Page 44 of Hey, Daddy

“What’s that?” I asked.

“You stop following me.”

“I’m following you so that others don’t follow you,” I said, unsurprised that she’d realized that I was the one doing the surveillance on her.

“Well, it’s getting really old,” she grumbled. “I feel like everywhere I turn, you’re there.”

I was there.

I’d made no move to hide my following her, either. Which was why she’d spotted me so early.

“Do they really think that I had something to do with that dead girl?” she asked.

I gestured for her to follow me back up to her apartment and decided…fuck it.

“They think that your brother did it because Senator Renfield introduced a bill that would bring the hammer down on organized crime,” I explained.

She snorted. “That’s ridiculous. He wouldn’t have put her in my car if he was going to do that.”

“I agree,” I said. “And despite you having a great alibi and no evidence to support Senator Renfield’s claim, we’re still surveilling you.”

“Are you surveilling me? Or Shasha, too?” she asked.

“The only warrant we have for surveillance is you. Now, if you happened to be with your brother, even better.” I gave her the honest truth.

I was sick of this.

Today, she’d been there for my daughter, and I would never be able to repay her.

This last month had been utterly ridiculous.

Sure, watching her every waking move was utterly enjoyable, but this was getting beyond absurd and needed to stop.

If only I could…

“I only have the Jeep,” she said after a while.

I shrugged. “That’s fine with me.”

“This is kind of weird,” she admitted.

I looked over at her and said, “You protected my daughter today with your life. I won’t be forgetting that.”

You had me at trigger warning.

—Nastya’s secret thoughts

NASTYA

I was in Haze’s ex-wife’s house, and we were stealing a dog.

In my wildest dreams, I would’ve never seen today coming.

Years and years ago, Shasha had decided that I needed to learn how to defend myself.

Not only had he taught me all of the basics on how to take care of myself, but he’d also insisted that I take classes that would help me fight off someone that wanted me to do something I didn’t want to do.

In doing so, he’d given me the tools to not only not let that man come inside my apartment today but also protect Haze’s daughter.

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