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“I love you, Mishka,” I said, caressing his cheek and kissing him softly.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him tightly. “I love you too.”
“Please don’t make me learn Russian,” I whispered, hugging his neck.
He laughed softly, pulling back to look at me. “I would never.”
“Phew. For a moment, I thought that’s why you were sad, because I hadn’t made some huge, public declaration in your native language.”
“I mean, it would be nice—I’m kidding,” he said quickly, touching my cheek right as my jaw dropped. He slid his fingers into my hair, holding the back of my head and pressing his forehead to mine. “I love our life. I don’t want to change a thing.”
“I want to change something.”
He pulled back again, brows lifted.
Grabbing his tie, I jerked his face back to me, brushing my lips over his but not letting him kiss me. “I want you naked in the next five minutes.”
“Why five minutes?”
“Gotta make sure the kids are occupied, and the dog’s toys aren’t stuck somewhere she can’t get them, and all that shit. We don’t need them storming the gates mid-coitus.”
He chuckled, knowing all too well that was a real possibility from any one of them. Nothing killed the mood faster than a kid banging on a locked door or the dog whining nonstop. “Good point. I’ll square the dog away and meet you in the shower in five.”
I kissed him quickly and stood, making my way down the hallway and dodging Nadia as she bolted in the opposite direction, speeding toward the sound of kibble hitting her bowl in the kitchen.
Ezra’s door was open, so I stuck my head in to see what he was up to. He had his headphones on and was chattering away to himself while he played a game on his iPad. He didn’t even notice me so I didn’t stick around.
Across the hall, Bri’s door was closed. I knocked and waited until she gave permission before I cracked it open. “You good?”
“Yeah,” she replied, looking up from her phone with a bored expression. “Why?”
I shrugged. “Just checking. I’m going to go take a shower.”
“Ok.” I caught an eye roll as I closed the door but I didn’t care. At fifteen, I was happy she was still mostly pleasant to deal with. The huffing and eye rolling were usually kept at a minimum, at least as far as Misha and I were concerned. Ezra was a different story since his favorite pastime seemed to be finding new and grosser ways to annoy her. It reminded me a lot of Axel and Levi.
A twinge of grief hit me but I didn’t let it linger. Of course I missed them. They were my brothers. But being angry at the past didn’t bring them back. The only thing I could do was keep Bri and Ezra from following in their footsteps and thanks to Misha, I’d been able to. He gave us the bedrock on which to build our new life and, true to his word, he was there for me every step of the way. Through all of the funerals and guardian paperwork and growing pains. The homework and sick days and endless messes. He stayed right by my side.
Ezra had bonded with Misha immediately over their shared love of Nadia and the epic Nerf battles that took place. Seemed a little one-sided for a former commando, or whatever he’d been in Russia, to take on a kid, but somehow Ezra always won.
Bri took longer to accept the changes. She was happy, without a doubt, and she liked Misha, but she didn’t trust any of it. I couldn’t say I blamed her. There were days I thought for sure it was all going to come crashing down, whether I was being a dick because of how stressed I was or the kids were on their twentieth meltdown of the week. During those times, I fully expected Misha to “work late” or flat-out tell us to take a hike. But he didn’t. And for the most part, the happy days didn’t stop coming. They weren’t always thrilling, by any stretch, but the good times definitely outweighed the bad.
With time and patience, Misha had proven to us all that he was in it for the long haul. Turned out he’d been serious about wanting a family of his own even if we couldn’t be as open as Roan and Sasha apparently were. Given that Misha still had a criminal enterprise to run, it wasn’t necessarily the gay aspect he was worried about, not like when Sergei and Dimitri were alive. He was solely concerned with another rival threatening us—or worse. But most days I kind of forgot what he did for a living and we went about our lives like a normal family. Well, normal aswecould be.
The police investigations never turned into anything more. Nirvana eventually dried up on the streets and all of the head honchos connected to it had either cut deals or were trying to worm their way out of it in court. Nor did the FBI ever come calling on Misha. Overnight all of our problems seemed to have… disappeared.
Based on some of the phone calls I’d overheard, I had my suspicions about what went down but I didn’t ask any questions. When Misha told me something wouldn’t be a problem anymore, I believed him.
Ibelievedhim.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t waiting to have the rug ripped out from under me. Against all of the odds, I was happy—wewere happy. And after the lives we’d had? We fucking deserved a little bit of happiness.
THE END
