The Russian Roulette [The Mafia Chronicles #2]

Chapter XXXII

"You burned the butter!"

"No, no, no- This isnt a shawarma, Yasmin."

"Does the sugar look like it's dissolved? No."

"What are you? An idiot sandwich, thats what!"

It took three hours for Yasmin, Victoria, and Sophie to bake one tray of brownies. It was mostly due to the amount of times Victoria kept the tray in the oven for too long, or the number of times Yasmin added spices to the brownie batter. Sophie had to make her a shawarma platter just so Yasmin could put her cravings to the side.

It was needless to say, Sophie made some of the best shawarmas, so much so that Kamal almost drooled when Yasmin brought him one.

Sophie chose to simply sit Yasmin and Victoria down and let them learn...visually. It was either that or risk burning the kitchen down; she did not want to burn a five-hundred-thousand-dollar kitchen...

"Done!" Sophie took the tray of brownies out of the oven before setting it on a cooling rack. Yasmin lifted her hand above the tray to cut herself a piece but was met with Sophie's hand playfully smacking hers.

"It has to cool first or it's going to break." Sophie explained, making Yasmin huff in annoyance before sitting back down. "How many batches did we bake?" Sophie started counting the trays that sat cooling around the kitchen.

"She means the batches she made- Unless you count sitting down and looking as baking." Victoria whispered to Yasmin, who tried to hide her laughter but failed miserably.

"Your kids are going to have a field day with you." Victoria spoke when Sophie turned towards them with a sheepish smile. "If they dont do their homework right, you won't explain it, you'll just solve it for them." At this rate, the two girls were laughing while repeatedly hitting the table.

"Oh, cut me some slack-" Sophie halted her speaking as her eyes met with Ivan's as he made his way inside the kitchen, followed by Dominik and a few of thier high ranking soldiers.

An awkward moment of silence passed between them before Victoria broke the tension. "What are you doing here? This is a sacred place, we dont your dirty boots to ruin it." She gestured to the kitchen around her.

Ivan rubbed his neck nervously before lifting his hands to sign...but deciding against it. Sophie was the only one of the three girls that could speak sign language, and he did not feel like he deserved to even speak to her.

Dominik coughed before answering. "We were passing by, and we smelled the brownies. We thought Eva was making some and thought we could have a few...but I guess not. We're sorry to bother you." He directed the last part to Sophie as he bowed his head slightly in respect.

Before any of the men could turn, Sophie let out a soft sigh. "I may love brownies, but I dont love them enough to eat seven trays of them." She let out a small laugh, making the soldier's shoulders drop in relief and laugh in return.

"Come on." She gestured for them to sit down. "They need to cool down for a bit before I can cut them up, you can wait so you can take a tray." She smiled as she plopped down on a chair beside her friends.

Dominik was the first to sit down, followed by the rest of the soldiers. Ivan was the last to rest. Sophie coughed slightly, realizing that she had a few things to say to the men. "Thank you, Dom." She spoke.

His eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened. "For what?"

Sophie's smile widened. "For bieng the first to trust me." She recalled their interaction two weeks ago as she played a game of Russian roulette with Alexi.