Page 99 of Born into Madness
“He’s affectionate with me,” Mia says, leaning against the armrest of the couch next to Niki. She looks down at him and grins, “Nice nose ring.”
“You know, it’s starting to grow on me, so joke’s on you.” He points to his nose. “This was me taking one for the team. Now wedon’t have to listen to you sing.” He laughs and adds, “And Sasha might be affectionate to you, but I think we can all agree we’ve never seen him like this.”
Mia nods. “True enough, and Chort loves her, too, so it’s like she tamed all the crazy in one go.”
“I’m right here, you know,” Sasha says, but no one pays him any mind, and he doesn’t seem to care. He’s too busy wrapping a strand of my hair around his finger while his thumb slips under my shirt to caress my side.
“Okay, I have to know,” Sveta says, ignoring Sasha as she puts all her attention on me. “Are you going to keep the dummies, or are you planning on redecorating?”
“Hey, I need those,” Sasha starts to say, but I pat his hand to let him know I won’t be making him get rid of his beloved training dummies. He kisses my shoulder and gives my hair a playful tug.
“Since Sasha and Chort both really seem to love them,” I tell her, “I think we’ll have to keep them. Maybe one day they’ll need to be moved, but for now, I don’t know, it’s kind of fun to watch him go to work on them.”
I hear the soft hum of approval from Sasha before Sveta laughs and shakes her head. Hooking her thumb in my direction she says, “Okay, match made in heaven right here. You two were clearly destined to be together.”
“Absolutely,” Mia says, giving me a grin.
I know out of everyone Sasha is closest to her, so having her approval means the world to me. I return her smile, hoping I can get to know her better at some point. I wish I could share this moment with Sav. God, she’d love this. Looking over at Niki, I’m tempted to ask him what he thought of her and why the hell he doesn’t ask me for her number, but I don’t. Sav would hate it if I meddled. She made me promise not to, so I resist the urge, even though it kills me to do so.
Right when we’re all trying to decide if we can stomach even more dessert, someone’s phone starts ringing from across the room. Danil, the man who was introduced as Niki’s dad, answers it, and then says something in Russian that has his wife jumping up with an excited squeal and huge smile on her face.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Sasha kisses my neck and says, “Talia just went into labor. They’re about to get their first granddaughter.”
Niki’s brother, Max, is the only cousin I haven’t met yet, but Sasha explained that they live here for half the year, so I’m sure I’ll meet him and his wife and baby when they come back for their six months.
“Max said Talia’s doing great. They’re on their way to the hospital now with her parents,” Danil says, pulling his wife in for a big hug while his brothers all congratulate them on becoming grandparents.
I look over at Niki, the internal war obvious enough for Sasha to say, “We’ll be fine, Niki. You can keep searching while you’re there and still call to let us know if you find anything.”
He nods, but it’s clear he’s still debating about whatever it is he’s been searching for and whether or not it’s okay for him to leave.
“You know Max and Talia would want you to be there,” Luka tells him.
“Yeah,” Mia agrees and then nudges his shoulder. “Besides, I can poke around while you’re gone, too. Maybe I’ll find something.”
Niki raises a brow at her.
She shrugs. “What? I do know how to Google.”
“Jesus Christ,” Niki groans. “I’ll just wait and fly out once we’re done here.”
Sveta tosses a couch pillow at him while everyone else jumps in with a lot of comments that pretty much boil down to himgetting his ass on that flight or they’ll tie him up and toss him onboard themselves.
He finally relents with a “Fine, but if you need me to fly back, you better let me know.”
“We will,” Sasha assures him. Then he adds, “When this is all over, we’ll treat you to Bean Me Up again. I’m sure Cyn’s friend could be persuaded to join us.”
I turn my head and kiss his stubbled cheek, because him matchmaking for Niki and Sav is one of the sweetest things he’s ever done. Mia says something in Russian, and whatever Niki says in return has her shaking her head at him like he’s lost his mind.
Without me even having to ask, Sasha whispers in my ear, “Mia asked about your friend, and Niki said she’s far too beautiful and way out of his league.”
Now it’s my turn to look at Niki like he’s off his rocker. I know my best friend is beautiful, but so is Niki, and I can’t imagine a man as good looking as he is feeling insecure about anything. I always assumed the beautiful people knew they were, even if they weren’t stuck-up jackasses about it. Sav’s the sweetest person on the planet, but there’s no way in hell she looks in the mirror and thinksYuck.
Even though I promised I wouldn’t meddle, I tell myself it’s not really sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong. It’s correcting an egregious error that needs to be nipped in the bud, so I say, “She felt the same way about you,” and leave it at that.
The smile he tries to fight is proof enough that I did the right thing.
