Chapter 2 #2
Why was I antagonizing her? I realized my setup was not ideal, but the Petrovs, especially my line, were steeped in centuries of tradition. We were bred to kill. Warriors. My son would have to go through stringent initiation and training when he came of age.
I can’t marry her. If I married her, she would become a target.
“We’ll discuss this after I see my son.”
The door to the apartment opened, and Dominic De Lucci walked in with that guy Trevor, who Kirill had wanted me to off, but Lucy found out and countermanded him. Kirill was jealous, but now I wondered if going behind his wife’s back would have been an excellent idea.
“Do they simply walk in here?” I glared at the newcomers.
“I own this place, asshole,” De Lucci growled. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Nic is Sebastian’s father.”
“Nic?” Dom’s brows furrowed before they shot up in realization. “Oh, fuck.”
I glared at Chloe. “Please call me anything but Nic—Kolya, or Nikolai.”
“How…” Dom started.
“Were you sent to kill her?” Trevor asked.
This motherfucker.
“See, I wasn’t paranoid to think that earlier.” Chloe backed away from me.
Trevor glanced at her. “Are you all right?”
Meanwhile, my phone kept buzzing, and even without answering, I could hear Kirill yelling at me.
“My son?” I gritted.
Chloe pursed her lips and started typing on her phone.
A door opened, and a woman in her fifties emerged with a baby in her arms.
All activity and talking in the room ceased. I couldn’t hear anyone and anything except my breathing, or was it the pulse in my ears? The excruciating anticipation of not knowing what my reaction would be once I came face-to-face with my son.
Then I saw him.
My heart expanded to what my rib cage could accommodate, and an ache throbbed. I exhaled a massive breath and blinked.
And blinked again.
He had my dark hair, instead of his mother’s chestnut brown.
The other features were not as decisive except for one.
His eyes. I was staring into the same cerulean-blue irises that graced the chosen Petrovs.
Blue-eyed, undying, and fearless warriors.
Undying wasn’t true, of course. We were simply hard to kill.
“He’s mine,” I breathed, gravitating toward the baby, but Chloe blocked my path.
“What are you doing?” she whisper-yelled.
“I want to hold my boy.” For the first time since I entered this apartment, I felt genuine contempt for Chloe. She’d already kept my son from me long enough. “What’s your problem?”
“You can’t just go up to him and grab him.”
I narrowed my eyes at my son’s mother. “I wasn’t going to grab him. You coddle him, and that’s why he needs to grow up in the bratva.”
“How dare you!”
“Whoa. Whoa.” Both Trevor and Dom inserted themselves between me and Chloe.
“Back off, Petrov.” Dom planted his palm on my chest, and shoved.
“You didn’t just put a hand on me,” I told him mildly, but I was imagining ways to carve him up.
He chuckled darkly. “That look in your eyes? Lose it.”
“You’re telling me how to behave in front of my son?”
“You didn’t know he existed until today.”
He had a point, but keeping my son from me? Nonnegotiable. “I want to hold him.”
“Let him through,” Chloe said. “But the first sign of distress from Sebastian, and you back off, are we clear?”
“Of course.”
“I mean it!”
“I’m not clueless,” I retorted, chafing with impatience.
Both De Lucci and Trevor cleared the path for me, and Chloe stood to the side chewing on her finger.
I approached the boy who appeared to be curious but subdued. No, he was downright suspicious of me. His head was bowed, then he looked up at Dora, clinging to her as if he wanted to disappear.
It wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. Fuck. I couldn’t describe the emotion I was feeling. Disappointed? Indignant. Shame. Guilt.
How could this little creature’s rejection make me want to roar? And there was something else. I was yearning for his acceptance.
I was comparing him to the children of the bratva.
Babies passed around to family members, where even an aunt, uncle, or cousin was a caretaker.
I released a fractured breath, and I didn’t push forward. But it was making my case for my son growing up bratva. He wasn’t about to become a pansy-assed King billionaire’s protégé.
It would smother him, and he wouldn’t survive once his bloodline was revealed.
“He’s been isolated.” Something had been bothering me. “When Lucy found you in the cabin, he wasn’t with you, was he?”
Chloe visibly paled. I pinned her in place with an accusatory stare.
“That’s enough, Petrov,” Dom warned. Well, fuck him.
I barked an incredulous and derisive laugh. “You left my son to be cared for by this woman?”
“And Dora did a fantastic job!” Chloe shouted.
Sebastian turned red and started to cry. Both Chloe and I surged forward, but the older woman turned and walked away.
My fingers curled into my palms to keep from yanking Sebastian away from her. Who was this Dora woman? A nanny?
“There’s too much tension in the room and it’s not good for Sebastian,” she called over her shoulder. “Until then, I suggest you all figure out custody.”
“Custody? What custody?” I glared at Chloe. “I admit it’s not ideal to bring him home right now. There are arrangements to be made.”
“Custody,” Chloe enunciated. “Learn the meaning of the word, Ni—Kolya, because it will be a cold day in hell before I let my son be raised in the bratva.”
Dom sighed and checked his phone. “That’s Kirill. He wants you back at his house to explain this shitstorm you started.”
I didn’t want to leave. “We have much to discuss—”
“Negotiate,” Chloe said coldly.
“You honestly think I’ll let you raise my son outside the bratva?”
“Get a lawyer, Kolya,” she shot back.
“Do I have your word that you’re not going to disappear with my son?”
“I will not keep you from seeing him.” Her shoulders slumped. “I just want what’s best for Seb.”
I held my tongue because I was single-minded about this and probably should step back from the situation to see clearly. It had been reckless to storm in here. Any enforcer worth their salt knew better than to head into a job unprepared.
I was not only unprepared.
I was outnumbered.
I acquiesced. “Fine. I’ll be in contact.”
Then I turned and left.