Twilight Sins (Kulikov Bratva Book 1)

My thumb is hovering over the call button while Yakov lists rule after rule after rule. “Don’t say my name. Don’t give her my address. Don’t tell her you’re in danger.”

“I know,” I groan. “I won’t spill any of your deep, dark secrets. You have nothing to worry about.”

I press the call button and it starts to ring. But Yakov slams his hand over the speaker and whispers in my ear, “I know I don’t. You do. The last thing I need is two liabilities to take care of. Do you understand?”

The ringing stops and Kayla picks up. “Luna? Hello?”

But I’m frozen because Yakov’s hand is still covering the mouthpiece and his lips are brushing against my skin with every word. “If you tell your friend anything you’re not supposed to, you’ll live to regret it. She won’t.”

My heart is pounding. I’m shaky and I’m not sure if it’s from Yakov’s threat or the fact that I can still feel the heat of his breath on my neck.

“Luna?” Kayla asks. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”

I swallow down my nerves and lean over the phone. “Hi. Sorry. It’s me.”

There’s a long pause, then: “‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘Hi,’ she says. As if I haven’t been blowing up your phone for two straight days!”

I swipe down on my notification screen and, surprise surprise, it is wall-to-wall calls and texts from Kayla.

“Seriously!” she yelps. “I know you’re mad at me about the surprise blind date. I get that. But freezing me out is not cool. I was scared!”

That makes two of us.

When Yakov was rattling off his long list of rules, I wasn’t really paying attention. I know what I can’t tell her. It’s obvious.

What isn’t as obvious is what I can tell her. I’ve never been a good liar. Least of all when I’m lying to my best friend.

“I know. I’m sorry. I was just… really mad.”

There’s a beat of hesitation before Kayla speaks again. “What’s up with you? Why do you sound so weird?”

Yakov is standing next to me, close enough that his arm brushes against me when I jerk away from the phone like I’ve been electrocuted.

I’ve barely gotten two sentences out of my mouth and Kayla is already suspicious. I drag my hands down my face and dig deep for the best explanation I can come up with. “I’m getting over a cold. I’m still a little stuffy.”

“I didn’t mean your voice,” she snaps. “You just sound… off. Are you still mad at me?”

This one, I can answer honestly. “No. I’m not still mad.”

I’d give anything to be able to talk to her right now. She is the reason I was in the restaurant in the first place, but Kayla couldn’t have known what was going to happen. I don’t blame her for any of this.

“Okay, great. So that means you’re ready to tell me how the date went?”

“There’s nothing to tell. It was just a date. A normal date.”

Yakov raises a brow and I swat him away. The last thing I need right now is even more of a reason to be nervous.

Kayla snorts. “A ‘normal’ date for you is kind of tragic. No offense.”

“It was normal for a regular person then. It was fine. Nothing to report.”

Oh, how we will laugh about this later. I have nothing but stuff to report. A nonstop running scroll of information my best friend needs to know immediately. Like the fact that Yakov has made me breakfast twice in two days while Benjy never cooked me anything over the entire course of our relationship. He wouldn’t even stop at a gas station and buy me a slushie when I had to get my tonsils taken out—a slight for which Kayla never forgave him.

She sighs. “Damn. That sucks, Loon. I’m sorry.”

“It is what it is.”

“I wouldn’t dare set you up on another blind date right now because your friendship is too important to me, but…”

“I don’t think that sentence needs a ‘but.’ You can just end it right there.”

“But…” Kayla repeats. “I really think that, now that you’ve put yourself out there again, you should stay out there. I don’t want you to retreat into your little hobbit hole.”

“I may like to snack, but calling me a hobbit is taking it a little far.”

She laughs. “I’m serious. I know a lot of the fish in our particular ocean are misshapen and diseased and like to stick their fish dicks in any hole they can find.”

Yakov bites back a laugh.

“Get to the point, Kay.”

“The point is that there are a lot of duds out there, but if you stick with it, I know you’ll find the right fish for you,” she says. “Someone who is attractive and exciting and kind and all the things you are looking for.”

I have to fight not to look over at Yakov.

Before yesterday morning, he was that guy. I’m a realist, so I knew there was a big chance that things wouldn’t work out. But I had hope. For the first time in two years, I was hopeful that I would find someone.

Now, I’m terrified that I already have.

“If that guy exists, he isn’t moving in the same circles as me. Or I’ve got bad bait,” I say. “All I’m catching out here are old tires and rotten floaters.”

“So there was no spark at all on your date?”

Yakov leans in and snaps his fingers quietly, gesturing for me to hurry up.

“Nope. No spark at all.” I look directly in his eyes. “Actually, the guy was kind of the worst. An unattractive asshole.”

Yakov rolls his eyes as Kayla sighs. “Darn. Well, onward and upward! Maybe we can go out tonight and⁠—”

“I can’t,” I say a bit too quickly.

“Not for men. For drinks. Just the two of us. Sure, if one of us brings a pad of paper and we start listing out all of the qualities you’re looking for in a guy and then one of us takes that paper home and does some searching online, then that would be fine. But it’s just for the two of us.”

I shake my head. “You’re ridiculous. We aren’t doing that. Mostly because you are going to butt out of my dating life and let me handle it. But also because I’m actually… out of town.”

“What? Since when?”

“Since yesterday morning,” I lie. “I got sent on a work trip.”

“For how long? We’re supposed to do game night at Lottie’s house tomorrow night.”

Oh, God, I almost forgot about that. Maybe getting kidnapped is worth being able to miss that.

“I’ll have to miss it this time. That’s okay, though. The numbers are better if I don’t go.”

“No, they’re not! They’re terrible numbers. If you’re not there, then it’s not even worth showing up.”

I snort. “Come on, Kay. You all couple off and I’m always the odd one out. Last time we did this, you all got drunk and wanted to play Twister. Lottie’s boyfriend made me work the spinner.”

It is aggressively unfun to shout out body parts and colors while your friends grope each other.

“Okay. Fair point. But what if you bring a date to the next game night? Then we’d have even numbers and⁠—”

“Never going to happen, Kayla. And game night isn’t gonna happen this week, either. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for. The schedule is… in flux.”

She huffs. “Fine. Do you need me to feed Sir Gregory? I can swing by after work and make sure he isn’t clawing your curtains again.”

Yakov glares at me in a he-better-not-pull-that-shit-here kind of way, but I ignore him. He has more than enough money to replace a few curtains.

“No, it’s okay. I have a neighbor watching him.”

“Hm. Okay. If anything changes, I still have my spare key. I can drop in.”

As much as I want my best friend to figure out what is going on—if only so I have someone to talk to about all of it—I know it’s not a good idea. I want to believe Yakov wouldn’t hurt any of my friends, but I’m not about to trust my gut on that one. I’d rather be safe than sorry.

“Thanks, Kay. I’ll call you when I get back.”

“You better. Drinks!” she announces. “There will be drinks. And queso. And more drinks.”

I laugh for the first time in two days. “It’s a date.”

When I hang up, I’m still smiling. I hate lying to Kayla, but hearing her voice helped a lot.

Then I look up and my smile vanishes. Yakov is staring at me, his eyes dark and searing.

I catch my breath. “What?”

He blinks and, just like that, the look is gone. He’s back to normal.

He snatches my phone out of my hand before I can even try to keep it and drops it in his back pocket.

I take a deep breath, trying to steady my heart rate. Men like Yakov can’t walk around looking at people like that. I feel like I’m going to combust.

“Well? Did my performance please you?” I drawl.

“Your friend bought your story, if that’s what you’re asking.”

I shrug. “What can I say? I’m a good actress.”

To my surprise, Yakov nods. “It was impressive. Except for that one part. I didn’t buy that at all.”

“Which part?”

“That there was no spark on the date.” He walks past me, leaning in to whisper as he does. “I saw right through you.”