Page 32 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

Slamming my bedroom door behind me, I leant on it heavily. My breath coming in pants as I tried to make sense of what was happening to me.

How the hell did I end up back here?

The knock on the door forced a little scream to tumble from my lips, and I had taken two hasty steps away when it opened and Alec’s little face appeared.

Almost instantly, my heart calmed down. "Hey, I thought you were at the park?" I asked, because that’s where I had been told he had been taken.

He shrugged, pushing his way into the room. "I didn’t want to show them the monkey bars. I wanted to show you."

My heart gave a pang. "I’d like to see that very much." Sitting on the bed, I waited until he bounded up.

"Will you be staying? Can I show you?" His little open face twisted. "I don’t think Papa will let me rescue you again."

I reached up and ruffled his hair.

"You are absolutely right about that," Ilya said from the doorway, and we both lifted our chins to stare up at him. "What you did today was very dangerous, Alec. You, or," his blue eyes roved over my body, "Daisy, could have been hurt. I never want that to happen."

Wow. He sounded so genuine. Like I was seeing a completely different side to his personality. He was back to being gentle and kind.

He loved Alec, I realized.

"I just don’t want her to leave. I want to be with her, so she can look after me. Not like Milli." His lips twisted. "I want her to like me."

"I do like you." Looping my arm around his narrow shoulders, I pulled him onto my lap and hugged him. "I love you, Alec. And I’m not going anywhere." I lifted my eyes to Ilya's in a silent question.

"That’s right. Daisy is going to stay with us. In fact," striding into the room, he held out my phone, "she needs to tell her boss that she is staying here. For the foreseeable future."

Plucking the phone from his hands, I dropped it forgotten onto the bed. Making calls could wait. My son needed me now, and he was all that mattered to me.

"You’re going to stay forever?" He tilted his expectant face up to me.

"I’m going to stay with you." I stressed the word 'you'. "Forever. I promise."

Keeping him on my lap, I reached for my phone and dialed a saved number.

"Hello, Daisy, is that you?" My department head's voice answered on the second ring, even though I knew it was the middle of the night there.

"Yeah. Sorry it’s so late."

"Where have you been? We’ve been so worried, and no one could get a hold of you. I was going to call the police tomorrow and report you as a missing person."

I let him bluster on.

"When are you coming back?" he finally asked.

Taking a deep breath, I met Ilya's eyes. "That’s what I need to talk to you about."

Chapter Twelve

Ilya

I could only hear one side of the conversation, but it didn’t take a genius to work out that the person on the other end of the transatlantic call wasn’t happy.

Leaning against the doorframe, I watched as she sighed. Her fingers sliding through Alec’s hair. "It’s not like that, Graham."

My head snapped up at that. She was on the phone to a man? Right here in front of me. Sure, it was her boss, but things happened between employer and employee all the time.

"You know I value the job. You know I love it. It’s all I’ve dreamt of my entire life." Her eyes lifted to me, and a little line appeared between her eyebrows as she glanced down at my body.