Midnight Purgatory (Bugrov Bratva #1)(62)

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Nikolai asks, breaking the silence.

I take a sip of my drink. “What’s going on is that Boris needs a little—”

“No,” Nikolai interrupts sharply, “I’m not talking about Sobakin. I’m talking about your pretty little prisoner.”

I clench my teeth, but my answer still comes too fast and too insistently. “Nothing’s going on there.”

Nikolai scoffs. “Come on, brat. You dressed her up and took her out for dinner? Not to mention that she’s living in the house now, in one of the guest bedrooms?”

“It was necessary. Lev was getting antsy and I didn’t want to push him towards a full-scale breakdown.”

Nikolai’s eyes go wide. “So Lev knows about her?”

“He broke into the basement and found her. It was out of my hands.”

“And Polina?”

“Pol has no idea. Which is why, on the weekends that Polly’s here, Alyssa’s going back down into the basement.”

“What if Lev lets slip?”

I grit my teeth. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

“That seems to be the party line these days.”

Mother used to say that Nikolai and I were too alike and that’s why we butted heads all the time. These days, I think it’s more because he’s a condescending prick.

He’s not finished yet, either. “Tell me honestly, brother: are you getting attached?”

Something inside me roars with indignation. Me? Attached? To a woman? Fuck no. “She’s a plaything, nothing more.” Why do those words feel so wooden and rehearsed? So utterly and obviously bullshit? Instead of letting Nikolai point that out, I change the subject. “Need I remind you that you’re here so that we can discuss Sobakin, not so that you can grill me about Alyssa?”

Niko is unmoved. “Both things concern me.”

“Neither one should. I’m handling the situation with Alyssa and I have a plan for Boris.”

That gets his attention. “Do you?”

“The Black Rose. The whole city knows it’s just a front for his drug ring. If we stage a little ambush like we’ve been planning, take down a few of his men in the process, we can remind him of who exactly he’s dealing with.”

Nikolai cocks an eyebrow. “We’ve been over this, Uri. We can’t just launch an attack on a popular nightclub without the cops getting involved.”

“You forget about Vincent.”

“Imbroglio?”

I nod. “LAPD has been tipped off about Sobakin’s drug ring but he’s too powerful for them to deal with. They’ve tried a handful of underground sting operations that have failed. So if we wanna get a little messy in the Black Rose, the police department is willing to turn a blind eye.”

Nikolai has that constipated look on his face that usually means he’s impressed but doesn’t want to admit it. “What about Igor? You’re sure he’s dead?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because if I were Boris, I’d have gutted him the first chance I got.”

Nikolai sighs. Then he finishes his vodka and salutes me with the empty glass. “We can nail the fucker to the floor. As long as we can stay clear of… distractions.”

I grimace. Subtlety has never been Nikolai’s strong suit. But, for all his other flaws, he knows when to take his exit.

After he’s left, I wander upstairs, intending to go straight to my room. But somehow, I end up in front of Alyssa’s door instead. Nikolai’s words keep reverberating in my head. As much as I hate to admit it, Alyssa has become a distraction.

I thought that sleeping with her would curb my desire, but it’s had the exact opposite effect. The more I have her, the more I crave her.

I made a promise to myself a long time ago that, when it came to my older brother, I would do everything in my power to prove him wrong.

Today is the first time I’ve intentionally broken that promise.

Instead of moving on like I ought to do, I rip open her door and walk in. She’s spread diagonally across the bed, having kicked her cover sheet right off. Which is why I can tell immediately that she’s naked.

She’s sleeping on her side, her breasts squished between her arms. Tiny, fragile—fucking beautiful. My semi turns into a raging hard-on. My body is demanding it gets the fix it’s looking for.

Might as well make use of the pill. This will be the last time.

But unlike the first few times I made that promise to myself, I don’t believe it anymore. It’s become laughable at this point. I strip down and get into bed beside her. I caress her gently until she’s half-awake and blinking at me in confusion.

“Uri…?”

There’s an open-eyed innocence in the way she says my name. It does shit to me that no woman’s words ever have before.

I kiss my way down to her breasts and suck on her nipples until her body is wrapped around mine. She starts kissing me back, her tight little body pushing closer and closer.

Apparently, she hasn’t had enough either.

So for the second time in one night, I push myself inside of her. I mean to be fast and hard. I mean to split her down the middle, get mine, and then cast her aside. That’s what’s for the best, right? That’s the kind of man my Bratva and my responsibilities demand that I be.