Page 43 of The Bratva's Arranged Bride

With a soft breath, I nodded. “Sometimes that feels impossible…but it’s true. I’m not her enemy.”

“And I’m sure she’ll see that for herself soon enough. Just keep trying,” he suggested, almost surprising me with how reasonable he was being. “She’s a good choice, you know, even if things happened in a less-than-ideal way. She’ll come around eventually.”

Yuri wasn’t always one to give away advice or reassurance like that, but when he did, I knew not to take it for granted.

I met his gaze. “You think so?”

He grinned to himself and nodded while leaning against the windowsill. “Absolutely. She’s sharp in her own right. I only spent the afternoon with her, but I can tell there’s a lot of life in her—a spark, I guess. Just give her space and time…let her make the next move.”

Leaning back in my seat, I nodded to myself and scrubbed a hand down my face.

Even though I knew his advice was perfectly valid and likely what I needed to hear, I was still a bit surprised by it all. By the way he was handling it.

It was almost refreshing, in a way.

Before I could say anything else, Daniil was in the doorway wearing an irritated expression, even though he was normally stoic, heat burned in his eyes.

“You two—we’re heading out. There’s a situation we need to handle.”

Yuri and I exchanged a look, brows furrowing.

“What happened?”

“Someone’s harassing one of our suppliers. Shots have been fired…just get up. You’re coming with me.”

Even though it sounded like a headache I didn’t feel like dealing with on top of everything else, I got up and crossed the room with Yuri in tow.

With a greater sense of urgency, aware that anyone getting at our suppliers could mean immediate loss, the two of us followed Daniil and piled into one of the vehicles.

“Incompetent pricks,” Daniil muttered while he pulled out of the lot and onto the highway before heading towards one of our exchange points. “I swear if it's the usual group…”

“Is it the docks again?” I asked, feeling the usual thrum of adrenaline moving through me in preparation for whatever the scene might look like upon our arrival.

“Yes…obviously we need to strengthen that point again. Those are our biggest shipments,” he said, agitation clear in the way he gripped the wheel tightly. “I’m getting sick of bastards intercepting us.”

“Just another Friday,” Yuri sighed from the back seat while he inspected his pistol before loading it again.

“Unfortunately…”

With Daniil’s usual reckless driving, we arrived much faster than anticipated, finding the isolated area as quiet as usual.

But the tension was tangible the moment we stepped out, finding the ship with our goods docked—but nobody was unloading anything, of course. Not while a few more shots were being exchanged.

The three of us moved carefully, ducking down as we approached with our pistols raised.

Immediately, we found some of our men down, and even more of theirs with a similar fate.

“There—more runners,” Daniil muttered, standing up from our cover to aim at several men trying to break away from the dwindling skirmish.

At once, Yuri and I followed his lead, firing our rounds, nicking them one by one.

It was quick work with our backup, able to relieve the guys who had been blindsided and pinned by the assailants.

The moment everything went quiet, a small group broke off to secure the area while we drew closer in search of answers.

Looking down at one of the dead men at my feet, I looked him over for any kind of indication of who he might’ve worked for—a pin, a tattoo, a certain color on him—but I found nothing while Daniil questioned the others.

After doing some digging and calling in others to help with the cleanup and recovery of our supplies, Daniil regrouped with the two of us.

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