Page 89 of The Bratva's Bounty

Taking in a deep breath, I held her tightly against me to fully relax. "Why is Nolan hiding? Did he get into your stuff again and blow something up? Or did he hack the Pentagon and get caught?" I half-joked with a dry chuckle.

Rolling her eyes, Nicole nuzzled her face into my chest. "Still can't believe he forgot to cover his tracks properly. I mean, who forgets to set up three proxy chains at least?" Her complaints slowly trailed out. Okay, maybe they didn't trail out; it was more like I zoned her out.

Hearing her huff made me tune back in. "God, could you imagine if we had more than one kid?" Nicole mused with a dying chuckle. "I mean, sometimes I kinda wished we did, but I'm glad we got some sense kicked into our asses and decided one was enough."

Letting out a deep breath, I couldn't help but agree with a nod and chuckle. "What were we thinking when we wanted a whole van full?" I mused with a soft laugh.

After watching Nikolai and Angel's twins, Nicole and I quickly changed our minds about the number of kids we wanted. The twins weren't even that hard of kids, yet we found ourselves wanting to tear our hair out whenever we babysat for my older brother. So, yeah, one was more than enough.

Besides, Nolan was a handful from the moment he became mobile and sentient enough. The little troublemaker took after both Nicole and me, which made him amazing but also a big handful. He was too smart for his own good, thanks to Nicole, and like his mother, he loved to tinker around with explosives and tech. From me, he got his hard head and relentless spirit. Thankfully, he wasn't an aggressive or violent little shithead like me.

We were more than happy with Nolan, and we wouldn't want him to be any different. No matter how much trouble his curious mind got him into, we were always there to help him out and love him at the end of the day. Even if we bailed him out of trouble, we didn't spoil him. We always made sure he learned his lesson at the end of it all. Besides, it wasn't as if he was a budding career criminal. The trouble he often got into was little things like hacking people's phones to change their ringtones to embarrassing things or other electronicobjects for harmless pranks. He has set off quite a few bombs, though… But those were mostly in a controlled environment…

I wasn't too concerned in that area of his life anymore because it seemed to be a phase that he got over. Occasionally he got into Nicole's stash still, but it was for stupid shit like wanting to make something awesome for a girl he wanted to impress or to make smoke bombs for escapes.

And yes, our little genius somehow managed to hack the FBI just to prove a point to his cousins after they kept taunting him. Yeah, everyone got in trouble that day.

Imagine my surprise to open the door to the fucking FBI!

That really was a shit show and a half, and I was glad we made it out unscathed. It was one thing to get caught with local law enforcement, but going higher than the state was a whole new level of risky.

Looking down at Nicole, I appreciated her for a long moment as I stroked her hair. "We've done good, though. We made it through, and we did amazing."

Sometimes, I was afraid to wake up. I feared that this wonderful life I'd lived was all some kind of dream, that one day I would open my eyes to an empty bed with no Nicole in sight and an empty house with no family photos or happy memories.

Not a day went by when I wasn't eternally grateful for Nicole and the life she'd blessed me with.

"Thank you,zhizn moya," I whispered against her head before kissing it. "I love you so much."

Giving her a tight squeeze, I breathed in a lungful of her scent with a happy smile. "Go finish up what you need. I'll deal with Nolan," I told her, kissing her one last time and slipping away to search for my son.

On a hunch, I went into my office and rounded my desk. Lo and behold, there was my son, all scrunched up under my desk with his laptop propped up on his curled legs.

Honestly, I don't know how the hell he even still managed to fit his 6'0 body under there. Sighing, I pulled my office chair out and stood there with my arms crossed with an unamused smirk, "Nolan, you're going to get your fat ass stuck one day, I swear." He wasn't bulky like me, but he still had some meat on his body. "Come on, it's almost dinner, so get your ass up." I signaled for him to get up with a wave of my hand.

His head of dark brown hair popped out, and his amber-brown eyes shined up at me sharply. "No, because I actually want to live long enough to make it to my graduation," he snarked with a roll of his eyes. "I ain't eating anything mom makes."

Nicole was still banned from cooking anything besides packaged food after all these years, but that didn't stop her from trying to learn. Unfortunately, anything she tried to make from scratch always ended up inedible somehow.

So… Yeah… It sounded like it would be one of those nights.

Sighing, I ran a hand across my graying beard and gave my son a calculating look. "I'll buy you that new laptop you want," I shamelessly bribed my son.

Instantly, he shot out fully from under the desk and got up in my face. He crossed his arms and glared at me defiantly. "Hell no, I took the bite last time, and ain't nothing is worth doing it twice in a row." Nolan vigorously shook his head as he dug his heels into the floor.

Leaning in slightly, he mocked me a bit with a pressed smile. "I'd rather be target practice for Uncle Stepan because at least my survival rate is higher than mom's food." Before a single sound could come out of my open mouth, Nolan held a finger up to stop me. "And, if somehow I get shot, at least I know I'd die rather quickly."

Huffing, Nolan sat down in my office chair and spun around in it. "Honestly, why can't you just tell mom her food is crappy? And tell her not to cook anymore?"

Grabbing the back of the chair, I quickly tilted it over to pour him out of it. "You act like I haven't been doing that for the past twenty-something years," I retorted, rolling my eyes at him before grabbing him by the back of his shirt and dragging him to the dining room.

"I'm going to hack everything you own," Nolan threatened me with an unpromising glare as I dragged both of us to our dooms.

"Yeah, you do that and face your mother's wrath," I barked back with a curt laugh. "I will be the least of your worries."

Throwing out an exasperated groan, Nolan rolled his eyes so far back that I was surprised they came back. "Ugh! You two are such buzz kills."

Hauling my son into his seat, I looked at Nicole, who looked at the two of us with raised brows. "I'm blaming you for this typical teenager attitude," I commented, jabbing my thumb at our son. "I was not this angsty at his age." I was a whole lot worse.

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