I could feel a panic attack starting to hit me at the thought of anything happening to my babies when the door opened, and in came the one man who could always put my world to rights. My Pop-Pop.
Seeing the next in line to the Russian mafia family holding one of his great-grandsons, his eyebrows lifted, and then he looked over at me with a look that said exactly what came out of his mouth. “Sheeit, girl. I thought it was one of us, but seeing it now, they look just like him.”
This added to the impending panic attack, but at the same time, it made me want to cry.
Chapter Six
Taras
I’d been away from Nell and my sons for eight days. Eight long fucking days, where I couldn’t call her while we tried to find the fucker who was playing with us.
So far, the men he’d killed had been small members of the MC and Bratva, but Otis was a big deal to us. We couldn’t claim to be religious men with what we did, but Otis had heard confessions.
He’d helped us come to terms with some of the things we’d had to do. He’d blessed us, baptized the babies of our family, conducted the marriages, and he’d helped us lay our fallen to rest.
We might not be what people thought of as religious, but the Russian Orthodox faith was important to us, as was he, a seventy-three-year-old bishop.
Hunter and I had seen his body and the amount of torture that’d been inflicted on the older man. Had he talked? More than likely not. All of us went through training to withstand torture, including him.
Given what had been inflicted on him, they’d done a lot to him to get information before he was finally killed. His body had been gutted, partially skinned, and had the three-barred cross carved into him along with a message to us—traitor written in Slavic across his abdomen.
No matter what leads we’d followed while we were away, the person responsible was always ten steps ahead of us.
I’d come home, showered, and had come straight to the hospital, only to see that the time apart had allowed Nell to convince herself her argument was correct. I could admit I understood it, but I was frustrated by the number of interruptions and that I now had to attend a meeting with my father, instead of sorting shit out with her.
And that included talking to her grandfather, who now knew my role in his great-grandsons’ creations. Not that I minded.
Standing up carefully, I adjusted Hendrix, and held my hand out.
“Tracker,” I greeted, relieved when he shook my hand. “Great to see you. I have to leave shortly to meet with my father, but I have enough time to lay it out for you. These boys are mine, and so is their mother,” I told him, ignoring the growl that came from Nell at that information.
“I need to speak to my family about this situation, and ensure they understand the importance all three of them hold to me. But, in the meantime, you’re aware of what’s happening to both of our families, so the safety of Nell and the babies is paramount.
“In addition to this, only you and Hunter know my role in their lives. So until Nell is ready, I’d be grateful if you would keep it to yourself. With shit happening to all of us, we don’t need the distractions this would cause. But I also don’t want to draw attention to her and put them at risk.”
Tracker’s eyes narrowed as he looked between us, and then he stopped back on me.
“I’m not happy, and I’m taking it by the look on her face my granddaughter ain’t happy either. You telling your family about them doesn’t exactly jive with keeping their existence secret, so I’m trusting you to do it right. I’m also remembering you’ve been married a while now, so this pisses me off even more,” he ground out, looking down at Hendrix and frowning.
“I don’t know the story, I don’t know the background, but I’m trusting you to do right by them and not fuck around. I don’t want any of the shit this could cause blowing back on them.”
The implication pissed me off, but I couldn’t blame him for saying what he had. “I’m going to do everything to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Right,” he muttered, rubbing his face with his hands. “Fuck’s sake.”
Deciding now was the time to start saying my goodbyes, I leaned down and kissed my son on his forehead, lifting my head back up to memorize his face. I’d only had the photos to go on while I was away, and he’d changed so much in such a short space of time.
Moving over to where Tracker now was, I shifted so I could safely transfer Hendrix to him before going to where Nell was. “May I?”