Hey, Daddy (Semyonov Bratva Book 2)

This body came with a lot of terms and conditions I didn’t agree to.

—Nastya to Milena

NASTYA

“I’m not sure that getting a shelter dog as part of a mystery shopping experience is a good idea.”

I looked over at my sister and said, “Listen. It’s more of a ‘I want to see how my staff treats you’ kind of thing. Not as a ‘you should always get something for free’ kind of thing.”

“But a dog? You live in an apartment,” Milena pointed out.

“I make my own hours, and I have plenty of time to take the dog out and play. I live half a block from a dog park. It’s seriously going to work out just fine, I promise.”

“I know, but it’s a dog. That’s a big commitment. There are vet bills, dog food, toys. Are you seriously going to do this?” she asked.

Milena wasn’t a dog person.

In fact, she wasn’t an animal person at all.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like animals, she did. She just didn’t like the thought of something needing her to remain alive. Milena was a free spirit. She liked to fly by the seat of her pants, leave when she wanted to leave, go hiking in the mountains. She couldn’t do any of that with a dog—or even a man—to tie her down.

Hence the no animal thing.

I had a cat because they were so low maintenance.

I went from a three-sport, multiple extracurricular—FFA, choir, debate club—high school career to college. From college I went straight into working, and it was only recently that I was able to quit my 9-5 and focus on the mystery shopping and Amazon reviewing thing full-time.

“Okay, well just know if you ever need help with the dog, you’re going to have to ask Shasha,” she snickered.

Shasha hadn’t ever really been an animal person, either.

We’d just never had animals growing up, and that kind of extended into our adult years so he made up for it now with multiple dogs.

“I doubt I’ll need help,” I said.

We entered the shelter, and I wasn’t greeted by anybody.

“Uh oh,” Milena teased. “Strike one.”

I grinned at her and kept walking farther into the large, open space.

Dallas, Texas, boasted some fantastic animal shelters.

But this one was better than anything I could ever imagine.

When you walked in, the first thing you saw was the wall of cats that was on the far left side of the space. There was also a large room that had about twenty kittens playing with all kinds of toys.

“Awww,” I said sweetly.

That’s when my gaze caught movement to my left, and I saw a large man squatted down, a poop scooper in one hand, and a tiny ball of fur on his left thigh which he was stroking with long, masculine fingers.

“Whoa,” Milena said.

Whoa was right.

All I could make out was the strong expanse of his back, salt and pepper hair, and a sliver of skin above his jeans—Wranglers.

Yum.

“Can I help you?”

I blinked, turning my back on the man playing with the kittens, and smiled at the woman that was…scowling at me?

“Uh, yes. I came to check out some of the dogs for adoption,” I replied.

“Oh.” Her gaze flicked to the room behind me, and my heart skittered a beat before I chanced a look.

And there, as if he had no clue about his sex appeal, was the man that I’d been doing my damndest to forget about—and failing miserably.

He volunteered at the shelter?

Jesus.

I didn’t realize that my fantasy of him could get any more extreme, but here I was.

“That’s Haze Hopkins,” she said. “He’s one of our longest standing volunteers.”

I quickly turned back around and said, “Is there an adoption application that I have to fill out?”

She looked reluctant to leave the viewing window, but did, showing me to the counter where there was a stack of adoption applications on the desk waiting for me.

She tossed me a pen from the top of the desk and said, “Fill that out.”

Milena muttered under her breath, “Strike two.”

I snorted and filled out the application, making sure to put my real information on it and not my fake.

My phone started to violently alert in my purse, and I sighed before reaching in and silencing it.

My sister started to mumble under her breath as she took the phone out of my purse and looked at it.

She unwrapped a bar of chocolate and handed it to me.

“Oh, we don’t allow food in our facilities.”

“You’ll allow it this time,” Milena countered.

I quickly ate the bar of chocolate while filling out the application and stuffed the wrapper into my pocket.

When I was finished, the attendant took the application from me and glanced at it. “I have to allow the office manager to check this over.”

She left then, leaving me and my sister standing there alone.noveldrama

“Do you not notice when you start getting that low?” Milena asked. “And do you think you’ll pass that application?”

“Yes, because I’ve already been approved by the owner of the facility,” I said. “She was quite excited to have me reach out to her. She follows my blog. When I told her about my quest for a dog in a comment, she directed me to her shelter.”

“Cool,” she said. “You didn’t answer about the noticing if your blood sugar is getting low or not.”

“That’s because I’ve had so much experience ignoring how I felt that I don’t pay attention to it anymore,” I admitted.

That was true, too.

From an early age, I couldn’t ever remember “feeling good.”

Like there was no moment in time where my body felt great.

Everything always felt off, and so I just got used to the feeling.

“Um, I’m sorry, but your application was denied.” The young woman came back with a smug expression on her face, trying to be masked by a polite one.

“Really,” I said carefully. “Is that right?”

“Yes.” She smiled, trying not to look like she wasn’t happy about the prospect.

“Do you mind telling me on what grounds that my application was denied?” I requested.

“Um.” She frowned. “Sure. I can go ask my manager.”

“How about you just bring your manager out here?” I suggested.

She looked slightly worried now, almost as if she’d gone back there and faked that she had her manager take a look at it.

“Ma’am?” I pushed.

“I’ll see if she’s willing to come out.” She hurried away.

The door to the room behind me opened, and I refused to turn around to look.

Boots sounded behind me, and Milena looked over her shoulder.

I saw the moment her eyes widened and knew that she’d come to the same conclusion I had.

The man was hot.

Again, I had to fight the urge to turn around and look.

But there was no way the man didn’t know who I was. My sister and I could pass for twins, and Milena had just blatantly stared at him.

“I’m so sorry but she’s not able to come out right now.” The woman came out of the back office, face slightly flushed.

I pulled out my phone then and pressed dial on the last number I’d called and paused while I waited for the phone to be answered.

It was, and a cheery, welcoming voice said, “Did you meet all the babies yet?”

“Noooo,” I sing-songed. “Actually, Renee, my application was denied.”

There was a long pause and then, “Who’s the one that helped you?”

I looked up, then described the woman at the desk looking at me warily now.

“Amber,” she hummed. “I’m in my office on the top floor. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll show you around.”

She was down in moments, looking angry as a hornet.

“Amber, please go wait in my office.” She paused. “Oh, Haze, son. Would you mind showing the two of them around?”

My brows lifted, and I couldn’t stop myself from turning and glancing at the older woman in front of me to the man behind me and back.

It was the gray in their eyes that clued me in.

Mother and son, for sure.

“Sure,” he said. “I got the kitten room done. They need some more litter, I was about to go do that.”

“I’ll get it done,” she said. “Take them through to see the dogs. Let me know if you need any help.”

The girl disappeared upstairs, and then Renee followed her, steaming mad.

I bit my lip to hide the worry on my face.

“I’m guessing you already know the mission?” he asked carefully.

He also stayed as far away from me as possible given the space allotted to us.

“Yes,” I said. “Your mom’s been testing some of my dog and cat products for years.”

“Oh, that’s you?” he asked, confusion on his face.

My phone started to go wild again, and I sighed.

When I went to silence it, I found that it wasn’t in my purse, but in Milena’s hands.

“You need something more to eat,” she said.

“I have some juice in my car,” I grumbled.

“I have some in the back. That’s where we’re going anyway. Follow me,” he urged.

We did, Milena a whole lot faster than me.

I didn’t want to look through this shelter with him.

Not when I wanted to climb him like a tree.

“I think I can come back tomorrow…”

But the door closed on both my sister and Haze, and I had no other choice but to follow them.

I dragged my feet, though, finding myself staring into a line of kennels. All of which had puppies in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

“Ohhh,” I said as I stopped at the first kennel I came to and dropped down to my haunches.

It was a mutt.

But such a cute little mutt.

My smile was small when I crooned, “Hey there, buddy.”

“Nastya Semyonov, get your ass in here and drink this juice right now,” my sister snarled from somewhere beyond the kennels.

I sighed and passed all the kennels, knowing that I should just get it over with.

She’d never let me look without drinking the juice.

Apple again.

Blech.

He held it out to me as I finally found my way into the room in which they were standing.

And the stupid apple juice in his hand as he held it out to me.

I was careful to take it by the top—he’d already twisted the cap off for me—and took a drink.

I grimaced.

I loathed apple juice.

Seriously, I fucking hated it.

It always reminded me of how stupid my body was.

I took about six sips and said, “That’s enough.”

“All of it,” Milena said.

“I’m not drinking any more apple juice,” I disagreed with her. “And it’s enough, I promise.”

I disappeared out the door again, leaving the half-drunk apple juice on the counter with a “Thank you” on my tongue as I went.

I heard my sister mutter something about me being stubborn, obstinate and pig-headed, but chose to ignore her.

I wandered off in the opposite direction I’d come, hoping that she’d maybe leave me alone.

She would keep picking and picking until I was pissy, and I didn’t want to be pissy today.

I wanted to see all the sweet babies there were to see.

I took pictures of all of them, planning to post it on my blog when I got home, and came to a sudden halt when I got to a back set of kennels that were off to the left of all the other ones.

My heart stuttered in my chest as I got a good look at them.

Older.

All of them were old.

There was the oldest Pug I’d ever seen, and then an even older Great Dane that looked like he may or may not keel over at any second.

The one that caught my attention the most was the yellow Lab with the whitest face I’d ever noticed on a dog.

The name on his kennel said “Butters.”

“This is the geriatric section,” he said. “All of these dogs are scheduled for euthanasia.”

My gasp had him explaining.

“I’m just kidding,” Haze admitted. “But all three are pretty fuckin’ old. The Pug and the Great Dane were dropped off, owner surrender, because they found out they had cancer. Bad cancer.”

“Then why wouldn’t they hold them for the rest of their lives?” I felt emotions well up inside my chest.

He walked over and let all three out of their kennels.

All of them gathered around his feet and got as excited as they could with the energy they had.

“They’re not really going to get euthanized,” he admitted. “We just tell people that so they don’t get into their minds that they’re adoptable to just anybody. They’re not. All of them will require a ton of work if they are adopted. My mom takes these two home with her every night.” He pointed to the yellow Lab. “He hangs out in the office at night.”

I felt a swell of emotion rise up inside of me and said, “He’s the one I want to take home.”

Why?

Because he was now looking at me with soulful brown eyes that made me want to wrap him up in my arms and hold him forever.

For the next four weeks, he was the best dog I’d ever had the pleasure to have.

We did everything together.

I broke the law and got him a service dog vest so he could go into the stores with me.

I took him out to eat with me.

I walked him every morning like clockwork.

We chased balls—albeit not very far.

We snuggled and watched movies every night.

He was the best friend I never knew I needed.

Until one day a month later when I woke up and he was just…gone.