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Pushing back against his hold, I stepped away from him. Already, I felt the loss of his warmth, the scent of his cologne filling my nose, the spark that zinged through my skin and blood just from being close to him. My choice was made.
Family would always come first for me.
“Bye, Ben,” I whispered, fighting the burn of tears all over again.
Chapter 7
Lexa
Sleep was elusive all night, and trying to get any type of rest on the plane just wasn’t possible with the way Garret was constantly causing some kind of trouble.
Somehow, he stole a knife from one of the guard’s leg holsters and tried to carve his name into the table at the back of the jet before any of us
realized. After that, we were all wide awake, and I was ready to toss my cousin out the door without a parachute. Now I understood why Aunt Flick looked a little haggard throughout the school year, but during the summer, she was more well rested and had a little pep to her step. She needed weeks away from her son just as much as Nova needed her time in New York with her favorite person.
We were met right on the tarmac of the airport by a limo and six huge black SUVs, all of them loaded with bodyguards. I gripped Garret’s wrist in my hand as we walked down the stairs, while Nova bounced down and straight into the handsome boy’s arms at the bottom.
“Ryan!” she screamed as he twirled her around and around, making her giggle happily.
Standing by the car, Anya Vitucci smiled lovingly at her son and his best friend, a toddler at her feet holding her hand. The little girl was jumping up and down, talking a mile a minute, while her mother only nodded in response to whatever her daughter was chattering on about.
“You can let me go now, Lexa,” Garret grumbled, but I only tightened my hold on him.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Your dad said if I let you out of my sight before Ciro Donati took over your care, you were likely to run off and hide in the city.” Which I didn’t doubt for a single second. If I had handcuffs, I would have already slapped one on his wrist and attached the other to my own for a little extra security.
Anya laughed when I got to the bottom of the stairs and Garret struggled against my hold once again. “Well, I see trouble has arrived.”
He turned beet red, but shrugged. “I just wanna have fun,” he complained. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“No,” she agreed with a smirk that made her blue eyes sparkle. “Not a single thing wrong with that, kiddo. Unless you start endangering your life or others. Now, get your smart ass in the limo before I show you what they would do to kids in Russia who ‘just wanna have fun.’”
I could have fallen on my knees in gratitude for the woman with how fast Garret straightened up and did exactly as he was told with just one dark look from her. She gave me a quick, one-armed hug while her daughter danced around our feet. “Good to see you, myshka,” she murmured before stepping back. She was so small, I felt more like a giant than normal as I stood over her. Yet at the same time, something about her made me feel tiny.
“Myshka,” the toddler echoed, holding up her arms and grunting, wanting to be held. “Myshka!”
Bending, I lifted Samara into my arms. Her eyes, so like her mother’s, were filled with a happiness only the purely innocent held as she hugged me trustingly. “Pweety,” she said with a sigh as she snuggled into my arms and promptly fell asleep.
I was so surprised she’d fallen asleep that fast, it scared me, and I looked at Anya for guidance.
Grinning, she shook her dark head. “Don’t worry. The little devil can fall asleep in the blink of an eye. First time it happened, her father thought he’d broken her and freaked out.”
Having met Cristiano Vitucci on a few occasions, I found the idea of him freaking out over anything kind of ludicrous. Yet I’d seen how much he loved his wife and son; I could only imagine his precious baby daughter had him tied in knots.
Still grinning, Anya turned to her son. “Ryan, time to go. Nova is probably tired after that long flight.”
“I’m not,” Nova assured her as she skipped over to the older woman and embraced her. “I missed you too, Anya. Did you miss me?”
“So much. But not nearly as much as Ryan, I’m sure.”
“No one misses me as much as Ryan,” Nova assured her with so much confidence in her voice, I couldn’t help but smile.
But the truth was, I doubted even her parents would miss her during the time she was away as much as Ryan missed her throughout the rest of the year. Whatever bond those two had, it was a strong one. Yet I worried about how painful it would be for the little cousin I’d always considered a baby sister if that bond were ever broken.
???
Even though it was my first trip to New York, everyone treated me like I was just as much a part of their family as Garret and Nova were. From Aunt Flick’s cousin, Ciro, all the way to Adrian Volkov, Anya’s older brother.
“You’ve been the talk of the morning,” Theo, Adrian’s son and perhaps my closest friend, confessed as we sat in some posh restaurant his family owned in the middle of the city.
