Page 54 of Brutal Bratva King

Ruslana and the stranger head to the dance floor where she is all over him, but she looks like she’s having fun. As long as it stays as innocent as this and nothing escalates then everything will be fine.

I shake my head, because it's only about an hour later when she is bored with that guy and dancing with the next one. She seems to have forgotten I’m here, which is fine with me. I am only here to keep an eye on her and make sure she is safe.

Rodion checks in with me every hour and I message him back to reassure him that everything is under control.

I have my live location on, and I will let him know if anything happens.

For now, though, Ruslana is just blowing off some steam by dancing.

Sitting at the bar alone does have its annoyances, though, and a lot of guys try to make their move on me. I brush them off quickly, playing it cold and being bitchy. I don’t have time to be polite because that might distract me from taking care of Ruslana. I don’t need some idiot talking to me and blocking my view of her.

My only priority is doing what I told Rodion I would do—keeping her safe.

Chapter 17 - Rodion

Ever since the message from Anya, I have been distracted and continuously glancing at my watch. I want to get out of here. I need to leave and make sure that Ruslana—and Anya—are ok. I hate the fact that I’m not there.

We are almost done, but the last stretch is dragging on unnecessarily slowly.

We’ve made the delivery and the trucks have been unloaded. It went so much smoother than I thought it would. Even relations between the Dubrovs and my brothers have been good. We are working as a really efficient team. I hope this is an indication of how we can expect future operations to go.

But I need to get going now. It’s late.

I’m worried about Anya being alone at the club with Ruslana. She doesn’t know how Ruslana can get. Especially lately, she’s been pushing her luck with me and with our brothers. We’ve all had enough of her bullshit.

It’s not fair that Anya has been left in charge of my sister like that. Ruslana has been intentionally causing so much trouble for us lately, rebelling against any rules we try and put in place, even the ones that apply to all of us so that we can stay in touch as a family.

She’s going through something—she won’t communicate with us—and I can’t figure out how to make her see that she’s making things worse for everyone. Not just herself.

She is hell-bent on being as difficult as possible.

She knew we had a big operation to deal with this afternoon—and she knew it would be running late into the night.

I sigh in agitation.

“What’s your problem?” Rad asks, knotting his brows at me. “You’ve been huffing and puffing over there for the last few hours.”

“Yes, I’m just over it now,” I say, not wanting to worry them about whatever is going on with Ruslana tonight.

I trust Anya to handle it as best she can—and she will call me if things get out of hand.

“Alright, we’re done here. Let’s get these trucks back to the warehouse,” Oleg shouts from the other side of the truck we’ve just unloaded. The delivery is done. It’s finished. Now it’s just a case of getting the empty trucks back and then we can call it a night.

“Are we going for a drink after?” Rad asks Renat. “Alexei and them are going.”

“Yeah, let’s join them. It’s been a good mission. We can celebrate.”

“I can’t. I promised Anya I’d have dinner with her,” I say when they glance towards me, wordlessly trying to find out if I’ll be joining.

“You guys take that car. I’m going to turn it off just before the warehouse and head straight home. I’m already late. Didn’t expect it to take this long.”

“The man iswhippedin his fake marriage,” Rigor chuckles.

I clench my jaw and hold my words back. There is no point in getting into it now. It’ll just be a waste of time. Although, in all honestly I would rather be at home having dinner with Anya than drinking with them.

I follow the convoy until a few miles before the warehouse turnoff. I don’t follow them after that. I turn towards town—following Anya’s live location to a club named Black Cat.

I’ve been into a few of these clubs, mostly to haul Ruslana out after discovering she was out clubbing alone. She doesn’t get it. She doesn’t have any clue how dangerous it is to be out there drunk, and vulnerable like that.

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