“It’s partly why she’s so upset.”
Pete pulled out his phone and sent out a quick text. “How are they?”
“Shaken up. Mason’s on oxygen. The fool didn’t tell anyone he was having trouble breathing.”
“That boy. Still thinks he knows ever’thin’.” Pete shook his head. “Officers will be here within the hour to stand guard.”
“Conner, can you go find out what you can about Gabe?” Viktor asked. No matter how much he needed to know, he couldn’t bring himself to step away from this door and his family.
“Of course.” Conner stood. “Uncle Pete, can you come with me? We have a theory we want to run by you.”
Pete glanced at Viktor, and he waved him off. He wasn’t necessarily fine, but he was okay.
All Viktor wanted to do was sit here and get a handle on his emotions. His girls needed him, and he’d lock this shit down if it killed him.
Sara refused to get out of the hospital bed. She faintly heard Viktor arguing with nurses, but as long as they stopped trying to get her to put Delia down, all was good.
Fear unlike anything she’d ever known seized her heart the moment she’d heard Viktor utter, “How bad is she hurt?”
She felt herself crack and shatter. Viktor had done everything. He packed, he got them checked out, and he found a way to get to them home. He even called Dimitri to handle all her book signing related things. He’d held her every second of the way. It was the only reason she hadn’t completely broken down and lost her mind.
Her nerves calmed the minute she’d seen her baby, and reality snapped back into place when she held her.
She could breathe for the first time since they’d gotten the call.
Thank God Conner showed up. She hated to think what might have happened if he hadn’t. She owed him her daughter’s and her parents’ lives. It was a debt she couldn’t repay.
He set the house on fire.
He’d tried to murder her parents.
She’d thought he’d go after her, sure, but not her parents. They’d been nothing but kind to Roger all the time she was with him.
“Hey, baby, how you holding up?” Viktor brushed a kiss across her temple and reached over to slide his thumb along Delia’s jawline. His touch was so gentle, the little girl never so much as stirred. Her child’s own father had never once touched her like that. It broke Sara’s heart. Why hadn’t she met Viktor sooner?
“I can’t put her down.”
“I know. She’s not getting more than a few feet from any of us anytime soon. How much more school does she have?”
“They get out next week. Why?”
“Can you pull her out early? I can keep a man on the school grounds at all times if you can’t.”
“I think so. Given what’s happened, I think the school should excuse her.”
Her gaze swept back to Mason. He’d ignored his own health to stay with Delia because she was panicking, and her grandparents couldn’t be with her. Ben would have done it as well, but not Roger.
“I owe both your brothers so much.”
“No, baby, you don’t. We’re family, and family takes care of each other.”
“I want that,” she confessed. “I want to be your family, and Mason’s, and even Conner’s, scary as he looks.”
“You already are,moye sokrovishche.” He leaned down and brushed her lips with his. She sank into the soft kiss, reveling in how safe he made her feel. When he pulled away, she caught his shirt and pulled him back.
“I think I’m starting to fall for you, Viktor Kincaid.”
“Good thing, baby, because I already fell so hard for you, there’s no going back.”