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Crack!
Both of us ducked to the floor out of instinct, remaining for a good while to see if any more bullets would make an appearance.
Cautiously, we got up after no more bullets sprayed through the window of Stepan's office. "Well, that answers my question." Stepan narrowed his eyes at the single bullet hole through his bulletproof window.
When Stepan's body moved for the door, I instantly placed myself in his path with spread arms. "Hon, wait, she—"
"Is supposed to be studying, not outside with my rifle." Stepan quickly finished my sentence on his own.
My shoulders fell with my long sigh. "Styosha." Stepping up to him, I placed my hands on his chest and drew lazy circles on it. "She just wants to practice to impress you."
"She can impress me by doing what she should be doing, not by going behind my back and playing with guns when she shouldn't." Stepan bit back with a tense face.
Shoving my hands off, he moved me aside and made his way outside to the backyard with me hot on his trail, spewing excuse after excuse to try and lessen his irritation towards our daughter—of course, he ignored it all.
"Julia!" Stepan's voice boomed across the backyard, making our daughter wince as she turned around and looked at him in shame with a hung head.
"Papa, I'm sorry, the bullet ricocheted, I didn't mean to." Julia was quick to apologize with genuine remorse.
"There shouldn't even be a ricocheting bullet in the first place because you shouldn't even be out here shooting. You're supposed to be inside studying for your finals, not out here trying to take off a wooden head. Hell, you're not even supposed to be out here alone with any kind of firearm period, let alone with my rifle." Stepan continued to dig into our daughter, who shrunk back at his words with teary eyes. "What the hell were you even thinking?"
"I already studied a lot today, I wanted to get more practice in, I need to practice otherwise I can't get fast enough," Julia argued back with a slight crack to her voice.
"You don't need to get fast enough for anything." Stepan retorted, crossing his arms as he stood before our daughter.
Steeling herself, Julia braved her face and looked up at Stepan with her hands clenched at her sides. "I need to get fast enough to shoot fast like you so you can get off my ass about taking over the bratva with Natasha when the time comes. I need to be able to shoot fast and efficiently enough to cover her back like you do Uncle Kolya."
"No, you fucking don't. I told you, it's never going to happen. You are never going to be bratva, ever, not while I'm still breathing on this earth." Stepan's frustration pooled at his rising shoulders as he narrowed his eyes sternly at Julia.
Of course, just like any teenager, she became defiant in response. It also didn't help that she had my attitude. "And you also told me that if I could pull off four shots in a second with the bolt action then you'd shut up about it, which is exactly what I am trying to do. But also, you can't ban me from taking part of the bratva, you're not in charge of my life, what I do is ultimately up to me and you can't do anything about it. When will you get your head out of your ass and see that I'm not your little princess anymore, that I'm grown up and have my own life to make and live! Ugh!"
"If that's how you think then you've got a lot of growing up to do still. I have the final say in everything. If I don't want you in the bratva then all I have to do is say the damn word and your uncle would never let it happen. If I want you locked at home then I will damn well do so, one word to the college and they'd take back your acceptance in a heartbeat." Okay, now that crossed the line.
"Stepan! That's enough!" I snapped, shoving myself between him and Julia with a hand on his chest. "You need to go cool off. You're her father, not her dictator. I understand that you love her and cherish her and want to protect her, but she is her own person at the end of the day. You have no right to control her life like that. Just because you can doesn't mean you should or could."
I knew Stepan would never cross that line; his words were said in anger. Still, he needed a verbal reminder sometimes. "Don't be like your father." It was a low blow, but he needed it. The wince I got in response meant I got through.
"Why are you even so against me joining the bratva? Both you and mom are bratva, and you're both alive and fine. Things have changed too, it's not like the 1900s where it's all violence and drugs and guns and death." Julia had a good point. Most of the bratva's business was underground now and clean.
Compared to what Stepan and I lived through, it was very much tamed and stable now for the Volkov children if they desired to take over.
"Just because it's not like that now doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I don't want to be living every day worrying with your mother as to whether or not you'll live through the day and the next, or if the next phone call we get about you is to inform us of your exit from this life. I don't want you living that dangerous life, clean or not, that shit still happens." Stepan rebutted with a deflated chest.
"I don't want to have to pull the plug on your life support or bury your casket. You and your mother are everything to me, and losing any of you would break me." Stepan admitted with a pained frown and vulnerability in his voice. "You're my only child, my precious daughter. I know I can't protect you forever, but I'll damn well try and do what I can while I still can. I know you're tough like your mother and I, that you can more than handle yourself because we taught you to, but still, you're my daughter and it's my job as your father to make sure you are safe and protected."
"Papa, you can't protect me forever. I'm grown up. I have my own life to live, and if you try to stop me from living my life to the fullest how I want it then I will hate you." Stepan winced at the last part as if Julia stabbed him in the chest with a knife. "I love you, but you're so overbearing."
"I know, and I'm sorry, I can't help it." Stepan sighed heavily before reaching out and pulling Julia into a tight hug. "You'll always be my precious little princess, no matter how much you grow. I'm sorry for snapping at you and raising my voice. We'll put this off for some other time, for now, I just want you to finish college first, then we can talk about this subject afterwards. Your uncle gave Natasha the same deal, so I guess it's only fair I give you the same. Finish college first, then if you really want to be bratva still then we can talk about it then, alright?"
Julia's face scrunched slightly with a pouting frown, but she didn't argue. "Okay, fine. I'm sorry for snapping back at you and cussing at you."
Chuckling, Stepan kissed her forehead before letting her go. "Go wash up for dinner."
Soon, the two of us were out back as Stepan packed up the rifle. "I swear, she's going to make me go gray sooner than later." He joked with a chuckle.
Leaning down, since he was squatting down, I hugged him around his shoulder and neck. "She's our daughter after all." Pretty sure I gave Stepan half his gray hairs with my antics. "But, you handled that well towards the end, good job."
"I'm still not happy about it, I'm just hoping college will change her." Hopeful of him, I'm sure he doubted his own words because we both knew how Julia was after raising her into a strong and intelligent woman.
"Oh, wait until she comes back from break with a boyfriend." I teased with a hearty laugh.
"Excuse me the fuck what? I don't think so, not if I can help it."
