Page 65 of Sinful Blaze

His uncle shifts in my peripheral vision, but doesn’t move to stop me. He knows better. He knows this kid fucked up.

Kid. That word rings in my head.

He’s a kid.

He’s someone’s kid.

I have a kid, too.

I swallow the bile back down my throat, then holster my gun. “Understood?”

Tyler can’t nod fast enough. “U-underst-st-stood, s-sir.”

I let him go with a hard shove toward his uncle. “Have a talk with your nephew. Make sure he’s cut out for this life before you give him a fucking weapon and let him loose.”

I march away from the two; I don’t care where, so long as it’s far the fuck away from them.

And away from that disturbing shift of perspective.

That’s not me. That’s not like me. I should be reloading my smoking gun right now. My men should be dragging his body out of my sight. No one challenges me and lives to talk about it.

But he’s so young. Probably has a mother at home, wondering where he is, what he’s doing, if he’s okay.

I couldn’t… I can’t… take a child from his mother.

Shit.

I brace my hands down on the counter. Mak pops up and hands me a shot glass full of who knows what. I throw it back and he refills the glass as soon as I slam it back down on the counter.

Fucking hell. I’m not sure what I expected with Daphne crash-landing in my life, but it wasn’t anything like this softness, this weakness that’s chewing me up from the inside like poison.

Not after I spent years swearing off relationships.

Not after my father.

Not after what he did to my mother.

I know I’m not him. I am my own man, capable of making my own decisions and charting my own path through life.

But sometimes, I look in the mirror or I hear myself talk and it’s like he’s here. In my clothes. Inside my skin. Possessing me, haunting me, threatening to destroy everything and everyone I love.

I can’t have that. I need to purge him from my system.

Before it’s too late.

23

PASHA

I was hoping to get through dinner with my mother without having to discuss Daphne or the pregnancy.

Appetizers haven’t even hit the table before that plan goes to shit.

“Pasha’s having a baby!” Mak blurts.

Thanks a lot, asshole. Thanks very fucking much.

Mama’s mouth falls open. “Pasha? Eto pravda?”

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