Page 63 of Daddy's Reluctant Queen

Or maybe it’s not so strange. He walks all the way into the room and his scent reaches me. I breathe it in, welcoming him.

“I’m just checking in,” he says. “How are you this morning?”

I smile thinly at him. “Pretty good for a woman who had to have her boyfriend kill her brother for her.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Boyfriend?”

I shrug. “I don’t know a better word for us. Master seems too severe, Keeper makes me feel like a zoo animal?—”

“Let’s not slap any labels on whatever this is. Not yet, anyway.”

I blink at him. That’s another thing we haven’t done. We never did talk about the last time we had sex and how everything shifted. I bite my lip, wondering if I should dare to bring it up now. Instead, I ask, “What’s going on around here?”

“What do you mean?”

I scoff. “What do I mean? I’m not blind or stupid. Something’s changed in protocol. Are we at war?”

He flinches slightly and suddenly, I realize what I’ve just said.We. Areweat war. That’s a hell of a slip. He doesn’t acknowledge it. He says instead, “You shouldn’t be worried about any of that.”

I don’t want to press him. In fact, I don’t really think it’s my place to. “Fine,” I say, letting it go. He pauses, then goes to step away.

“Wait,” I say, and he stops. “Can you stay for a little while?”

His shoulders move as he takes a little breath. I notice that he’s dressed in a tight black top that highlights his muscles with matching slacks and shiny black shoes. It’s not his business attire, but he looks good. Something is up. Or somebody’s waiting for him.

“I have a meeting, Sofia.”

I nod.I miss you. I almost say it aloud. I can’t say that, though. I don’t think I can handle what he might say back.

“I’ll… come up afterward,” he says. “If you want.”

“I do want,” I say softly.

And then, without another word, he leaves me again.

What a weird, strange trip this has been. And my door is unlocked. I think that if I asked him to let me go, he’d oblige me. Maybe. I don’t know.

What I do know is that something big is happening in this Bratva. And if there’s going to be war, I should at least know what I’m up against. I get up and slip out of my room.

It’squiet in the house right now. No random Bratva patrolling the halls. Not even any staff anywhere to be seen. I pad across the marble floor on bare feet, walking and listening to the halls as I move toward Titus’s office.

He said he had a meeting. I wonder if this is a big one. Maybe something has happened that will cause him to make moves of some sort. Maybe…

I don’t know. And I won’t know until I find out.

His office door is closed, which sucks a little. It’s always harder to hear through the door when it’s closed. I hunker down and press my ear to the wood.

“Cyrus and hisboevikshave been at the warehouse,” someone’s saying in Russian. “They’ve been meeting almost nightly at this point. We think that’s where they’re doing their planning.”

“Has it just been his people?” Titus asks. “Any other allies?”

“We’ve seen some of the sixes as well.”

“That’s expected,” Ignat says. “They’re too green to know better.”

“Well, if this escalates any more, they’ll find out which is the better side,” another one says.

“Okay,” says Titus. “So, they’re meeting up. What about provisions? Any word from any of our people about visits from anyone in their camp?”