Hey, Daddy (Semyonov Bratva Book 2)

I am not very demure. I will cause a scene.

—Haze to Nastya

HAZE

The phone ringing had my eyes peeling open despite their desperate attempt to stay closed.

I felt like I’d been hit by a truck and groaned when I turned over and answered the phone blindly.

So many times I’d been pulled from sleep exactly like this, but it never got any easier.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hi, this is Assistant Principal Neely from West High. I just wanted to let you know that your ex-wife attempted to take Desi from school again, but we blocked her and called the police. Your child is safe, but we just wanted to let you know of the event,” the principal explained.

I groaned. “Thank you for calling.”

“No problem.” She hung up, and I rolled over to find the bed beside me empty.

I agreed with my daughter. The bed was one of the most comfortable things I’d ever slept on in my life.

Before I could roll out of bed, my phone rang again.

Unaware that it was a FaceTime call, I answered it and said, “Hello?”

“Who is that woman?” my mother gasped.

I blinked, turned, and sure enough, my woman was standing in the open bathroom doorway combing out her hair staring at me.

I winked at her, then turned back to my mother and said, “Why are you calling so early?”

“Haze Austin, it’s almost one o’clock there. Why are you still in bed?” she asked. “And why are you not answering me on who that woman is?”

I grinned and said, “Well, if my life wasn’t fucked up beyond belief, I would introduce you to her. But since life has a funny way of fucking the best of us, I don’t have time to explain beyond she’s my girlfriend.”

And, to prove my point, my phone beeped, signaling an incoming call.

Shasha.

“I have to go,” I continued. “Love you.”

I hung up on her before she could reply, answering Shasha on speakerphone as I peeled myself out of bed.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Got that girl at my office,” he said. “And before you ask, I didn’t go looking for her yet. I just got to my office and she was outside standing here. Might want to come down.”

After agreeing, I hung up, then walked to Nastya and smoothed her wild hair back from her face. “You look rough.”

“Sleeping with my hair wet wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had,” she admitted. “I don’t want to go with you there.”

I nodded, my fingers continuing to play with her hair. “I think that’s understandable. Will you stay here while I go?”

“Yes.” She shuddered. “I don’t plan on doing anything today. I don’t…I don’t know that I can work until this is all taken care of.”

I agreed with her, and I was happy that she saw the writing on the wall, too.

Before I could say anything more, my phone rang for a third time.

I answered it since it was Ben.

“Your ex-wife broke into my house and stole Finn,” he said without preamble.

Nastya stiffened, hearing the words despite it not being on speakerphone.

“Fuckin’ bitch.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can’t do anything about it right now. Don’t engage her. I’ll deal with her after I deal with other shit.”

Ben agreed and hung up, but I could tell he was still pissed as hell.

“Julia is a goddamn lunatic.”

“She sounds it.” Nastya smoothed her hand down my side. “Get dressed and tell me about her.”

“My ex was like, I know a spot. Then she took me to the lowest point in my life,” I grumbled as I gathered clothes that I had no clue how they got here.

Shasha was thorough.

She watched me dress as I explained everything there was to know about Julia.

I told her about when we were newlyweds, and Julia turned from the sweet girl I knew during our dating to the crazy barracuda that she turned into during our marriage.

I told her about how, every time I’d be called out for work, she’d accuse me of meeting women and sleeping with them instead of working a crime scene.

I told her about how while I was deployed, she’d send my sergeant letters asking if I was cheating.

I told her about how, when I was a brand-new cop, she showed up at my job and watched me from her car because she didn’t trust me.

In the end, I told her everything and nothing, because I couldn’t begin to explain everything that Julia had put me through.

Nastya’s face became more and more intense, her eyes huge and wide, and getting wider the longer that I spoke.

When I was finished and pushing the time limit that I’d said that it would take me to get to Shasha, she finally called a halt.noveldrama

“As far as I can tell, you’re nowhere near finished with explaining everything.” She shook her head. “Tell me one more thing, and then go.”

I studied her for a long moment before saying, “When Desi was born, we actually talked about naming her Scarlett. In fact, it was on all of her clothes and everything. But at some point, Julia decided that Scarlett wasn’t going to work. And when I was passed out on the uncomfortable hospital recliner with her, Julia changed her mind and put ‘Desiree’ down on the hospital paperwork. But, what you don’t know, is that Desiree was Julia’s psycho sister that was even crazier than Julia. She was a crack whore who sold her body for drugs. She’d get clean, then fall right off the wagon. Julia brought it up once, but I shot it down immediately. And then, while we were sleeping, she filled out the paperwork and had it filed without my knowledge. Then one day she started calling her Desiree and never stopped. That’s why I call her Desi only. And that’s why Desi won’t answer to Desiree. Ever.”

Nastya opened her mouth and then closed it. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

I chuckled, then dropped my mouth onto hers. “I gotta go before your brother starts to think we’re doing other things. And though I’d love to do those other things to you, I think he might very well kill me and be able to get away with it.”

She smacked my arm. “My brother would never. But only because he wouldn’t hurt me like that. He knows I love you.”

At her words, we both froze.

“You…”

“Love you,” she confirmed, her eyes still wide. “Don’t say it back.”

I grinned. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to say it out of obligation,” she conceded. “And I know it’s crazy fast, and that I should probably control myself, but after last night…I just can’t. I won’t ever be able to hide and look at life the same way again. And that includes hiding my feelings for you.”

I curled a stray lock of hair behind her ear and said, “I love you, too. Fuck me, but I love you, too.”