Page 40 of The Bratva's Secret Baby

“No” His answer was firm and direct. “You and Kaity are going to be part of my life. I want to be her father, and I want to be with you both. I fucked up back then, I didn’t realize my feelings for you. But since you’ve been gone, I’ve had time to think.”

I cocked an eyebrow, my heart skipping.

”I love you. I love you so fucking much, Roza.”

I love you. This is crazy. Damien loves me.

I closed my eyes and tried to gather the last vestige of sanity in me. Damien’s confession came so suddenly that it took the air out of my lungs. All the memories and emotions from our first meeting seeped into my orgasm-swarming brain. Even now that I knew who he was, I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. In all these years, my feelings for him had never changed. How could I forget him? He was Kaity's father. Damien Varkov, a member of the Bratva, the head of The Circle, was in love with me.

What I was about to say, I might regret it one day, but I had to try, for Kaity.

One thing I knew for sure was that no other man would love me and protect me and Kaity more than Damien. Damien wasn't perfect, but if I had learned anything about the Varkov family, it was that they always kept their promises. And family will always come first.

I took a long breath.

"I love you too, Damien. I hate to say it, but I've never stopped loving you since the first day we met."

His serious look turned into a tender and gentle smile. "Malen'kaya roza, I promise you that I will always be good to you and protect you and our daughter."

He was about to take my lips on his again when his phone beeped on the floor inside his suit jacket. He reached for the jacket and grabbed his phone.

”Privet [Hello]?”

His smile faded when the voice at the other end of the line replied something in Russia. “I’ll be there in a minute!”Damien said before hanging up and clenching the phone in his palm.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, noticing the worried look on his face.

He began to gather his clothes and threw them on. “There’s something I have to take care of.”

Chapter Seventeen

Damien

“It better be worth my time,”I snarled as I slipped into the black-tinted Porsche that Fyodor had come to pick me up with.

I was fuming that he’d interrupted my beautiful moment with Rosanne. It better be important, or I would punch his brain out. A smile curled around my lips. I couldn’t believe I had a daughter, and even though she had dark hair and blue eyes like me, she looked just like her mother. Beautiful, and has a smart mouth too.

Something warm simmered in my chest when I met her, and for the first time in my life, I felt proud, so proud. One glance at that little girl, and I knew I would risk everything I had for her.

Everything.

“Trust me, boss. This is.” I stared ahead as Fyodor maneuvered the car into the bustling streets of New York. “I thought it was really strange that Eric West was killed right at the time when we caught him, so I took a closer look at his case.”

He paused. The pause between his sentences drove me crazy every time.

“Jesus Christ, man. Talk, damn it!”

He smiled at how much he had pissed me off. I could have sworn he would already have a bullet in his head if he weren’t one of my favorite men.

“Sorry, boss,” he apologized, though his tone betrayed no remorse.

“Eric got caught for transferring large sums of money from the account he managed to a police account. I mean, he infiltrated The Circle as a spy, so wouldn’t he have been trying to gather evidence against us?”

I thought about it, Fyodor was right. Eric had stolen from me a couple of times. He could have gotten enough evidence to take the organization down within months after joining if he wanted, but he remained in the organization for two years.

“You think someone in the police put him up to it and as we caught on to Eric, they killed him?”

“I’ll bet my balls that’s exactly what happened,” he replied.