Hey, Daddy (Semyonov Bratva Book 2)

Have kids they said. It’ll be fun they said.

Well, they forgot to tell you about the hell years where you would constantly question your life choices from the ages of thirteen to nineteen.

—Haze’s secret thoughts

HAZE

Angry didn’t begin to explain how I felt in the moments after my daughter explained the situation.

“One more time,” I said. “Start from the beginning.”

“So Mom was out of town…”

“Why was she out of town?” I paused, trying to compose myself.

My ex-wife, Julia, was a part-time mom.

Well, according to the courts, she was a full-time mom. She got the twenty-five hundred dollars a month for child support to prove it.

However, she only wanted full custody to give a big fuck you to me.

Twenty-five years ago, when Julia and I had met in high school, we’d been great.

At eighteen, after dating for three years, we’d decided to party a little too hard and thought…let’s get married. The next morning after graduation, with a hangover from hell, I’d realized that maybe marrying Julia wasn’t the best idea in the world.

We were both off to college in three months, her at Texas A&M and me at Notre Dame.

I had a football scholarship that was paying my way, and she had a full ride through her FFA—Future Farmers of America—earnings in high school as well as an agricultural scholarship that paid for what wasn’t covered by her proceeds. Our parents had always been good friends, and so we’d always had a great relationship and were close.

However, after I’d asked her to marry me, I’d felt kind of trapped.

I should’ve taken that feeling and ran with it, and maybe when I was thirty-five, after fifteen years of unhappy marriage, I wouldn’t have hated her guts. Nor would I have a kid that had to be used as a tug o’ war rope for two years as we fought for custody.

But I hadn’t run with the gut instinct, and I’d been stuck in the marriage from hell to Julia.

And when I’d finally pulled myself free of the hell that she put me through, I hadn’t had the heart to make my daughter, Desi, go through hell with me.

So I’d taken the weekly visits on Wednesday and Sundays, and every other weekend.

I didn’t complain that it wasn’t enough time.

I didn’t take her to court to ask for equal sharing.

Mostly because whatever I did in court would be taken out on Desi at home, and I couldn’t do that to my daughter.

Desi loved her mother and even went as far as to cover for her like she’d just told me she had.

“She’s, uh…” Desi looked uncomfortable. “She’s visiting her new boyfriend.”

“And where does her new boyfriend live?” I asked carefully.

“Here, but he goes out of town almost every weekend, so Mom goes with him.” She looked really uncomfortable then.

“And this boy-man that attacked you today,” I said. “Is the new boyfriend’s son?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Is this the first time you’ve had to deal with him trying to force you to do something you didn’t want him to do?” Nastya asked, echoing my thoughts.

Desi winced.

“Desi,” I said carefully. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me everything.”

“No,” she said softly. “He’s tried this a few other times before, but Mom and Rich have always been there to stop him from going any further.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, praying for patience.

“When did your mother leave?” I asked.

“Last night,” she said. “I set the alarm and everything last night. I had no issues. But this morning, I found that Finn was out of food.”

“I just bought him two big bags of dog food.” I frowned.

“Mom took the dog food to Rich’s place. They have two huge mastiffs,” she continued to whisper.

This was why she hadn’t told me, because she knew I’d be madder than a hornet.

“So what, she was just going to starve Finn?” I asked.

“Mom hates him,” she said in a rush. “She truly doesn’t care if he starves. I’ve picked up some babysitting gigs to cover his food and vet bills, though.”

“What vet bills?” I barked.

“He, uh, got out last week. He was run over. His front leg, at least. I had to take him to the emergency vet, and they said I could pay the bill as the funds came available.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose again, my eyes closing as I prayed for patience.

She didn’t need me angry right now.

Not after what she’d just gone through.noveldrama

“Back to what happened today,” I urged.

“So I had to go out and get dog food.” She looked from me to Nastya and back. “The drive is like ten minutes max. I went to the Dollar General. They had food on sale this week, and I had coupons there.”

“Okay.” I gestured with my hand to keep her going.

“I got back with the food, and went inside, only then realizing I forgot to set the alarm. I set the alarm, fed Finn, and then put him in his kennel because I was going to mop the floors.” She let out a shaky breath, and I resisted the urge to hug her to me and tell her it was going to be okay.

If I took her in my arms, she’d only break down, and I needed her to be strong right now and tell me exactly what happened.

“Then what?” I pushed.

“I was mopping and listening to the oldies station,” she said. “Savage Garden was playing…”

“That’s the oldies?” Nastya muttered under her breath, looking flabbergasted.

“She also thinks the newest slug bugs are old, just like the older model ones,” I pointed out.

Some of the color came back to Desi’s cheeks. “Well, just sayin’, but I was born well after two thousand, which was when the Beetles started becoming really popular. And if they’re older than me, they’re old.”

“Jesus, I feel ancient.” Nastya shook her head.

Desi’s smile disappeared as she continued. “I was mopping and singing along, and all of a sudden, I realized I wasn’t alone. I whirled around, the mop in my hand, and found Eddison standing behind me, with his p-p-penis in his hand.”

I felt my gut clench. “Then what happened?”

“He tried to catch me, but I was able to hold him off because of the mop handle. I whacked him with it,” she admitted. “I ran to the car, thankful I still had my keys in my pocket, locked the doors and left. I don’t know how he found me, though.”

“He knows where your father lives,” Nastya guessed. “If he’d followed you from your mother’s house, he would’ve been right on top of you getting inside the building. As it was, you knocked on your dad’s door for like a minute or two before coming over to mine. Then you and I talked a bit before he showed.”

“Or he has a tracker on your car,” I added.

“True.” Nastya nodded.

“And the first time he assaulted you?” I pushed.

“It wasn’t an assault, per se. He only cornered me in the hallway and tried to push me up against the wall. I didn’t let him and went and found Mom, who then told Rich to keep his son away from me.”

“And they weren’t concerned about this?” Nastya asked. “Did they punish him?”

“Eddison has some developmental issues. He looks like he’s twenty years old, but he acts like he’s fifteen. They say that he has always been delayed, and he actually has some sort of disorder. I don’t know.” She looked sick.

That’s when I pulled her into my arms.

Desi’s sniffles broke my heart, as well as her silent crying.

“What do I do now?” she wailed.

“Now,” I said, “I call my lawyer and get an emergency court order that keeps you out of that fuckin’ house.”

“She’ll be so mad,” she whispered. “And this is a different school district.”

“You have a car, and you can drive,” I pointed out.

Desi had turned sixteen about four months ago, and it’d been a godsend. No longer did we have to do any awkward meet ups that inevitably led to Julia throwing a fit because she saw me.

Buying her the new car had been the best purchase I’d ever made.

“Let me have your keys and I’ll go move your car into a visitor’s spot while I’m down there talking to the lawyer,” I instructed.

“Um, it is in your visitor’s spot,” she replied hesitantly.

I let her go, smoothed her hair back, and cupped her cheek before saying, “It’ll be okay, Desi.”

“I know,” she said.

I guided her to the love seat that was taking up the side of the room I was on, then said, “Can you come outside with me for a minute?”

Nastya nodded, grabbed her phone and her keys and said, “Sure. I’ll lock up.”

I waited until we were outside before saying, “Thank you.”

“Should we, uh, call the cops?” she asked. “I stabbed someone.”

“No.” I snorted. “If he goes to the cops, he’ll have to say that he was trying to hurt someone, and I doubt he’s dumb enough to do that.”

“And if he is dumb enough?” I asked.

“Then I’ll figure it out,” I said. “I won’t let you get into trouble for this.”

She studied my face for a long second before nodding and following behind me as I headed down the stairs.

When we got down there, my eyes automatically scanned the lot, and they narrowed when I saw the Tahoe in my visitor’s spot instead of the Chevy Blazer I’d bought for Desi.

Anger started to suffuse me as I pulled my phone out and called my lawyer.

After explaining everything that’d happened, I hung up with the knowledge that this was finally it.

This was the last straw for me. I would never let her have the win even if it was going to keep the peace.

Not after learning that my daughter had nearly been raped because of my ex-wife’s stupidity.

After hanging up with my lawyer, I pulled up the Chevy app and looked at the location for Desi’s car.

It was in Oklahoma at a casino.

Out of town for work, my ass.

“How do you feel about a road trip?” I asked.

“A road trip?”

I nodded. “I need to go drop my daughter off with my brother for the day. Then I need to go get Finn, and then head to Oklahoma. I need to get Desi’s car, and I’m sure the fuck not leaving my ex-bitch of a wife a vehicle so that she can get home easily.” I paused. “And I only have a department-issued vehicle. They’ll frown upon me driving it that far.”

“And you want me to drive you?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. “But first, I really need to make sure that I get Finn safe. If that sick fuck kills the dog, both Desi and I will be devastated.”

“Finn?” she asked. “He’s yours?”

“My dog, yes.” I nodded. “Got him when he was a puppy when Desi was in middle school. But Desi and Finn bonded hard, so I left him with Desi and Julia.”

“I think that I might want to kill her,” she admitted.

I snorted. “Get in line.”

“I’ll take you under one condition,” she said.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“You stop following me.”

“I’m following you so that others don’t follow you,” I said, unsurprised that she’d realized that I was the one doing the surveillance on her.

“Well, it’s getting really old,” she grumbled. “I feel like everywhere I turn, you’re there.”

I was there.

I’d made no move to hide my following her, either. Which was why she’d spotted me so early.

“Do they really think that I had something to do with that dead girl?” she asked.

I gestured for her to follow me back up to her apartment and decided…fuck it.

“They think that your brother did it because Senator Renfield introduced a bill that would bring the hammer down on organized crime,” I explained.

She snorted. “That’s ridiculous. He wouldn’t have put her in my car if he was going to do that.”

“I agree,” I said. “And despite you having a great alibi and no evidence to support Senator Renfield’s claim, we’re still surveilling you.”

“Are you surveilling me? Or Shasha, too?” she asked.

“The only warrant we have for surveillance is you. Now, if you happened to be with your brother, even better.” I gave her the honest truth.

I was sick of this.

Today, she’d been there for my daughter, and I would never be able to repay her.

This last month had been utterly ridiculous.

Sure, watching her every waking move was utterly enjoyable, but this was getting beyond absurd and needed to stop.

If only I could…

“I only have the Jeep,” she said after a while.

I shrugged. “That’s fine with me.”

“This is kind of weird,” she admitted.

I looked over at her and said, “You protected my daughter today with your life. I won’t be forgetting that.”