Page 72 of Brooklyn Bratva

Becca let out a laugh as the softly crooning singing wafted over us, and she slung her arms around my neck, rocking from side to side, slowly.

“Dance with me, then.”

This time I made no protest, pulling Becca in firm against me and wrapping my arms tight around her and I shuffled my feet from side to side. It didn’t matter than I had no moves. Becca was in my arms and smiling and kissing me and that was all that was ever going to matter.

When the song drew to a close she led me back to the low seats and we sat looking up at the stars, feeding each other chocolate and fruit until the engines fired up again, and the boat turned around, powering us home, back along the coast.

Maxim and Roman didn’t emerge from the cabin until we were coming under the bridge again, and they had a bottle of vodka and shot glasses with them.

“I hope your evening has been memorable,” Roman said, holding out a pair of overflowing shot glasses.

“Oh, it has,” Becca reassured him, with a quiet, private glance to me that made me realize the only thing she’d wanted from all of this was to be here, alone with me. “What are we drinking to?”

“To new alliances,” Maxim said, raising his glass and knocking it back.

I followed suit, and so did Becca. Roman topped off our glasses again.

“To our Bratva family. Long may it continue, and grow.”

“To Ivan,” Becca said, and tipped her head back to swallow the cold, clear liquid down.

CHAPTER 35

Becca

The three of us stumbled into the apartment together laughing. Mama’s place had been closest, and Maxim had demanded to meet her.

Whatever the two of them had disappeared off to do, the animosity between them had mellowed into some kind of mutual respect.

Ivan had his arm around me, and I was leaning into him, enjoying the strength of his body and the way his hand kept roving down my back, lingering on my ass. I was hoping Maxim wasn’t going to stay all that long, because I wanted my man all to myself.

We hadn’t gone to Tatiana’s again, but there had been just as much vodka, and the room was starting to spin. I didn’t want the evening to end with a headache and nothing more

Max pulled out his gun as the door fell closed behind us. He seemed to be showing it off.

“Put it away!” Ivan was laughing at him, and the sound of it was infectious. All I cared about was the way Ivan’s lips fitted against mine, and the feel of his tongue in my mouth. I had my arms wrapped around his neck and there wasn’t anything that was going to stop me from dragging him back to my bedroom and leaving Max on the other side of the door.

“So I said to him I don’t think you understand, mate. There’s nothing you can say to me. My only job is to pull this trigger. Ivan here – Ivan talks to them. Fuck that. No offense, mate. But when you’re whacking someone you don’t need to-”

Mrs. K cleared her throat from the doorway of the living room, and slowly, my attention spooled around to her, realizing that Max had stopped talking.

I blinked hard, realizing that she was the least of my worries. Behind her was the last person I expected to see.

Self-consciously, I pulled away from Ivan, eyes wide.

“Dad? What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you, apparently.”

“What’s going on here Ivan? My daughter’s drunk. You’re tongue’s down her throat, and you’ve rolled in here with a total stranger who’s waving a gun about. Is there something you forgot to tell me?”

To his credit, he looked more pissed than terrified and when he shook his head it was with that practiced disdain he used so well as a teacher to show how disappointed he was in his students’ poor behaviour.

He looked pretty damn appalled, and slowly it dawned on me that he must have heard everything Maxim had said about whacking people. My eyes drifted to the gun he was waving and I felt the color drain out of my cheeks.

“It’s not what it looks like, Dad.”

“What does it look like, Becca?”

I pressed my lips together, falling silent, because actually it was a lot like what it looked like and I didn’t know what else to say.

“Joe come on, calm down.”

Ivan stepped towards my father, and Dad stepped back, arm shooting up into the air to knock his hand away.

“Calm down? I can’t believe I trusted you, Ivan. This whole time you were trying to get to Becca, is that it? There are names for people like you!”

“Dad…” I wanted him to shut up. Why couldn’t he stop talking? All he needed to do was look at me to see the tears starting to form. It wouldn’t be long before they started streaming down my face, but he didn’t even look. My cheeks were red hot with embarrassment for so many reasons, and I could barely breathe. But he was too busy trying to tear me away from the man I loved to notice.

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