Page 60 of Bratva Daddies for the Single Mom

“I haven’t known for long. I wanted to tell you.” She cupped her stomach with both hands, her entire concentration locked onto the small mound.

“Is it one of ours?” I asked gently to relieve the fear scratching and biting at me.

Her fingers spasmed, her breath hitching. She shot a look at Ilya before ducking her head. “Yes. It’s yours.”

Love spread through me so fast I thought I might die on the spot. I palmed my heart, feeling the goofy smile taking over my face and not trying to hide it.

“I don’t know whose.” The panicked look returned.

“We don’t care.” I promised her with iron in my voice and the softest touch of my hand. “As long as you are happy and healthy, and the baby is healthy, we are happy.”

“Why did you keep it a secret?” Ilya asked. “This must have been the secret I kept feeling you hide from us.”

“It was a mistake. I see that now.” Tears glittered on her lashes. She held them back, the glistening drops spiking her lashes and reddening her nose. “I was afraid you’d take the baby from me.”

“Why?” I tried to hold the question back, but it demanded an answer.

“Because you’re the Bratva. It all made sense to me at the time.” She raised a hand to her head and moved it from side to side in a slow shake. “I was being paranoid and ridiculous. I thought once you were done with me, you’d take the baby and bring it up yourselves. It was my biggest fear until Miles Kent called me.”

We all waited for clarification. My patience wore thin when she looked at us like we should know what she meant. “Kent called you?”

“Yes. He disguised his voice and told me that you kill women when you’re done with them. It was always in the back of my mind that you’d never let me go back to my life once you got tired of me. He sounded so convincing.” She groaned and slumped backward. “I’m a fool. He got me to do exactly what he wanted, especially when he hired some thug to act like the twins’ father and tried to take them from school.”

“You should have killed him twice. Maybe three times.” I stared past Ilya to the moon sitting round and perfect over thepool, its reflection a serene mask in the dark water. “He deserved to suffer.”

“He did.” Ilya’s lips peeled back in his signature snarl. “Trust me, Viktor, he understood his mistakes.”

I trusted Ilya with my life and with death. He’d never failed me. “Thank you.”

Annie watched it all with amusement dancing in place of her earlier fear. “I might never get used to that. Maybe that’s why I believed him. You take death so casually.”

“Some deaths. Not all. Thinking we’d lost you was the single most painful experience of my life. I would like to never repeat it. Ever.” I kissed her temple and checked her pupils per the instructions Doctor Roman sent to Fyodor. “You seem coherent and your pupils look normal.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Annie batted her eyelashes before turning serious. “I was wrong to believe him. And I was a fool to even consider trusting some random phone call over the men I knew you to be.”

“You worried we’d hidden our true natures from you and soon, we would turn on you like rabid dogs.” Ilya shrugged. “It is not your fault.”

“But it is.” She sat forward and pulled each of us up onto the bed so our bodies lined up with hers. “You showed me who you really were from the beginning. You’re kind and caring. You’re businessmen.” She gulped once. “You kill people who cross you, but only if necessary. And I’ve never felt safer than when I’m with you. I didn’t trust myself, but I know the truth now. I’m safe here. I’m safe with you.”

“Good.” I tipped her face toward me. “Because this baby is ours. And you are ours. We are never letting you go, Annie.” She was not our property, but the woman meant to bring us all together. “You are our heart and soul. We cannot continue to live without you.”

“Oh, Viktor.” She threw her arms around my neck and nestled into the curve of my shoulder. “I love you. All of you. It was the only thing I could think of the whole time I was with Miles. I wanted to get out so I could apologize and tell you that I want to stay. This is my home. I’m sorry I kept secrets and didn’t trust you.”

“You’re forgiven. You’re always forgiven.” I cradled her close, breathing in the moment.

Ilya and Fyodor remained on the other side of the bed. It took a moment for the why to settle in. They were giving me my first right as Pakhan. I shook my head at them. My chin brushed back and forth over the top of Annie’s head, stirring her silky hair. “You do not have to sit back and wait. We are all in this together. When we’re in this house, I’m not your Pakhan. I’m your friend, and I would rather we all remember that.” It was something I should have said months ago, back when we first fell for Annie. I’d hesitated, that broken part of me waiting for things to fall apart as they always did. Love did not come easily for me. I loved Fyodor and Ilya as brothers, but I also knew they’d been raised to protect me. We found friendship on our own and against most of my father’s rules.

“That’s not how things are done.” Fyodor raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “But I am not willing to fight you for it.”

“No one is fighting over me.” Annie pulled back slightly. “I love all of you equally, and you love me. That’s all that matters in this relationship. We’re all equal.”

“And we’re all fathers.” This came from Ilya, who’d been more somber than usual.

“Yes.” Annie nodded. “You are all fathers.” She picked up Ilya’s hand from where it had fallen on the bed and brought it to her stomach. Once she placed Ilya’s, she did the same with Fyodor’s, then mine, setting our hands on top of each other thencovering them with both of hers. “This baby is yours and mine. All of ours.”

Love rushed through me. For the first time in my life, I let it fill me up instead of shoving it down and hiding it away from the world. I loved this woman with every breath in my body, every beat of my heart. I kissed her lips and smiled at her sigh of contentment. “You should rest.” I slid my hand around the side of her neck and brushed my thumb over her jaw where Miles had bruised her. “You’ve had a shocking experience, and Doctor Roman said you should take it easy for a few days.”

“I don’t want to rest.” She resisted when I tried to urge her to scoot toward the pillows. A quick light flashed in her eyes. “Unless it’s the kind of rest that includes all four of us naked.”

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