Page 29 of Bratva Bride

"Illayana," his voice was like ice, and she tensed. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you need any . . . help?" By the way he was talking, I could guess he knew I was in the room.

Clever, observant son of a bitch, aren't you?

All of the tension seemed to dissipate instantly, her body relaxing. She took a step forward and placed a hand on his cheek.

"Rodnoy brat."Brother.His eyes moved to her. "I promise I'm fine. You should know if I ever need you, I'd come to you."

His gaze found mine again amongst the shadows and he scowled. "If you're sure," he grumbled.

"I am," she chuckled. "Now move." She flicked her wrist, signalling him to move to the side.

The edge of his lips curved into an evil smirk, the first sign of true emotion I'd seen from the guy yet. His big body moved gracefully, revealing her two older brothers.

Fuck. They breed them big in The Bratva.

All of them seemed to be around the same height, give or take a few inches. It was clear Aleksandr was the oldest though. Even if you ignored the dude's gargantuan size, he had a certain air about him. The way he held himself, his mere presence demanded respect and authority. Like mine. I was super curious to see how the man fights. Maybe one day I’d find out. I was giddy at that idea.

Based on the information Vin gathered on the Volkov family, the one with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes was Lukyan. He wasn't as muscular as Aleksandr, more leaner than packed overboard with muscle. That made the other guy Nikolai. He had short black hair, a neatly trimmed beard and deep brown eyes. He seemed to be in the middle of his two siblings, body wise. Not as muscular as Aleksandr, but not as lean as his other brother.

Their eyes widened when they realised their big brother wasn't planning to protect them from their sister. She took a menacing step forward in their direction and they both took a step back.

"Now, Illayana," Lukyan began to say, his voice shaky. He had his hands up in front of him, like was surrendering.

"You tattled," she tsked, disappointed.

"No. No, no, no," Lukan replied, his head shaking. He elbowed his brother in the gut and scowled at him. "Nikolai?"

Nikolai straightened his body and looked at Illayana. He didn’t seemasfrightened as Lukyan did, but he definitely looked uneasy. Like he had no idea what was going to happen.

"Sestra. Sister.We were worried about you. You haven't tried to kill us for years. We thought you were in trouble," his voice was laced with a thick Russian accent.

Illayana stayed quiet for a few seconds. "Lies," she said, her voice strong.

"What?" Nikolai asked, confused.

"You're lying. If you really thought I was in trouble, you wouldn't have left. You would have kicked that door in, guns blazing."

Nikolai and Lukyan exchanged a look with each other.

Huh, she was right.

"You both knew I would open the door for Aleksandr, so you went and got him. Why?"

"It's not what you think, Illayana," Nikolai began.

"We didn't tattle," Lukyan continued.

"You threw a knife at Lukyan and shot at us. You only do that kind of shit when you're either one, pissed at us. Or two, hiding something," Lukyan nodded along enthusiastically. "Since we haven't done anything to piss you off for a few months, we knew you were hiding something."

"We just wanted to see what got you all 'kill crazy’, that’s all,” Lukyan said, looking into the room. "And we knew you would open for Aleksandr because he would have kicked it in otherwise," he chuckled.

Aleksandr shrugged a shoulder, seeming unfazed by the whole thing.

"You wanted to see what got me all 'kill crazy'?" Illayana asked, her head tilting to the side.

Lukyan nodded fast, whereas Nikolai just arched an eyebrow, eyeing her suspiciously.

She placed her hands behind her back and crooked her finger, signalling for me to come out.

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