Page 15 of Deviant Need

I freeze mid-step when I spot a hoodie lying on his bed. My head tilts, and I stare at it. That’s not Yulian’s style at all—wrong fabric, wrong fit, wrong everything. He doesn’t do casual like this.

There’s a ripped piece of paper next to it, and I pick it up, squinting at the handwriting.

Same place as last time. The strip, noon. Don’t make me wait—M.

My eyes narrow. Vegas has been Yulian’s obsession from the second he pitched working there, all his idea to expand, and I’ve never seen him push this hard for anything in his entire life. Now he’s there all the time, vanishing for weeks on end. I have no idea why Vegas specifically became his whole world, but honestly, I don’t care enough to ask.

I put the note down and reach for the hoodie.

“Don’t touch that,” Alexei says from behind me.

“Why?”

“Because I’m telling you not to. He’s protective of that thing, has been since we were teenagers. I had to throw him through a window once because he almost killed me for touching it. Don’t know where it came from, don’t care. Just leave it alone.”

“That’s weird.”

“Our entire family is weird. Move on.”

Shrugging, I keep searching. I pull open another drawer and shove aside clothes and random papers, then pause when I spot a stash of cherry lollipops filling the entire bottom of his nightstand. I stare at them for a second. Why is he so weird?

Daniil appears in the doorway grinning at me, holding the document up like a trophy. Relief floods through me so fast my knees almost give out, and I let out a long exhale as the tension finally drains from my shoulders. If we hadn’t found it, I would have been completely screwed.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I say, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the door.

We head out, lock the door behind us, and climb into the car.

I turn around in my seat with a huge grin. “Can we pet the rabbits?”

Alexei’s fist comes flying at me from the back seat, and I barely catch it in time, twisting his arm back. This is the one thing guaranteed to set him off, and I love it.

Kelly had a rabbit, just one normal pet rabbit, until Alexei decided to surprise him with a second one without bothering to check if they were both the same sex.

Spoiler, they weren’t the same sex. Now they’ve got more than ten rabbits running around, and the number keeps climbing. Alexei’s insanely protective over all of them and goes ballistic if anyone even thinks about touching one. He even got a tiny rabbit tattooed inside his palm like a psycho. When we offered to adopt two of them and take some off his hands, he refused immediately.

He wrenches his hand back. “Drop it or I’m putting you in the hospital.”

Daniil gives me the look from the driver’s seat, the one that means quit while you’re ahead, so obviously I double down.

“I’m just going to ask Kelly myself. He’ll say yes because he actually likes me.”

Alexei lunges forward from the back seat, reaching for my throat between the headrests.

I grab his wrists, and we’re locked there, both of us fighting for control, neither willing to back down first. Daniil sighs heavily without taking his eyes off the road. Alexei’s face is turning red from the effort when suddenly he freezes, hearing something. He shoves me away hard and settles back in his seat.

Looking up, I realize we’re already back at their place.

The front door opens, and Kelly steps out, blonde hair catching in the wind. He crosses his arms and shakes his head, judging all three of us silently without saying a single word.

I still can’t believe Father refuses to speak to Alexei because he’s with a man. Who gives a shit? Alexei’s happy. Actually happy for once in his miserable life. That should be enough for anyone, but Father’s stuck in his archaic bullshit.

“If you mention my name to Yulian, I’m forgetting every lesson Kelly’s taught me about restraint. Keep your mouth shut,” Alexei says flatly.

He gets out of the car, pulls Kelly in for a kiss, and then the two of them head inside together. Kelly’s part of the family now, whether Father likes it or not. He’s over all the time, plays cards and trash-talks Yulian. We all love him. Even Lev warmed up to him eventually, which says something considering how much of a tight-ass he is.

Our mother adores him. She visits them constantly, brings food, fusses over both of them. She invited him for Christmas, but only because Father was in Russia doing business and couldn’t stop her. He never found out, and she’s made damn sure to keep it that way. She’s gotten good at sneaking him into family things whenever he’s gone.

She’s also started her grandchildren campaign, constantly hinting about adoption and saying how worried she is that none of us are going to give her any. She’s right about that, at least in my case. I can’t speak for the rest of the idiots.