Hey, Daddy (Semyonov Bratva Book 2)

The problem with ‘treating yourself’ is that I don’t know how to stop. I had a bad day in October, and I have been treating myself ever since.

—Nastya’s secret thoughts

NASTYA

I woke up and felt…stiff.

I couldn’t figure out why until I opened my eyes and saw the state of my body.

Blood.

There was blood everywhere.

I had it on my face.

I had it on my hands.

I had it in my mouth.

I could taste the coppery scent on my tongue.

I scanned the apartment, and the first person I saw was the bodyguard that’d been sent with me to help pack my things.

Daniil was on the ground in front of me, his head and upper body in the closet, and the rest of him hanging out of the doorway.

I tried to get myself up and couldn’t.

At least, not on the first try.

Or the second.

Or the fifth.

By the time that I was able to get myself up—it was only to my hands and knees.

I crawled my way over to Daniil, my hands and knees slipping and sliding through the blood, until I got to his prone body.

But once I got there, there was no reason for me to check to make sure he had a pulse—at least I didn’t think so at the time—because he’d been shot in the head.

He also had a hole in his chest.

I’d seen enough damage that a shotgun could do to know that’s what had done it.

I sat back on my knees, my hands now shaking.

Shock.

That was what I was experiencing.

My heartbeat was pounding in my ears.

A steady whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

My hands shook as I tried and failed to back away.

My body was no longer cooperating.

A knock sounded, and I turned my head toward the sound.

The knock sounded again, more insistent this time, but nothing followed.

I couldn’t open my mouth to reply.

I couldn’t do anything but look.

Staring blankly.

I don’t know how long I sat there, kneeling in the congealing blood of the man that was supposed to protect me.

It had to have been hours.

Maybe days.

I didn’t know.

What I did know was that something was wrong with me.

Very wrong.

My brain wasn’t working correctly.

I knew this, yet I didn’t move.

Didn’t shift a single inch.

I was so lost in my own head that when my phone started to ring, I didn’t react.

I did react when the one in Daniil’s pocket did.

I looked down at his phone as if it was something alive that was sent to this time and place to kill me.

The phone stopped ringing, and then started again.

It kept doing this for so long that I got used to the constant sound.

When it abruptly stopped, I almost felt like a piece of what kept me breathing was removed from me.

A click had me glancing up, once again focusing on Daniil’s missing skull.

“Nastya?”

I frowned and looked away, my gaze going over my shoulder now.

“Nastya, are you here?”

Haze.

Haze was here.

Where had he been?

“Oh, fuck.”

That’s when he appeared around the corner, gun in hand, staring in shock at the scene.

His eyes took in the blood.

It was everywhere.

On the walls.

On the bed.

On the floor.

On me.

On Daniil.

There was just so much of it you didn’t know where to focus.

“Fuck, Nastya.” Haze looked from me to the bathroom that had the door closed and back. “Is there anyone in the bathroom?”

I didn’t know.

I didn’t say that, though, because I couldn’t get my mouth to work.

He walked across the floor, his boots squelching in the blood, and opened the door to the bathroom.

That’s when I saw a second body.

It was half in, half out of the tub.

There was blood all over the bathroom floor, walls, mirror.

“Oh god.”

Haze.

There was something wrong.

The person in the tub mattered to him.

I still couldn’t get my feet to work.

The blood was starting to itch as it dried on my skin.

Haze pulled his phone out and dialed someone.

He spoke quickly and quietly, hung the phone up, and did it again.

And again.

And again.

He called what seemed to be half the population of Dallas.

He left the body in the bathroom and came to me, his eyes haunted now, and dropped down to his haunches.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I blinked at him.

“Baby, talk to me.”

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t make my mouth work.

“Nastya.”

I blinked at him again.

“Can you talk?” he asked.

I blinked twice.

“No?” he asked.

Two more blinks.

“Okay,” he said, his eyes going to the man that was beside me. “Baby, we have to get you out of here.”

He picked me up like I weighed nothing more than a feather, then walked me into the living room where he sat me on the couch.

He picked up a blanket from the couch and wrapped it around my body.

It was only then I realized I was almost naked.

I was wearing panties and a bra.

No pants.

No shirt.

I snuggled into the blanket and buried my nose into the soft fabric.

Cold.

I’d been extremely cold.

People came in after that.noveldrama

There was a lot of commotion.

Even more people talking around me and to me.

I was fairly sure that my brothers were there at some point.

But I didn’t notice anyone or anything for a very long time.