Chapter 18 - Ivan

I hurried down the steps to my room and went straight for the kitchen. I actually didn't mind cooking, and the thought of doing it for Adley, in addition to my brothers, filled me with a strange happiness that I wasn't about to look at too closely.

They were at the table playing pool when I passed through the second floor and headed for the ground level. Vlad hummed as he watched me B-line it for the kitchen, and Abe added in his usual, "Cook it up, Betty Crocker."

It was easy to ignore them. The fire worming through my blood was thoroughly distracting. I had to hand it to myself; it was a damn surprise that I hadn't seized the opportunity to fuck Adley silly. Still, I'd taken a not small amount of pleasure knowing I'd left her there to squirm.

Throwing together a few ingredients in the kitchen for a stir-fry was easy enough. I added a bit of the fresh peppers and broccoli that we'd picked up to make sure it had plenty of crunch.

Cloud nine had nothing on me, but then I sat down at the island in the kitchen to let the sauce thicken when something crinkled in my pocket and stole my attention. Reaching into my jeans, I pulled out the string of notes I'd taken while following Donovan.

"Shit. I need to file this."

Getting up, I headed for my office just down the hall from the kitchen. I flicked on the light as I entered, walking around my desk to sit down. As I went for the key to the locked drawer in my other pocket, I noticed the drawer in question sitting just a centimeter or two forward.

"Well, well."

I pulled on it, and it slid toward me with zero resistance—because it was, in fact, not locked anymore.

"Adley, what have you been up to?"

Extending the drawer out to its full length, I added the notes I'd taken to the small book with all my details regarding the rival families and big players in town. I'll transcribe it later. As I tucked the drawer back into place, noting that all the contents were still there and accounted for, I locked it back up and leaned back in my chair.

Putting my hands behind my head, I reclined in the comfortable leather seat and stared up at the ceiling. Adley had been snooping around the house, looking for hints about my line of work, no doubt.

"Oh, sweetheart. What are we going to do about this?"

Still, as I sat there, it wasn't rage or annoyance that flared through me. No, I wasn't angry. I was just…interested in making sure Adley understood the rules. If she had a question, she needed to ask it. Not go searching through my shit to find it herself.

However, the lack of fury struck me. I'd never been a particularly forgiving or merciful kind of guy but with Adley…Well, something about her made the entire thing more amusing than infuriating.

She would be punished, in any case. Actions have consequences, and of anything, I wanted honesty from her. I didn't accept liars. Adley had made a mistake, and I would give her the chance to make up for it.

Down on her knees.

But dinner needed my attention right now. I got up and returned to the kitchen to finish cooking up the stir-fry. Adley would be done any minute, and I was looking forward to seeing how she handled dining with my brothers. So, her punishment would wait.

***

I sat across from Adley at the large formal dinner table. My brothers sat to either side of me, and they lasted until about five minutes in before they started in with the annoying comments.

Well, Vlad just snickered and smirked behind his hand. Abe supplied all the actual words.

"So, you're Ivan's new plaything, huh? Gotta admit two days is longer than any of his other dates. And he's had a lot of them."

Adley's eyebrows rose, and she looked across the table at me as a subtle blush started behind her cheeks. I could tell she was already ready to head back upstairs.

"How's the food, Abe?"

He glanced over at me as I asked. I never asked about the food. They could eat it or get fucked. So, when I offered him the chance to take a potshot at me, Abe narrowed his eyes, calculating my motives. I could see him reading me, and it didn't take him long to realize that I was putting out an olive branch and a distraction simultaneously.

Abe could take the chance to insult me, and it took the heat off Adley. If only for a second. Would he take it, though?

"You could give up crime and work at Panda Express, bro."

I laughed, actually amused by that one, and took another bite. Abe did the same, and when I glanced over at Adley, she relaxed slightly into her chair.

Running my eyes over her face and body, I appreciated what she'd chosen for dinner. Adley had pulled her long hair back into a ponytail that sat high on her head, and she wore another flannel top, this one green and black, and had paired it with a black cropped tank top and a pair of black shorts.

The bottoms came up high on her waist but barely covered her ass. Needless to say, I liked them.

"So, Adley," Abe started up again, "how'd you meet my brother?"

She swallowed down her bite of food and then set her fork down on the table, wiping her mouth.

"Oh, well, I was at a bar feeling sorry for myself about my parent's failing bodega, and Ivan came over and offered to help."

Abe's brows hit his hairline, and I fought the desire to roll my eyes and groan.

"Oh really? We got a new meet-up location?" He leaned forward on his elbows, resting his chin on his hands.

Vlad clicked his tongue, something I knew meant "ditto."

"Yes, we have a new meet-up location. I already texted Lev about it. It's a cute little place. Quiet. And it's unknown."

The benefits of a new place to conduct business unknown to our rivals were clear to all of us, and Abe nodded as the corners of his mouth turned down.

"Hmm?"

I heard Adley and turned my attention to her end of the table. Vlad held out his phone to her, and Adley shakily accepted the thing, reading the message he'd typed out. Her eyes went wide again, and she looked up at me and then back over to Vlad.

"Vlad, do we need to revoke phone privileges?"

"No, no. He's fine." Adley answered for him, and I furrowed my brow at her. "Can I…?"

She waved the phone a little before handing it back to him, and Vlad just shrugged, leaning back in his chair and taking a swig of his beer.

"I'll take that as a yes." Adley's eyes circled over the table before landing on me again, and she offered an awkward smile. "He just said that you, umm…seem to be in a better mood than usual. He said thanks."

I looked over at my brother, who just shrugged again, and I couldn't hold back the short bark of laughter.

"Oh really? Well, fuck. I guess we do have you to blame for that." I stared into Adley's eyes, enjoying the way she felt put on the spot more than I should. "Should I give you a reward or something?"

She blushed, waving her hands in front of her. "No, no, no. That's so…No. I'm good."

"Well, good because we don't dole out bullshit prizes for non-existent sports. No participation trophies."

Abe's words cut through the air as sure as a blade, and I sighed, rolling my eyes at him.

"If only we could find a mood booster for you, Abe. Take that stick out of your ass."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm very happy with my current situation. Being pulled around by the short hairs in a desperate attempt to get some tail isn't my thing. I'll leave that to you."

My pulse ticked up another notch, and I could feel the vein in my temple throb. Abe was barreling toward a beating just because he didn't like that I had someone. Jealousy or not, I wasn't about to let that one go.

"If you think—"

"Excuse me, it was Abrahim, correct?" Adley's voice was level and strong as she shoved her way into the conversation.

Abe's brows shot up as his mouth dropped, and even I was about ready to fall out of my chair from the shock. Hell, Vlad had sat forward in his chair again, his fingers poised on his phone like he was ready to play the bell that meant "everyone back to their corners."

Leaning her direction and putting one hand on his hip, Abe glared at Adley, his brows down low over his eyes.

"Yeah."

"Excellent." Adley met his stare, unflinching. "Well, Abrahim, it occurs to me that my presence here is weird. Hell, it's downright astonishing. But I can assure you that I'm not pulling your brother around by any hairs. That's not why I'm here. My parents run a bodega that was about to go out of business for good. Ivan stepped up to help, and part of that agreement was that I would be here with him. It's unorthodox at best, but I'm not manipulating him for some ulterior motive. I did what I had to do to protect my family. From what I understand, you've done the same for your brothers."

The table hung in silence, and I looked between Adley and Abe. They were both frozen in place for several long seconds and just as I was about to break the silence, Abe let out a hard chuckle that shook the whole room.

"Well, hot fucking damn." He looked over at me, his mouth turning down at the corners as he nodded. "I'll say I'm fucking impressed. It looks like my brother has better taste in women than I thought."

Relief threaded through my muscles, and I relaxed the fists I'd made. "Get fucked, dickface."

We both laughed, and even Adley was smiling. Vlad clinked on his glass, holding it up for a toast. It was as close to a "blessing" as I would get from either of them, and I was a bit surprised at how much that actually meant to me. Abe was quick to follow suit with his glass, and Adley and I joined right after.

"To Adley. You're way out of Ivan's league, and if you're ever looking for a job—"

"That's good, Abe."

He smirked at me while I heard Adley do her best to hide a chuckle.

"I'm just saying if you want to retire, Ivan, I think I found a better negotiator than you."

I threw my napkin down on my plate, grabbed my beer, and pointed it at Abe.

"You are fucking dreaming. I can't believe I'm getting booted by my own guest."

Adley held up her hands again, this time like she was surrendering. "Oh, no. I said nothing. You cannot put this on me."

And just like that, the awkward meeting was over. We were chatting, Vlad doing his phone thing, and it all felt so… normal. We were just shooting the shit about dumb nonsense that both mattered and didn't, and Adley told my brothers more about the bodega.

Some of it I was hearing for the first time, too, and I was intrigued to learn that her great-grandparents had come over from Ireland and the shop had been passed down through the generations.

It was beyond evident that it meant a lot to her, but I could also hear what she wasn't saying. That running it had been her parents and grandparents' dreams, not hers.

"Sounds like you're going to need to hire someone to take over when they can't work it. Any thoughts?" I cocked a brow at her as I circled the table, collecting the plates.

"God, no. That would make my life easier. I'd always assumed it would be me, but if…" She got quiet, staring down at her napkin on the table.

I looked up at Abe, and he just shrugged. God save the person that ever hooked up with him. He was fucking terrible at small talk. And relating, and really anything to do with maintaining a relationship that wasn't about killing people for the Vadims.

I mean, hell, he wasn't great with me or Vlad for that matter.

As I carried the plates across the room and set them in the sink, I called over to the dining room. "But it's that a good thing. It doesn't sound like you actually enjoy running the shop, just that you do."

Adley's head shot up, and she glanced over at me with her brows up to her hairline. "I never…"

But we both knew I was right.

"Shit. Well, yeah. I guess I don't. But that doesn't exactly solve the problem for my folks now, does it?"

"No, but putting out an ad will. There's plenty of people looking for a job, and you can fire them if they don't work out."

She gaped at me slightly, and I couldn't help but smirk back. Sometimes, it took an outside perspective to see the simplest way to solve a problem. The Unholy Trinity was good at finding the answer to any issue that might plague our clients.

"Yeah," Adley offered, "I guess we could do that. I'll…I'll tell Molly to get it set up for them."

"And there ya go." I smiled, rinsing off the plates and then walking around the island to meet Adley back at the table.

As I did, the hallway that led to my office stole my attention for a moment, and that smile turned dark. I still had plans for Adley, and they were going to be very fun.

"I cooked. You assholes do dishes." Abe rolled his eyes, finishing his beer and standing up. "Adley, why don't we retire for the evening? I have something I'd like to…discuss with you."

Her eyes flared wide, and I watched her swallow down the immediate nervous tension that filled her.

Very, very fun, indeed.