Page 55 of Bratva Bride

Lukyan scowled at me. "No. Pick something else."

"Nope. You want my Q5, I want you two to get along. Take it or leave it."

Lukyan growled, his face scrunching up in displeasure. He looked at the twins, sizing up his odds at being able to tell the two identical men apart. After a few seconds, he nodded. "Deal."

I smiled and moved to stand next to the twins. Despite the fact their mouths were overflowing with food, they continued trying to shovel more into their mouths, like they were afraid I was going to take it away from them.

I twirled my finger in the air, signalling for Lukyan to turn around. After giving us his back, I motioned for the twins to stand. Luca did immediately, his fork clinking on his plate as he rose to his feet. Christian took a little longer, making sure to shove another forkful of food into his mouth first before standing.

"Does Arturo not feed you two or something?" I chuckled.

Christian looked at me, his eyes lit with amusement, but it was Luca who spoke.

"He does, but his cooking sucks compared to yours."

I started shuffling the twins around, like a magician does a deck of cards. I made sure to keep an eye on Lukyan as I moved. He was a notorious cheater when it came to any games we played, and I wouldn't put it past him to do something sly. One time when we were playing monopoly, I made the mistake of letting him be banker. Every time I would look away, he would grab cash from the bank and add it to his pile. We were halfway through the game before I realised something was off, and he had way more cash than he should have.

Once I was satisfied, I took my sparkly bracelet off Luca and stepped back.

"Okay, you can turn around now."

Lukyan turned on his heels, quick as a cat. He narrowed his eyes first before taking a step forward. The twins stood tall under his scrutiny, hands clasped behind their backs, faces impassive. He slowly circled them, his eyes running up and down their bodies. He stepped toward Christian and sniffed him.

"What are you doing?" I groaned.

"Shhh. I'm concentrating." He moved to Luca and sniffed him as well. He grabbed his arm and lifted it, moving it around in the air before going back to Christian and repeating the movement.

"Seriously Lukyan, what the fuck are you doing? You can't tell them apart by sniffing them and moving them around."

"You don't know my process," he said without taking his eyes off the twins.

I slapped a palm to my forehead in exasperation. "You're infuriating.”

"No, you are."

"What are you, five?" I snapped.

His eyes twinkled with mischief. "No, you are."

I growled. "Don't Lukyan. Don't you dare. We're too old for this shit."

Growing up, Lukyan and I always loved to piss each other off, usually by deliberately doing things we knew the other detested. He hated whenever I mimicked him, touched his PlayStation or went into his bedroom. I hated whenever he ate my food, stole my guns or just said 'No, you are" back to everything I would bloody say. Even if it didn’t make any fucking sense, he said it. I hated it all when I was a kid, and I fucking hated it now.

Lukyan smiled. "No, you—"

That's as far as he got. I pounced, shoving the plates on the table to the ground and leaped over the kitchen table. I jumped into the air, trying to wrap my legs around his neck and bring him to the ground. Unfortunately, he knew exactly what I was going to do. One of the many disadvantages of fighting someone familiar with your moves.

With a smirk on his face, he gripped my legs in mid-air and spun, using the momentum of his body to bring me down to the ground hard. He tried to climb on top of me, but I was quick and pissed off.

Before he could get a stable position, I struck out, delivering a solid blow to his solar plexus. He groaned, his hands moving to grip at his chest as pain radiated through his torso. I pushed at his chest, knocking him to the ground, and I quickly scrambled for the dominant position.

"You're such a little shit, Lukyan," I grunted as I tried to land a few shots to his abdomen, but he managed to block each one with ease.

"No. . . you . . . are," he smirked, poking his tongue out.

Arghhhh! He was purposely antagonising me, and it was working. I would love to say I had more restraint than this, but truth be told, I didn’t. I had an extremely short temper and not a lot of reasoning skills. Hence why I'm currently trying to beat the shit out of my brother for simply saying something annoying. Maybe I really was crazy. Oh well.

I pulled my arm back, preparing for a punch right to his stupid, smug face when an arm of steel wrapped around my waist and pulled me to my feet. I lashed out, shouting profanities and trying to kick free, enraged someone was meddling until I got a whiff of Arturo's intoxicating scent. I felt myself relax instantly at the feel of his warmth against my body, but the anger was definitely still there.

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