And Nash can’t go a day without mentioning Vale. We all know he’s in love with his daughter’s best friend. Has been since Vale came home from college, but he won’t touch her.
Unfortunately for me, he enforces the same rule for his daughter.
“She’s fine,” I answer, standing in the dark, looking through binoculars. “You know Alena’s a grown woman and a badass. She can handle herself.”
“As a ranger, yes,” he agrees. “She was born for the job. But as our princess? She can’t ever know the risk she’s in.We’re lucky we’ve made it this long without shit going down, but I have a bad feeling it will.”
“Oh, itwill.” I nod. “She’s gonna find out who you are. Whoweare one day. So, you should just tell her because lies always hurt more than the truth.”
He huffs. “In those romance books you borrow from Delphine, sure. In real life? If Alena finds out who we are, she can be tortured for intel.”
“Even if she doesn’t know who we are”—it makes my pulse triple—“she can be kidnapped and tortured.”
“No,” he reasons. “She’ll be innocent, and they’ll realize she knows nothing, andmaybeshe’ll survive, and be let go. But if she knows who we are and spills under duress, she’s as good as dead.”
He’s got a point.
And it’s why I’m here, holding my binoculars.
“So, I just follow her around and let her risk her life in swift water rescues, but eating spaghetti at her dinner table, it’s on? I intervene?”
“Don’t be a smartass.”
“You want a dumbass guarding your daughter?”
“No. I wantyou, my brother, guarding my daughter. So does The Queen, and so does our King.”
The Queen is my mom. Statues in Moscow’s Red Square should be erected in her honor. She’s true royalty, descended from the last Czar of Russia, and kidnapped by the head of the Bratva as his child bride.
My mom is the lioness who got us out of an abusive hell with our father.
I don’t remember it because I was a baby, but I hear the stories my brothers tell, and I’ve seen their scars. They have the trauma and nightmares, and I have guilt because I don’t.
Guess it’s a form of survivor’s guilt.
Maybe it’s why I’m so committed to my family. I gave upmy dream of being a Marine so I could protect Alena. I wanted to go to a forest ranger school instead.
And if I ever change my mind?
There’s our King, my brother, Axel. He’s not the eldest, Sire is, but Axel was the designated Bratva heir. He’s in charge. Someone needs to be with seven beastly brothers.
Yes, we include Nash in the count. He’s not blood, but he’s like our brother. He’s been with us since he was a teenager, a year after Alena was born.
Nash and Axel are close; so close that my brother, Axel, is Alena’s godfather.
She thinks Axel’s a lawyer named Michael Cummings, and to the rest of the world, he is.
We all hide behind fake identities.
Nash is an accountant. That’s his cover and what Alena knows.
My brother, Sire, is her pastor. He met Nash in juvie, where both turned their lives around. Now, Alena and Nash are members of Sire’s flock. That’s all she’s privy to.
Grant and Jace are security experts. They guard the door at the exclusive sex shop where Alena’s best friend, Vale, is the manager.
Neither woman knows they’re my brothers too.
Nick is the NFL’s leading defensive lineman. He’s not only closeted Bratva; he’s gay and can’t come out. Alena thinks her dad is Nick’s accountant, not a sworn, secret brother.
