Page 18 of Sexting my Bratva Daddies

She nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry it hasn’t already been taken care of.”

The quick turn in conversation might save us. If the woman thought I’d been reprimanding Peyton for not working quickly enough, it would explain her blush and stammering.

I resisted the urge to smile all the way back up to my office.

Leo and Viktor stood waiting for me, Leo at the corner of my desk and Viktor by the windows.

It amused me that our employees here believed Viktor was the leader, the head of our operation.

Only those who knew our other identity, our Bratva connections, realized that Leo held that distinguished honor. Probably because he rarely showed this side of his personality but preferred to use charisma and charm to woo our clients.

This version of Leo glared at me, eyes gone cold. “You disobeyed.”

“No.” I sank into my chair, refusing to let him intimidate me. He’d known when he brought me in that I did not follow rules well unless they were my own. I would protect him and Viktor with my dying breath, but I’d been through too much to let the things I wanted be taken away from me.

“Misha.” The warning note in Viktor’s tone brought me to my feet.

I met each of them with a hard stare honed from decades of violence.

Leo once told me that I’d weaponized my intensity to survive. He wasn’t wrong. “Do not push me on this, Leo.” I did not plead, would never let that softness into my life again. “The Bratva gave me structure, purpose, and brotherhood. You allowed me to channel my rage in a controlled manner. But she is not getting away. I am not content to sit on my ass and play semantics with this power play bullshit. We want her. She wants us. It is that simple.”

Leo started to say something, then thought better of it. His lips parted, his head tipping to the side.

The three of us could be brothers. With our dark hair and eyes and similar builds, many took us as blood family. We were something closer than blood.

I did not have family. Not since my mother passed the year I turned seven. She’d been light and beautiful, what people here called a ‘breath of fresh air’.

“You cannot hem her in a corner where others might see you. You cannot make demands of her, especially while she’s at work.” Viktor remained by the windows. “It’s unethical.”

“It’s sexual harassment in the workplace.” Leo kept his body facing me. Smart man.

“Is it?” I fired the question at him. “She did not seem to mind. What does sexual harassment have to do with anything when she wants us? You must have been watching me on the cameras to already be up here ready to pounce. Which means you saw her reaction.”

I refused to let him be right.

“What happens if you push too fast? Or too far?” Leo’s voice dropped to a pained whisper. “She is more than some woman we are all interested in.”

“She’s our employee.” Viktor reiterates the obvious without looking away from the window.

I studied his expression in the glass. Tight lines around his eyes, hands in his pockets.

People did not tell us no. Those who did learned the error of their ways. Peyton had not told us no, but she was making us wait.

“Give her a chance, Misha.” Leo shifted his weight, giving me his shoulder and the slope of his back.

My body instantly relaxed. I hated that I still had that response to him and to Viktor when they squared up with me.

No good thing ever came from a man who met me toe-to-toe. It had always led to pain in some form. A decade with these two might have softened some of my rougher edges, but it had honed others.

“What does that mean? Am I meant to pretend none of this happened?” I pretended so often in my life that I’d hoped to be myself this one time with Peyton. Leo and Viktor knew me, but even they did not know the deepest parts of me.

Peyton reminded me of when life was good. She reminded me of hope and the softness that could come with a touch.

“You’re to maintain the distance we kept before we knew it was Peyton on the other side of the phone.” Leo slid his hands into his pockets.

Three matching buzzes silenced whatever Viktor had been about to say. That sound could only mean one thing. Peyton had messaged us on the app.

We all checked our phones. I read the message under my breath. “Would like to meet tomorrow night to discuss where things go from here.”