Twilight Sins (Kulikov Bratva Book 1)

As I pass by the library, the double doors swing open and bang off the walls on either side. Luna is standing in the doorway in her wrinkled dress and two-day makeup. She looks like hell.

She also has a new pinkness to her skin. The guards did mention she spent most of the day by the pool.

“I want to go home.”

“Hello to you, too.” I walk past her, but I feel her trailing close behind me.

“I’m sorry—were you expecting me to be waiting at the door for you with a fresh-baked pie and an apron on?” The image of Luna in a frilly little apron—only a frilly little apron—takes up way too much of my brain space. I swipe it away just as Luna whips around and stops in front of me, her hands on her hips. “Let me leave.”

“No.”

“You can’t keep me here forever!”

“I don’t want to keep you here forever.” I turn and head towards my room.

Luna is barefoot and jogging after me. She’s even more petite out of her heels. She has to take two steps for every one of mine. “You don’t want me around, but you won’t let me leave. You want to keep me for some random, unknowable number of days and then what? You’re just going to let me go?”

“Yep. On the side of a road if you’re lucky. Off the edge of a cliff if I’m lucky.”

“Ha ha. You’re doing all of this to keep me safe. If you wanted me dead, I’d already be dead.”

She isn’t wrong. But I ignore her and push through the door to my room.

The maids came in today and made the bed, but I still smell Luna everywhere. Less than twenty-four hours in my house and she’s already leached into the fibers.

I have more than enough guest rooms. I could put her up in any one of those on the opposite side of the mansion, lock the door, and throw away the key. But I want to keep her close.

If only because I get the sense that Luna is going to be a lot more trouble than she looks.

“If you aren’t going to kill me, the least you can do is tell me who is after me.”

“The least I could do was leave you at the restaurant to fend off the wolves on your own. You don’t want to ask for the least from me, solnyshka.”

“Okay, there’s something. What wolves?” she asks. “Is this, like, a West Side Story kind of thing? Jets and Sharks and Wolves?”

I shake my head. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

She looks personally offended. “It’s a musical. You’ve definitely heard of it before. I can sing you some if you⁠—”

“If you’re trying to get answers out of me, you’re going to have to try harder than that. I was raised to endure torture.” I drop my watch on the dresser and turn to face her.

“I can never tell if you’re serious.” She narrows her eyes, thin slits of blue trying to read my every thought.

I give her nothing. I’m just starting to unbutton my shirt and see that the cuff is singed from gunpowder. I should have rolled up my sleeves before I killed that Gustev soldier. Then again, what else is a personal tailor for if not to keep me swimming in bespoke dress shirts? Giorgio will be thrilled to have something to work on.

I pull the ruined shirt off and drop it to the floor of the closet.

“Yakov!” Luna stamps her foot on the floor. “Talk to me. Please. I want to understand where you’re coming from, but if you don’t tell me anything, then I can’t⁠—”

The words die in her throat when I turn around. Her eyes go wide as they trail so, so slowly down my chest.

I planned to throw Luna off her axis. I was going to let her follow me as I went about my normal routine—undressing, showering. But one glimpse of skin and Luna is biting that full lower lip and staring like she’s searching for the most efficient way to climb me. If I’m not careful, we’ll both fall into the trap I’ve set.

“I don’t work with people who have nothing to offer.” I walk past her, close enough that our hands brush. She jerks back as I pass and wraps her arms around her chest.

“How do you know I have nothing to offer? What if I know these people who are after me? Maybe I could⁠—”

“You don’t.”

She huffs out a harsh breath. “But maybe I could figure out who they are and⁠—”

“You can’t.”

“But if you let me, then I could⁠—”

“I won’t.”

She lets out a sharp, frustrated scream. “Would you let me finish?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“You’re a real asshole, you know?” She drops down on the end of my bed, and I definitely don’t think about the last time she was there… legs spread, hands in my hair. “I should have picked up on it right away, but I was in denial. I was so desperate for a good date that I shoved aside all of my reservations and hoped for the best.”

I pull a dark gray t-shirt out of my drawer and shrug it on before I turn to face her. “Good point. I sensed all of your reservations. Especially during your third orgasm. You seemed so unbearably conflicted.”

She blushes again. I’m waiting for her to leave. To slouch out of here, embarrassed and teary-eyed. Instead, she stands up and jabs a finger into my chest. “I never said I had reservations about your dick. I assumed that would be satisfactory from the beginning.”

How did I randomly find myself on a date with the only woman who has ever surprised me? If she was anyone else, I’d snap her finger in half the moment she even thought about touching me. Actually, if she was anyone else, she would have been too afraid to even try.

I know what to expect from everyone else in my life. But Luna is an unknown. She doesn’t know enough to be afraid of me…

Yet.

“Do you treat everyone in your life like this?” Luna snaps. “You said you have a family, but the only people I’ve seen around here are people you’ve hired. Where is everyone else?”

“That’s not something you need to know.”

She groans. “Okay, Mr. Keeper of Knowledge, what do you think I need to know?”

“For right now, the only thing you need to know is that you’re safe in this house.”

“It’s like fucking Groundhog Day around here,” she mutters. She starts to turn away, but then stops and faces me again. “Fine. You want me to stay in your house, I’ll stay. No more escaping⁠—”

“You can’t escape.”

She narrows her eyes. “No more trying to escape, then. But, on one condition.”

“I have no fucking clue why you think you’re in a position to barter with me.”

“I’m an optimist.” She shrugs. “Also, I want to wear something aside from this stupid dress and heels.”

“I can buy you clothes.”

She shakes her head. “I want my clothes. You can come with me if you need to, but I want to go to my apartment and⁠—”

“Absolutely not.”

Akim has probably figured out the soldier he planted outside of her apartment building isn’t reporting back. He might even know that he’s dead by this point. I made it look like a suicide for the authorities, but Akim will know better. If he’s smart, he’ll put someone with a bit more discretion on the job.

Point being, if Luna gets within three blocks of her apartment, Akim will know.

I can’t risk that.

“Just for an hour,” she pleads. “I want to grab some of my stuff. Clothes, makeup, my computer, my cat.”

I shake my head. “No fucking way. You aren’t bringing a cat into my house.”

“But Gregory will die if nobody is there to feed him!”

She has got to be kidding. “Who names their cat Gregory?”

“Someone whose first crush was Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday.” She lifts her chin, not nearly as embarrassed as I think she should be. “It’s a good name. Noble.”

“Noble or not, your godforsaken cat isn’t going to hack up hairballs all over my house.”

“He only does that, like, once every few weeks. It’s not even a big deal!” She grabs my arm, her fingers wrapped gently around my wrist. Her blue eyes are wide and desperate. “Please, Yakov. I’ll make sure he doesn’t make a mess. You won’t even notice him.”

Pets have never made sense to me. You spend time and money taking care of them, and for what? They’re a burden, at best.

Luna is also a burden. And she’ll be an even bigger one if I refuse. I see the path forward: I leave Gregory to rot, Luna cries bloody murder, and my life becomes more complicated.

Plus, a cat could keep her busy. She’ll be so busy scooping up his shit that I’ll have five fucking minutes of peace to figure out how I’m going to eradicate Akim Gustev.

“Fine.”

She jumps up and down, still holding onto my arm. I’m less focused on the way my body is moving and much more focused on hers. The dress isn’t doing much to hold her in place. Things are bouncing and shaking and… oh, fucking hell, it might be nice if she put on some different clothes. Like a parka.

I jerk my arm out of her grip. “But you can’t leave the mansion. I’ll send someone to your apartment to get what you need.”

“It’s my house. I don’t want strangers in my house.”

I shrug. “Then say goodbye to Gregory. I’m sure he has lived a very full, meaningful life.”

“He’s only two!” She frowns and then chews on her lip. I watch her resolve flake away bit by bit until she finally sighs. “Okay. Fine. I’ll make a list of what I want and give you the codes for the front doors, my mailbox, and my apartment door.”

“Not necessary.” I walk past her towards the door.

“How are you going to get in without a key?” she calls after me.

Now that she can no longer see me, I can finally smile. “The same way I get everything else I want: by force.”

Luna doesn’t follow me out of the bedroom. It wouldn’t matter if she had. I unlock the door to my office, step inside, and immediately lock it behind me.

I may let Luna and her cat into my house, but there’s no fucking way I’m letting her into my business.

I drop down into my desk chair and pull out my phone. Nikandr answers on the first ring. “I’ve been looking into the name you gave me earlier, but nothing yet,” he says in lieu of a greeting. “Turns out there are a lot of Budimirs. Go figure.”

“We’ll narrow it down eventually. This stuff takes time.”

Patience was never my strong suit, but I had to get good at it after the Gustev Bratva killed my father. Vengeance isn’t something you can rush.

“You never said where you got the name from,” Nik remarks. “Who was your contact? None of mine knew a damn thing.”

“I got it out of the soldier Akim sent to stake out Luna’s apartment… before I killed him.”

“Shit,” he whispers. “Well, looks like we made the right call keeping her at your house then. Akim would have killed her first chance he had.”

That thought has been lodged in my head all day. What could have happened if I’d left Luna at that restaurant?

What happened because I didn’t leave her at the restaurant has also been lodged in my head.

I’m not used to this. Thinking about a woman after I’ve fucked her. It’s new territory for me. No doubt that that’s just because she is stuck in my house and likes to follow me around, peppering me with questions. As soon as I get her out of my life, she’ll be out of my head. I’m sure of it.

“Speaking of, how is your new roommate?” Nik inquires. “Have you two divided the utilities and made a chore chart yet?”

I shake the memories of Luna loose and kick my feet up on my desk. “The only one doing chores here is you. I need you to go to her apartment and pick up a few things.”

He whistles. “Day one and you’re already moving her in. When’s the wedding?”

I don’t like to encourage him, but I can’t help but laugh. “It’ll be the same day hell freezes over.”

Nik knows I have no plans of getting married. Not after I saw what losing my father did to my mother.

My parents were as in love as two people could be. It’s rare for our type, especially the older generations. Lots of arranged marriages and business deals hidden between the vows. But my parents were the real deal. They made it work for decades—and it was still gone in a fucking second. In the blink of an eye.

I know up close and personal what it looks like when love is ripped away from you.

I have no interest in ever being the one left behind.

“I’ll mark the big day in my calendar.” Nik chuckles. “So what am I grabbing? If she’s anything like Mariya, I could grab everything in the closet, the bathroom, and the pantry and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

“Luna isn’t our sister. She isn’t family and this isn’t some vacation. Get the essentials.” I drum my finger on the top of the desk and roll my eyes. “And her cat.”

Nik sputters like he’s choking. “You hate cats.”

“I’m not adopting it; I’m just letting her bring it here so it doesn’t starve. I told her to keep it away from me. If the thing comes near me, I’ll kill it.”

“Okay. Whatever you say, capitán.”

He’s reading way too much into this, but I don’t give a shit. If this little furball is going to keep Luna from crawling up the walls and sticking her nose in my business, then a little cat hair will be worth it.

Whatever it takes to keep her safe—and as far away from me as possible.