Hey, Daddy (Semyonov Bratva Book 2)

I don’t care what you found. I want my oil changed and that’s it.

—Nastya’s secret thoughts

NASTYA

“Do you prefer to be on top or on bottom?” I teased.

He flipped me, my back landed on the bed, and I giggled at the taunting in his eyes.

“A pancake isn’t cooked until it’s been done on both sides.” He chuckled.

My heart rate accelerated and I had to busy myself with holding onto his bulky biceps to keep my thoughts from straying to a different time and place.

“All right, Daddy,” I bantered, hoping that he didn’t hear how freaked out I was.

His eyes gleamed. “I don’t think I should like how much I like that.”

I winked at him. “It’s okay. We can like what we want to like and we don’t have to apologize for it.”

His expression sobered, though.

His hard cock was nestled between my legs, pressing against my most sensitive parts, but Haze ignored both his placement, and my earlier willingness, and studied my face and eyes.

“This isn’t a race, sweetheart,” he said softly, his eyes soft and understanding. “We’ll get there. And when we do, I’ll be there waiting. You don’t have to worry about me, I’m perfectly fine.”

I swallowed hard. “I want to forget.”

Why couldn’t I forget?

“I don’t think that’s something you forget, Mama,” he said. “But until you get your fear under control, and don’t freak out when your heart rate starts to accelerate, we’re going to be a-okay.”

God, what did I do to deserve a man that was as understanding as Haze?

Jesus, it’d been a week now since the incident—and I called it the incident because everything else reminded me of terror and heartache—and I still couldn’t get out of breath, or have my heartbeat go outside of resting range, without my fight-or-flight mode being activated.

It was weird, and I didn’t like it.

“We don’t have time anyway,” he said. “I have to get Desi to school, and then I have to go to that hearing with the judge to discuss Desi staying with me permanently.”

“Are you sure that’ll take only a half hour? It doesn’t seem like that’s something you should rush,” I said as I got out of bed and got dressed.

I chose a 7/8ths pair of leggings that stopped right above my ankle bone, scrunchy winter socks that covered the gap in my leggings, a long-sleeved Vuori t-shirt that Maven had gotten me for my birthday last year, and a trendy brown crop jacket that I’d gotten for a review over the winter last year. I threw my hair up high in a ponytail, slathered on mascara and moisturizer, and shoved my feet into my new favorite pair of platform Birkenstocks that I was writing a review on later.

All of my packages had been sent to Shasha’s office.

Every last one of them was opened, logged, and thoroughly checked before they were then distributed to me once they were deemed safe.

I’d had Shasha’s secretary coming over once every day to drop them all off, and she’d expressed more than once that she was having the time of her life going through all my things.

Which made me laugh.

Today, I had a stack of things that I needed to take to Haze’s mother at her dog rescue and adoption center.

After talking with Desi last night, she and I had planned to run over there after she got out of school to not only help/volunteer, but to test out the products with the dogs and cats.

Over the last week, I’d gotten very close to Desi.

I liked her a lot as a person, and she was incredibly smart and outgoing.

She was a lot like her dad, but not.

She was happy and go-lucky. She had not a care in her perfect little world since she’d moved out of her mother’s house.

She also adored what I did and wanted to be like me.

Honestly, it might be kind of nice to get some help.

Making this a two-woman job would make my life infinitely easier.

There were only so many products I could test in a day and still have a life.

When I’d brought it up to Haze—her helping me—he’d shrugged and said, “As long as she’s not the face of the blog, and you are, I’ll be happy. I’d like to keep her anonymous as long as I can. The internet is a crazy place.”

Dressed, I headed out of the bedroom—that was beginning to really grow on me—and headed to the guest bedroom that was opposite the master where I kept all of the products that needed tested.

And since I’d taken nearly a week off after the incident, there was a lot.

But Desi and I had spent some time in here last night gathering all of the animal products, and I’d be bringing those with me since we had a lot packed in before we picked her up early from school since they only had a half day today.

After I had the box, I headed into the kitchen to find Haze fully dressed, and edible.

He was wearing a pair of jeans, work boots, a black long-sleeved tee, and a Carhartt jacket.

It wasn’t a new Carhartt jacket, either. You could tell that he’d had it for years and years.

I smiled as I walked toward him and said, “That’s a nice jacket.”

His eyes twinkled as he said, “You can’t have it. It’s my only one.”

I snickered. “I would never steal a jacket from you, Haze.”

He patted me on the butt as I leaned up to grab a coffee cup out of the cabinet next to the one he was leaning on and said, “Sure you don’t. If that’s the case, what happened to my favorite Cowboys sweatshirt?”

“That one wasn’t my fault. It was really soft,” I defended myself.

“That’s right.” He snickered. “And the black Titans one?”

There was a squeak, and we both turned around to see Desi walking into the kitchen wearing it.

“That one for sure wasn’t me,” I replied indignantly.

“It’s really soft,” Desi admitted, running her hands over the front.

Haze threw his hands up and said, “Of course it is.”

“We need to run by Walmart at some point today, because I’m almost out of tampons, and my period is due today or tomorrow.”

“Oh, same,” I agreed with Desi. “I have a half of a box, but they’re all regular and lite.”

“Same.” Desi scrunched up her nose. “I guess I don’t have to go with y’all if you can make sure Dad gets the right ones. I don’t like anything but the sport ones because the others feel weird. Dad buys the cheapest ones.”

“I like buying the non-toxic ones,” I said. “Have you tried them? The other ones are said to be related to some things I’d rather not consider.”

“No.” She frowned. “But I’m willing to try anything. I’ve heard all about the toxicity of tampons on TikTok. I guess I just thought they were all bullshit.”

“Actual studies have come out and shown that some tampons have carcinogens in them that cause you to have longer periods, and just sayin’, but periods suck. If I could have less time with them, then I’m more than willing to switch to a different brand to accomplish that.” I laughed.

“On that note,” Haze said. “I’d love to get out of here so you’re not late for school, and your principal gets on my ass and tells me that you’re only a few tardies away from truancy.”

“That was all mom’s fault,” she fumed. “I can’t tell you how many times I had to ‘run a quick errand for her before school’ that ended up making me late. If first period wasn’t so easy for me, I’d have failed it.”

“You should’ve told me,” Haze grumbled as he walked toward the garage door where yet another loaner vehicle was waiting for us.

I patted Desi’s shoulder, grabbed my box and my to-go cup of coffee all doctored up to perfection, and walked out behind Haze.

He had the car started and the back hatch open for me.

I placed the box into the back, then got into the passenger seat.

Haze waited until all three of us were in the vehicle before he opened the garage door and backed out.

He stopped and waited for it to close completely before he left, his eyes constantly moving.

I wasn’t sure what happened at Shasha’s office all those days ago.noveldrama

Short of getting the information that “the senator was in on it more than you think” I chose to stay out of it.

That was one conversation that I hoped to never have.

I didn’t want to know anything.

Not because of plausible deniability—because that was definitely a plus—but because I just didn’t want to think about it.

We happened to get behind Brecken and followed her all the way to the school.

She parked in the teacher parking, but Haze passed right by her and drove to the front of the school before letting Desi out.

“One day, I’ll get to drive again,” Desi grumbled. “See you at twelve.”

She got out and pointed at her dad, who pointed right back at her.

“That’s cute,” I said softly.

He tossed me a grin before pulling away once he’d seen Desi got all the way inside.

“When she went into middle school, she got too cool for her old man and decided that she didn’t want to say I love you. We came up with that so she could say it without saying it, and it’s been that way ever since,” he explained.

She’d told me much the same, but she’d said she started doing it only because she hated seeing her dad look sad when she didn’t say it.

I thought it was adorable.

We got to the courthouse fifteen minutes later, despite it being less than a mile and a half from the school.

When I got out, it was with Haze standing in front of me, obstructing me from view as he took a long look around the area.

I hated that he was blocking me with his big body, and I hated even more that he’d protect me with it if worse came to worse.

Once he was sure that nothing was going to get me, he caught my hand and squeezed.

“Come on, let’s get inside before you blow away with this wind.” He paused, his gaze going to my eyelashes. “Or your eyelashes decide to take off.”

I gasped in outrage. “You did not just say that!”

He was laughing when he tugged me into a walk behind him.

“Let’s go.”

I rolled my eyes and argued, “You’re not my real dad.”

His hand curved around my hip and I knew that he’d regretted his earlier decision of saying he liked it when I called him daddy.

His hand came up underneath my shirt and he palmed my hip as we walked into the courthouse.

Also over the last week, Haze had tried, and failed, to get Finn from his ex-wife.

Short of breaking in again, which he wasn’t willing to do.

Needless to say, Haze hadn’t been very happy that Finn’s fate wouldn’t be decided until today—along with Desi’s fate.

But he’d gone along with it because his lawyer had insisted.

Which led us to now, heading to the courthouse, to fight for Haze’s two sidekicks.

“The apartment called when you were getting dressed. They said they were closing it to renovate. They asked if I’d be willing to give up my lease in exchange for two months’ rent and my deposit back,” he said.

“Tell them absolutely,” I said. “I got a call while I was getting ready, but I didn’t answer it.”

“That was probably them then.” He hesitated. “I know it’s fast, and I know I should probably say that we should take this slow for my daughter’s sake, but I feel like we’re kind of beyond that at this point.” I could feel him looking at me, so I gave him my gaze. “How would you feel about making this permanent?”

I studied his face for a long moment before saying, “Do you still love me?”

His answer was instantaneous.

“More and more every day,” he admitted.

“Then I think we should go for it.” I shrugged. “I don’t think I’ll take anything for granted anymore.” I paused. “But…there’s one more thing we should discuss.”

He opened the door to the courthouse and stepped inside first, using his body as a shield again as he took everything in.

Him not being able to carry his gun was really making him fidgety.

“How do you feel about children?”

He let the door close behind us and stayed in that position, me sandwiched between his body and the closed door, until he was satisfied that it was completely safe.

When his satisfaction was met, he pulled me into him and said, “Are you asking me to be your baby daddy?”

I felt my cheeks flame. “Maybe.”

“I accept.”

Hours later, after getting full custody of Desi, the three of us walked into the adoption center.

Desi had the box this time, and she was already sorting through it, choosing which ones she’d test herself.

She already had her phone pulled out, and all of the items listed in her Notes app.

I smiled as I walked inside behind her, my eyes automatically going to the cat that was in a hammock that was suction cupped to the window of the kitten room.

“Ohh,” I said as I walked to it.

I ran my finger along the glass and caught the cat’s attention.

He pressed his cute little paw over my pointer finger and extended his claws.

I smiled as I took in the name on his collar.

‘Rolo.’

“Perfect name for such a fat boy,” I mused.

“I thought so.” Renee came up to my side and wrapped me up in a hug. “I’m glad to see you back. I’m sorry to hear about your fur baby.”

My heart wasn’t altogether healed from his death, but it was livable now.

Then again, there’d been so many things happen that maybe I hadn’t had time to process it.

Butters still weighed heavy on my mind, but so did Daniil and John.

John was very dead, and that wasn’t going to change.

But every day that Shasha said Daniil lived, was another day that my heart got a little bit better.

Daniil was nowhere near out of the woods yet, but his prognosis was better every day—he was all there, mentally, despite taking a gunshot wound to the head. His heart and chest were also okay from taking a gunshot wound to the chest.

Needless to say, he had a very long road ahead of him, but the doctors were very happy with his progress and expected him to make a full recovery.

“Thank you,” I said. “My heart still aches.”

“It always will. Every time you think about him.” She patted my chest. “Want to come meet the cats? They’re on a terror today.”

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Wait, me, too!” Desi said. “I have a new rump wiggler to try out!”

We both laughed when she produced the cat bum that had a ‘tail’ that rotated around the fake cat butt.

It was cute, and probably a little bit tacky, but people didn’t care when it came to their pets.

The next few hours were spent testing out fourteen products.

Only four of them were awesome.

Seven were passable, and the rest might as well have been garbage.

After even Haze tried to make the last three work, we tossed them back in the box and played with what worked the best.

And surprisingly, the cat rump one was by far the best.

The kittens loved it.

They were everywhere, and my worry faded away in the hours that we played.

That, and I fell a little bit more in love with Desi.

It was everything.