Page 32 of Born into Chaos

“You are too cute,” I whisper as she eats like she’ll never be able to get enough. I hate that she knows what it’s like to feel pain and fear. She should’ve been loved and cared for from the second she took her first breath, and I’m glad that Vitya helped kill the bastards who were responsible for her neglect.

She watches me as she empties her bottle, and when it’s all gone, I do what Vitya taught me and burp her. I’m feeling pretty damn good about things, but she knocks the wind right out of my sails when the explosive sounds of her filling her diaper echo around me.

“Really, Samantha?”

The look she gives me makes it clear she doesn’t feel even remotely guilty about the mess she’s made for me to clean up.

“You couldn’t have waited until after I left?”

She sighs, and I resign myself to another dirty diaper experience. Being as quiet as I can, I bring her back into the living room and get to work. A few minutes later, she’s clean, I feel queasy, and Vitya is still in a heavy sleep.

“We did it,” I whisper, holding her little hand up so I can give it a high five. She quickly tries to grip my fingers instead. “We’ll work on that later.”

While she plays with my fingers, I reach over and grab some of the soft toys that Vitya ordered. He must’ve just thrown every single thing that caught his eye into the cart, because his living room floor is littered with boxes. Some haven’t even been opened yet. I spend the next couple of hours entertaining Samantha until she starts to drift off to sleep again. Knowing I need to get back upstairs before my mom gets back from the lunch she was going to with all my aunts, I walk over to the couch. Vitya is still in a deep sleep, looking so beautiful it’simpossible for me to not reach out and touch him. I brush a dark strand of hair off his forehead, letting my fingers graze his skin in the lightest of touches, but even though the contact is minuscule, it still has him grabbing my wrist in a punishing grip as his eyes fly open.

“Goddamn, Vitya,” I whisper-shout at him. “That hurts!”

It takes him a second to orient himself, and when he does, he lets out a familiar, infuriating grunt and lets go of my wrist.

“I think we’re past your grunting stage,” I tell him. He raises a brow at me before scrubbing a hand over his face in an effort to fully wake up. His eyes scan the room, quickly looking around until he spots Samantha’s sleeping form in the playpen.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I tell him. “I babysat. I fed her and then changed another one of her stinky, very full diapers, and then I kept her happy and entertained so that you could get some sleep. So you’re welcome, and you can stop being an ass to me now.”

“I’m not being an ass.”

“You sure about that?” I straighten back up and hike a hand on my hip. “No more grunting at me, no more one-word answers, and no more acting like a cold dick.”

“A cold dick?” he asks in a tone that makes it clear he doesn’t care for my word choice.

“Yes. A cold dick. We’ve moved beyond that, Vitya. Keep up.” Before he can ruin the moment by disagreeing with me, I say, “I need to get back upstairs. I can sneak up without you, but I think I’ve come up with a plan.”

“Sveta,” he starts to say, but I cut him off.

“I’m going to tell them that I think you’ve given me your nasty cold and that I want to go to the farmhouse for a while. No one else is there right now. We can hide out there for the time being.”

“And then?” He sits up and runs a hand through his perfectly disheveled hair. The brief touch I had earlier confirmed that it is in fact as soft as it looks. Knowing that information is its own kind of torture.

“And then I don’t know,” I admit, “but it’s a hell of lot better than hiding out down here.”

He knows I’m right, so he doesn’t try and argue that particular point. He does immediately try to shoot holes in my plan, though.

“Your dad will never buy it,” he warns. “And the likelihood that no one else is going to come by to check on you is slim to none.”

“Let me worry about that. It’ll at least buy us a few days to try and come up with something better.”

“There are security cameras in the private elevator, Sveta. They’re going to see you riding it alone.”

“I’ve already thought of that. My dad won’t check anything unless there’s a reason to, but just to be safe, I’m going to text Niki and have him scrub the footage for today and tomorrow when we leave.”

He nods, knowing my cousin Nikita can easily accomplish it so there isn’t any damning evidence of me daring to ride the elevator alone. I also know he’ll keep it a secret if I ask him to.

“I have to go,” I tell him again. “I’ll text you later after I’ve talked to my dad.”

When I start to walk off, he reaches a hand out to grab my wrist, this time the grip is softer, and instead of wincing, I’m forced to bite back a soft groan at the feel of his skin against mine.

“Wait, I’ll walk you to the elevator.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine.”

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