Page 67 of Innocent Bratva Twins

It’s a small pizza and pasta restaurant with a warm orange glow flooding from the lights, and a delicious, rich smell of creamy garlic sauce and melted cheese.

We find a table tucked away in the corner, and Jade orders a bottle of wine.

Aly turns towards me with a sour expression on her face.

“What have you been doing all day, locked up in there—aren’t you going crazy?”

“I am. It’s so boring. To be honest, I’ve spent most of the time looking for ways to escape,” I giggle, covering my mouth with my hand, trying to stuff the confession back into my throat. It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud.

“I would have been doing the same thing,” Jade grins.

“He’s a barbarian.Honestly. Who the hell does something like that?” Aly huffs. “You can’t just go around kidnapping people and keeping them prisoner. I’m so mad at him.” She drums her perfectly manicured, long pink nails on the tabletop as agitation surges through her.

Jade shakes her head. She brushes her hand over her shoulder to push the red flames of her hair behind her shoulder. When she looks at me, her eyes are soft. “You know, he didn’t do this out of malice. He had good intentions, he just carried it out the wrong way.”

“Don’t defend him,” Aly snaps.

“I’m not defending him, Aly. But this is Nico we’re talking about. He’s the most logical, kind, soft-hearted person I know. His intention would never have been to hurt her. You know that.”

Aly rolls her eyes, and I take a deep breath, pushing away the stinging tears in my eyes. I want to believe her. I want to believe he is kind and gentle and soft.

Jade turns back to me and notices the tears springing to my eyes. She hands me a napkin. “Oh, honey, I really mean it. He went about it the wrong way, but all he wanted to do was protect you. He feels responsible for you being in this situation because you work for him. He’s doing whatever he can, in whatever way he can, good or bad, to make sure that nothing happens to you.”

Aly picks up her wine and takes a big sip.

“I’m still angry with him,” she says, rolling her eyes.

Jade laughs. “That’s fine. I’m sure Sera is, too.” She turns to look at me, reaching out across the table, she squeezes my hand gently. “He did it because he cares about you.”

“I want to believe that,” I say, sipping my own wine. “But he lied to me about who he really is.”

“What do you mean?” Aly asks.

“He lied to me about being part of the mafia. I thought I knew him, but I don’t. When he stands in front of me, I have no idea who that man is. The man I know—he’s—he’s not mafia,“ I say tightly, knowing that I might be touching on sensitive ground because both Aly and Jade are part of a mafia family.

Jade laughs, lighthearted, not offended at all.

“Honey, being part of a mafia doesn’t mean youare the mafia,” she says. “Sure, there are ties, there are things you do that aren’t the same things normal people would do. But he’s still Nico. He’s still the man you met and got to know. He’s just Nico with mafia ties.”

I bite my lip. What she says is trickling into my mind and making sense.

She tries again. “Okay, so look at it this way. If you study accounting and become an accountant. You, as a person, are not accounting. It’s just something you do to make a living. You have your own dreams and hopes and fears and ability to laugh and be happy and—fall in love.”

She raises her brows at me.

“Do you really think he’s just being overprotective?”

“Completely. Because he cares,” she nods.

“It’s not really fair of me to hate him for caring,” I sigh.

“Do you hate him?” Aly asks, her brows knitting together and her eyes tight with worry. She doesn’t want me to hate her brother. I don’t want to hate her brother.

“No,” I sigh again heavily. “I tried to, though.”

Both Aly and Jade start laughing, and I can’t help but join in.

“I tried really hard, actually, but it’s really difficult.”

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