Nikolai’s scowl gets deeper and deeper. By the time I’m done, the corners of his mouth slope down toward his jawline. “Wait… are you telling me she’s sleeping in your bed right now?”
I shrug. “I needed her out of her house so that we could check it.”
“Fuck,” Nikolai snaps. “Fuck!”
I’m rolling my eyes inwardly. He’s always had a habit of overreacting to everything I do. It’s another subtle needle. I would never have done that if I were pakhan.
“The situation is contained,” I reply coolly.
He looks ready to tear his hair out of his scalp. “How? She’s clearly seen the fucking finger. A finger that most likely belongs to one of our vors.”
I’ve been trying not to think about that, because the solution to a civilian getting a peek at incriminating Bratva business is as simple as it is brutal.
She can’t talk if she’s dead.
“I have it under control,” I say instead. “She’s under my roof now.”
“And tomorrow?”
“Hadn’t thought that far.”
Nikolai grits his teeth. “Well, start thinking. Because Lev will be back tomorrow and Polly will be here for the weekend. You might be able to hide a couple of things from Lev—but Polly? Not so much.”
“I’ll deal with it.”
He takes a step towards me and points a finger in my face. “I don’t want this touching them. We made a pact to keep them far from all this shit, remember?”
I clench my jaw. “You think I don’t remember? I was the one who came up with the pact.”
Nikolai looks away from me but I can see his jaw tightening as he thinks. “I could try to convince Lev and Polly to stay with me for a little while.”
“It’ll never work. They’re both comfortable with me.” Nikolai’s eyes narrow. Yeah, okay. Poor choice of words. “What I mean is—”
“Of course they’re more comfortable at your house; they grew up here. But we need to push Lev’s boundaries, encourage him to step outside of his comfort zone.”
“I’ve done that by giving him a room upstairs in the main house.”
“You rarely make him use it.”
“Because he has fucking meltdowns if I push him too hard!” I growl. “I’m not gonna risk traumatizing him in the name of curing him. We both know that’s not gonna happen.”
Nikolai snaps his teeth together. “He’s been regressing recently and you know it. If we take it easy, he’s gonna backslide back into his cocoon phase.”
“I already said I’m handling it, brat.”
“Like you’re ‘handling’ your next door neighbor?” Nikolai asks with a skeptically arched eyebrow. “Tell me, little brother: how attractive is she?”
That’s the other thing about siblings—they know you all too well.
He chuckles when I don’t answer. “Petite? Blonde?” When I still don’t reply, he throws his hands up in disgust. “Whatever you do, do not sleep with her.”
I can’t help it; a snort of laughter bursts through my lips. “You’re several hours too late, brother.”
Niko’s eyes bug out. “Goddammit, Uri! Why can’t you keep it in your fucking pants for once?”
I shrug nonchalantly. “She was trespassing on my property. I needed to find out why.”
“And you couldn’t have just asked her?”
My grin gets wider. “That would have been a whole lot less fun.”
“You have a problem.”
Instantly, Alyssa’s accusing words pop into my head. I push them right back out. “I’ll deal with my little blonde problem and you deal with that finger.”
Nikolai nods but his eyes are fixed on me in warning. Sometimes, he looks so much like our father that it makes my skin crawl. “Don’t fuck her again.”
“You know my rule: I don’t do repeats.”
That much is easy to lie about. It’s true: I don’t do repeats…
For now.
“Do me a favor,” Niko drawls. “Let me be there when you explain this rule of yours to Polly one day.”
I give him the middle finger. “Get off my property.”
Smirking, he starts sauntering back to his car. His house is less than a mile down the road, but he drove here in his vintage Aston Martin. Nikolai always did have a hunger for the finer things.
I step into the house, making an on-the-spot decision about what to do with my unexpected houseguest. My options are limited. I can’t let her go now that I know she’s seen the finger. There’s a chance she’ll go to the cops and, despite my best efforts, not all of them are in my pocket just yet.