Page 3 of Hey, Daddy

And he was older, as the salt and pepper in his hair and his beard attested to.

I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but what I could tell was they were light.

The blue light of the Amber Bach sign above the bar made them glow in an almost eerie way.

The man at his side said something to him that made him throw his head back and laugh.

Even his laugh was sexy.

“How’s work?” Maven asked me, rudely yanking me out of my ogling of the sexy older man at the bar.

I grinned. “Secret shopper for Dallas, Texas official.”

Five years ago, when I’d had no idea what I wanted to be, I’d thought…what the hell. I’d apply for the first job that I saw.

My brother somehow always made it impossible to work without having a bodyguard up my ass twenty-four-seven, so why not find a job that allowed me to do what I wanted without anyone telling me who could and couldn’t be around me all day, every day.

I wasn’t saying that I approved of Shasha’s overprotectiveness, but sometimes I decided to allow it.

And if he really pushed, I let his guard come along.

Today wasn’t one of those days, though.

I imagined that was likely due to the fact that I was at a bar five minutes away from twenty cops—half of which were now related to our sister.

“And the Amazon review thing?” Maven asked.

I smiled.

“Still going strong,” I admitted. “My new neighbor probably hates me because my door is always filled with packages and blocks half the hallway.”

“I’m sure the man has no issues with you getting packages,” Milena pointed out.

“Actually, you’d be wrong about that.” I snickered. “The apartments are questionable on whether they’re actually up to code or not.” I paused. “Don’t you dare tell our brother about that.” I pointed at the two women individually. “Anyway, so I heard him come home last night, and the light was out in the hallway as always. But when I came home last night, I’d left them all out in front of my door because I really, really had to pee. By the time I was heading back to the door, he’d come home…and promptly tripped on them. I heard him hit his door with a thud, then curse me out.”

“Ooops.” Maven snickered. “Too bad you don’t have that Ring camera up yet.”

“I’m not putting one up,” I admitted. “This apartment is only temporary until I can find a better place to stay. If Shasha finds out that I’m living there, he’s going to shit a brick.”

Shasha was my big brother.

He was also very…particular.

Why was he particular?

Because the man was running the Russian Bratva and felt like it was his God given right to run roughshod over my life.

The only reason he hadn’t realized yet where I lived was because I might or might not have used a fake name on the lease when I signed it.

See, I knew that I was in danger.

Your sister gets kidnapped, and you start to realize a few things.

Like how connected your family is, how ruthless your father and eventually your brothers are, and finally, how overwhelmingly protective they can get once they realize that they’re not invincible.

“So how did you get our brother to allow you to move to an apartment that’s on the south side of Dallas without having the entire place wired and under twenty-four-seven surveillance?” Maven asked curiously. “And when are you going to move into the house he had built for you?”

Never.

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