The only tiny problem was whether I wanted to let her go in the name of Bratva rules.
It was still evening when I left the warehouse and headed home. The plan was to work out some of my confusion at the gym and then have a cold shower before going to bed. But I tossed every part of the plan the moment the guards opened the door, and I found Alina laughing at something she was watching on the newly-replaced television.
She occupied the only couch that hadn’t been touched by the gunfire; the two-seater. Her brown eyes were hard to see as her face scrunched up in laughter, and she shook her head. Her shoulders heaved, and I remembered her body writhing under mine last night.
I didn’t realize I’d stopped moving until her laughter died down and her eyes darted over to me. I didn’t miss the way they quickly flicked back to the television like she never saw me, like she was trying to unsee me.
The unpleasant feeling that rose in me multiplied at the thought of the fact that she had been laughing with Hans. He sat at the edge of the single-seater couch next to her, having folded the tarpaulin away. The slimy idiot.
“Hans,” I called.
“Boss!” he answered, shooting to his feet.
Of course, he’d been too focused on my wife to notice my arrival.
“Upstairs. Now,” I commanded, my eyes on Alina, who didn’t look away from the television.
If she wouldn’t look at me, she should, at least, grace me with the beautiful sight of her child-like laughter again.
Hans joined the guards who went ahead of me towards the stairs.
“Alina, good evening.”
She turned towards me then. “Hi. Good evening.” Her eyes were back on the television before I could decipher what they were saying.
At a loss for what to do or say, I went upstairs.
As I undressed after finding something to keep Hans busy with, my head was filled with thoughts of her. Then Sergei’s warning resounded.
Maybe it’s better this way.
I should find out where her loyalties lie and put an end to all this before I could think of finding home in her arms or letting her get close at all.
It’s getting out of hand already.
**********
“Uncle Konstantin!”
Leonard raced down the stairs as I moved away from the doorway.
“How’s my young man doing?” I inquired as I bent to catch him in my arms.
“Uncle Roman and Uncle Mikhail have come, and they told me not to expect you,” he divulged, grinning.
“Oh, really? They were just winding Mr. Leo up,” I told him, making him giggle at one of the nicknames I gave him.
“Where’s your mom?”
“She went out. With my sisters.”
Bummer.
I was looking forward to meeting her. I hadn’t had the chance to thank her for visiting Alina with Liza and Isabella—I had seen and thanked the two other women, and I had thought today would give me the chance to thank her.
“Okay,” I answered as I ascended the stairs with him in my arms. “That means they left you to the manly things.”
“Yes. Daddy said so.”
