Page 85 of Bratva Butcher

“Do you know the Hemsworth brothers?”

“No.”

“Nicole Kidman?”

“No.”

“What about Hugh Jackman?”

“No.”

“Crocodile Dundee?”

“Are you just going to name every famous Australian you know?”

He smiled. “Maybe.”

“Let me save you some time. I don’t know anyone.”

He pouted. “Damn.” He leant back, spreading his legs out wide, and exhaled loudly. “Thanks for the save, by the way.”

I looked at him from the corner of my eye. “What?”

“In the arena.” He pretended to throw a knife, sound effects and all. “Swoosh. Pow. Ughh.” He tilted his head to the side and stuck his tongue out, playing dead.

I stared at him, utterly bewildered.

“You hit that guy in the shoulder with a knife just before he took my head off with that axe,” Lukyan explained.

“Right.” I looked around the room awkwardly. My gaze moved over Nikolai, Dimitri and Tatiana, and my eyes did a double take when I realised Dimitri was watching us, his brows furrowed.

“It was a pretty sick move,” Lukyan continued. “Especially when you consider how far away you were. You were, what, 100 feet away? How did you do that?”

“Practise.” Dimitri was still watching us, his face getting angrier and angrier by the second.What is his deal? Does he not want me talking to his children?He was driving me fucking crazy with all the mixed signals he was sending me.

“Insane,” Lukyan breathed in wonder. “Anyway, here. I brought you some food.” He pulled a bowl of pasta out from behind his back and offered it to me.

Not wanting to be rude, I took it, even though I wasn’t hungry. “Thank you.”

He nodded. He leant closer to me, and I gave him a weird look, leaning back slightly. “Little piece of advice,” he whispered. “My father is a bit of a hardass, but he has the biggest heart out of all of us. I watched you guys interact. I haven’t seen him smile in over ten years, and yet, he smiled atyou. There was this light in his eyes whenever he looked at you. Whenever he spoke to you. If you do anything to hurt him, I’ll gut you from throat to pelvis and let rats eat you from the inside out. We clear?”

All signs of that boyish, jokestar were gone, replaced by a hardened, utterly serious man, prepared to do exactly as he vowed. A dark, evil beast shone in his eyes and it put me immediately on edge. Behind that class clown exterior was a dangerous predator—one he chose to keep concealed until he needed to bring it out. A shiver of warning coiled down my spine, telling me to be cautious. That the man was a hell of a lot more dangerous than he appeared to be.

I felt the overwhelming urge to clasp my knives. “Clear.”

He smiled a dazzling smile, and the beast vanished, going back into its den. “Great! Now—”

“Lukyan!”

We both whipped our gazes to Dimitri, who was now standing, glaring in our direction. “Get over here,” he gritted out, pointing to the ground next to him.

Lukyan’s head swung back my way. “He’s also a grumpy old fart sometimes.”

“Lukyan!” Dimitri barked again.

Lukyan winked and then bounced to his feet. He waggled his fingers at me in farewell as he walked backwards to his father, who pointedly smacked him upside the head and gave him a harsh talking-to.

I shook my head and looked down at my bowl of food, chuckling softly.

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