The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

17. Lev

Chapter 17

Lev

"Achoo!" My aching body jerked violently with my painful sneeze.

" Bud' zdorov ." Stepan chuckled in response, side-eyeing me smugly. "Feeling under the weather because of a girl?"

Slumping into the couch, I bundled the blanket around myself tighter before flipping Stepan off.

"Stepan, you're the last of us to talk." Nikolai chided in an almost flat voice as he entered the living room with a tray of stuff. "Or need I remind you of how you nearly broke your ankle and ended up in a boot a few weeks ago, along with a bad cold, after you let Hanna hunt your masochistic ass through the forest at 3 AM?"

Scoffing in disbelief, Stepan sputtered a denial out, only to have Nikolai deadpan him. "That—! How the hell did you even know about that!?" Stepan huffed with a red face, his arms crossing as he shrunk a little.

"I'm your big brother. It's my job to know everything," Nikolai replied with a smug chuckle.

A sharp scoff and curt laugh caused all of us to turn our heads in the direction of Angel as she approached us to set out another tray, this one filled with snacks. "Oh, that's a load of bullshit," she retorted, throwing Nikolai a teasing look. "He saw you and Hanna come in and asked about it. I didn't say anything, but Alexei did."

Nikolai's shoulders shook with a dry chuckle. "That's not how I remember getting the information." His eyes flashed Angel a knowing look, his lips curling into a devious smirk that lasted a split second. "But, whatever floats your boat, lisichka ."

Scoffing, Angel rolled her eyes before turning her attention to me. "There's some water and medicine. Drink it all," she bit out, pointing at the tray Nikolai had brought out.

Nervously, I eyed the different glasses with a wary frown. "That looks like a glass of sewage, and the other looks like a cocktail of hot sauces." I deadpanned, shoving the tray away with my foot. "I'm not drinking that shit. I'll just tough it out." I stubbornly decided, doubling down by curling up on myself with a determined look.

Rolling her eyes, Angel waved her hand dismissively. "Fine, suffer then," she snapped back sarcastically as she turned around and walked away.

A moment of silence filled the room as Nikolai got situated in the armchair between Stepan and me. It wasn't too awkward of silence, thank God, just really tense as the three of us looked back and forth between each other.

"So… Are you going to tell us why you showed up to Kolya's house all soaking wet and grumpy as fuck? Or are we going to have to grill it out of you?" Stepan prodded with a curious but smug smirk. "Also, why the hell are you wearing a turtleneck? Actually, where the hell did you even get that? Pretty sure the only things you own is tactical gear, t-shirts, jeans, and business shit for work."

Okay, maybe this was a bad idea.

Groaning internally, I fought the feeling of regret that made my legs ache to book it out the door to avoid the embarrassment of confessing to my brothers.

"Lev, is everything okay?" Nikolai asked tensely, his face furrowing with concern as he leaned over and propped an elbow onto the arm of his chair. "You've been kind of strange lately, too. I've been meaning to try and sit you down to talk and see what's going on, but you 're always running off before I get the chance."

Both my brothers looked at me with genuine concern, one of the more common looks, along with the 'what the fuck did you do this time' look. I may be the problem child, but I had my moments. They might not say it, but my brothers enjoyed the fact that I was a pain in the ass to them. I mean, how else was I supposed to show them that I cared for them? Still, no matter how tired they got of me a lot of the time, they cared for me deeply at the end of the day and watched out for me. They might not be as expressive or straightforward as now, but they had their ways.

They only ever intervened if things were that serious, like now.

"Lev." Stepan's stern voice softened more with concern with his expression. "What's going on? Does it have to do anything with the woman you had in the office last week?"

Well, that piqued Nikolai's interest with how his face lit up with curiosity as his head turned slightly to Stepan. "What woman?" His intrigued eyes peered over at me briefly.

Giving me a teasing, shit-eating grin, Stepan leaned back in his seat. "Oh, I don't know. I haven't asked him about her. Lev was all cute and cuddly with some cute chick last week when I entered his office to get something." His coyness made me want to punch him in the face.

Turning his head back to me, Nikolai studied me for a good moment before smiling and shaking his head. "I don't know if I should be worried or happy." Nikolai mused with a small laugh.

Slightly offended, I scoffed at my older brother. "Why would you be worried?" I was a grown-ass man who could very well make decisions that weren't utterly stupid.

Repressing a laugh, Nikolai looked at me with an 'Are you serious' look that had my eyes rolling in response. "Lev, all the women you've tangled with have either been gold-diggers, spoiled brats with no functioning brain cell, crazy flings, or flat-out psychos

." Nikolai deadpanned with a smug curl of his lips .

Opening my mouth, I was about to rebut him but quickly zipped my lips when Nicole's actions barreled through my mind like a derailed train on fire. "Oh, come on, don't act like your wives ain't crazy." Looking at Nikolai pointedly, I lightly jabbed a finger in his direction. "Angel is a sadistic psyyyy—"

The stern glare from Nikolai promptly shut my mouth. "In a good way." I nervously chuckled, diverting my gaze to Stepan, who raised an eyebrow at me. "You let Hanna chase you around with weapons and let her beat you up in the forest." Okay, it wasn't like that, but I needed to make a jab.

"All consensual fun," Stepan threw back with a smug grin. "Nothing wrong with a chase to get the adrenaline going."

Scoffing, I rolled my eyes and grumbled under my breath before stewing in an irritated silence. Taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I let my question cook a bit in my mind. After an internal debate, I decided to bite the bullet. "How did your guys' wives claim you? Or, like, what mark did they leave on you to show the world you're taken?" Okay, maybe I should have sat on the question a little longer to make it sound less weird, but too late now.

A part of me wished I had a time machine to dial it back a few minutes when Nikolai and Stepan looked at me with bulging eyes. "Uhh, what?" Nikolai forced out, blinking his eyes a few times while rubbing his ear to clear it. "I'm going to need you to repeat that." His voice sounded wary and hopeful as if he hoped a different question would fly out of my mouth to prove that what he heard the first time was a fluke.

Nervously, I cleared my throat and sat up in my seat. "How did your girls mark you? Claim you." Okay, maybe I should have used my second chance more wisely because both my brothers looked at me with shocked faces. Judging by the look on their faces, they were probably debating whether or not to call Alexei in to do a psych eval on me. Yes, this has happened more times than I cared to admit.

"My wife gave me a ring?" Nikolai answered in a perturbed voice, holding up his hand to show the wedding band around his finger.

Stepan took a few more moments to join, sounding more unsure than Nikolai. "A collar? Ring?" The tan line caused by the leather cuff around his left wrist was visible after all this time. "I'm very confused. Is that what you were asking? Or what do you mean? Are you having a stroke?" Stepan's head tilted around, trying to get a closer look at me.

Annoyed, I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "No." I waved my hand in the air. "Like what did they put on your body, like what tattoo or scar or like permanent mark on your flesh." And cue the horrified and very concerned looks. If I was safe from a psych hold before, I probably wasn't after that.

"Lev," Nikolai groaned as he ran a hand down his face. "That should not have sounded as normal as it did, even for you." Sighing heavily, he leaned back fully in his seat, throwing back his glass of liquor. "Lev, do I even want to know the full story? Or am I going to need a full bottle of liquor before diving in?"

"You make it sound like I broke into Cortez's drug dens and stole their stash or went around terrorizing people for shits and giggles, which, no, I didn't do any of that," I quickly defended myself, glaring softly at Nikolai, who glowered at me from behind his empty glass.

The two of us stared each other down for a moment before I threw in the towel with a fed-up scoff. "I just… You know what, never mind." Throwing my hands into the air, I shot up from the couch and threw the bundled blanket onto it. "I'm going home."

At that, Stepan stood and got in my path, blocking me with his smaller frame. "Nah, ah," he objected, shoving at my chest. "You are going to sit your ass back down and give Kolya the migraine of his life," he demanded in a stern voice with a matching expression.

Gritting my teeth, I rubbed at my chest to ease the sudden, nagging ache. "I don't feel like it right now, and if you shove me again, I will knock your ass out." Brother or not, I wouldn't hesitate to push back if need be. Besides, it wouldn't be the first or last time we'd get into a tiff with each other.

"Lev, if you don't sit your ass down and start talking, then I will lay it out on the floor and start punching you until the words come out," Nikolai threatened me with a very heavy sigh and glare. "Don't make me get my wife."

Fuck no. I can't handle another psycho right now.

But speaking of my lovely she-devil of a sister-in-law…

"Oh my God, Nicki, I can't believe you did that, he's going to be so fucking pissed." Her faint laughter echoed from the kitchen, growing closer with her footsteps. "But come on, you gotta let me know who this man is. You can't keep edging me like this."

Nicki?

Shaking my head in denial, I forced all thoughts of her out of my mind. I fucking hated how hung up on her I was that hearing her name crashed her into the front of my head. I mean, Angel was probably talking to a different Nicki, for all it mattered. Nicki was a common nickname… Right? People used to tease Nikolai by calling him Niki until he smashed their faces and broke a few bones.

My nerves slowly settled as I rationalized everything.

If only it stayed that way.

If I wasn't stroking out before with my nonsensical question, then I would now at the sight of Nicole's smug face when she rounded the corner with Angel. "Oh, ??i ca , you made it back." The damn minx had the gall to act sweet and innocent! Running up to me as if she hadn't just stranded me out in the middle of the road in the pouring rain!

Leaning up to her tippy toes, she grabbed the front of my shirt to pull me down a little. "Ange, meet my man." Nicole giggled, pressing a playful kiss against my cheek.

Angel choked on the water she had been sipping, going into a coughing fit until her face was red and to the point where I worried she might throw up because of how violently her body jerked.

Stunned, as if I'd been smacked in the face by a wooden plank, all I could do was watch Nikolai rush up to Angel and fret over her. Of course, Angel merely clung to him for support while waving his attempts off. "Oh my God, Lev, I am so sorry about your short life," Angel strained out between her struggles to control her fit.

"So much for not getting with a crazy chick," Stepan snickered, quickly stifling his laugh and covering it up with a cough.

Smiling innocently, Nicole looked up at me with devious eyes. "Told you I'd meet you at home."

" Blyat' ."

Fuck me.