The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

21. Nicole

Chapter 21

Nicole

Kissing Lev deeply, I let my hands caress the back of his head and neck before following the edge of his collar to the loop. "One step at a time, we'll make it," I assured him confidently. "As long as we communicate with each other, that's what matters."

I knew this was easier said than done. Communicating with a team or others without too much care for their feelings or knowing they don't have personal ties with me was different than communicating with my intimate partner. With Lev, I had to worry about hurting his feelings, wording things a certain way, watching my tone, and whatnot. I didn't want to be a dick to Lev, so I couldn't treat him like I would have my workers.

"I don't know what to do with my parents yet, as I've said. I mean, it would be easy to pull everything out from under them right now, but my gut is telling me it's a bad idea because no doubt they have some other plans in case shit goes belly up." Sighing, I gnawed at my bottom lip with irritation. "We just need to shut down all their escape routes before we strike."

My stomach churned with unease whenever I thought about what Lev told me about my parents doing some business off the books. I needed to figure that out before doing anything else. I already had a list of their business associates compiled from their electronic footprint, and I had other connections to reach out to get anything amiss if they didn't have some record of it online.

Which reminds me…

"You want to go out on a date tonight? Angel and I, along with the others, are gonna hit the autumn festival in Asian Village later tonight." It was meant to be a friends' trip for us to catch up and have fun, but Nikolai insisted on going with Angel, which then led to Stepan tagging along because of Hanna, so might as well add a third Volkov brother into the mess. "I'm also meeting up with some associates of mine to see if I can get more information about my parents."

"Like hell am I letting you go alone then," Lev immediately agreed with a stern look at me. "I would have agreed anyway because no way am I passing up a date with you, but knowing you're going to be conducting dangerous business? Like hell am I staying home after hearing that? What kind of boyfriend will I be if I let you go to a shady meeting alone?" His words rambled on and on about how I would even think about doing something so stupid alone and yada yada yada.

He didn't shut up until I grabbed his face and kissed him. "Got it, don't go anywhere without my ??i ca ," I teased with a giggle. "It's going to be nice knowing I don't have to be on guard all the time out on the streets now, so thank you." The mere thought of Lev being my personal bodyguard calmed my nerves. Even before we solidified our dynamic, when he was stalking me, I felt safe knowing he was there.

"How's bratva business?" I wasn't too involved much with his family business, not even with tech-related things. I used to help Angel a lot until I got too busy with my business, then after that was taken from me, I enjoyed my early retirement. For the most part, Bao handled things perfectly fine. Occasionally, I'd help if more manpower was needed or if the rare thing was out of Bao's scope—and that was really rare given how Bao knew all I did.

Lev took a deep breath before answering me, "Good, for the most part. Overall, everything has been pretty smooth, just some trouble stirring with those who were with the Qing Triad before getting a little too comfortable with us and trying to pull some shit."

Honestly, and I didn't want to say anything about it out loud, but I was thoroughly surprised at the lack of uprising from Lady Qing's loyalists. However, I wasn't at the same time, given the load of blackmail the bratva had on nearly all the members with their shutdown of Lady Qing. Now, digging out all the corpses from everyone's backyards was rather interesting, and I did take part in that because it was such a big project for Bao to handle alone.

Still, blackmail or not, I was surprised at the lack of resistance to the merge of the triad into the Volkov Bratva. I know a lot got screwed over with the merge. Well, screwed over in the sense that they couldn't run their business dirty anymore. The Volkovs ran things rather cleanly and had rules, while Lady Qing didn't. Honestly, the merge was akin to that of taming wild wolves with the acquisitions from the fallen triad.

So far, the brothers have done a rather good job keeping everyone in line, and if anyone dared to step out of it, then, well, there'd be a new person behind the line. That wasn't common, though, not after the house cleaning Nikolai and Angel did.

Unfortunately, some slimeballs, like my parents, remained. Of course, they had a close eye on them, but rats would be rats. There was no way for every second of their life to be tracked and reported.

Sometimes, I did feel a little bad for not helping more, knowing the situation of everything, but I just wasn't in it. I was tired and exhausted of everything and wanted a break from it all. Although, the break kind of stretched on and on until it hit this weird retirement funk I was in.

Not gonna lie, a big part of me deep down craved the action and chaos again. To hack into the enemy's system on a wire or send the enemy into a frenzy by whacking their system up was a rush I missed. Also, I missed blowing shit up. Angel was a little too passive to use the explosives I gave her, but I lacked such restraint. I mean, yeah, I was probably injuring or killing a few innocent lives too many whenever I threw a live one into the field, but why did that matter? They made their choice to work for the wrong side.

I had so many bombs sitting around in storage that I felt bad for. My poor babies would probably never see the light of day and experience the cathartic boom of glory unless I put myself back out there. Actually…

Slowly, my eyes trailed up Lev's body with a growing smirk. "Hey, if I gave you some bombs—"

Unfortunately, he didn't even let me finish before shooting me down. "My brothers would have my ass grilled and banned from the field if I ever caused that much damage, so no." At least I could appreciate his disappointment and his sense of responsibility.

Sighing with a pout, I pressed myself into Lev's body, remaining comfortably for a moment before playfully nipping at his neck with kisses. "Something is bothering you," I noted out loud with a concerned hum.

"It's… Complicated," Lev grumbled with a heavy sigh. "It's a me problem, mostly. The other thing that's bugging me is your parents and just everything with the old triad members and whatnot." Breathing deeply, Lev held me tightly against him and kissed my forehead. "But those things will have to take time, unfortunately."

Pressing my lips into a thin line, I held myself back from pushing Lev to open up. As curious as I was, I didn't want to push him away by accident. He'd tell me when he was ready, or at least I would give him more time to reach out to me before I pried at him.

So, relenting with a curt hum and nod of my head, I kissed the underside of his jaw. "Whenever you're ready, I'm here," I let him know with a warm smile. "Also, I'm here for everything, whether that be for you to vent about your day at the office or about the stupid man whose face you had to smash in." Reaching up, I played with the edges of his messy bangs. "I'm not some innocent housewife who's oblivious to everything, and you don't have to keep me in the dark for my sake either."

Unfortunately, I knew about all the ugly in the world and have dealt with them. As nice as it would be to live an ignorantly blissful life, I'd go mad with guilt. The only reason why I didn't pack my bags and move to some tropical getaway or the damn mountains was because I wanted to keep my nose in everyone's business. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing I could help Angel and the others with burning scumbags off the streets but didn't.

Me and my fucked-up morals.

"Oh, and we need to stay out a little late tonight. I have to meet with my supplier, too." Tonight was going to be a busy night for me, that's for sure.

However, speaking of supplies, that reminded me of something else. "We also need to go back to my cabin to pack my shit up and move it into your place. And I will probably need a shed or a work area." Okay, maybe not, probably because I will need an area. I couldn't stick everything into one of Lev's guest rooms and turn it into my office/workspace. I had too much shit and needed a lot of room.

Also, I was pretty sure Lev wouldn't want explosives inside his actual house. Personally, I kept work and home separate, except for right now, because I only have a cabin to work in. Still, I kept my worktable as far away into a corner as possible.

Shaking his head with a chuckle, Lev kissed my forehead before grasping my chin to tilt my gaze up at him. "Whatever my empress wants, she'll get. As long as you don't burn my garden down, I'm fine having a shed out in the back." His tone was light-hearted, but his intentions were serious. Without an ounce of hesitation, he asked in an eager voice, "How big of a work-shed do you want or need?"

"Uhh… Maybe like a thousand square feet?" I mean, ideally, the bigger the space, the better, but I was basically asking for a small ass house to myself the more I thought about the space I wanted.

Unsure, I scrunched my lips up while looking at Lev nervously. Then, much to my surprise, he didn't flip out on me. "Alright, consider it done, but it might take a while, a few weeks, give or take, but I'll get started on it in the next few days," he replied with a proud and determined grin. "Getting the materials will be easy. Just working out times to build it is going to be a little tricky, but I'll work it out."

Looking at him quizzically, I let my head naturally tilt to the side. "You make it sound like you're going to be building it." Unless I was sorely mistaken and misunderstood him greatly.

Giving me a confused look of his own, he studied me intensely with his mesmerizing blue orbs before his lips broke out in an amused smile. "Of course, I'm building it for you. You asked me for it, so I'm giving it to you. Like hell am I going to let you work in some house that some other man built." He scoffed playfully with a dry chuckle. "I'm your man now, so that means I take care of you and everything pertaining to you."

Okay, that's rather sweet.

Unable to help it, I cracked a big, happy smile. "I can't believe I'm getting sappy with you," I voiced my thoughts out loud with a chuckle.

Snuggling into him, I enjoyed his presence for a long while, taking in the dream-like scenery of his garden basking in a lovely day. "Did you really make this garden yourself and kept it up to this day?" Honestly, it was a little strange for me to fully comprehend because a hulking bratva boss like Lev was the last person on this earth I expected to have such a green thumb and peaceful gardening side to him.

I couldn't help but giggle softly when Lev's face went bright red. "Y-yes, but don't tell anyone… Everyone thinks I hire people to plant and upkeep it all," he admitted with an almost cherry-red face. "It calms me and reminds me of my mother." His voice dipped with his sad smile as his eyes gained a nostalgic glaze to them.

Logic grabbed at my shoulders—and failed—to keep me from spewing my next question. "Where is your mother? If you don't mind me asking?" Maybe it was a little too soon in our relationship to ask about it? But curiosity killed the cat, as they all liked to say.

Thankfully, I had a lot of lives.

The air around us thickened with sadness as tension weighed his smiling face down. It made me feel bad for asking when Lev's eyes grew glassy and distant. But I knew nothing about his family besides his brothers and whatever records there were of his parents stored electronically.

"Gone, but in a much better place." His low voice cracked slightly at the end with his sigh. "Though, I suppose you want more than just the generic answer." He dryly chuckled.

Shifting around, he slouched a bit against the tree he'd been sitting against. "It was about five years ago," he started with a hard swallow. "It was… A heavy day… Nikolai had just come home from Russia with our sister's ashes, and the rest of us had gotten back from a long night of a violent turf war." Averting his eyes to the ground, he stared at nothing as he mindlessly stroked my arms with his thumbs. "All hell broke loose after Nikolai told us all what happened over in Russia and what became of Natasha, and it just all kind of broke my mother."

I could feel his body tremble against me with his heavy breaths, and I gave him the space needed. Leaning against him, I calmingly stroked the length of his forearm, letting him know that I was there for him. "My mother snapped, attacked my father, and the two got into it for a while before my father left the house." Burying his face into my hair, he breathed deeply. "We all went to bed for the night after grieving together for a while, but we woke up in the middle of the night to my father and mother going at it again. By the time we got to them, my father had drawn his gun on my mother…" His shoulders shook with his hitched breaths. "We were too late to stop him from pulling the trigger."

The creaking of Lev's jaw and teeth grinding together echoed faintly in my ears. "He was pissed at her again for giving him useless children and whatnot because the bratva he married my sister off to get on his ass, before Nikolai tore their empire down to the ground and burned it all to ashes along with their bodies." Lev's voice perked with proudness but also with some jealousy. "Guess everything kind of spilled out with the alcohol in his system, and he really just exploded."

"Him pulling the trigger on our mother set something off in my brothers and me that night as well. We all jumped him and trapped him in the basement for a week, where we all took turns venting out all our years of pent-up resentment." The twisted smile that curled at his lips with each and every word sent a shiver of unease down my spine, especially when I caught the way his eyes sharpened dangerously with cruel pleasure. "Then, to watch the house burn down on top of him was fucking perfect." And now he looked and felt a little psychotic.

"Y-you had sister?" Maybe a change of topic would deter him from going batshit crazy on me.

The only person who was allowed to be a psycho in our relationship was me .

Inhaling deeply, Lev's crazed gleam faded from his eyes as he hummed and nodded in response to me. "Yeah, Natasha." His smile softened fondly as his fingers played with the tips of my hair. "She came after me but before the twins." Then, the warmth slowly faded to a stale sadness. "We all doted on her. Well," Lev scoffed, "everyone but my father, who only saw her as a means to an end."

Straightening himself out, Lev squeezed me tightly with a flat hum. "My father arranged her off into marriage to some rival bratva to form a truce and ally, but all they did was torture and kill her after my father shipped her over there." His voice sank into the depths of emptiness with his frown. "We tried to hide her, and we almost managed to sneak her out of the country… But he caught us by sheer luck at the last minute."

Frowning sympathetically, I cupped and stroked Lev's face. I hated how dejected he sounded. "Little lion, you guys did what you could, and sometimes, the universe is just a piece of shit to us despite our efforts." No doubt the near success got Lev to this day—the 'what if' of it all.

"After we got radio silence from the other side, Kolya took it upon himself to fly over to Russia to see what was going on and to bring Natasha back… But, he said he was far too late…" Dragging a hand through his hair with a deep sigh. "Kolya refused to tell us the full truth and still does to this day."

Now, it was my turn to frown deeply. Seeing the way his face tore with agony, sadness, and anger made my heart sink into my gut. "But you found out," I stated blatantly.

Almost robotically, he responded with a nod. "I contacted officials over there after drinking too much one night." Swallowing his feelings, he lulls his head backward to blink away the tears I saw forming. "And I've regretted it ever since."

Lev's body shivered with his hitched breath, and I could see him trying to hold himself together. I wasn't about to have any of that, though.

Prying his arms off and shoving them away, I slid out of his lap to the ground next to him. Reaching out, I coiled my arms around his shoulders and neck and tipped his big body over. "Lev." I sighed softly as I forced him to settle in my lap. "Let it out." I urged him with a comforting smile. "It's okay," I assured him with a kiss to his forehead. "I'm here for you."

Whoever said grown men shouldn't cry needed to go throw themselves off a cliff right into a shark's toothy mouth. Emotions were a vital part of being human, and that included expressing them. Lev could only put so many bullets into so many things or smash his fists into so many faces and bodies before another outlet would be needed. Besides, being a violent little shit won't do much to curb his guilt and underlying sadness.

Stubbornly, Lev resisted me with a blank stare, but something in him broke after a while. It started with a shiver, which turned into a shudder, then full-blown shaking as the tears came like a broken dam. Hugging my waist tightly, he buried his face into my lap and sobbed away.

Did seeing Lev cry make me happy? No, not in the slightest, but I knew how cathartic it could be.

Sitting there against the tree, I let my bratva boyfriend cry it out while soothingly petting his head. "I'm proud of you, Lev," I admitted with a prideful smile.