Page 76 of Born into Chaos

“I slit his throat that night,” I tell them.

Danil reaches over and taps a few keys, pulling up two more images. “And this is Bill and Alan Butler. They’re brothers who were renting rooms at the house.”

Sasha leans against the island and takes the mug of coffee Max hands him. “I killed those two fuckers.”

“Right,” Danil says, “so that leaves this guy.” He pulls up another photo, one I don’t recognize, but then Niki turns his screen around, showing the face of a woman. It’s hard to place her as the rotten corpse I’d found in the closet, but it’s definitely her.

“She was already dead when we got there. I found Samantha next to her body,” I tell them, even though I know Val has already filled them in.

“This is Dana Miller, Samantha’s mom, and she was involved with Shane Lyons. There’s a hospital record of her giving birth four months ago,” Niki says. “A little girl, only five pounds when she was born, and I dug around and found the hospital notes. There were drugs in Dana’s system when she came in. The birth certificate lists her and Shane as the parents. They named her Erin Lyons.”

“What kind of vehicle does Shane drive?” I ask them.

Niki looks over at me. “A white F-150.”

“How the fuck did he know we were here?” I slam my hand ontothe counter, so pissed I can barely think. “No one followed us here. I made sure of it, and there’s been no sign of anyone.”

“Well, he found you,” Vitaly says. “You took his kid and pulled my daughter into all this.”

“I saved her life, and I couldn’t just dump her off at some hospital.” I meet the pair of eyes that are so goddamn similar to the woman I love that it’s painful to see. “I love your daughter, and I love that baby. I couldn’t walk away from either of them.”

“Keep digging around for information,” Matvey tells Niki, squeezing his nephew’s shoulder as he walks by. “We need to know where the bastard is.”

“I went back and found his laptop,” Sasha tells me. He points to the one Niki is working on. Danil leans closer, watching his son as they have a whispered conversation about how best to find what we’re looking for.

When I realize it’s going to take longer than just a few minutes, I turn around and lean against the counter, waving away the cup of coffee Max offers. I can’t stomach the idea of eating or drinking anything right now. Val takes the spot next to me.

“We’re going to find them,” he tells me, and I can hear the determination in his voice.

I look over at him, noticing the haunted look in his eyes and knowing this is killing him too. It’s his twin sister out there and none of us know what’s being done to her. She’d hate to see him so worried, so I nod my head at him and say, “He let her pack things for Samantha. If he wanted either of them dead, he wouldn’t have done that.”

Val thinks for a minute. “Maybe he needs her to take care of Samantha. You said when you found her that she was starving and that it was obvious she’d been there a while. He clearly doesn’t give a shit about his baby or have the faintest idea of how to take care of her. As long as he needs Sveta for something, she’ll be okay.”

“She’s smart, Val, we both know how fucking smart she is. We’re getting her back.”

Vitaly watches us, the murderous look in his eyes is still there, butit’s not quite as intense when he meets my stare. I know he’s just worried about his daughter, but I also know that he’s not getting rid of me this easily. I’m marrying his daughter. He’s stuck with me for a son-in-law, whether he likes it or not.

Unable to just stand here, I push off from the counter and start to pace the room. With each passing minute, I feel my sanity start to slip, and when the minutes turn to hours, I know I’m reaching my breaking point. As frustrated as I am, I know I can’t take it out on anyone but myself. I’m the one who fucked up here. No one else. Just me. Her family is doing everything they can to fix my fuck-up, and I know I’ll never be able to repay them for it.

Roman and Luka eventually start making a quick lunch for everyone, but I can’t bring myself to eat anything. Vitaly waves away the turkey sandwich that Luka tries to give him, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen the man turn food down. He looks as miserable as I feel. While the others eat, he walks around the living room, and when he spots his daughter’s sketchpad, he sits on the couch and starts thumbing through it. This is her bigger pad, the one she’s been filling up with drawings of Samantha, and, thankfully, not the one with the nudes. He flips to the earlier pages, and when he sees all the drawings she’d done of me, he looks over and asks, “How long?”

He doesn’t need to elaborate. I know what he’s asking. “I never crossed the line with her. It wasn’t until after I found Samantha and we came here.”

He holds up one of the drawings. It’s from one of their family dinners, so old that Natalya is pregnant with Isabella in it. In the sketch, Sveta has zeroed in on me. She’d captured me standing in the corner, watching over her, just like I’ve always done.

I hold his stare, letting him see the truth of what I’m saying. “I never crossed the line with her until after we came here with Samantha.”

“But you wanted to.”

It’s not a question, so I don’t bother answering it. His lips tighten in a firm line as he keeps flipping through the sketchpad. “And shewanted you to,” he eventually says, his words so low I almost miss them.

“I love her,” I tell him again, but he just sighs and tosses the book aside before scrubbing a hand over his face.

“I don’t want to fucking hear it right now,” he tells me.

I don’t fight him on it. I just sit down across from him and reach for the stuffed bunny that Samantha loves so much. I nearly lose control of my emotions when I picture her cute smiling face. I know Sveta is taking care of her, but who’s taking care of Sveta? She’d give her life to protect the baby that she’s quickly fallen in love with and that scares the hell out of me.

I miss them both so much it makes my chest ache. They’re my family, my whole fucking life, and I can’t breathe without them.

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