Page 59 of Born into Chaos

When he pulls her down onto his lap again, I grab Samantha and tell them I’m going to check on supper. We head into the kitchen, but Vitya is nowhere to be seen. Keeping her against my chest, I walk over to the French doors that lead out onto the deck.

“There he is,” I whisper to Samantha, turning so she can see Vitya. He’s cooking on the grill, even though he’s got to be freezing his ass off, and his back is to us, so I take my time running my eyes over him.

“God, he’s a beautiful man.”

Samantha hums and chews on her fist while I ogle the man who saved her. When he looks over his shoulder, he catches me in the act of eye-fucking him and gives me a wicked grin that I feel in my core.

“We’ve been caught, Sam.”

She notices Vitya walking closer and squeals with the kind of happiness that’s completely genuine and uninhibited. Her whole cute little face lights up at the sight of him. I know the feeling well, so I kiss her cheek and then prepare to hand her over as soon as he walks inside, knowing she’s going to want to go to him.

When the door opens, I turn to shield Samantha from the cold air that comes in with Vitya. He wraps his arms around the two of us, burying his face in my neck and kissing me right behind my ear.

“You’re freezing,” I tell him, laughing when he nips at my earlobe. “You need to put your jacket on.”

I feel the heat of his breath when he gives a soft laugh. “I’m fine. Stop worrying.”

“You won’t even let me step foot outside until I’m wearing my hat and gloves, but you get to go out in just your shirt?”

He kisses Samantha’s head and says, “Yep.”

“That’s not fair.”

Grabbing Samantha from me, he gives me another wink and says, “You know it’s just going to get worse, right?”

I follow him back to the counter. “No, I don’t know. What do you mean?”

He smiles and pats Samantha’s butt while he says, “If you thought I was overprotective before, you’re in for a shock. That was me holding back, sweetheart.”

I step closer and run my eyes over him. “We’ll see about that.”

When I turn to walk away, he smacks my ass. “Yes, you will.”

Chapter 9

Vitya

Iwatch Sveta walk away while Samantha hums in my ear and drools on my shirt. I wasn’t just giving her a hard time. I’ve been holding back for two years, and I’ll never do it again. I’ve been restrained by my job and my inability to cross the line, but none of that matters anymore. Now, if she does something to put herself in danger, I can just tie her sweet ass to the bed and spank it until it turns a beautiful shade of red.

Smiling at the image, I put Samantha in her swing so I can finish grilling, and I’m not at all surprised when Val comes out to join me.

“Need any help?”

I raise a brow. “We both know you didn’t come out here to help me flip the burgers.”

“True enough,” he says with a nod and then sits on the edge of the deck railing, bracing his hands on either side of himself. “So fill me in on what really happened when you found Samantha.”

I cover the grill so they can finish cooking and turn to face Val. “I was with Sasha. We’d just gotten an address from Radomir, so Sasha and I decided to check it out and take down anyone we found inside. The house was a fucking mess, man. Not just dirty, but filthy—rottenfood, roaches, all that shit. Anyway, Sasha went upstairs, and after I took a guy out in the living room, I went up and found him practicing his knife skills.”

Val gives a soft laugh. “He does like to practice.”

I look over at him before I turn back to the grill to check on the food. “He’s gotten really fucking good at it. He took out two guys, and then he left. I stayed to text Timofey and get my final orders from him. He told me to let them rot, so that’s what I was going to do, but before I could leave, I heard a noise. I thought it was a man who’d been hiding at first, but then I thought it might be a puppy. I eventually tracked the noise to the room Sasha had killed the first guy in. The smell was horrible. We’d found a woman rotting in the closet earlier, but we hadn’t noticed anything else.”

I shake my head at the memory and fill him in on finding Samantha next to her rotting mom and how neglected she’d been.

“Jesus,” he whispers.

“I didn’t know what else to do, but I knew I couldn’t leave her there.”

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