Page 42 of Viktor

“Your dad?”

“Yeah, I’d just realized Becca was in love with me, and I ran like a coward, scared witless. I had no fucking clue how I felt, I just knew losing her wasn’t an option. So, I called my father. He asked me a simple question. How would it feel to go the rest of my life without her? It made me think, and I knew there wasn’t a world I could live in without that girl. She’s the only person I always made a habit to talk to at least once a day since she was fifteen.”

“Hmm…I’m thinking I’m going to write this story.”

“Don’t you dare. It’s mine.” He laughed then paused. She could hear Becca speaking softly. “No, it’s Sara Jane.”

“Tell Becca hi for me.” She liked Becca. They’d gotten to be good friends over the years. She’d only met her for the first time at the last signing, but they’d spoken so often it hadn’t mattered they’d not met in person before that.

His loud sound of frustration made her sit down. “Trouble in paradise already?”

“I keep asking her to marry me, and she keeps saying no.”

“What?”

“Well, I did get her to agree once, but she says it doesn’t count.”

“Of course it counts.”

“See? Sara Jane says it counts,” he shouted.

“Tell her why it doesn’t count,” Becca shouted right back.

Sara grinned, hearing the sass in that girl’s words. “Why doesn’t it count?”

“Let’s just say I had her at a point where she either agreed or…”

“You asked her while you were having sex?” Oh, good Lord. It was something he’d so totally do.

“Well, yeah.”

“Dimitri, a girl wants her marriage proposal to be special.” Not like her own where Roger just announced they’d get married because no kid of his was being born a bastard.

“Special? Fuck, woman, I am special.”

“That’s very true,” she returned sarcastically.

“Sass from Becca, sass from you, next Delia will be sassing me. What am I going to do with the all the women in my life who seem to want to sass me?”

“You love us, and you know it.”

“Fuck, yeah, I love my girls.” He cleared his throat. “That’s why I’m calling. I know Viktor’s there, but I wanted to check on you. How is everything?”

She sighed, suddenly feeling weary. “Not good. He caught Mom out and threatened her. Not physically. He’s too smart for that, but he made sure she got the point. Scared her half to death.”

“Shit. She okay?”

“Yeah, but it shook her up pretty bad. Viktor has banned anyone from leaving the house without either him or Gabe.”

“Gabe?”

“One of the guys Viktor works with.”

“Yeah, I know who Gabe is. He loves that bastard as much as he does me or our other brothers. I just didn’t realize he’d called him in on your case.”

“He had to drive the Jeep here and didn’t want us flying without someone, so he called Gabe. Once he was here, he decided to stick around.”

“Well, that’s good. I’m not so worried about him now. Viktor’s good, but he’s not infallible.”

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