Chapter Thirty One Dragna
Chapter Thirty One
Dragna
“Mama, you’re coming on a bit strong.” I tease my mother over our lunch. Since they swapped phone numbers at dinner my mother has practically adopted Willow as her own daughter.
“I’m coming on strong? You love her and it’s only been a couple of months my boy.”
“Ah, I clearly take after you then.” I smirk at her over my coffee mug.
“She’s a delight Dragna, and her book recommendations are great. Oh and that little shop they work in? It is beautiful, so is her friend! I can’t believe Lev has just let that one go.”
My mother met Alina and instantly wanted Lev to do all he could to win her back.
I think with growing up in the Bratva and only having mostly men for company and boys to raise as her own sons when she got older, she has been dying to have women in her life to mother.
Or smother, depends how you look at it. Thankfully Willow seems to be just as smitten with my mother as she is with her.
“It’s a touchy subject.” I reply sipping my coffee.
“You need to be honest with that girl Dragna, and soon. You’ll only lose her if you don’t.
” She says and she gives me a stern look.
I sigh knowing eventually I will have to tell Willow the truth.
I just hope that by that stage she’ll be so intertwined in my life that nothing would make her walk away.
“Any advice on that?” I ask my mother and she grabs my hand and squeezes.
“You know my relationship with your father wasn’t the best, but I do know genuine love when I see it and I know you and your heart.
You want to keep her safe and that is commendable, so only you will know when the time is right to come clean.
However, the longer you wait and the more she begins to trust you, especially after what she has been through in the past, the harder it will hit her.
” My mother says with worry in her eyes.
“I know mama, I know.” I sigh scrubbing my other hand down my face. My phone rings and I roll my eyes when I see the name on the screen.
“What Marco?” I answer and I look at my mother as she drops my hand then sets her napkin to her lap, smoothing the edges of it clearly uncomfortable with who I am speaking to.
“My daughter. How is she after last night?”
“I’m not your family counsellor. I’m not playing messenger for you.” I grind out to him.
“Dragna.” He sighs
“Please. I know you might not believe me, but I love her. That’s why I did everything I could to protect her all these years. I just want to know she is okay. She’s my daughter and I care about her.”
“Love her? Care about her? You’re in the skin trade. How can you love your daughter while selling someone else’s to the highest bidder?” I practically growl down the phone.
“We have no dealings in that, I’ve told you countless times.”
“And I’ve told you countless times, I don’t believe you. Is this all you were calling about?”
He clears his throat and I already know it’s not all he was calling for.
“I wanted to ask for a bigger shipment. The Irish up north want more.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale deeply.
“Anything more than we’re already giving you could end up causing trouble Marco. Why do the Irish want more? What are they planning exactly?” I ask and I hear Marco taking a drink of something before sighing again.
“I don’t know, but they are willing to pay big money. More than double for the extra arms at short notice.”
It’s suspicious as fuck. It’s good having the Irish in our pockets, but I don’t trust them.
“It’s too risky Marco, no. Now I’m going back to my lunch.” I hang up and place my phone back on the table.
“So like your grandfather.” My mother mutters.
“Well he did help raise me.” I say, picking up my coffee mug and finishing it off.
“And I clearly still ended up with your heart mama.” I smirk at her.
“Just be careful my boy, you know I don’t trust Marco. I never have.” She says as she glances around her.
With my father being killed while he was Marco’s Capo and then the aftermath of that, my mother has never settled. She always worries that something is going to go wrong despite the slight truce formed between our families now.
“I will, don’t worry.”
My phone lights up again and I see Willows name appear as a couple of texts begin coming through.?
“What’s this about a book and chilli peppers? Willow’s asking if you liked the book Alina recommended.”
My mother almost spits her drink out and her eyes go wide before she starts laughing like a crazy woman.
“That girl… She has a good sense of humour Dragna. You need to marry her before she’s snatched up from you.” She smirks knowing that will get a reaction from me.
“Like hell anyone is taking her from me.” I say as I ball my hand into a fist and my mother’s hand comes to wrap over mine, soothing me.
“She isn’t from this world mama. I can’t just ask her to marry me when she has no clue who I really am and after only a couple months of knowing her.”
“Son, you can’t tell me it isn’t a sign the first woman you have ever fallen for is as sweet and as lovely as she is, and her name is Willow for goodness sake.
She has resurrected you. She will protect and love you.
Tell her the truth my boy, I don’t think she will run. If it’s meant to be, it will be.”
I mull over the words from my mother.
Willow Tree’s are a huge part of our Russian and Serbian culture. My mother would tell me so many folklore stories of the Willow Tree and what it represents to us when I was growing up and the more my mother’s words sink in, the more I think she’s right.
I have felt resurrected since meeting Willow.
She’s kick started my heart, made me feel things I didn’t know I would ever feel.
Even my fucking dogs who have turned out to be anything but guard dogs around her are like putty in her hands.
But if I tell her the truth about my life and she runs…
I don’t even want to think about the possibility of how insane I’d become.
I’d be no better than the fucking stalker she has that we still have no information on.
I thought it would be the guy my men picked up from the cafe weeks ago. Turns out he was just an ex who was so scared shitless of Mikhail and Ivan, he burst into tears when they had him in the warehouse before they even asked him a single question.
They checked his ID with Nikolai and everything came back clean.
He’s a preppy kid who relies on daddy’s money who has never had a hard day in his life.
A fucking wimp, so they let him go. They did give him a slight beating though for his admission about cheating on Willow and wanting to try and win her back.
It’s irking me that we still have no clue who the fuck was, or possibly still is stalking my girl.
Not to mention the call Marco got about Alina in the club last night didn’t come from Lev which I found out after we had a long talk this morning.
It didn’t come from any of my men, so someone is watching us and I don’t fucking like it.
“I’m going for dinner tonight at her apartment, her parents will be there. I’ll tell her soon.” I finally respond to my mother and I stand, taking her hand and helping her out of her chair.
“Let me know how it goes meeting her parents.” She says before I lean down to kiss her head goodbye.
“I will mama.”
———————————————————
“Oh, it’s you.” Alina greets me at the door of their apartment and steps aside to let me in.
“Good to see you too Alina. Hope the hangover isn’t too bad.” I say sarcastically as she rolls her eyes at me.
“I’m telling her soon by the way.” I say and my words stop Alina mid closing the door behind me.
“When?”
“Not tonight, not this week. I have things I need to ensure are in place before telling her for her own protection.”
“Like what?” She raises an eyebrow at me and places her hands on her hips.
I scoff at her question.
“Just because you’re aware of our world doesn’t mean you can demand to know my business Alina.”
“When it comes to Willow it sure as fuck does.” She raises her voice a little and I grind my teeth debating actually telling her. Blyat’.
“Fine. There are some people I’m suspicious of who want more from us and I’m not willing to give them more. I don’t want them sniffing around and finding out about Willow and potentially use her against me.”
That’s all she’s getting. She doesn’t need to know I’m worried about why the Irish want more weapons, or what they’ll do when Marco tells them they won’t be getting a bigger shipment from us.
“I need whatever retaliation happens from them to blow over before bringing her into this world.” I finish telling her and she looks me up and down.
A few seconds pass before she decides what I’ve given her is enough and nods. She brushes past me and inhales sharply, pausing at the foot of the stairs.
“Were you with Lev?” She asks while looking down at the ground.
“Yeah, I just left him at my house, how did you know?”
She stands there silent for a few seconds.
“I can smell him on you.” She says quietly before making her way up the stairs.
I scrub my hands down my face. I’m going to kill him.
That’s why he offered his cologne for me to wear tonight.
‘This one is better for a nice meal in the house moy brat’ is what he said to me before dousing me in whatever the hell he uses.
He’s basically sent me here covered in his scent as a reminder of himself for Alina.
As if I wasn’t already nervous enough to meet Willows parents, now I have Alina hating me even more than she already does all while in their company for the first time.