Page 5 of A Nanny For The Bratva Boss
Mine.
I come with a grunt, spilling over my hand, my jaw clenched so tight it aches.
It’s not enough. It’s never fucking enough.
I need the real thing. Need her.
But I can’t have her.
I wash up, throw on jeans and a t-shirt, and I’m pouring myself coffee when my phone rings.
It’s Katya, my sister.
“Yeah.”
“Misha.” Her voice sounds like she gargled razors. “I’m sick. The doctor says it’s just a bad cold, but David’s got it too. So, Sofia can’t stay with us. I wouldn’t ask, but with Mom and Dad on their cruise… We need you to take her. Just for a few days. Please.”
My poor sister and her dumbass husband are dog-sick, great. But there’s no way I’m letting them pass this shit to my little princess.
“I’ll be there in ten.”
“Thank you. But Misha…” She coughs, and it sounds wet and painful. “She’ll need… activities. Conversation. You know.”
“I know.”
I hang up and stare at my coffee.
Sofia. For a few days. In my house. I can handle that. I’ve handled worse.
But then my brain does something fucking stupid. It pictures Maya in my house with Sofia. Playing, laughing, making my niece smile. Making me… No.
But the thought’s already taken root. And once I get an idea in my head, there’s no shaking it.
Maya needs money. She needs a place to stay that isn’t charity.
Sofia needs someone who isn’t her grumpy asshole uncle, who grunts instead of talking.
And I need…
I need Maya under my roof. In my space. Where I can finally stop pretending I don’t want her.
I grab my keys and head out.
* * *
Ten minutes later, I’m at Katya’s. Poor thing looks like death. She’s pale, shaking, and wrapped in a blanket even though it’s seventy degrees outside.
“You look like shit.”
“Thanks, big brother. Always so comforting.” She tries to laugh but ends up coughing instead.
“Where’s Sofia?”
“Upstairs. She’s already packed. I told her she’s going on an adventure with Uncle Misha.”
I shake my head, my lips stretching into one of the rare smiles I reserve for a very few, and head upstairs to find my niece in her room, sitting on her fluffy bed with a sparkly pink backpack next to her.
She looks up when I walk in, and her entire face lights up.
