Bratva Dark Allegiance: The Complete Collection

by Raven Scott

  “Yeah. Definitely.” Lowering my head into my palm, I could still see that ugly flag flying behind my eyelids. Groaning softly, a frown twisted my lips even as Darren rubbed my back soothingly. “This is awful.”

  “You know, there’s such a thing as too much freedom.”

  Tilting my head as Carlyle sidled up next to us, snow cone in hand, my frown deepened.

  He smirked at me, shaving off the side of his blue colored ice to rock back on his heels. “The swastika predates the Nazis as a symbol of peace and the constant advancement of humans. You can find them in India and Asia on temples. It’s only ever seen as a hate symbol, though.”

  “...How...?” Shaking my head, I huffed a little as Carlyle’s smirk widened. “Either way, it’s still embarrassing. Other places have gangs and cartels, and you, but Portland has white supremacists. It’s so embarrassing.”

  “It’s fine to flatten the curve, but racism will never go away, Delilah. It’s nice to think of equality and how far we’ve come from having slaves and imperialism, but realistically, there’s always reasons to hate someone else because of how they look.”

  “We get it. You can judge anyone on anything.” Tightening his arm around me, Darren cleared his throat roughly. “I said yesterday I do not believe you’re a reflection of where you grew up, baby.”

  I bristled. My face grew hot, and my heart pounded hard while the urge to swat Carlyle’s stupid snow cone out of his hand slithered down my arm. “Yeah, I know that.” Grumbling unhappily, my frown morphed into a scowl when I looked back up at the flagpole. “All I want is to have a good time.”

  “You should. Things are going to get really interesting soon, I think. A lot of threads are finally being snipped.” Turning to me, Carlyle shaved off some of his snow cone as an ominous, short silence settled on my shoulders. “With the Russians setting up operations in Brighton Beach, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they overstep, so I can obliterate them.”

  “That’s why you’re letting them in? So you can have a reason to destroy them?”

  He seemed surprised at Darren’s probing, arching his brows as a dumb expression slackened his features. “Of course. Why else would I let them in? I have a hand in everything, and I’ve been watching them for almost 7 years while they desperately try to shore up their base. Thing is...they’re close to succeeding in stabilizing the economy for the first time...Jesus...in almost 30 years. That’s not good for me. Makovich probably has his suspicions, but the reward outweighs the risk for him. Unless, of course, his lackies start getting confident with their newfound distance.”

  I had a feeling that was exactly what Carlyle was banking on happening.

  He simply shrugged. “We’ll talk about business another time, Darren.”

  “Yeah. We were just going to walk around for a while and see all the setups.”

  Really, I just wanted to get away from Carlyle. We’d all driven to the fairgrounds in a Lyft van, and to say it was awkward was an understatement. Riley would not stop staring at the bruises budding on my neck from this morning, and Reece and Darren spoke Russian during the ride. I didn’t know what they were saying, but I assumed it had to do with how to act in public.

  “Well, the food stands are up, so have some fun. Don’t eat yourself into a coma, Darren…I’m going to need you tomorrow.”

  Biting my bottom lip as Carlyle wandered off back towards the snow cone stand where his wife had just gotten hers. Watching him go, I couldn’t help but wonder what she saw in him. I’d never met anyone so completely wrapped in his own perceived infallibility.

  “I hope I won’t be expected to do this again...but Makovich isn’t the kind of man to easily drop a grudge.”

  Frowning at that, I shuffled closer to Darren.

  He sighed and shook his head. “I hope I can simply disappear with you into obscurity.”

  Butterflies fluttered in my chest at his murmur, and Darren dropped a kiss on my crown. Slowly turning to stroll down the sidewalk towards the grounds entrance. None of the games or rides were set up yet, but the food stalls already had lines wrapped around them. The setup of the fairs was almost as exciting as when they were open, and I pointed at one in particular as nostalgia gripped my sternum. “That stall makes the best fries. They use bacon and duck fat and put cheese on it.” My mouth watered just thinking about it, and I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth when it became obvious Darren wasn’t paying attention. “Darren?”

  “I’m listening, baby...” He couldn’t sound less convincing.

  I stopped walking to face him fully. Frowning under arched brow, I watched him tear his eyes off whatever he was glaring at to sheepishly swipe back his hair. “I am listening, Delilah. It’s just…those guys from yesterday are over there.”

  My eyes narrowed on Darren when he stopped himself from looking over again, and I crossed my arms over my chest. It physically agitated him not to stomp over and get in the guy’s face, but Reece was right. Darren needed to reign it in unless he wanted to get deported. Carlyle’s fake identities were almost perfect, but Darren was still on a real employment based green card.

  “Alright! Alright. Ty ne mozhesh' smotret' na menya tak!”

  Goosebumps washed down my body as Darren threw his arms around me, wobbling back and forth while he practically growled in my ears. His warmth seeped through my clothes, and a smile tilted my lips when he squeezed the air from my lungs.

  “You are so beautiful even when you’re mad.”

  “That’s not what you said,” I accused.

  Darren rocked back on his heels to shoot me a surprised look.

  A little giggle escaped me. “You did not call me beautiful…I know those all those words aren’t the right ones.”

  “...Okay. How about this? Ty vyydesh’ za menya zamuzh?”

  Blinking fast as I mouthed the words, I rubbed my cheeks with my palms. I could feel it buzzing right on the tip of my tongue, and faint frustration invaded my veins. For five years, I had basically wallowed in my own misery. Why didn’t I use that time to learn Russian?

  Dangit. I knew some stuff, of course. ‘Menya’ meant ‘me’. ‘Vy’ meant ‘you’.

  ...That was it.

  “D-did...”

  Darren’s eyes were slits, laser focused on me with an intensity that bordered on glaring.

  My mouth dried, and smoke would’ve poured out of my ears at how awfully my brain came to a screeching halt. “Did you just ask me to marry you?” I couldn’t for the life of me pinpoint where that assumption came from.

  Darren tensed and sucked in a sharp breath. Surprise slackened his strong features.

  I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my frown. My heart made a bid to rip from my chest while he sort of squared up and took the hit, nodding curtly with regret shadowing his eyes. “...No.”

  A pain shot through my chest when Darren’s face closed like a heavy book, but he only nodded again. Sluggishly forcing my knees to bend, I turned around to walk towards the fry stall. Invisible lead latched onto my ankles and wrists while the fine hairs on my back prickled under his intense gaze.

  Shit. Shit. Why’d Darren have to go and say something like that? I mean, I didn’t understand it, and if he didn’t stare at me like he did, I wouldn’t have thought up what I did.

  But the fact that he asked that knowing I would say ‘no’, that I wanted to take my time.

  Why is this so hard? Why couldn’t we just find that sweet spot? Why did things have to drag on? Why were we trying so hard and getting nowhere?

  Why, why, why? Why do I feel like I started fucking up on everything between Darren landing in America and now?

  22

  Darren

  “Delilah, I’m heading out, now.”

  She did that thing ‒ that horrible, wretched, disgusting thing ‒ where she turned her back on me and curled up with the sheet over her head.

  Ugliness spread through my veins and soured my tongue, as I inhaled a shallow, stabilizing
breath before leaving the hotel room. She hadn’t said much to me since the day before, and I shut the door to frown at the gleaming handle under bleary vision.

  “Trouble in paradise?”

  Glaring at Reece as he leaned on the wall just outside my narrowed field, my lip curled.

  He held up a hand in mock surrender. “I give pretty okay advice sometimes, you know.”

  “I don’t need your advice,” I practically spit the words out.

  Reece frowned at me as I seethed.

  All I could see was Delilah’s back, her green hair poking out from under the beige sheet. My palms itched, as I clenched and flexed my fingers by my sides as fire licked up my lungs. “Don’t impart some bit of wisdom on me. You don’t know what’s going on.”

  “I was just gonna suggest explaining your decisions, not just making them.” Turning on his heel, Reece wandered down the hall, his shoulders relaxed, his stride leisurely.

  Pursing my lips thinly, I ground my teeth.

  Reece paused to glance back at me flippantly. “By the way, you should take your peace as it comes, Darren. Things never stay like this for long. It might not be the brand of danger you’re used to, but it’s just as life-threatening. You’ve already pissed off the local skin heads. Don’t want to piss off the Russians, either, right?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” My eyelid twitched in irritation when Reece shrugged carelessly, and I walked up to him before he continued to the stairs. “What brand of danger?”

  “You’re used to having someone point an RPG at your head. Did you wonder why there’s only one guy, who doesn’t even have a hand… protecting us?”

  Shaking my head, my troubled thoughts built between my brows as I raked my brain. Carlyle had muscle, that was a given, but I honestly couldn’t remember who it was.

  Reece answered his own query, “Because in business, everything happens behind the curtain. You don’t make a deal without knowing the outcome. You can’t kill someone with a simple bullet between the eyes. Considering how far Aleksander Makovich went to try to kill you only to fail, you understand it’s not that easy.”

  “I do...” Pulling open the door to the stairwell, I gestured Reece through as my agreement rolled off my tongue sluggishly, “The Bratva works different. Aleksander isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He worked his way up from the bottom and wants everyone to know what he’s capable of.”

  “The Bratva...” Sharp disgust dribbled from Reece’s teeth like acid.

  I paused when he took the landing to turn to me. His eyes flashed with pure hatred, and my brows twitched as curiosity ran rampant.

  Even angry, he didn’t seem all that threatening and that was why he was so dangerous. Reece stared at me. “Carlyle may not like to personally stick his hands in a bucket of the stuff, but his blood is the same. Don’t think that because we have different methods, Carlyle isn’t as brutally efficient a boss. Listen, Darren, you’re never going to get out of his grip. Your book is more valuable, but that doesn’t make you valueless. I’ve heard a lot about you, but since meeting you...I’m very disappointed.”

  “Good.” Bitterness tightened my skin against my skull. “There’s plenty of me I want to leave in the Middle East.”

  Reece outright frowned at me in distaste. “...You’re fucking stupid if you think that’ll work. Even more stupid than I already thought you were.” Reece reached to rub his jaw and over his mouth roughly. “You know what…I’m not gonna bother. You wanna lie and cheat your way through your woman and your job, that’s fine. It’ll come back to haunt you, Darren. And, like a teenager, apparently you need to learn that lesson when she leaves you for being a sniveling pussy.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck bristled and I was running out of words to describe how utterly fucking disgusted with me Reece seemed to be as he turned on his heel and jostled down the concrete stairs.

  Glaring at the place he’d just been standing, I clenched my hands into tight fists. My nails dug into my palms as red saturated the edges of my vision for a brief flash of a moment.

  It’s not like he’s wrong. Who was I if not the culmination of my past experiences? Trying these past few weeks to be someone I thought Delilah deserved...frankly, it hadn’t worked out for me well. “Fuck.” My hoarse slur echoed off the concrete, and I started down the stairs to catch up to Reece. Raking my hands through my hair, the tension in me just recycled itself and balled between my shoulder blades. I could worry about my relationship with Delilah later, though. I cleared my throat roughly. “What’s this meeting about?”

  “It’s a ‘team building’ exercise. I don’t know what we’re doing.”

  His answer only soured my already bad mood, as we exited the stairwell on the ground floor to find Carlyle and who I assumed was Theo already waiting for us. He really does only have one usable hand. Why would Carlyle accept that?

  Then as we came closer, I realized they were both dressed in cargo shorts and light t-shirts. Both men had boots on. We’re all wearing exactly the same thing. My gaze flickered to Reece, and a tickle of amusement twitched my cheek at how annoyed he looked.

  “We’re gonna be doing something that requires coordinated outfits? Seriously?” Reece scoffed.

  Carlyle nodded, a huge, shit-eating grin stretching his lips.

  Reece scoffed lightly. “I’d literally rather die.”

  “You don’t even know what we’re doing. It’ll be fun! What’s got you in such a horrible mood, Reece?” Obviously, Carlyle expected an answer, arching a brow quizzically.

  The way he talked was so grating and I glanced at Reece.

  He inhaled deeply and held his breath. Expectation thickened the atmosphere until he gusted a sigh, reaching to rub his face with both his palms. “Riley’s mother committed suicide last night. Her father called her and broke the news. As much as I hate that bitch, I’m so pissed she offed herself. I’m not surprised, either. She copped out of the divorce, caused a bunch of problems for everyone, and left a note that apparently said she was a good mom and couldn’t stand the shame of everyone hating her anymore or some shit to that effect. I mean, her dad’s scum, but at least he acknowledges it. Credit where credit is due.”

  “Oh...You’re just mad you couldn’t kill her yourself. I thought we already had this conversation, Reece.” Carlyle shook his head, clapping his palms together, the sound echoed through the near empty lobby. “Anyway, that’ll make this all the more fun.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say anything was fun.” Theo’s gruff voice saturated with amusement.

  I resigned myself to just following their lead.

  Carlyle’s grin widened, and true amusement sparkled in his brown eyes when they met mine. “I know we’ve all had trouble lately, adjusting to the fact that I’ve allowed the Russians back, so I thought we could all get to know each other by playing a game we all know how to play, regardless of background or origin.”

  The fuck does that mean?

  Just as he spoke up, the elevator pinged shrilly, the doors sliding open out of the corner of my eye.

  Three men and a woman I vaguely recognized stepped out, but goosebumps blanketed under my clothes as their conversation in Russian floated through the lobby.

  Igra...Rosetta...I didn’t remember who the other two were, but it didn’t matter when four pairs of eyes found my form.

  All of a sudden, I was transported back to Russia, to Aleksander’s gaudy, ugly mansion, and all my emotions just...vanished. My chest emptied of all its crowded thickness, the thrumming between my shoulders dying down to nothing.

  For the first time since coming to America, I didn’t feel like a ball of nerves, like I had to be so careful not to step out of line. That I had to watch what I said and what I did. My lip curled up in a sneer.

  Igra scoffed lightly, stopping before us to give me a nasty once-over before turning to Carlyle. “Thank you for inviting us.”

  If I’d known Igra was coming, I wouldn’t have agreed
to this shit. I fucking hated him. Why? Because he stole my girlfriend in secondary school.

  “You’re welcome. I know we all have some bonding to do, getting rid of bad blood and all...I thought what’s a better way to do that than paintball?”

  Almost instantly the air shifted palpably as Carlyle’s question flooded my ears with an intense ringing. Paintball.

  “We get to shoot each other without killing each other.” Carlyle shrugged. “At the very least. I was thinking on it, and this is our chance to settle things that are best left in the past.”

  23

  Delilah

  Staring deep into the donut shop I’d found off a main boulevard close to the hotel, I rubbed my cheek absently with the backs of my fingers. My eyes ached and watered, and the same thought circled around in my head to dig ruts into my brain.

  What the Hell happened between when Darren and I met and now?

  A soft clearing of a throat tore my attention off the goodies behind the glass, and I twisted to find my dad standing on the sidewalk.

  He looked good, the lines on his face a little deeper, but there was a clarity in his eyes and a straightness in his shoulders.

  “Hi, Dad. Thanks for meeting me here.”

  His smile was bright and happy, genuinely happy.

  My chest tightened as he sidled up next to me. “Are you doing okay? After the other night...”

  “I wanted a reason to kick your brother out, Delilah. Being a loser wasn’t good enough for your mother. Thankfully, she agrees and knowing that, put us on the same page.”

  Ducking my head in a nod, I leaned to bump my shoulder with his.

  My dad wrapped his arm around me to squeeze tightly. “How about you? How’s your corporate exercise going?”

  “They’re doing a department war paintball thing. Darren texted me. I’m glad I decided not to go.” The lie slipped thoughtlessly from my lips, and I rested my cheek on my dad’s shoulder to take a deep breath. He smelled the same as he did years ago, the last time I saw him, and I closed my eyes briefly. “I didn’t think transitioning from a long-distance relationship to a regular relationship would be so hard.”