Until the End (Volkov Bratva #2)(50)

“Girls?” Lauren sputtered. While she might not have thought he was a relationship type of guy—from the ten minutes she was in his presence—she didn’t think he had multiple women.

Natasha laughed earnestly, noticing Lauren’s surprise. “I work at The Gilded Room.” When Lauren just stared blankly at her, she went on to explain, “It’s a brothel.”

“Oh, I—Mishca doesn’t make you work there, does he?” Would she even tell her if he did?

There were many things she was willing to look past, but this…this wasn’t one of them.

“There is no need for a guilty conscious. We are no longer forced to do anything we don’t want.”

So did that mean she enjoyed having sex for money? Lauren didn’t look down on the girl because of it, it just made her more curious.

If she had any doubts, Natasha did look well taken care of, better than she did at the moment.

“How about I fix you porridge, yes? Then we talk some more.”

By the time Lauren left the kitchen to go back to her bedroom—not wanting to chance another encounter with Lyov—she’d learned that Mishca was as mistrusting of the men here as she was.

He’d chosen to take Luka with him, leaving Vlad to watch over her, a fact she found surprising. Before, she had never seen the two separated, but now that she was here, he was sending his best enforcer to look after her. She couldn’t help but wonder whether or not Vlad resented the new position.

And he was worried about her and Alex being under the same roof.

Lauren didn’t know how Alex would react to her now that Mishca wasn’t here to be a buffer, and for that reason, she stayed scarce over the days she spent at Mishca’s house.

He hadn’t come by once, though she did finally talk to him. He asked the routine questions, but when he asked how she was being treated, she hesitated. Her mind immediately went to Lyov and his unnecessarily grabby behavior.

Despite Natasha’s warnings, and the few Vlad issued when he caught him at it, Lyov continued to harass her, forcing her to stay locked in her room the entirety of her stay. It also didn’t help that she had figured out what he had been calling her and Natasha—casually inquiring one of the guards.

Shlyukha—Whore.

As far as she was concerned, his opinion of her and Natasha didn’t matter, so she put it out of her mind.

It wasn’t so bad, being alone, since she was able to watch her fill of movies on Netflix—Natasha occasionally dropping by—but she didn’t tell Mishca any of this.

With what he had told her, he had so much to deal with and she didn’t want to add to it. Maybe after this was all over would she tell him about it.





Despite their relative proximity to one another, Lauren hadn’t seen Alex since Luka had carried her in, not that she’d had much of a chance. She was also unsure of what she would say on the day they finally saw each other.

Part of her wanted to say, ‘look what your family did to me,’ but the bigger part of her understood that as young as Alex was, she wouldn’t understand why Lauren did what she did, not when it had caused her to break up their family.

It was on this day that instead of waiting for a chance meeting, Lauren went in search of her. Alex wasn’t in the room Luka had dragged her to, nor was she anywhere Lauren could see, at least until she ventured outside, and by chance, looked up at the roof.

How in the hell did she get up there?

She was laying on her back, a cigarette dangling in one hand. She looked relaxed despite the incline, swinging her foot back and forth to a beat only she could hear.

“Alex!” Lauren shouted.

She sat up, looking down at her, shielding her eyes from the sun. Alex could have responded, said anything, but she didn’t. Lauren waited there, trying to see what she would do next, but when Alex didn’t bother to even acknowledge her presence, she ventured back into the house.

She couldn’t force Alex to talk to her, just like Mishca hadn’t forced her. It was what she wanted and until she was ready, Lauren couldn’t force Alex.

Hopefully Mishca would be back soon and she wouldn’t have to stay here much longer, already missing her friends. Now, she liked to think she preferred her limited exposure to the Bratva.

“What did you want?”

Alex was waiting for her in front of her room door, arms folded across her chest as she kept cold green eyes trained on her. It reminded her of the way Mishca could stare people down when he was angry.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry, for everything. It’s no excuse, but I didn’t think about how it would affect you. I was trying to hurt Viktor and Mikhail, but not you.”

Lauren didn’t expect a response, and the one she got was definitely not what she was expecting.

“You seemed okay at first—made my brother happy.” Alex said, looking at the wall. “Then you pulled the rug out from under Mikhail.”

“I—”

“Nope, not done yet. I have every right to be f*cking pissed because I can no longer see my mother—not that she gives a shit anyway—but despite all of this, how shitty I’ve been to you, and what Viktor did to your family, you’re apologizing to me. What’s wrong with you?”

Alex actually paused like she really wanted an answer, but as soon as Lauren opened her mouth to respond, she continued on.