Page 22 of Skin Deep

River eyed her a moment before he seemed to come to some conclusion. “I like her. They can stay,” he said as if it had been up for debate and walked back into the kitchen.

“I’m Annie Laskin,” said the woman, coming down the hall to extend her hand to me. “Welcome to my home. Sorry it’s a little wild in here sometimes. Can’t be helped with so many big personalities under one roof.”

“It’s cool,” I said, flashing her what I hoped was a warm smile. “Believe me. I’ve seen wilder parties, Mrs. L.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” She chuckled when I called her Mrs. L. Little old ladies always liked that for some reason. Made it easy to win them over. “Dinner’s almost done. I thought the rest of us would eat in the kitchen while Theo and the girls set up the folding table to eat in the living room. Theo was going to watchFrozenwith them, if that’s okay, Paxton.”

“That’d be great,” I replied.

Lettie made a face. “But Daddy, I hateFrozen.”

“We can watch something else if you’d like,” volunteered a softspoken redhead I’d somehow missed. “Hi. I’m Theo.”

Lettie put a hand on her hip and gave him a doubtful look. “You gotMoana?”

Theo smiled warmly. “Moana’sone of my favorites.”

“Mine too!” She looked up at me, practically vibrating in place.

I chuckled and put Charlie down to walk, making Lettie hold her hand. “All right. Be good now, and I’ll be right in the next room if you needanything.”

Lettie half dragged Charlie into the living room with Theo. My heart clenched, watching her go. For some reason, it hit me that it wouldn’t be too long before Charlie was too big to carry, and Lettie would be the one bringing somebody home for me to disapprove of. Nobody would ever be good enough for my little girls.

“They’ll be okay,” War promised, snapping me out of it.

I shifted my gaze to him. He’d come down the hall and was standing nearby, his hands in his pockets, looking good enough to eat.

“Theo is a good guy,” War offered quietly. “He’s had a rough life, but he’s gentle. If anything, he’s the one in danger. Lettie seems like she can handle herself.”

I smiled. “Yeah, she’s a scrapper like her daddy. Are you and your brothers good? Sorry if my coming down here caused you any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble,” War said with a forlorn sigh. “That’s just River being River. I tried to warn you. My family can be intense, especially River. Just…don’t touch Theo. He’s protective of his fiancé.”

I nodded. “Anything else I should know?”

He looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Yeah. Everyone here has killed someone. Most of us several someones. If it ever gets out, who we are and what we do…”

“I get it. And unlike your brothers, I can keep my mouth shut. Mutually assured destruction and all that.”

War shook his head. “No, it’s more than that. My grandfather is Simeon the Immortal, the local leader of the Russian mafia, and I’m on a first-name basis with about a dozen Greek mobsters as well as a few Italians. You need to understand who you’re climbing into bed with, whose hands you’re putting your daughters’ lives in.”

Well, damn. I’d figured he had to be well connected, but I was thinking old money connections, or maybe some friends in politics, not knocking-elbows-with-mobsters connected. Learning who and what he was didn’t change anything fundamentally, though. The ripper was still out there, destroying people’s lives. He’d still taken Maya from me, robbed my girls of their mother. If War and his mobster-connected family could get me close enough to the ripper to take a shot, I was taking it.

I lifted my eyebrows. “Are we climbing into bed together?”

His face flushed and he grumbled at the floor, “It’s just a saying.”

I shrugged. “You ain’t talking me out of it, Warrick. I’m in it now. I know what I’m about.”

War sighed. “All right, then. Let’s get this over with.” He started to walk toward the kitchen where everyone else had gone, but before he could get too far, I closed an arm around his waist and yanked him closer.

“What are you—” His protest fell silent as I spun him around and closed my lips over his.

The kiss was brief, just quick enough for me to know that he tasted like salt and sin, and that I wanted more of that. A lot more.

War blinked up at me when I let him go and stood there, eyes wide, lips parted, cheeks flushed, looking one hundred percent more fuckable than a minute ago, and he’d been hot then, too.

“Thank you,” I said. “For helping Charlie. For bringing me in on this.”

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