Page 8 of Paved in Hate
“That’s true,” she admits. “I’m guessing by the time I go into labor you’ll know more than the damn doctor.”
“I’m not ready to think about labor.” Jolene laughs and wraps an arm around Lev’s waist as he pulls her in tighter.
“You and me both,malinkaya,” he tells her.
My brothers are used to violence, but just the thought of their wives being in pain is enough to make them all look like they’re about to be sick.
“You guys are going to be a wreck at the hospital,” I say. “Thank god you at least didn’t get them all pregnant at the same time. I don’t think I’d survive all three of you freaking out at once.”
“We’re not going to freak out,” Roman says.
I look over at the corner and point at the trim. “I think you missed a spot.”
He turns on instinct, brow already furrowed before he hears the rest of us laugh. “You’re such a fucker,” he tells me, but I hear the love in his voice.
Emily looks over at me. “Just wait until later.”
I lift a brow. “What’s later?”
She smiles and says, “You five get to put together a crib.”
I’m already calculating how much vodka we’ll need to survive that project when Roman’s phone buzzes. His entire demeanor changes when he reads it.
“What is it?” Matvey asks in Russian.
Eyes still on his phone, he says, “The supper’s tonight.”
He doesn’t need to elaborate. We all know what he’s talking about. We’ve been waiting for the invitation. Osip had been vague, saying we were invited to dinner in one month and that we’d be sent the address the day of. It’s been exactly thirty days since we last saw him. We’ve all been stressing about this, and that worry is partly to blame for Roman’s obsessive attention to detail about the paint job. He’s worrying about bringing his pregnant wife to the house of one of the most notorious sex-trafficking Bratvas in the world. They all are.
The reason our family works so well is because we all complement one another. I’ve always been the jokester, the one who helps lighten the mood, and although that’s just me by nature, I’m fully aware that without some comedic relief the stress and worry over Alina would’ve eaten us all alive by now, so when I crack a joke about how I’m sure the food won’t bethatbad, it’s not because I don’t care. It’s because I’ll do anything to spare them the pain of what we’re going through, even if it’s for only a second, and even if that one second involves an eye roll and calling me a fucker.
“What’s going on?” Jolene asks, looking up at Lev.
He leans down and kisses her forehead. “The supper’s tonight.”
“With the Lebedev Bratva?” Emily asks.
Roman nods and then looks back at the blue walls he just painted, and I know he’s wishing he could leave his wife and their unborn son in the safety of our penthouse, but there’s no getting out of this. We’ve been waiting almost two years for this moment, and there’s no way in hell we can refuse the invitation or leave their wives at home.
“We won’t let them out of our sight,” Matvey reminds them. “No matter what.”
“Text me the address so I can start digging around,” Danil says, pulling Simona out of the room with him so he can start doing research. He’s desperate to gain back some control, but I’m guessing Konstantin has made sure that he’ll only find what he wants him to find and not a drop more. Tonight’s dinner is hitting Danil especially hard. Simona’s the only one who’s ever met Konstantin. After she was kidnapped, she’d been auctioned off, and Konstantin had walked past all the women. He’d taken an interest in Simona, so Danil is more than ready to put a bullet in the man’s head.
“How much time do we have?” Jolene asks.
“Supper is at seven, and it looks like it’s about forty-five minutes away,” Roman tells her.
“It’s a damn good thing we planned ahead and bought outfits,” she says. “I’m not so sure he’d appreciate me showing up in jeans and a hoodie.”
“Fuck ‘em,” Lev says. “You can wear whatever the hell you want.”
She smiles up at him. “Thanks, but I’ll wear the black dress I got.”
He leans down and whispers who the hell knows what kind of lovey-dovey shit that has her blushing and reaching for his hand as she pulls him from the room. I’m surrounded by horny pregnant women. Matvey and I head for the kitchen to get some lunch while our brothers disappear with their wives.
“What do you think it’ll be like tonight?” he asks, grabbing a couple of frozen pizzas because that’s the extent of our combined culinary skills.
“I’m guessing a large, pretentious house and lots of armed men. He’s going to want to remind us of how powerful they are.” I preheat the oven and grab a couple of round baking sheets. “Also a trophy wife, probably blonde with giant tits.”
