

FIGHT NIGHT

We were on our way to the underground fight, and I hadn’t been able to get rid of these nerves since this entire excursion was planned at our post-celebratory lunch.

I rested on the leather of the back seat in the sleek town car I was currently riding in. Nikolai was in the driver’s seat and Amara in the passenger. She kept the conversation light, but mostly the soft music playing from the radio filled the silence.

“You doing okay?” Nikolai was the one to ask me, and I looked at his eyes in the rearview mirror.

“I’m fine.” I could feel his worry about tonight, about what happened to me possibly triggering meto the point where I’d have a meltdown. In fact, before we’d left, both Dmitry and Nikolai tried to talk me out of going.

Nikolai’s voice was calm, but I could feel the underlying tension as he spoke. “You should have never gone to the fight, Tati.”

“You should have never fucking brought it up,brat.”

I could see the guilt etched into Nikolai’s expression. My brothers had always been my protectors, but they couldn’t shield me from the world’s darkness—from the hell we lived in—no matter how much they wanted to.

“It was stupid of me to bring it up,” Nikolai muttered to himself. His voice was low, remorse laced through each word.

I looked at him, seeing a rare glimpse of vulnerability in his icy-blue eyes.

“I wasn’t thinking.” He ran a hand through his hair, his frustration evident. “What you went through at the last fight you attended….” He cursed in Russian under his breath.

My heart tightened not from the memories that threatened to surface but from the love I saw in their eyes.

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