“With all due respect, stay out of Medvedev business. This is not your Bratva. Understood?”
“Understood,” Ev and I both say.
With his hands still pressed together, he taps his index fingers against one another before leaning forward and resting his forearms on his desk as he looks at us to say, “Do not fuck my nieces and that includes Allie. If you want to get laid, have someone take you to Inferno or one of the strip clubs we own. I’m sure you can find what you need there, but you keep it off my land.”
That last rule throws me, and it’s Ev who steps in with a quick, “Agreed.”
Vasily doesn’t let me off the hook, he narrows his eyes at me, waiting until I say, “Agreed.” I even make it sound like I don’t care, like the thought of a naked Sitka never once crossed my mind.
He studies me for a second, but when I don’t cave, he leans back and says, “Then welcome to Oregon, boys. Let me know if you need anything while you’re here. Bran and Dima are out right now, but they’re planning on stopping by Max’s as soon as they get back.”
“Great,” I say, standing when he does. I avoid Ev’s stare, keeping up the indifferent charade when we head back towards the front of the house and run into Vasily’s wife Nina.
“Vasya,” she says, giving her husband a big smile.
The darkness fades from his eyes when he looks down at his wife. He gives her a smile that I’m fairly certain no one outside of his immediate family ever gets and says, “How was everything today,zolotse? Did you get that shipment of toys you wanted?”
She beams up at him. “I did. A woman just arrived at the shelter today with her two kids, so it was perfect timing. You should’ve seen the way their faces lit up when they realized it was all for them to play with.”
She’s still smiling when she turns her attention to us. She has the same dark hair and eyes as Talia and is just as short. Nina is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, so I’m not at all surprised when she steps out of Vasily’s grasp, something he doesn’t look too thrilled about, so she can give Ev and me a hug.
“We’re so excited to have you both here for a few weeks. In fact, I think you should just stay the whole summer. The kids are already planning things to do, so prepare yourselves. You’re in for a lot of bonfires on the beach and icy cold swims in the ocean.”
I laugh and Ev tells her it sounds great. I look up in enough time to catch the look Vasily is giving me. It’s a clear warning to not bust his wife’s happy bubble about what we’ll be getting up to. If she wants to believe we’ll be making s’mores around a bonfire every night, so be it.
Nina isn’t naive, though, so after she hugs us, she says, “Please don’t do anything stupid while you’re here. I really like your moms, and it’ll kill me if I have to call them to say that you’ve gotten hurt because you decided to do something crazy.”
“We promise we won’t do anything stupid,” I tell her.
Ev holds up a hand. “No night swimming or underage drinking, Mrs. Medvedev. You have my word.”
She laughs and pats his chest before slipping back into her husband’s arms. “Call me Nina. You’re right about the night swimming, though. The Pacific can be brutal. Please don’t ever go in alone, if you go in at all. It’s freezing, and the rip currents and sneaker waves are dangerous and unpredictable.”
“They’ll be safe,zolotse,” Vasily says while his eyes dare us to make a liar out of him.
Ev and I don’t have a death wish, so we nod our heads in agreement.
“I’m sure you’re anxious to get to Max’s, so we won’t keep you,” Nina says while we make our way to the front door. Before we step out to the waiting SUV, she adds, “I hope you don’t mind, but we wanted to have a big family dinner tomorrow to welcome you both. Everyone will be here for it.”
My mind immediately goes to Sitka. Looks like I won’t have to wait for us to randomly run into each other after all.
“That sounds great,” I tell her.
“Looking forward to it,” Ev agrees.
We say a quick goodbye and then get back in the SUV. In less than fifteen minutes, we’re being let out in front of Max’s house, and as soon as the vehicle disappears around the bend, I say, “What the fuck was that about?”
Ev shakes his head and starts grabbing his bags. “I don’t know, man, but he’s going to be so pissed when he finds out what’s going on.”
“Nothing is going on,” I remind him while I sling my own bags over my shoulder.
Ev straightens up and looks at me. “Nothing? So you wanna go hit one of those strip clubs tonight?” When I don’t answer, he smirks and keeps going. “How about Inferno? You wanna go pick up some random piece of ass?”
When I still don’t say anything, he laughs and says, “Come on, Pop-Tart, Max is waiting for us.”
I debate the pros and cons of punching my cousin in the driveway. The decision is made for me when the door opens and Talia steps out with a squirming Lyra in her arms. I can’t punch Ev in front of a baby, so I ignore the smirk he’s still wearing and walk over to give Talia a hug while Wallace races out to greet us. I take a second to pet the sweet border collie who’s always a happy ball of energy until he decides he’d rather go for a run and darts into the woods with an excited bark. Max steps out and hugs Ev while I kiss Lyra’s head. She smiles up at me. She’s close in age to Mira, and they’re both at the teething and drooling all over the place stage of things.
“I’ll warn you now,” Talia says, “she’s been kind of grumpy lately.”
