11. Nikita
Nikita
Saying goodbye to Savanna is always difficult, but doing it after everything we shared today makes it nearly impossible.
I want her with me, not just some of the time, but all of it.
I’m not sure how long it’ll take me to convince her to move in with me, but I’m bringing it up this weekend when she stays here.
Maybe by the time the four days are over, I’ll have convinced her that it’s a brilliant plan and one we should definitely do as soon as possible.
Since she doesn’t have class today and she’s trying really hard to focus on her paper, I spend the morning searching for Cupid and tracking another monster I found on the dark web.
There’s never an end to them. For every one I catch, there are hundreds, if not thousands, still out there preying on innocent victims.
My phone buzzing with an incoming text is a welcome distraction, and when I see the photo my brother’s just sent, I know my Uncle Vitaly is behind this.
He must’ve taken it at supper last night because it’s a shot of Savanna and me at the table.
In it, we’re both smiling at one another, and I have to admit that they’re all right.
I do look like a guy who’s in love. I barely recognize myself.
I’m surprised I don’t have literal hearts in my eyes.
MAX:
Why didn’t you tell me you were dating Sav?
ME:
It’s very new. Did Uncle Vitaly send that to you last night or did he actually show some restraint and wait until this morning?
MAX:
Good guess, but it was Mom.
My phone rings with his incoming call before I can type a response.
“Hey, Max,” I say, leaning back in my chair and then deciding I’d rather have coffee. While I walk into the kitchen, I ask, “How’s Talia and Lyra?”
“They’re doing great,” he says, and I hear the sappy smile in my brother’s voice. “Lyra smiles every time I play the piano. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Looks like we’ll have another pianist in the family.” I grab a mug and throw a pod into the machine. While it brews, he tells me all about what they’ve been up to and how much he’s looking forward to getting back here so we can all see how much she’s grown.
I pour in a healthy amount of hazelnut creamer and ask how Talia’s family is.
He tells me Bran and Dima are loving being uncles, and all about the baby monitor that Bran’s connected to his smartwatch that vibrates anytime Lyra cries.
He loves to babysit her, and he’d been worried about not knowing when she needed him.
“That’s great,” I tell him. “As soon as she’s old enough, she can watch those kids’ shows that teach sign language.” I give a soft laugh. “I’m not gonna lie. I watch them sometimes for practice.”
“Me too,” Max admits. “Sometimes I just need it explained to me like I’m three.”
“Exactly,” I say, taking my mug over to the couch so I can sit down.
“So about Savanna,” he starts to say, letting the sentence trail off so I can start talking, and I do. I tell him all about seeing her over at Sasha’s and all the time we’ve been spending together.
“I’m going to meet her parents on Wednesday.”
“You nervous?” he asks.
“I am. I’m worried they’ll hate me on sight.”
“Just be happy your future father-in-law isn’t the head of a Bratva. I really doubt Sav’s dad is capable of taking a life or knows how to dispose of a body if he did.”
“True enough, I suppose, but I’m still nervous. I just don’t want to fuck it up. I really like her.”
“Sounds like a bit more than that to me,” my brother says, and I can tell he’s grinning again. “Hell, it seemed like more than that at Sasha’s wedding.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I’m more than a little obsessed.”
“I’m looking forward to getting back so I can see my baby brother in love,” Max teases.
“I think Mom captured it pretty well.”
“She sure did. Talia thinks you both look adorable, by the way. It’ll be nice that our kids can grow up together.”
“I think you might be jumping the gun,” I tell him, but as I’m saying the words, I can feel the flutter of excitement run through me at the thought of Savanna pregnant with our baby.
She’d looked so beautiful holding Jake last night.
She has such a big heart and a natural love for kids, and she shines anytime she’s around them. I’ll never get tired of seeing it.
“We’ll see,” Max says, and then I hear my niece let out a shrill scream. “Someone woke up angry. I need to get going. Keep me posted on how things are going, little brother. I better not start getting all my news from other people.”
“You won’t,” I promise him. “Tell everyone I said hi and give Lyra a big hug from her uncle.”
After we hang up, I finish my coffee before getting ready to meet my cousins at one of our warehouses.
It’s the safest place to talk business, and it keeps it away from all the wives and kids.
I take my motorcycle and park next to Sasha’s bike once I get there.
Everyone else is already inside. Mia’s laughing at something Damien’s said, but when she sees me, she brushes back a strand of her pink dyed hair and says, “I knew Sav wouldn’t be able to resist the nose piercing.
” She grins and taps her own. “Dario loves mine.”
Damien points at our crazy cousin. “I think we all know the nose isn’t the only thing you have pierced.”
Mia tries to look innocent and fails. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Sasha doesn’t always pick up on cues, so when he starts to say, “I think he’s talking about the piercings in your nipples and—”
She cuts him off with a quick, “Thanks, Sasha. Can we please talk about something else?”
“Yeah,” I agree, not wanting to hear about my cousin’s body jewelry. “Why are we meeting? Did something happen?”
“Just wanted to check up on things,” Luka says.
He’s the oldest of us. The first to join our family’s Bratva, and the one who always worries and takes on more than he should.
He’s just like his dad in many ways. “It looks like The Red Room is quiet again. I talked to Pasha before I came here, and he said things have gone back to normal. No one’s been caught selling roofies since the night Cindy was drugged. ”
“Do you trust it?” Damien asks his older brother.
Luka scrubs a hand over his jaw. “No, not really.” His eyes meet mine from across the table we’re standing around. “Anything new on Cupid?”
He must see the answer on my face, because he quickly says, “You’ll get him, Niki.”
I nod, but the truth is with each passing day, I’m starting to lose hope. I’ll never stop looking for him, but if he never surfaces again, I’ll have no way to catch him. He could be anywhere right now, and that knowledge sits heavy on my shoulders.
“Nothing suspicious with Sav?” Mia asks. “She hasn’t noticed anything?”
I shake my head and say, “No, and there’s always a set of eyes on her. I watch her when I can, but I’ve also assigned a couple of guys, just to be safe.”
“Good idea,” Sasha says, and I can tell he’s still kicking himself for not putting a bodyguard on Cindy sooner.
“She doesn’t know everything,” I tell them, “but she knows she was the target that night. She’s keeping her guard up, but she’s also not constantly worrying about it, which is exactly what I want.
She has enough stressing her out right now with school.
She doesn’t need this extra shit on top of that. ”
“Aside from locking her up, this is as safe as she can be,” Luka says.
“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it,” I tell him.
Sasha shrugs. “Just move her stuff into your apartment while she’s at class. It worked for me.”
“Yeah, I’m probably not going to do that,” I tell my cousin. “I’m going to suggest she move in, though, and do my best to convince her to say yes.”
“It’s a little thing called consent,” Damien says with a laugh while looking at Sasha.
“Cyn is mine. That’s all the consent I need.” When Damien just sighs at his response, he adds, “She thought it was sweet.”
“Of course she did,” Damien says. “She was made for you, and for some unknown reason finds all your psychotic traits endearing.”
Sasha returns our cousin’s grin. “Yeah, she does.”
“I’m real curious about that baby you’re having,” Mia says. “Something tells me the princess dolls I buy for Isabella aren’t going to cut it for any of your future daughters. I’ll have to look into it. I bet I can find a set of plastic knives.”
Sasha’s mouth quirks up at the image. “That would actually be really fucking cute.”
She grins back at her brother. “It really would be.”
I raise a brow at Damien and Luka in a Would it really be cute to arm a toddler? kind of way. Luka laughs while Damien just shakes his head, more than used to our crazy cousins.
After a few more minutes of updates on things that have nothing to do with Cupid, we all start to go our separate ways.
I stop and grab some takeout and then eat it in front of my computer.
It’s a terrible habit, but it’s how I eat most of my meals.
I miss Savanna and it’s hard to concentrate, so instead I perform the same search that I do at least once a month.
I dig around for Mateo Amaya, not really expecting to find anything.
The Amaya Cartel kidnapped my brother and Val and held them in Colombia.
That’s where he’d met Talia. They’d taken her for the same reasons—trying to put pressure on the Bratvas so he could run drugs through their territories.
It had taken me a couple of months before I was able to track them down, and the pressure had been overwhelming.
I still feel guilt about not finding them faster.
As soon as we had a location, we went in and rescued them, taking out the cartel in the process, but we’d left Mateo alive.
His dad had been in charge at the time, and Mateo hadn’t been in a position to stop him, but he had secretly done everything he could to keep them alive.
His life was spared on the condition that he disappear and never show his face again.