Page 12 of Born into Darkness

I feel her give a soft nod, but the tears don’t stop, and my heart breaks at her pain. I feel it more strongly than I feel my own. I’ve waited my whole life to meet someone who makes me feel like my music does, and finding her after being kidnapped is the last thing I ever expected. There’s no denying that it’s happened, though. She makes me feel alive, the kind of deep-rooted joy that I’ve never experienced outside of music before. It’s a strong, undeniable feeling ofrightness, and there’s no way I could ever walk away now that I’ve found her.

Wincing as I sit up, I scoot my back against the wall and pull her closer so her head is resting against my shoulder as I cup the back of her head. The chains are annoying, but I work around them and keep her close.

“We’re going to survive this,” I promise her. “My dad and brother can find anyone, and they’re going to find us. Val will fill them in on everything he knows, and then they’ll be coming for us.”

“My family will too,” she whispers. I hear her sniffle, and I think she’s stopped crying, but I brush my thumb across her cheek to be sure. Relieved to not feel any fresh tears, I stroke her hair and keep her close to me. After a few seconds, she adds, “I swear I’m usually cleaner than this.”

She can’t see the smile I give, but she hears the soft laugh before I say, “I swear I usually smell a lot better than this.”

Her laugh makes my smile grow even bigger as she says, “I hate to say it, but you might just be smelling me.”

“No, it’s definitely me. I blamed it on Val when he was here, but now that he’s gone, it’s painfully obvious that it’s me.”

“At least we both stink. It’d be really embarrassing if I were the only one.”

She’s right. It definitely would be, but our situation has made us rethink our priorities. I desperately miss showers and would happily kill one of the guards to get one, but survival takes precedence. We can scrub this filth off later. The most important thing is that we survive it.

“Well, while we sit here and smell nice together, you can tell me more about yourself,” I say.

“What do you want to know?”

I think about telling her that I want to know everything, every single detail about the woman I’ve become enamored with, but instead I say, “You said you have two older brothers. Are you close to them?”

“Very, and I miss them like crazy.”

The sadness in her voice has me quickly saying, “We don’t need to talk about them if you’d rather not.”

“No, it’s fine. I think they’d like you. Dima is the oldest. He’s twenty-five, and when I was three, my mom and dad adopted Bran. He’s a month older than me. I miss them so much. We’ve always been close, especially Bran and me. He’s deaf, so my whole family learned sign language.” She’s quiet for a second before she adds, “I’m so used to signing, and my hands feel useless and empty, if that makes sense.”

I keep stroking her hair, forgetting all about the pain that radiates through every cell in my body and the cuts that are just now starting to clot, and say, “I know exactly what you mean. I’ve been playing the piano since I was a kid, and not being able to play is like a physical ache in my hands.”

She reaches up and wraps her hand around mine. “You have beautiful hands. I’m not at all surprised that you’re a musician.”

Despite the hell we’re currently living in, she manages to pull a genuine smile from me, effortlessly making me forget about everything but her.

“Beautiful, huh?” I can’t help but tease.

She gives a soft laugh. “I couldn’t help but notice them.”

“What do Val’s hands look like?”

I feel the soft shrug of her shoulder against me. “I didn’t notice.”

It’s the first time I’ve been grateful for the dark. It spares me the embarrassment of her seeing the huge smile I’m wearing. I have zero experience with women and dating. Hell, she’s the first girl I’ve ever even held hands with. My cousins and I have always put the Bratva first. As soon as I turned eighteen, I officially joined, and it’s not easy to bring someone else into that. During high school, I had plenty of opportunities to hook up with the girls in our class, but I never wanted any of them. They didn’t make me feel anything. Music has always been my first love. I remember listening to my mom play, and it was like every note lit me up from the inside. I’ve been waiting twenty-one years for someone else to make me feel that way, but as soon as I locked eyes with Talia, it was like I could hear an echo of the sweetest music—a song that was just waiting to be created and brought to life.

I keep stroking her hair and cheek while I ask, “Is Bran in the Bratva? How does he manage it? It must be difficult without being able to hear.”

“Do you have any plans to hurt my family or try and takeover?”

I give a soft laugh. “No. You said you’re in the Pacific Northwest, right?”

“Yeah.”

“My family is on the East Coast, and we have no plans to change that. We like where we’re at. Expanding would split us up, and that’s not something my dad and uncles would ever want.”

Satisfied with my answer, she says, “Well, I’m sure it’s not a surprise to you, but my family keeps me in the dark as much as possible. I don’t know details about what they do, but I know Bran’s talent with a gun. We all do. They call himTikhiy D’yavol.”

“Silent Devil?” I ask.

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