Read Online The Jersey Vignettes by Bethany-Kris - Free Book Online Page B

talked about for all those years when it came to Ana and her own father.
    “You’re spoiling her,” Ana said.
    Koldan grinned, tossing his daughter high again. “She’s my pretty little princess, Ana.”
    Ana sighed.
    “Of course, I’m going to spoil her,” Koldan added. “No one, besides her mother, is as perfect as her. Leave me be, Ana. Let me spoil her.”
    “Fine,” Ana whispered, still smiling.
    “No more, though,” Koldan said, giving Ana a look from the side.
    “Huh?”
    “Children. I think we’ve filled the house more than enough, don’t you?”
    Ana shrugged. “You didn’t know it, but three was my limit, Koldan.”
    Koldan chuckled. “Mine, too. But after this little one ...”
    “She’s perfect,” Ana murmured.
    “She is.”
    Ana listened for any noise coming from her sons’ rooms upstairs. It was silent. She’d laid them down an hour before, but sometimes Adrik and Daniil would sneak out of their respective rooms and play in the hallway for an hour before Koldan had to go up and put them down for bed again.
    “Boys are quiet,” Ana noted.
    Koldan smiled. “They are. I wonder what hell they got into that we didn’t hear.”
    Koldan’s statement was probably truer than either of them wanted to admit. Ana was still struggling in some ways to see her sons as the little Bratva princes that everyone else called them. They followed their father around constantly. Koldan didn’t hide things from them. Lessons about family and loyalty and honor had become commonplace and Ana knew when Koldan talked about those things, it was more than just their family.
    It was the Bratva family, too.
    But she loved her boys. She loved them entirely, so she let them be. They would grow up to be whatever they wanted to be, and she could love them just the same as she did now.
    “By the way,” Koldan said, grinning as he avoided Sasha’s bubbly, spit kisses.
    “What’s that?” Ana asked.
    “I’m going to have your bulls sticking a little closer than normal, all right? They’ll be visible, but they won’t approach you unless something comes up and they need to.”
    “Why?”
    Koldan shifted on his feet and sat Sasha to the carpeted floor. Instantly, the girl made grabby motions to her father to be picked back up again, but Koldan turned to Ana.
    “What’s going on, Koldan?” Ana asked.
    “We just had a run in with a rival gang a couple of weeks ago. It’s nothing too bad, but a couple of the crews retaliated. I just want to be safe, Ana, that’s all.”
    Ana frowned. Koldan had taken his father’s spot over the last couple of months. The transition had been easy for Koldan’s men, as far as Ana understood, but it seemed like the issues outside of the Bratva piled on higher at the worst possible time.
    “What about the boys? School and pre-school, Koldan.”
    “They have bulls that watch them, Ana.”
    “I know that, but they’re not inside the schools, Koldan.”
    Koldan conceded to her point. “They’re as close as they can be without breaking trespassing laws. The boys are in private, well-guarded schools. I’m more concerned about you. From now on, you need to be sure your bulls know where you’re going every single time you make a step.”
    “Fine,” Ana said quietly.
    “I know you don’t like this.”
    Ana smiled sadly. “I like that you take care of us.”
    Koldan chuckled deeply. “That I do.”
    “I’ll take Sasha up to bed. Meet me in the bedroom in five?” Ana asked, winking.
    “Absolutely.”
    Ana had just rounded the top of the stairs as the sound of glass breaking stopped her in her tracks. Fear crawled up her spine and lodged in her throat when she heard Koldan shout. Another loud bang followed, like someone was thrown against wood.
    Or like someone had hit their front door.
    Ana turned with her six-month-old baby girl in just enough time to see Koldan hit the bottom of the stairs. He didn’t take his eyes off Ana’s frozen form for a second.
    “Safe