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“That is not your place, kid. That’sneveryour place.”
“No one checked the messages from last night?”
A growl tore from Valentyn’s throat as he held the device up to his lips. “I will speak with you later, Reggie. Wait for my call.” The call ended, tension exploding through the room.
Valentyn frowned and glared at my father. My father cleared his throat, waving his hands in front of me. “Ada has been relentlessly calling and texting. She found the new number and she knows I’m in France now. Tia is not safe with her but she’s not safe with me either.”
“Explain.”
“Hawk International didn’t start with my children. However, it was between a corporate job and a woman. I used to think I was stupid until I started hearing little stories of the ‘projects’ they were working on. I thought they might have left my family alone—it had been my choice after all or so they said. I guess they quickly just moved on to the next generation.”
I had never heard my father say so many words at one time in my life. “What did they ask you to do?”
My father sighed, lowering his hands as his shoulders sagged. “Where do you think you get your smarts from, Rhys? I stepped away from that world after your mother. I wanted nothing to do with it. And now all three of you are caught up in it? I just… but I know Tia needs someone, someone she can trust. We truly failed you, didn’t we, Rhys? There were so many times I should have seen it.”
His apology is a little too late so I just nod, waiting for Valentyn to deal with him. Am I happy to see my father? Yes. Am I happy with how this shit turned out? Not in the fuckingslightest. Am I now terrified for more than just one child? Abso-fucking-lutely.
Dmitri presses a small kiss to my forehead as Valentyn whispers some harsh words to my father before the man scurries out the front door. Then our protector turned his attention to us and the little girl in my arms.
Tia timidly lifted her head from my shoulder and looked around, her eyes wide and glazed over with unshed tears. She stared at the door for several seconds and then fisted her tiny hand in my shirt. “Is he gone?”
My heart was already tired from the shit I had found myself in but those words shattered it.
Chapter fifteen
RHYS
Dmitri led us tothe couch, Gianni and Valentyn joining. Paval was firmly attached to Gianni’s leg although he perked up a little when he saw Tia. Tia returned his excitement with a small smile before staring at me again.
“Gran-pa took us on vacation with Gran-ma. Said that we were going to see the Eiffel Tower!” Her eyes brightened a little before dimming again. “Gran-pa was very mean. Keep your head down. Stay quiet! Stay with me. It didn’t feel like a vacation.” She tried to imitate my father, her face all scrunched up. Just thinking of how he must have hid her on the way over here—it pissed me off.
“Tia, you said before that Dad was going to take you to the beach.” I smoothed her hair down, trying to understand the wild expression on her little face.
She shook her head. “We got on a plane. He said ‘things have changed’.” She dropped her voice again and then sat back on my lap, waiting for me to respond.
The problem was that I had absolutely no idea what to say. My parents had just dropped a kid in my lap on top of the other shit we were already dealing with. A scowl from my right told me that Valentyn was dealing with the situation but I also knew we weren’t just going to chuck my niece into the abyss. There wasn’t anyone else to even give her over to.
I was all the family she had left and that pained me.
“Tia-”
“But now I get to spend time with you before we go home to mommy.” Her nose twitched and she huffed. “Mommy did something bad, I think. Gran-pa got really mad when I went through her purse. I just wanted to play with makeup.”
Tia was breaking my heart.
“Hey, babe-” Gianni cut in, Tia remembering we weren’t the only ones in the room. She twisted around to see my men gathered around us, Paval now in Gianni’s lap, curious but quiet.
Tia stared at each of them, cataloging their features before pointing to Dmitri. “Are you my uncle’s boyfriend?” I snorted, wondering why she pointed to him. “He looks like he should be your boyfriend. Big and strong.” A groan fell from her lips as her brows furrowed. “They all look like they should be.”
The acceptance that Tia offered without even knowing it warmed my heart. I gathered her up in my arms, pressing sweet kisses to the side of her face. Her giggles spilled into the room, lightening the mood. “They’re all my boyfriends, Tia.”
Tia hugged me back before twisting around to address Paval. I wasn’t sure how my men felt about bringing another child intothe mold but while she was here, I hoped we could at least make her comfortable. “Hi,” she said with a little wave.
Paval responded with a big grin, glancing over at Valentyn for something that looked like permission before sliding off Gianni’s lap and approaching us. Their introduction was too cute as they exchanged names and then Paval immediately asked if they wanted to construct a pillow fort.
It took them two seconds before they were shooing us out of the living room, Tia glancing back at me a few times to make sure that I didn’t disappear from her sight. The next time I saw Ada, I was going to fucking rake her over the coals.
How the fuck was Tia and Paval dealing with this so well? They had been uprooted, moved around, hidden, told to be quiet and now they were just… playing with pillows? I knew they were just kids but fuck I wished it was that easy.
