The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

9. Lev

Chapter 9

Lev

"Why does he look like that?"

"Uhh… Is he high? Please don't tell me he's fucking strung out. I am way too fucking tired to be dealing with this crap at home."

"Lev!"

A harsh slap to my face snapped me completely out of my little daze and pissed me off. Instinctively, I lashed out in the direction the hit came from while cussing them out in Russian, only to have another smack come to my face from a leather bag. "What the fuck was that for?" I snapped at Alexei with a sharp glare after I settled back into the couch with my arms spread across the back.

Alexei stared at me blankly and blinked a few times before shrugging his shoulders softly in a dismissive way. "You were looking a little too happy for our liking."

Unconsciously, I reached up and lightly rubbed my healing tattoo. "Can I not be happy?" I retorted with an offended sneer, lashing my arm out and catching Alexei softly in the midsection, causing him to grunt softly.

Turning my head to the other side, I watched Nikolai groan and rub his temples while hanging his head. "What did you do? Who did you kill? What did you collapse? What's the collateral? How much is this going to cost us?" Nikolai basically went on autopilot whenever it came to me, which I didn't blame him for. After all, I was the problem brother. Nothing good ever came from me coming home smiling like a goof—except this time!

Scrunching my face up, I followed my sister-in-law as she walked over and stopped right in front of me. "Lev, look at my finger," she directed me after she held a finger up in the air and pulled out her penlight from her scrub pocket.

Rolling my eyes, I gently lowered her hand. If it were Alexei or any of our other male employees, then I would have smacked their hand away. However, I was raised with manners by my mother and brothers. I would never hit or harm a woman, intentionally, at least. If a woman attacked me, then I would defend myself with the least harm to her in return—duh. But I would never abuse a female or raise a hand against them for any reason—if that made any sense.

"His pupils seem fine," Angel stated her observation out loud as looked at me. "Not on any drugs." But the devious little smile that spread on her face had my face dropping. "But I think I know what is wrong with Lev," she said in a sing-song voice, giggling evilly at the end.

Standing straight, she stuck her tongue out at me and flipped me off real quick. " Rasplata eto suka, " she sassed me before looking at her husband with a cheeky grin. "He's in—mhmphf!"

I shot up from the couch and slapped my hand against her mouth before she could utter the last of her sentence. "You finish that sentence, and I will tell Kolya what you did at the club that one time," I threatened her with a glare.

Angel's eyes widened as she pried my hand away. "You wouldn't. You swore you'd never let him know," she hissed under her breath, narrowing her sharp and dangerous eyes at me.

" Lisichka , room. Now," Nikolai commanded in an authoritative tone, making Angel's body tense up for a split second, and then she relaxed submissively with her hung head.

Glaring at me, she muttered something at me in Vietnamese before looking at Nikolai defiantly. Her lips pursed for a second before she broke out into a smile and waddled—she was a few months pregnant with twins—off with a cheeky giggle and a middle finger at Nikolai, who let out another stressed-out groan.

Running a hand down his face, he looked at me pointedly. "When I am done dealing with my wife, I am coming after your ass next," he told me, jabbing a finger in my direction before taking off after Angel.

Well, at least I could deal with Alexei, or at the very least, I could easily shake him. "Whelp, I got shit I need to do." I half lied with a grin, turning on my heel to disappear back to my place located on the Volkov Estate.

Unfortunately, Alexei wasn't going to let me off the hook today. Before I could make a full step toward my retreat, I felt the back of my shirt get grabbed before my body got thrown down onto the couch. For being one of the less muscular among us, he had a lot of strength to him still.

"Don't fucking think so." Alexei deadpanned with a soft glare. "Talk. Now," he demanded, jabbing a finger at me. "You are way too suspicious."

No getting past the ever-so-observant doctor.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved him aside—gently-ish—to get up and leave. "I'm just happy for once. Is that so much of a crime?" Not gonna lie, I was getting a little pissy about everyone getting on me.

Scoffing, Alexei gave me a stern look with a cocked eyebrow. "For you? Yes," he replied with flat sarcasm. "Seriously, if it's a girl, just tell us, or a guy, we don't care. We just care and worry about you, that's all." His stiff posture softened ever so slightly, giving me the impression that he actually cared.

Sighing softly, I rubbed at my chest in response to the bubbling feeling, groaning internally at the longing ache for Nicole's presence. "It's complicated, but I'm figuring it out," I assured Alexei with a confident smile.

The plan was simple: figure out the problem with Nicole and her parents, protect Nicole, take care of Nicole's problem, and then lock Nicole away with me on a remote island. Okay, that last one needed a little work, but something along those lines.

The spunky woman was impossible to resist, and since she'll no longer be my assignment after I figured shit out, there would be no problem dating her.

"Who is it? Is it someone we know?" Alexei pressed with some interest to his voice while his face remained rather flat affected. "How did you two meet?"

Scoffing, I flung a hand at my younger brother. "Go back to your patients. Don't you have a full schedule lined up today?" I didn't want to open this can of worm with him, or anyone for that fact.

My life has always been an open book to my brothers, mainly because they gave me no peace until they knew every little detail of it. Yeah, in a way, it was their way of showing they cared about me, but it was annoying sometimes. I don't think there was any part of my life—besides Nicole—remained out of at least one of my brother's eyes. Nikolai practically knew everything because he's usually the person I went to for everything, mainly to bail me out of trouble. Stepan was close to my life because we shared a company together. Then, the twins, they were just nosey little shits.

I didn't mind sharing my life with my brothers, but there were some things I wanted to keep to myself until I was ready. These are things I never really got the chance to keep because of how aggressive they were with knowing every inch of my life. But it would be different this time. I won't let them know about Nicole until we were solid; no point in telling them if I couldn't secure her—I'd make a fool of myself to my brothers.

Also, if I told them about Nicole, they'd dig her whole life up and get involved, then things would get messy. I wanted to have some peace for once in my life to take things at my pace.

"You know we're going to find out sooner rather than later," Alexei commented with a roll of his eyes. "Just save yourself the trouble and just tell us. We're not going to go on a witch hunt for her or something. We just want to make sure she's a good fit for you and, well, ya know, a good person…" His voice slowly trailed out with his insinuating words.

"Hey, I stopped sticking my dick in crazy after that one chick," I retorted with a scoffing chuckle. "I'll really be fine with Ni—"

A loud slap echoed through the room with how fast and hard my hand flew against my own mouth. Warily, I narrowed my eyes at Alexei, who cracked a small smirk as he leaned onto one leg. "I'm sorry. I think you were trying to tell me something and didn't finish." His smugness made me want to swing one across his face—okay, maybe the throw pillow, not my fist.

"Fine with not telling you," I gritted out through my teeth before standing straight up from the couch. "I need to go do something for work," I lied, in a hurry to leave to avoid being grilled until my lips flapped loosely in the wind.

"It's only a matter of time, bratok ," Alexei teased with an uptick in his voice.

Of course, leave it to Alexei to pick at every little hair before I could make my full escape. "And are you okay? You've been rubbing your chest a lot lately. Heartburn? Impending heart attack?" Okay, at least it was out of concern for my health, so I couldn't be irked at him.

Assuring him with a quick smile, I shook my head as I began to round the corner. "Yeah, just a little comfort habit as of late."

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I darted away before Alexei could have another chance at questioning me.

The walk home was quick, mainly because I lived next door to Nikolai. Nikolai and his wife lived in the mansion, something my eldest brother built after we killed our father and took over the bratva. I lived in our old house about half a football field away.

Actually, it was more or less the location of our old home, not the house itself. My brothers and I burned down the original house after we painted the walls red with our bastard father's blood. We wanted nothing to remain of our bastard father's that would remind us of the suffering we all endured, along with my mother, by our sperm donor.

I used to live in the mansion with Nikolai until I decided to build a house at the location as a way to spite my father in death—and to dance on his grave. Also, I wanted to build a good life on the earth that my mother used to walk and touch. The house and everything was just a way to show my mother that something good could come from the rotten place she tried to love.

Besides, I couldn't let her garden die; she loved that area so much. It was also one of the few places I ever really got to spend time with her, away from everyone and everything. It was as much her happy place as it was mine. I mean, I couldn't even begin to count how many nights I spent hiding out in the rosebushes or up in the apple trees from my father before inevitably falling asleep in the comfort of nature .

When we got rid of the house, the garden was the one place I refused to let anything bad happen to. I continued to tend to it to this very day and use it as my escape still.

Hopefully, I can share it with Nicole.

The thought of us sitting out at the patio set or in the swing or, hell, even on a little picnic blanket on the grass, was such a divine fantasy. To spend our nights laying around to look at the stars or if that wasn't her thing then she could do whatever she wanted while I had my head in her lap, and we basked under the moonlight.

Then, hopefully, one day, I could share it with my own children. Okay, maybe child, as in one kid, because I doubt I could handle more than one duplicate of me running around.

Chuckling and shaking my head at myself, I ran a tired hand through my hair as I entered my garden, letting the fresh scent of lilies and roses fill my system until I felt drunk.

God, if any of my brothers knew what went on in my head right now or saw how dopey I was getting over some girl, then they'd probably wonder if I had a stroke or send me for a psych evaluation.

Yeah, I've always wanted to settle down and have a family of my own, but I never really made any serious steps toward that kind of lifestyle. Nor did I put much effort or thought into it besides knowing I wanted it further down the road.

Honestly, the need to put a leash on myself and open my heart up to someone never surfaced until I saw those pictures of Nicole and dug into her life.

I wanted my ambitions to come true, but only with Nicole.