Page 184 of Born in Depravity

My lips twitched. Fuck, she was cute.

“I’m sorry,kotyonok. We’ve been working so much. But that’s no excuse for making you feel neglected.”

She looked down at the water before moving her eyes back to mine. “It’s okay. I know you’re busy.”

A heavy weight lifted off my chest at the sound of her voice. I cleared my throat. “That’s still not an excuse. The fact that there are three of us should mean you are never left alone.”

She shrugged and grabbed my hand. Her small fingers played with mine.

“How do you feel about going out to eat dinner tonight?”

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course. We can go anywhere you want to go. You can wear one of those pretty dresses Nikolay brought you.”

I had seen evidence of their shopping trip when I walked through the room and saw Nikolay was taking it upon himself to hang up the clothes. A waste of effort, since we were leaving as soon as we worked out the details with Gabriel over the new shipments.

We were transporting goods to him in a few weeks, and Gabriel was setting up a connection with a middleman to sneak the drugs into Mexico from the New Mexico’s border.

We were going to compete with Agnello’s drug trade and expand it out from under the cartels.

War was upon us and this was only the beginning.

I brought it back into focus when Catalina cupped my cheek.

She looked at me questioningly. I didn’t answer her. Instead, I distracted her by turning my head and gently biting her finger.

She let out a small squeal and pulled away quickly.

I laughed.

“Go away,” she said. “I have to get ready for dinner.”

“Are you kicking me out,kotyonok?”

She nodded, and I was glad to see some of her confidence.

It was small and subtle, but it shone brightly.

I grinned at her and stood up. I felt her gaze on me as I walked out of the bathroom.

Nikolay was still hanging up her clothes.

“So we’re going out to eat tonight?” Nikolay asked with a small smile, obviously having heard.

“Yes, and she’s looking forward to it. So whatever plans you have for her tonight can wait.”

The look in his eyes told me I was right; he’d had plans for her.

“What’s a few hours?”

“I’m sure she’s still sore.”

“I’ll be careful. But she’s tougher than she looks.”

I didn’t doubt it, but I still felt … protective of her, though “protective” sounded too tame to describe my feelings.

I walked out the door and found Damien sitting on the barstool by the small kitchen island, nursing a glass of Scotch. I sat next to him.

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