Page 41 of Bratva Holiday

“Three…”

I was almost there.

“Two…”

I hefted the bucket up onto my shoulder.

“One…”

I dumped the water in.

“Time!”

The bucket slipped from my hands, and I blew out a tired, exhausted breath, leaning up against the tub.

Jesus. Fuck.

My entire body ached, every part of me protesting at the slightest bit of movement. Even pulling air into my lungs fucking hurt.

Still trying to catch my breath, I stood upright, plopping my hands on top of my head as I turned around. Everyone else was in the same boat. Lukyan was hunched over at the waist, hands on his bent knees, panting heavily. Aleksandr and Nikolai were on their backs, chests rising and falling rapidly. Tati, Drea, and Lyla were trying to catch their breath, same as me. And Father and Autumn were taking huge gulps of water from their buckets.

If I was being honest, it made me feel a little better. I wasn’t as out of shape as I had feared. It had been a tough game for the whole family.

Arturo walked over to me, drenched in sweat, the shirt on his back clinging to his skin in all the right places. He swooped me up in his arms and kissed me with a passion that set every inch of me on fire.

I laughed against his lips, my legs tightly wrapping around his torso.

“Do you think we won?” I asked, breathless, my heart pounding.

Arturo smiled. “No one can beat you, baby.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Aleksandr Volkov

“Those cheating motherfuckers.” I growled, glaring at the scoreboard. “Those no-good, rotten, cheating, bitch-ass motherfuckers.”

My enraged glare swung to Nikolai, Lukyan, and Illayana, sitting together in a cluster, high-fiving each other for a job well done as Sam and her team patched them up from their injuries.

Never in my wildest imaginations did I ever think those idiots would pair up together to take Drea and me out of the running for this game. They’d never done it before, which was probably why I never expected such a tactic. They were really determined not to let me win this one, and that just made me all the more determined to fucking win it.

Drea’s soft and soothing touch calmed me down almost instantly, her hand running up and down my back in a comforting gesture. I let out a long exhale.

“Still feeling crabby?” she asked, voice light.

“I’m not crabby.” I immediately denied it.

She gave me nothing but a look, brows slightly raised.

“Okay, I’m a little crabby. Those jackasses teamed up on me.”

Drea chuckled softly. “They’re tenacious. I’ll give ’em that.”

“They’re cheaters.”

She laughed again, and the sound was like music to my ears. “I’ll admit, I’m new to this, but I don’t think teaming up is against the rules.”

“Well, it should be.” I grumbled.