He stares at me for a few beats, one bright blue eye and one milky white one searching my face in silence before D nods. “We need to leave as soon as possible.”
Relief washes over me and I get to my feet. “I’ll start looking at flights.”
“I’ll go pack,” Styx says, smiling wide when he sees me frown. “You two are literal walking dead men the second you set foot on Bratva property. Do you really think we were just going to let the two of you go alone?”
“No,” Leon sing-songs, his phone in his hand, quickly scrolling and tapping against the screen. “You need backup, and you need my brain. I just got the four of us on the red eye to New York, and if I bring my laptop, I’ll get us in and out of daddy dearest’s fortress as quietly as possible.”
I blink a few times then turn to Rune, who shakes his head. “I’ll stay here and wait for Olive.”
“You’re sure?”
“I am.”
“You don’t need any of us…” I roll my eyes at myself before I finish my sentence. “Of course you don’t need anyone to stay with you. You’re a fucking tank, and those puppies are hellhounds in disguise.”
Rune cracks a smile and we all disband, getting our shit together for an impromptu trip home, and a welcoming committee full of hardened thugs, back stabbing family, and semi-automatic weapons, locked and loaded to greet us as soon as we roll up to the gates at the Volkov mansion.
Oh, the things we do when we’re in love.
CHAPTER 30
LIV
ACOUSTIC #3 - GOO GOO DOLLS
Ipull my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them and hugging tight as I watch the group of five and six year olds walk another lap with their animals. They’re guiding pigs and goats double their size in steady circles along the wooden fence, their little cowboy boots kicking up tiny clouds of dust with each step they take. They seem so focused, so serious for first graders, and their dedication to not just 4H but their animals shines through so brightly.
I had no idea there was a fair going on.
Which isn’t really a shocker. It’s not like I’ve been an active part of the community since I got here. I’m almost positive I haven’t gone anywhere other than Knotted Obsessions and Styx’s property since he hired us at the club.
This isn’t exactly the kind of place I’d find any pertinent information on criminal organizations or anything remotely close to one. Definitely not at the local grocery store, or gas station. AFarm and Fair Funfest, as it’s called, is so far off my radar I can’t imagine guys like Alexei or Ransom hanging out by the face paint looking to make a deal for one hundred kilos of god knows what.
This is the last place I’d expect to see someone like either of those two or their affiliates.
Carnival games and rides, food trucks, live music and square dancing. There’s supposed to be a dog show later, after the 4H auctions are done and thebest in showwinners are announced. I wandered over to my current location shortly after I got here, taking up my perch on one of the many folding chairs just outside the Junior 4h-ers ring, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of watching the kids practice with their prize pets. I bet the biggest crime happening on the fairgrounds today is the amount of shit all the cute barnyard babies are leaving each time their tiny hooves trot around the ring.
No sooner do I finish my thought do I see none other than Ransom fucking Adder stop in front of a carnival game, the milk bottle one, and reach into his back pocket for his wallet. I frown as he pays the carny and gets the balls to knock the bottles down, pausing to pull his ass-length rust-colored hair up into a sloppy bun and roll his shoulders like he’s about to pitch a no hitter during the playoffs.
What the hell is he doing here?
I look around the game aisle to his left and right, searching for some scary thug or slick-looking gangster, but I don’t even see other people waiting behind him. It actually looks like everyone has given Ransom a very wide birth, and that is definitely because he looks like he has a stick up his ass.
Until he doesn’t.
I watch him finish tossing the third ball, knocking down the bottles with a crash and when he steps to the side and reaches for the enormous, fuzzy, bright pink unicorn,he smiles.
Ransom Adder, the crabbiest human I have ever met, bar none, issmilingand holding a pink unicorn stuffy out to… My head pops up and my eyes go wide as I watch him hand his prize over to a little girl; a petite little thing who can’t be morethan four or five years old. She’s adorable and excited, jumping up and down with her freckles, stormy blue eyes, and loose,dark rust-coloredcurls spiralling down her back and ending just above a rainbow tutu.
My brow furrows and I squint as if that’s going to explain what the hell is going on, but it doesn’t need to, not when any idiot could see that the brightly dressed, bubbly ball of energy bouncing around by his side is his daughter. She has to be. Everything about her screams Adder, save for the much happier disposition, but when Ransom’s icy shithead facade cracks and he smiles at her like she hung the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky, like she is the literal center of his universe, the relationship becomes even more clear.
How did I not know he had a kid? And she’s possibly the cutest kid I’ve ever seen, so I’m more annoyed than anything else because that’s the kind of energy I need in my life. I might give her dad a run for his money in the crabby department, but I love kids, I always have, and a little girl like that would take care of my baby fever for a while, easily.
I had no idea, and I can honestly say my flabbers have been gasted.
Styx is going to be in so much trouble for not telling me he had a niece.
I rub the center of my chest as my eyes well up, the thought of my beta enough to bring tears flooding down my cheeks again.
