Page 87 of Born into Sin

Vitaly scowls at him. “We’re the same age, Matvey. Don’t fucking pretend that I’m the only one getting grey pubes.”

“I mean, I can’t say I’ve found any either,” Roman says.

“None here,” Danil says with a laugh.

“Oh, fuck all of you,” Vitaly says. “I know you’re all lying right now, but whatever. In my grey ball hair wisdom, I’m telling you that life is short, too short to be getting pissed because Natalya went and fell in love with a fucking Italian.”

“Hey,” Sandro starts to say, but I wave my hand at him.

“Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t know any better. His mom didn’t teach him any manners,” I tell him.

Vitaly laughs. “She sure as fuck did not.” He gestures towards himself. “This is what happens when you let a group of five wild Russian boys raise themselves.”

Matvey shrugs. “I think we turned out pretty damn good.”

Vitaly smiles at him. “We did, brother. God, we could’ve been so much worse.” He looks between me and Lev, a smirk playing at his lips. “So, Lev’s kind of like your dad now.”

“Jesus,” I groan, making them all laugh, well, everyone except Lev and I. We stare at each other, the realization hitting us at the same time. He’s going to be my father-in-law. Goddamnit.

“Don’t you fucking dare call me Dad,” he warns me, and even with my jaw throbbing and starting to swell, I can’t help but give a small smile because that’s as close to his blessing as I’m ever going to get, but I’ll take it.

Before Vitaly can crack another joke, Tony steps into the room and looks at me. Speaking in Italian, he says, “She’s fine, Mr. Alessi. There isn’t any internal bleeding, and her ribs should heal nicely. Dr. Bianchi gave her a mild sedative, but don’t worry, she and the baby are doing just fine.”

Dario and Sandro jerk their heads to look at me while Lev asks, “What the fuck did he just say?”

Chapter 16

Natalya

This first thing I notice is pain, the second is someone gently stroking my hand like they’re afraid to touch me anywhere else, and the third is the beeping of the machine next to me. I feel sluggish and opening my eyes takes more effort than I would’ve thought possible, but as soon as I get them open, I hear Dominic’s voice and then see his gorgeous, worried face as he leans over me.

“God, principessa, I’ve never been so scared in my life.” He kisses me so carefully, and I know I must look as bad as I feel. “You’re never leaving my side again.”

“That’s fine with me.” My voice is raspy and dry, and he quickly grabs a glass of water for me when he hears it. “I never wanted to leave you to begin with.”

The guilt on his face makes me instantly regret my words. I reach out and squeeze his hand, noticing the IV that someone’s connected me to.

“This is not your fault, Dominic.”

He hands me the water and shakes his head. “I’ll never forgive myself for what happened to you.”

“It was Andrik. He grabbed me and put a gun to my head when I was walking back to my room.”

The memory has the machine I’m hooked up to beeping even faster as my heart speeds up. Dominic eyes it warily.

“You’re safe, Natalya.” He sits down on the edge of my bed. “I need you to calm down, sweetheart.”

I take a steadying breath and then finish the last of my water. God, how long have I been asleep?

“He killed Vitya,” I whisper, and despite what Dominic just said, the beeping speeds up again when I remember all the blood surrounding his body. Guilt washes over me at knowing he died because of me, and when I start to cry, Dominic scoops me up and then takes my spot in the bed while keeping me on his lap. He makes sure all the cords attached to me are untangled and then wraps his arms around me, kissing my head and holding me while I sob against him.

“Vitya’s alive.”

I lift my head to search his brown eyes, but I know he’d never lie to me. “How?”

"Svetlana woke up after you were taken and came downstairs to search for you. She found Vitya and screamed for help. She stayed with him, putting pressure on his stab wounds the whole damn time. He’d lost so much blood and never would’ve survived the drive to a doctor, so as soon as she heard they had the same blood type, she demanded they do a vein-to-vein transfusion. She saved his life.”

“That sounds like her,” I say, taking the tissue he offers me. “She can be very stubborn.”

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