Chapter 17 - Lev

A blissful week went by, almost as if I didn't have a care in the world. With Jenna, anyway. The councilman was still making moves he thought I didn't know about, unaware I had people everywhere. We were still trying to find out who he was dealing with, and so far, it was little more than an annoyance. While Councilman Hardy was as easy to ignore as swatting a mosquito, my brothers were a different story.

Had Aleks always ridden my ass this hard? Or was I just more interested in spending my free time with my new wife, rather than answering his every message or call? Since I was completely ignoring him and my other siblings during my honeymoon phase, it shouldn't have been a shock to me when I woke up early to a knock on my door.

I scrambled out of bed before the incessant pounding woke Jenna, who was still sleeping like an angel, her hair all fanned out on the pillow. She'd welcomed me back to our bed, not exactly with open arms, but ever since our heated makeup session in the shop dressing room, I promised myself I'd let her lead the pace. There was plenty of time for us, and my patience seemed to make her happy.

She'd been studying late into the night, finally passing out with her bedside table lamp still shining at three. I carefully eased the heavy book out from under her arm and snapped off the light, unable to stop smiling. I loved how dedicated she was to her schoolwork, and while I would have preferred keeping her all to myself, she would have been miserable if I forced her to give up her classes. Then, I would have been miserable.

It was shocking to me how much I wanted to make her happy, and so far, she seemed perfectly content despite the rocky beginning.

I was thoroughly pissed that she might be disturbed as I stormed toward the door, planning to have the doorman's head for daring to let anyone get past him. Everyone who worked security at this building had strict orders never to let anyone up without clearing it with me first. Unless…

"Oh, fuck," I said, swinging open the front door.

Max grinned at me. Unlike me, with my fair coloring and blue eyes, his hair was dark, eyes brown like our maternal grandfather. "Nice way to greet your favorite brother," he said, trying to push his way past me.

"Out," I said, shoving him into my private elevator entry.

I couldn't risk him seeing Jenna wandering out of the bedroom in her pajamas. The last thing I needed was Max finding out about her and blabbing to Aleks that I was shacking up with his sister-in-law, or worse, figuring out that we were married. Keeping the relationship a secret forever was impossible, but I wanted to control the timeline. If it came out after Jenna was already pregnant, something I found myself thinking about far too much when it had never been on my radar before, then Aleks couldn't try something rash, like force an annulment.

His eyes widened at my rude greeting. "What are you trying to hide? Or, should I ask, who are you trying to hide?"

Jamming my finger on the elevator button to open the doors, I pushed him into it. "Just go to the coffee shop on the corner. I'll meet you there in ten minutes."

I hurriedly changed, relieved to see Jenna hadn't stirred even after my younger brother nearly broke the door down. At the coffee shop, Max sat at a corner table with a tall iced coffee despite the chilly San Francisco morning. It looked untouched, and when I sat down across from him and he didn't immediately start in with more teasing about who was in my bed, I knew something was up.

"Why haven't you been answering any of our messages?" he demanded. "You're lucky Katie is pregnant, or it'd be Aleks up here ripping you a new one."

I rolled my eyes, as if any of my brothers could beat me in a fight. "Is Katie all right?"

"She's fine. Her doctor wants her to quit work for the final stretch but she's being stubborn," he snapped, not happy with my attempt to change the subject. "Things are going to hell, Lev. What the fuck is going on with you?"

"I've told Aleks that if things got that bad, I'd come down," I told him. "But things are still calm in LA."

"Not LA," Max said, whipping out his phone and starting to search for something. "Here, under your nose."

"My people give me regular reports," I said, getting defensive. I'd had men following Councilman Hardy's every move lately. He might have been planning something, but if he'd done anything I needed to know about, I'd know about it.

However, Max showed me what he'd been looking for. A picture of a half-burnt-out bar on the other side of town. One of ours, a holdover from when my father had bought up half the dives in the state and had kept watch over them like a mother hen. Guilt struck me like a tire iron. I'd had tunnel vision with Hardy, since there didn't seem to be any other rival factions willing to go against the progress I'd made in the area.

Apparently, someone had just made an attempt, and I swore at what I was seeing.

"Was anyone hurt?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Thankfully, they broke in after hours. Stole what was in the register, broke up a lot of stuff and then set the fire. But the building was empty; the apartment upstairs was vacant."

"What does that tell you?" I asked, fury coursing through me. All of it aimed at myself for not staying on top of things.

"It tells me they're either chickenshits or don't know who they're dealing with," Max answered with a shrug.

I nodded. If you came for the Fokins, you'd better strike hard, and mean it. Because we'd always hit back ten times worse.

"It has to be someone new," I said. "Someone that's managed to stay under my radar until now."

I made a few calls and told my men this was top priority, and by the time we arrived to inspect the scene, we had a solid lead on who might have been the culprit. The bar was pretty much nothing but an insurance claim at that point, but when we spoke to the manager, I changed my mind. He'd been running that neighborhood establishment since he was just out of high school, when his father had to retire due to health issues. He had four sons who he proudly proclaimed were in college and wanted nothing to do with the bar business.

"I had hoped I had some more time before I had to retire, though," he said sadly. "Thought I had a good twenty more years. I guess I have to hope some other bar will hire me as a bartender."

Max began to assure him he'd get a generous payout from the insurance, but I jumped in and said we'd rebuild. Max kept his mouth shut, recognizing my tone. We'd lose money on this, but I could see in his eyes he was also remembering how much my father had loved his small neighborhood establishments when he was in charge. He still kept tabs on some of them from Moscow, staying friends with some of the older proprietors.

After that, we headed out to settle the score. It turned out to be nothing more than a piddling, disorganized gang of petty thieves who quickly confessed and begged for mercy. The fire had been a clumsy attempt to hide the robbery, not any message to us. I wasn't convinced they knew who we were before they targeted our business, but Max dated a lot of actresses and was certain they were putting on a show for leniency.

All in all, we scared them badly enough that I didn't think they'd try anything so foolish again. The fight put us both in a better mood, and Max suggested one of his favorite restaurants for lunch. I felt bad for not letting him in the apartment earlier when it had been a while since I'd seen him, and since I was sure Jenna would be in class by now, I told him we could eat there. I needed Max on my good side, and I did still feel bad for shirking my duties.

We barreled in, laughing about something our younger brother Dimitry had done, only to find that Jenna was not in her class. She sat at the dining room table, all my work pushed to the side so she could spread out her own papers and books. I stopped dead, trying to block Max's view of her, but it was too late. And by the look on his face, it was easy to see he recognized her.

She glanced up from her book, her smile melting off her face when she saw who was behind me. She looked absolutely adorable in shorts and a tank top, her hair in a messy bun as if she'd barely scraped a brush through it when she got out of bed.

"I thought you had an afternoon class today," I yelped.

It was too late to get Max out and my mind was reeling, grasping for some sort of excuse for why she would be there. They both looked comically shocked, but this was no laughing matter.

"Jenna?" he asked. He definitely remembered her from the Christmas party. Who could forget her? He turned to me, eyes full of horror. As much as he loved a good time and had a love life filled with messy drama, he didn't like problems within our family and was an ultimate peacekeeper when it came to us siblings. "What are you doing with Katie's sister?"

So this was how it ended. After only a week. Jenna was already so uncomfortable with the secrecy that there was no way she would agree to lying outright to my brother.

"You can't tell anyone," she begged, shocking the hell out of me.

"Why not?" Max asked, still completely confused. "What am I not telling anyone about?"

"Nothing," she said, so fast my head whipped around to stare at her. Nothing? "This isn't what you think it is, so please just don't say anything to Katie or Aleks. Please, Max."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I know exactly what this is. How long do you think you can keep it a secret?"

Jenna fell silent and I had no answer for that, either. I was still reeling over how easily that little word, nothing , had spilled out.

"I just don't want to hassle Aleks with this right now, or to have to weather his rage storm," I said.

"Yeah, and we're just figuring things out, anyway," Jenna added before I was even done speaking.

What in the hell did that mean? My already tenuous mood turned sour. I was no longer in any frame of mind to even put some meat between two slices of bread for my brother, and as soon as we wrung a promise to keep his mouth shut out of him, I shoved him out the door once more. He looked both hurt and pissed, but I knew he'd stick to his word, at least for now.

I had bigger fish to fry. Jenna was pacing the length of the dining area when I returned.

"What are we going to do if he slips up?" she wailed. "I don't want Katie to know about us."

Her desperation matched mine in that regard, but I was beginning to think her motives were different. "What did you mean when you said we're just figuring things out?" I asked, ice in my voice.

As far as I was concerned, there was nothing to figure out. Everything was settled with us. We were forever. She got flustered and flopped back down in her chair.

"I really need to get back to studying, Lev," she said, pretending to ignore me. The high color in her cheeks showed she was rattled, and I repeated the question.

Was my wife hiding something from me?