When Alexei once again excuses himself to make a few calls in his office, Nadya and Nikolai both put up a nominal fight, but Niko’s too tired to really push back, and Nadya seems resigned.
“I’ll do the dishes,” I volunteer, standing to gather the dinnerware before we even hear his office door shut behind him.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nadya says, quickly getting up and trying to take the plates away from me. “You’re a guest. I can’t let you clean up our mess.”
“I was an intruder on your dinner. It’s the least I can do,” I say through a tight smile.
She rolls her eyes and takes the stack of plates away a little more forcefully than necessary and puts them down on the table. “It’s not like you had a choice in it, but either way, if you want to do me a favor, you’ll leave them for Alexei to deal with. This is his place, and unlike you, he didn’t offer to help me cook.”
On instinct I want to argue, but her eyes spark with mischief. “If he has any problems with it, he’ll take it up with me. And if I’m being honest, I’ve been looking for a reason to start a fight with him.” She brings her hands together in a plea. “Pleaselet me have this.”
At a loss for words, and against my better judgment, I find myself nodding.
“Thank you!” She pumps a fist in the air, startling another laugh out of me.
She practically trips over herself in her rush to leave everything on the table and herd Niko and I toward the living room, ignorant to the way I cringe when Niko, with messy hands and an even messier face, climbs onto the black leather sofa, leaving smears of grease on everything he touches.
The whole room is full of clean lines and sharp angles, but at least Niko is coordinated enough that I don’t have to worry about him tripping over air.
Still, I eye the glass coffee table warily as I sit down next to him gingerly, pulling him close to try to minimize the damage he can cause, feeling silly when Nadya flops heavily into an armchair, leaning forward with her hand on her knees. The wayshe watches us almost makes me feel like an animal in a zoo, but it’s probably fair play.
I don’t know what I’d do with us if the situation was reversed.
Still, I have to force myself not to shift under her scrutinizing gaze.
After a few moments she nods to herself, apparently coming to a decision. “How about a movie?”
Niko looks at me, face lighting up with excitement, so I nod, grateful for the reprieve as she sorts through the options, asking for his input whenever she passes over something interesting.
She gives me a look while they’re negotiating, and when I shake my head desperately while Niko puts up a case to watchJurassic Park, she smiles before talking him out of it. With a conspiratorial grin, she hovers over her selection.
“Ooh, this is a good one. Niko, let’s watch this. You’ll love it.”
“Does it have dinosaurs?” He eyes her skeptically.
“No,” she concedes. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t give it a try, does it?”
He shakes his head and leans into my side. “Okay. That one.”
Which is how he ends up asleep half an hour later whileSingin’ in the Rainplays quietly in the background. I run my hand through his hair, the lights from the television reflecting on his face while he drools on my leg.
This might not have been the night I’d planned, but it wasn’t bad. Dinner with relative strangers, easy conversation, and Niko falling asleep without a meltdown. Probably more because of exhaustion than anything else, but I’ll take the wins I can get. If he lets me, I’ll have to find a way to thank Andrei for this.
“Hey,” Nadya whispers, nodding in Niko’s direction. “Is he asleep?” I nod, smiling kindly at her. She’s curled up in the chair, wrapping her arms around her legs as she shifts to face me. “I’m sorry about earlier. I just got excited, but you don’t have to hang out with me.”
“It’s not that. It’s, uh.” I swallow. I hate talking about it, but she probably already knows, right? “You remember when Riot opened?”
In hindsight, with all the important Bratva men gathered in one place, it was inevitable that someone would take advantage of it. But at the time, things with the Italians had been relatively calm, so when The Outfit decided to sneak someone in and open fire, no one had been prepared.
“Of course,” she sighs. “That’s why it’s taken Alexei so long to open another club. He’s been worried about a repeat. The amount of security that he’s hiring is ridiculous.”
I doubt anything will happen, considering the amount of heat that the last scuffle brought along with it, but it’s good to know he’s taking steps to prevent it.
“Well, before all the, you know”—I wave my hand— “gunfire and bloodshed happened, Alexei already wanted to kick me and Daniil out. I don’t think he’d want me causing a scene again.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was the first time Daniil went out with Emiliya.” I smile, watching the way Niko’s eyelashes flutter against his cheeks. “I was under the impression we were going there together, probably because he brought me with him. Instead I got to watch his infidelity first-hand. And so did the rest of the Bratva.”
