“You want our second time having dinner together to be with your mother? Are you a mummy’s boy Dragna?” She teases and I laugh as she ducks under my arm to turn some music on and make us coffee.
‘So Good To Me - Chris Malinchak’ starts playing from the speaker and I watch as Willow starts to dance a little along to the beat while prepping the coffee mugs.
I could watch her forever just going about her day doing the most mundane things and I would never get bored. How can she make making coffee look like the sweetest thing in the world.
“Sugar?” She asks as she looks over her shoulder to me.
“No thanks.” I lean back against the counter and fold my arms over my chest, continuing to watch her go about her task. ‘No Place - Rufus Du Sol’ plays next and she runs to the speaker to turn it up.
“Oh my goddddd, I LOVE these guys.” She says as she starts singing along.
“Lev loves them too.” I say without thinking because I’m lost watching her. She stops making the coffee and turns to look at me at my mention of Lev.
“What happened last night Dragna? I saw the look you gave Alina when she mentioned Ivan dropping her home.”
Fuck, I have to be honest with her. If I’m lying about so many things, I have to at least be honest with her when I can. I sigh as I walk over to the armchair.
“Lev saw me last night before I left and told me Ivan was dropping Alina home. They left a little bit before I did but I got here first. I checked the time stamps from the club and then she arrived about fifteen minutes after I did but it took her an hour and a half to get home.” Willow looks at me like she isn’t sure what I’m insinuating and it puts me on edge. Imagine, Pakhan of the Bratva and the only thing in the world I’m terrified of is Willows wrath.
“Listen, I’m not saying anything happened, but I want to know what did happen because if Ivan’s fucked up in any way then I need to know.”
She puts her hand up to stop me from talking and I immediately shut the fuck up. God I am fucked. She has me by the balls and I just know I’m going to marry her someday.
“If you think for a second that Alina would spend the entire night crying in my arms, literally crying herself to sleep over Lev, after immediately getting with someone else, especially that someone else being Lev’s friend then you can get the hell out of here right now. I won’t let you disrespect her like that.” She shouts the last part at me a little louder and I understand now that these two girls would literally go to war against anyone for each other.
“No, no I’m not, I just need to know everything was okay on the drive over. I just need to know where they went, especially with some lunatic stalking you. Who is to say they aren’t doing the same to Alina and we just don’t know yet.” I say trying to calm her down.
“Who’s doing the same to Alina?” I hear a voice come from the doorway and I look to see Alina standing there and I sigh into my hands.
“Tell her Dragna.” Willow says sarcastically, waiting for me to land myself in more shit than I can cope with between these two women.
I feel more threatened now than I ever have under actual interrogation.
I look from Willow back to Alina who now has her arms folded with narrowed eyes staring at me waiting to hear what I have to say.
“Where did you and Ivan go last night? It took a lot longer for you to get back here than it should of. I’m not insinuating anything, I just wanna know if the drive was okay and if you noticed anything suspicious.” I hold my hands up in surrender to them both waiting for her to speak.
“We went to get food. JUST food, okay? I was upset, I’ve got to know Ivan and he was pissed at Lev for hurting me. He wasn’t weird, it wasn’t a date. I just wanted comfort food and he said he’d take me to make up for Lev being such a twat.”
Despite Alina knowing the truth about us, what she doesn’t know is that I’ll be able to check if that’s true by checking Ivans car tracker when I get back to my office later. I should just trust her and I should trust Ivan too, but I just want to check to be completely sure.
“Thank you.” I tell her as I make my way to the living room while feeling her glare at me. If looks could kill I would be cut upinto inch pieces and being fed to pigs right now. Alina would fit in with this world a lot more than what she thinks.
Willow walks over to hand me my coffee and I take the mug from her and pull her onto my lap.
“So, dinner tonight?” I whisper to her to remind her to speak to Alina. She looks up at Alina who is standing in the kitchen and clears her throat.
“How are you feeling today Ali?” She asks and Alina looks over at us and purses her lips.
“You think I’m going to let him take up any more of my time after spending last night crying about him? Yeah, no, not happening.” She says folding her arms over herself again. She’s defensive. She might not think she’s giving it away but she is constantly guarding herself with those subtle movements.
“We were going to have dinner tonight but I can stay here with you if you need me too girl, don’t tell me you’re okay if you’re not.” Willow tells her and Alina almost looks offended.
“I love you, but you should know me better than that Wills, come on. Go out for your dinner! Don’t let Lev get in the way of what you guys have okay?” Alina responds while looking between Willow and I.
“I won’t keep her from you for long, just dinner at my house to meet my mother.” I chime into the conversation to let Alina know I’m serious about keeping Willow safe by introducing her to my mum.
“You Russians move quick.” Alina laughs while making her way towards us.
