Sinister Promise – Ivanov Crime Family Read Online Zoe Blake

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Crime, Dark, Mafia Tags Authors: Zoe Blake Advertisement

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Selecting an eye-catching teal yarn, I held it up for their inspection. "What do you think about this one?"

Gregor shook his head. "That's acrylic."

My brow furrowed as I looked at the yarn in my hand and back at him. "So?"

"You only use acrylic for the baby shit." He gestured to the store manager who was hovering at the end of the aisle staring at us. "Back me up on this."

The woman's eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. After trying to form a response, she shook her head and ran off.

Gregor frowned. "Trust me. I'm right."

Damien nodded. "He is. You want to use the good stuff," he offered as he picked up a soft gray yarn. "This is wool. It's better."

I snatched the yarn from his hand and stared at the lion on the label. "How do you two know so much about this?"

Gregor shrugged, his massive frame dwarfing the display. "I'm a dad. You learn this shit fast."

Damien pointed to his chest. "When you're married to a designer you learn to pay attention to this crap if you want to get laid."

I nodded sagely as I grabbed a few yarn packages. "How many do you think we need?"

Damien held up his cellphone. "We could call Boris in Chicago. He knits."

"Oh, good idea."

Gregor shook his head. "Just get them all. She can always make matching armchair covers with anything leftover."

Damien intervened. "Wait. You can't just get all gray."

"Why not?"

"The blanket will be boring if it's all one color."

I tapped my temple then pointed at him. "Good point. The scarf Alina is knitting for me has at least four colors."

Gregor gave me a knowing look.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He lifted one shoulder. "Nothing. I just remember a couple of cocky assholes arriving in America a few months ago spewing bullshit about how me and my crew had gotten soft and lost our edge and now…" He swept his arms wide. "We're in a fucking JoAnn Fabrics."

He wasn't wrong.

It was startling how dramatically my brothers’ and my lives had been changed since arriving in America. It was hard to believe that all three of us were happily married to three amazingly beautiful, intelligent, and strong women.

Gregor had every right to take every derogatory thing we'd said about his domestic bliss and shove it right up our asses.

But that didn't mean I had to admit it to him.

I flipped him the bird. "You don't need to tell me you all were a terrible influence."

He slapped me on the shoulder. "You're welcome."

Damien held up one of the gray skeins against a pale purple yarn. "What do you think of the heather gray with the lavender?"

I nodded. "I think that works. How much do we need?"

"How big is the blanket?"

"Don't know."

"We should just buy it all just in case."

"Good idea," I said as I turned to search for a cart.

Walking to the end of the aisle I spied an empty cart next to a woman looking at wooden birdhouses. "Are you using this?"

The woman backed away as she stammered while hugging her purse to her chest. "Um…n-no…take it."

Ignoring her reaction, I smiled. "Thank you."

Rolling the metal cart back to the yarn aisle, we piled all the available gray and purple yarn into it.

As we headed back toward the cashiers, we passed the paint aisle.

Gregor turned. "Is that buy one get one free on canvases? I should get a few for Samara."

Damien pointed to a few aisles down. "While you're doing that, I'm going to grab Yelena some sketch pads and pencils, she mentioned at breakfast she was running low."

As Gregor headed down the paint canvas aisle, he tossed over his shoulder, "We should call Mikhail and ask if Nadia needs anything."

I pulled out my cellphone. "On it."

An hour later, we rolled three cartloads up to the cashier. As the employee checked us out, another woman in line cleared her throat.

We all turned.

She blinked and backed up a step. After visibly swallowing, she pointed at our cart. "That is a chunky yarn. You'll…you'll want to make sure you have 7 or 8mm needles for it. The regular ones will be too small."

We all exchanged a look.

I shrugged. "I have no idea what needles she has."

The older woman pointed over her shoulder. "I could help you pick some out."

After giving her a wink, I stretched my arm out. "Lead the way."

With bright red cheeks, the woman giggled as she led me back to the yarn aisle. As we walked more women joined us.

"Does she have a pattern? I can select a few that I've done and liked."

“You only have two colors, three really would be better.”

“I’d recommend at least one crochet hook just in case.”

It was amusing to be surrounded by so many women who under any other circumstance would have crossed the street at my approach…and with good reason. “That would be very helpful, thank you."


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