Page 10 of Knocked-up Bratva Bride
Eleven years and nine months apart, and she wasn’t even at the house to receive me.
“Were you expecting a housewarming or cocktail party?” Fedor said, emerging from the foyer with a quirky smile on his face. He read the expression on my face and crossed his arms over his chest with a laugh. “Surprised I read thoughts now?”
I gave an eye roll. “Nothing surprises me.”
“And yet, you asked where she was,” he responded in Russian, his eyes shining with mirth.
Beside him, the color drained from the maid’s face when she looked up at the man’s imposing figure, and when she felt me watching, she feigned composure. I didn’t blame her. A brawny six-seven man standing next to an average mortal was practically a giant who could crush skulls.
Or maybe literally knock teeth out, like I’ve seen him do.
With his arms as big as boulders and thighs the size of small human beings, he left that stunning effect on almost everyone else.
She faced me, shaking in her flat shoes. “If that is all, may I be excused, Mr. Yezhov?”
One quick look at the serpent tats crawling up the side of Fedor’s neck, and clearly, the woman was beyond terrified. I might have smiled if there hadn’t been a frown already on my face when I observed that she was relatively new. I didn’t recognize her from years ago.
“What’s your name?”
“Winter, Sir. Winter Dmitri.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Winter?”
“Really?” Fedor seemed as interested.
“My mother was cruel.” A brief explanation, but it told the whole story.
Fedor shrugged. “That explains it. But I think the master here is trying to figure out who you are. Your name wasn’t on the list of help I requested.”
“Yes.” Her eyes shifted again. “I’ve worked closely with Katya for a while. She hired me personally to take care of the maintenance while she was away.”
My frown deepened. “Well, you work for me now.You take orders only from me. Do you understand?”
She nodded, spilling some hair over her face. “Yes, sir.”
“For now, you can go back to whatever it is you were doing.”
She walked away briskly like she couldn’t wait to disappear from our sight, and Fedor didn’t hold back his laughter. “That was…interesting.”
“There was nothing interesting about that interaction. Is there something you came in here to tell me?”
Fedor’s countenance shifted to granite, and he stood straighter, folding his hands behind his back. “The master bedroom is closed. Not only the locks, but the entire door has been changed. It doesn’t take a genius to know your daughter’s the brain behind the idea, and the act was intentional.”
No, it didn’t take a genius to figure that out, and it was only a further statement that, whatever grievances she had against me, she’d nursed them for a long time, and it didn’t appear that there were plans to let them go in the near future.
I looked away from Fedor and stared at the fireplace. “So, you came to ask my permission to break the door down?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say ‘break the door down.’ Maybe change the locks.”
I shook my head and said, “Leave it. Move my things to another bedroom. I’ll sort it out with her personally.”
Briefly, he stayed silent, as if too stunned to speak, until I heard his boots retreating. My left pocket vibrated, and I pulledthe phone out of my pants, somewhat uninterested in seeing yet another direct call from thePahkanhimself.
I eyed the screen before accepting the call. “Privyet.”
“Damie!”
It wasn’t thePahkan,but my cousin, Matvey.
