Page 41 of The Bratva's Innocent Forbidden Bride
Underneath the anger that radiated off of her, there was something else that made me look away while I warred with myself over what to do. I could hardly stand the yearning and hope in her eyes.
I would have given her anything I had, everything I was capable of, to fulfill all her hopes and wishes.
Even if that meant handing over her father and letting them both walk away once this was all over? That question was tearing me apart.
I would have also given anything if Grigor was innocent, or if she had nothing to do with his perfidy, if he wasn’t. Did she think I wanted my oldest friend, who was as much a brother to me as my actual brothers, to have betrayed me? She’d end up destroying herself before she ever admitted her father was in the wrong.
I would have killed to have her loyalty… and so much more.
Damn it, my emotions were going to get me murdered. According to my family, I had always been reckless, but in truth, I only jumped into something when I was completely sure it would work out in my favor, no matter what mayhem ensued on the way to that end. I was normally always right and a good judge of character.
Now I wasn’t so sure. Was I leading myself to believe something only because I wanted Tati so badly?
“Fine,” I said, making a split-second decision and praying I was right. “You can be in on our discussion.”
She gave me a long look, finally reaching toward the mess of photos and finding the right one. “This is him. I wish I could remember his name.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” CJ said, practically bouncing with excitement to have something to feed into her tracking program. She grabbed up her pictures, keeping the most important one on top, and stuffed them back into her bag. “I hope you don’t mind if I take off?”
“Go,” I said. “We’ll be here.”
I had already promised Mat that I’d stay in LA as long as I was needed, even after my own objective of finding Grigor was met. I had to spill the real reason why Tati was staying with me, including my rash decision to snatch her off the street. He had sworn he wouldn’t tell anyone else in the family, after he stopped laughing his fool head off.
When CJ was gone, Tati was bursting at the seams.
“What’s next?” she asked, and there was that damn hope again that I couldn’t do anything about. “What can I do to help?”
“You’ve already done the most important thing. And please don’t pout, but all we can keep doing right now is wait until CJ can find your guy.”
She bristled. “I don’t pout. And he’s not my guy. I’ll kill him myself if you let me.”
I would have heartily disputed her claim of never pouting, but her following declaration had me bursting out with laughter.I reined it in and held up my hand when she did the exact thing she claimed never happened.
“Stick this back in,” I said, unable to keep from reaching out and stroking her bottom lip with my thumb. “If we find the guy and get what we need, I’ll let you pull the trigger.”
She had to laugh and placed her hand over mine, which I had laid alongside her cheek. “I’m starving,” she said. “I couldn’t eat lunch, but now I feel like I could devour a horse.”
I already had my phone out the moment she mentioned her hunger. “I don’t think I can get a horse delivered,” I said. “But how about some Mexican food? I’ve discovered that I can’t get enough of it since I’ve been here.”
“Sounds great,” she said. “Do you think this might really help us?”
Us. I liked the sound of it too much. “It’s something,” I said. “More than we had yesterday.”
I didn’t want to talk about her missing father, which would only start a fight eventually, or work, which I’d been trying to keep up with in the midst of these family problems, or the late-night stakeouts that led to nothing and kept me from sharing a bed with her. I wanted to talk about tacos.
I held out my phone, and she stood close, looking over the online menu. Her soft hair fell across her cheek, and she absently brushed it away, sending a hint of apple fragrance wafting up to me. I breathed her in, leaning closer to feel her body heat meld with mine.
Once the order was placed, I found some mariachi music and hooked my phone up to the speakers in the living area, shoving the leather chairs out of the way and holding out my hand.
“Maybe we can go to Mexico one day,” she said, frowning for a moment as if she’d made a mistake. “Have you ever been?”
“Only once. It’s beautiful along the coast.” I stopped before I promised to take her, before I stopped dancing and booked the flight.
The food came much too quickly; my hunger redirected when she was dancing in my arms. Instead of eating in the kitchen, we set up a picnic on the coffee table, sitting across from one another on the floor. Her eyes watered at a bite of spicy pepper, but she refused to let me pick them out of the salsa for her, claiming she wasn’t weak.
The salsa nearly burned my esophagus out, and I had to run to the refrigerator to chug some milk. “No more of that for me. I surrender.”
She grinned smugly, loading up a chip with an alarming amount of the deadly mix. “I quite like it now. You’re right, this food is amazing.”
