Page 29 of Dance of Defiance

“I’ll do my best,” I shrug. “Hey—what are you doing tonight? What do you say to chilling here at my glamorous new digs, ordering pizza, popping some bubbles and watching dumb movies?” I smirk. “Provided BDE doesn’t get all alpha possessive about it, of course.”

Brooklyn blushes deeply. “Can wepleasejust call him ‘Kir’?”

Before they became a thing, “BDE” was Brooklyn's and my codename for Kir—AKA, Big Dick Energy.

I mean, if the man could bottle his vibe and sell it, he’d be evenmoreof a gazillionaire.

“Why?” I grin. “Does me mentioning your older boyfriend’s huge dick make you uncomfortable?”

She groans, flushing redder. “How about we just letmethink about Kir’s dick?”

I sigh. “If you insist.”

“I do. And for the record, Kir would be totally fine with me hanging for pizza, bubbles, and movies.”

I frown. “This better not be some fucking queer-equals-feminine bullshit.”

She rolls her eyes. “No, it’s some ‘Kir and I are completely secure in our relationship and trust either other implicitly’ bullshit, if you must know.”

She sighs and punches me in the chest playfully when I close my eyes and fake a dramatic snore.

“Laugh away,asshat,” she grins. “Maybe you’d know what I meant if you were capable of having a relationship that lasted longer than two hours.”

I have my fucking reasons.

But she doesn’t, and doesn’t need to, know that.

“Hey, I have had severalextremelylong-term relationships,” I say with mock indignation. “Some even lasteddays.”

Brooklyn giggles and shakes her head. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Don’t make me return you.”

We both laugh. That’s our inside “foster kid” joke.

“Anyway, I’d love to hang out tonight, but I can’t. Kir and I have a thing.”

I smirk. “Another fundraising gala for elephants?”

She grins and flips me off again. “That was last week. No, it’s a fancy ball Evie’s dad is throwing. I guess like a pre-engagement celebration for Roman?”

The smile evaporates from my face.

“What?”

Brooklyn frowns. “Don’t you remember? Roman’s marrying some Bratva princess to secure a mafia alliance thing.” She shrugs. “I dunno. Those arranged marriages seem batshit crazy to me. But I doubt Roman cares. I mean she’s gorgeous, and the girl has arackon her.”

A vicious, violent, and snarling sensation that I don’t quite understand and definitely never saw coming steamrolls through me.

What. The.Fuck.

I’ve had enough questions since that night in the woods. Like why Roman was cosplaying as a chick on the Club Venom app. And why, once we actually met, he went all psycho and started screaming about being hetero, when he was hard enough to burst.

But this is a brand-fucking-new one.

Somehow, in the whirlwind of figuring out my relationship with my brother, moving house, and the daily chaos of ballet, Idid,in fact, forget Evelina saying that her grouchy-hot older brother was getting engaged to some Bratva chick.

But the big question isn’t “why did I forget about that”.