Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
That was when my water broke.
I’d never in my entire life thought that anything could be sexier than Shasha on our wedding day.
He’d been dressed to the nines.
Fitted tux.
Perfectly coiffed hair.
Well-manicured beard.
He had been utter perfection.
Then there was now, watching him with our newborn daughter, Viveka.
Vivi.
I could just make out the bulge underneath his suit jacket where his arm was lifted to support our newborn’s tiny little tush.
His eyes were closed, and I couldn’t help but to compare her eyes and his.
They both had the best eyelashes I’d ever seen.
I was so jealous.
The eyelashes on my husband’s cheek swept upward, and his eyes stared deeply into mine.
“You okay?” he asked, voice rough and tired.
We’d been up for hours.
All of our family had just gone home, and we’d finally gotten our baby back.
Honestly, Shasha had been great with passing her around, but he’d gotten tired of it pretty quickly and had ordered everyone to leave.
I hadn’t been surprised.
What I had been surprised about was how we didn’t have a single guard in the room with us.
I imagined they were both outside.
I was never far from Daniil, and he was never far from Alexi.
Now, I imagined, that would continue to happen, though only amped up by a thousand.
I saw the way his eyes had changed the moment she’d been laid into his arms.
He was scared.
Well and truly scared.
When his sister, Maven, had taken him aside to talk to him, I knew that she was helping encourage him to control his fears.
I’d seen him get control, but that fear was still there, though not nearly as bad.
“I’m great.” I smiled. “I have the whole world right here.” I placed my hand over my heart. “I’m freakin’ perfect.”
He leaned over and gave me a kiss.
“You ever gonna give her up, Daddy?”
His mouth quirked up. “Probably not.”
I giggled. “I love you, Shasha.”
He pressed his mouth to my hand and placed it over his heart that was pounding. “You’ve changed my world, Brecken Semyonov.”
“Did I tell you how great that last name sounds?”
He chuckled, which woke the baby up.
“I hate to break it to you, honey, but anything is better than Brecken Sweat.”
“You may be right.” I sighed and felt my breasts start to tighten. “Time to feed her.”
“Time to feed her,” he agreed.
“You have to hand her to me,” I pointed out.
He groaned. “Fine.”
He let me have her, but he kept his hand on her back the entire time.
The little girl had no idea what kind of power she held.
None.
SHASHA
Eighteen months later
The terror that enters your body when you have a small child that can walk is sometimes impossible to overcome.
But it helps when you have a wife who knows your biggest insecurities and helps you get control of them. Or lets you handle them on your own and doesn’t complain about your overprotectiveness.
I watched as Vivi ran around the merry-go-round with her cousins and forced myself to stay where I was to allow the man who was walking up to me to get to my side before I asked, “What can I help you with, Detective?”
“Just running up some case notes,” he said. “Wondering if you’ve had any contact with Rupert Tomlinson or Gabriel Stone lately.”
I looked over at the detective to find him staring at my sister, who was laughing as she was pushed on the merry-go-round by the kids.
“I have not,” I said. “Why do you ask?”
“Parents wondering where their children are.” He looked at me then. “As a father yourself and a brother to a little girl that went missing at a young age, I would think you would feel this a little more deeply.”
I leveled him with an honest stare as I said, “Detective, if I am being bluntly honest, you cannot compare those things. Two men who were awful are missing. They were literally loathed by so many people they can’t narrow down a list of suspects. And you expect me to have sympathy for them because I’m a father now, and my sister was once taken from our family? No. I do not have any sympathy for them. And one day, I can guarantee you’ll see the difference.”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
As I watched him look at my sister, I almost wanted to laugh.
The way he looked at her was reminiscent of how I once looked at my wife.
If he only knew…
“Dada, hol!”
I picked up my sweet baby girl and cuddled her to my chest.
“I love you,” I said to her.
The detective beside me left.
My wife took his place.
“What was that about?” she wondered as she leaned into us.
I threw my free arm around her and said, “Just checking in.”
“Well, that sounds fun.” She paused. “Can we go eat? I’m starving.”
I ran the top of my nose along the bridge of hers before saying, “Anything you want, kisa. Anything you want.”