Page 76 of In Her Blood
Evelina turned her confused stare back to him.
Dante arched a brow at him.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mikey said on a groan.
Romeo gestured at Evelina and Otto. “I can’t take the risk. We need to find a female crew for bodyguard work or something. Think we can convince Alessa to come back to Newark?”
“Did you get shot?” Mikey asked.
Dante reached out and swatted Romeo upside the head in a swift, sharp movement. “Get yourself under control. Lucia’seight. If you couldn’t trust Enrico with her, you would already know.”
Romeo opened his mouth.
Evelina started laughing. The sound snorted out of her, developing into a breathless, gasping chortle that had her latching onto Otto’s nearest arm for support. “Sorry,” she wheezed. “I’m sorry.” She waved a hand in their direction. “It’s just—that’s so—ridiculous—but in the best way—I can’t—”
Romeo grunted. “My girls are important to me.”
Evelina managed a smile. “They’re lucky.Otetswould only have cared about anything developing between Otto and I, even now, because it wasn’t his choice. And God forbid I risk tainting the bloodline even further.” She composed herself,but didn’t step away from Otto. “I’d forgotten, I read you’re all married?” Her brow furrowed briefly. “With kids?”
Romeo chuckled. “Yes, married. No, not all with kids.” He tilted his head toward Mikey. “This one’s just planning to kidnap ours when he gets lonely in his big mansion.”
“Uncle perks,” Mikey said with a shrug.
“And most of them are too young to never remember not having an Aunt Evelina in their lives,” Dante said as he turned. “Why don’t we find somewhere more comfortable to sort all this out?”
Romeo thought he saw tears gloss over her eyes for a dangerous second, but their little cousin pushed past them and nodded.
Otto made a low grunting sound almost as soon as the group of them started walking, and a moment later he’d tugged his phone from a pocket.
Evelina glanced his way. “Oh, crap, I should tell Artem about this disaster, too.” Her words lost steam at the scowl on Otto’s face. “Otto? Is that not Artem checking in?”
Romeo glanced over at Mikey curiously. He had no fucking clue who Artem was.
Mikey shrugged, so apparently, neither did he.
“It’s my old man,” Otto said, as if that were cause for concern. He barely waited for Evelina to bob her head before putting the phone to his ear. “Somethin’ up, Pa?”
Romeo didn’t know Otto beyond a few base statistics from Mikey’s report and the display of protective loyalty he’d shown for Evelina in the past few minutes. But a man didn’t need to know anything particular about another to recognize theblend of terror and anger that overtook Otto’s face in the next moment.
Evelina raised a hand to Otto’s chest.
Otto’s words came out in a tight growl. “The fuck do you want with my old man, Grisha?”
Chapter twenty-six
Calling for War
What was it Linahad said a handful of minutes earlier about rebuilding the entire fucked up clan? Otto was pretty sure that was the better idea. They hadn’t actually talked about it. He doubted she’d had the thought, consciously, at all before Grigoriy’s shit. But with everything that had happened and everyone who’d either flat-out picked the other side orseemed to think it was acceptable to pick no side at all, he didn’t personally see how she moved forward doing any less.
That would make it hard as fuck. Or it would have, if her New Jersey cousins hadn’t materialized from the goddamn sky.
He’d go back to being grateful for their intervention as soon as he got Grisha motherfucking Morozov away from his father.
The speaker of Lina’s phone crackled as Artem began speaking again, responding to the news she’d just shared. “This is a damn nightmare. We should call in whoever was off-duty from the house. Maybe see if any of Ivan’s guys have hit the anger stage yet. Are you headed to Iouri’s place? I can meet you there—”
“Not happening,” Lina said sharply. “I’m keeping you updated because I don’t like having my only brigadier in the dark, but you’re still out for the day. How will I look your wife and daughter in the eye if I let you rush back into the field not twenty-four hours after you take a bullet to the gut for me?”
“Technically, it missed my gut,” Artem replied. “And I don’t think you’ve met, so I don’t see the problem.”
