Page 13 of Bound in the Dark

“Da. It is long past time.”

Nadya raised her chin and took a deep breath as if steadying herself. “How can I help?”

Diana would have laughed if she didn’t know it would crush the girl. She had the spirit of a warrior but none of the training something like this would take. Alena shook her head.

“You will go withTetyaDiana to your father. The two of them will keep you safe.”

Wait, what?

“You never mentioned taking Nadya to Hawk.” Dread pooled in the bottom of Diana’s stomach. She had known it would be her responsibility to keep her niece safe but had thought they would use a safehouse or something. Never once had returning to Colorado come up in their discussions.

“I finally get to meet him? Like for real?” The hope and longing in her niece’s voice was like a knife to her gut. The girl had grown up knowing that her father knew nothing about her. Until a few years ago Alena had kept his identity secret from everyone. Only after the girl turned sixteen and understood what would happen if she ever let the information out had Alena shared pictures and stories with her daughter.

Diana hadn’t agreed with the decision. It felt like a cruel torture to know who he was and not be able to reach out to him. But it hadn’t been her call. Now, if she refused to take the girl to Denver it would be her fault Nadya didn’t meet her father.

“Yes. Someone told him about you. Not much but enough. If I don’t send you there I’m sure he’d find you soon on his own. Between him, his Club and your aunt it would take a large army to get to you. I need to know you are safe so I can do what is necessary.”

She was so screwed. Diana cleared her throat. “There may be a problem with that plan.”

Both women turned to her with identical surprised expressions. Embarrassment wasn’t something she was used to feeling but the heat of it was probably coloring her cheeks. How the hell could she explain without going into too much detail.

The last few months had been the happiest of her life. Even knowing it couldn’t last she had let herself get lost in the time she spent with Highdive at Dark Secrets. He had given her so much pleasure that she’d come to crave it like caffeine. But it was those moments of peace on the couches in the aftercare area that she would miss the most. Talking about everything and nothing. Forgetting for just a little while all the blood that was soaked into her skin.

“What is the problem?” Alena asked.

“Remember how you asked me to watch over Hawk and his Brothers when you had to go out of the country and you thought Andrey was up to something?”

Her sister looked puzzled. “Da. He was using that idiot to start trouble with the Dark Sons. You called me. I came back and fixed it. That was almost six months ago.”

“I didn’t exactly stop watching them.”

Nadya giggled. “You’ve been stalking my dad?”

Diana shook her head. “Not your father.”

Her sister got a wicked smile on her face. “Oh, little sister you have been keeping secrets. Which of his Brothers caught your spying eye?”

There was no way out of this now but to tell the truth. At least as much of it as was appropriate in front of her niece. “Highdive.”

Alena threw back her head and laughed. “I never thought you would go for the muscle bound soldier type. Did you actually let him see you?”

“Yes,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

“How much of you did you let him see?”

She glared at her sister then threw a glance at Nadya. “Enough that this is going to be awkward.”

“And he is still alive to tell the tale?”

Diana might have been offended at the insinuation, if it hadn’t been a reasonable statement. Her sister knew that most of her previous lovers had been taken as part of a job and usually ended up dead before or soon after they got intimate.

“Ewh.” Nadya made a gagging noise. “Please tell me you aren’t like a praying mantis.”

What was the girl going on about? It took a few moments for Diana to realize the girl was talking about how female praying mantises bit the heads off their partners while having sex. She started to deny the fact then tightened her lips around the lie. The comparison wasn’t all that far off from reality.

Her niece threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t want to know. Do you two have a car somewhere?” She gestured around the lawn. “I know you don’t probably even notice but it is kind of creepy sitting here talking among dead bodies. I want to leave.”

Alena handed her daughter a set of keys. “We’re parked a mile down the road. We’ll be right behind you.”

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