Page 23 of Married to the Don (Kornilov Bratva Duet 1)

Neither of them knows, but my sole purpose in coming to the motel was to separate them forever. Theo should be more afraid of me than anyone in the world, and yet, he’s making faces and giggling at his own reflection. I shake my head, the corner of my mouth turning up in amusement despite my efforts to hide it.

“I think we should take you back to your mom, bud,” I say, easing him away from the elevator buttons by grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling him slowly backward. He resists for a second before giving in to my authority.

“The room is boring, and I’m not sleepy.”

“It is—” I check my watch. “After midnight. You should definitely be asleep.”

He groans. “I’m thirsty.”

Thanks to Theo’s button mashing, the elevator is set to stop at every floor in the hotel, so it takes us to the ground level. There, we get out, and I grab him another water from the mini fridge.

If the kid working the desk thinks it’s strange I’m with a little kid instead of the sex worker he had sent up to my room, he doesn’t make his feelings known. He smiles at us both and then continues wiping down the surfaces of the lobby with a bleach wipe.

Theo and I have to wait a few minutes for the rickety, empty elevator to make it all the way up to the fourth floor and then back to the ground floor, but when it does, we hop inside and return to the second floor. I make sure to keep Theo’s active fingers away from the button panel this time.

Theo races down the hallway, probably annoying the other guests in the motel, but I dare one of them to come out and say anything about it. I’ll have them thrown out on their asses before they even know what happened.

The kid spins around and smiles at me as he clumsily runs backwards, and a surge of protectiveness rushes through me. It’s the same sensation I’ve always had with Fedor. The same instinctual need to make sure nothing bad ever happens to him.

I know it’s probably only happening because Theo and Fedor might as well be twins. It’s probably just a nostalgic or biologic response to seeing a human who shares my genetics. It shouldn’t override logic and common sense.

Except, I fear it might.

I know Molly needs to be out of the picture if there is any hope of Fedor being free. And I damn well know my hands are full enough trying to keep Fedor out of trouble that I don’t have the energy or resources to add two more people to that list. And yet …

Theo runs back to me, his little chest rising and falling like he has just run a marathon.

“I’m the fastest kid at day care,” he says with pride. “Some of the kids are babies, but some are big like me. I’m still the fastest.”

“Is that so?”

He hums a confirmation. “Krista doesn’t let us run around the apartment, but when we go to the park, I run as fast as I can, and she can’t even catch me.”

An image of Fedor running around the playground with one arm extended in a fist, pretending to be a superhero while I gave mock chase behind him, rushes into my mind. I shake my head to clear the image, but it refuses to budge.

I protected Fedor then and still do now because he’s family, and that is the one useful thing my father ever taught me: family over everything.

And now, Theo is family. Whether Fedor knows it or cares, this kid is my family, and I have to protect him, too.

I just have to figure out how to do that.

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