Page 25 of The Bratva's Knocked-Up Bride

Sky just had a way of making me feel like enough was never enough, and it was both frustrating and enticing at once.

With the taste and feeling of Sky’s skin fresh on my mind that following Monday, I faced little resistance getting out of bed and heading in to see my brothers.

Ever since I was posted in the office, I had seen less of them than usual, and I even ended up looking forward to reaching the family’s newest business venture—a high-end restaurant under the freshly instated Novikov management.

It seemed that spending more time around the Levovs inspired Alex, and he decided to take on the restaurant as a side project. While I was surprised to hear it at first, it eventually made sense, given how my brother wasn’t shy when it came to making his way around a kitchen. Of course, he wasn’t the one doing any of said cooking, but he liked to be a snob about it anyway.

Pulling up to the place, I made my way inside as casually as anything.

I couldn’t say why Alex decided the meeting was best had there, but I didn’t argue. Instead, I moved across the dining area, through the kitchen, and into the upstairs portion reserved for the family only. All the while, the smell of sautéed onions and garlic surrounded me, and I contemplated grabbing something on the way out.

Before long, I found my brothers already waiting, surrounding the table with a few plates of various foods in front of them.

“Who the hell came up with this one?” Daniil asked, nose turned as he dropped the spoon he was holding back into the small platter of various broths and creamed soups.

“What, not a fan of mushrooms?” Alex chided as he and the others stood around the samples. “I think it’s pretty good.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I want to consume any kind of fungus.”

“Your palette just isn’t very refined,” he returned with that specific air of authority when it came to his apparent culinary expertise.

“Refined my ass…give me one that doesn’t taste like something Val brought in on his boots.”

Val cocked a brow at him. “What’s wrong with my boots?”

“Are we having a picnic or a meeting?” I asked with a chuckle as I approached, amused by the scene in front of me while one of the chefs stood off to the side, expression neutral while they waited.

“Ah, finally, someone without the tastebuds of a child,” Alex said, gesturing for me to join them. “How about some French onion?”

I waved him off as I took a seat. “I’m good, thanks.”

“None of us want to smell like that for the rest of the day,” Yuri said simply while he texted aimlessly. “Nor do we want to smell it on you.”

Alex’s expression fell to one of slight disappointment as he scoffed, then waved the chef over. “You guys don’t know how to have fun apparently…anyway, let’s get this cleared out.”

With a dutiful nod, the chef grabbed the platters and hurried out of the room.

Shaking his head absently, still grumbling about us not participating in his taste testing like he wanted, Alex leanedback in his chair. “Since you’re so eager to get to the meat and potatoes…let’s dive in.”

At Alex’s faint grin, far too satisfied with himself, Daniil huffed air from his nose and said flatly, “Good one.”

The rest of us chuckled at that, seemingly getting it out of our system before our restauranteur leader cleared his throat and grabbed a small stack of papers, giving it a few punctuated taps against the table.

“It’s been a while since we had a general meeting, so here we are…” he began, glancing over the paper on top. “We have a few things to touch on before we get to the good stuff, then Damien has to get back to the office…bear with me.”

As if on cue, both Yuri and Val sighed. Even if they were as dedicated as the rest of us, the two of them tended to be more restless, and they didn’t handle the ‘boring’ things as well as the rest of us.

Alex threw them a look that lacked any kind of bite. “Yeah, yeah, sigh all you like. The faster we get through this, the sooner you can get out of here. So shut up and listen.”

The twins both snickered and allowed him to continue without any more interruptions.

At last, he got down to business, going over more pressing matters that had come up in the last few days, most of which didn’t have much to do with me. Since I was already busy with rat hunting, I luckily got to sit back and take everything in, rather than being scrutinized.

It was like a lucky break since my brothers weren’t quite as adamant about me getting to the bottom of things as the Levovs, seeing as other things required our attention. Still, it wasn’t enough to pull my mind away from the issue.

As much as I wanted to pretend like the heat wasn’t on my ass, it most certainly was. Even if there was no definitive timeline for me to get a grip on the matter, it still felt like I had a countdown following me—reminding me that it was only a matter of time.

Whether it was something against the Levovs or my family, there was no telling when those people might strike.

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