Page 84 of Born into Madness

“Are the police involved?” I ask.

“Barely,” Niki says, turning his screen back around. “All three are over eighteen, there’s no evidence of foul play, and there are some clues that make it look like they’ve just left campus of their own free will, emails complaining about college life and wanting a break, a debit card trail of plane tickets, shit like that. It’sobvious Cupid is covering his tracks. After all, a bunch of dead college girls is going to be real bad for business.”

While the others keep discussing the next steps, I slip my phone out of my pocket and send a quick text to Cyn.

ME:

You okay?

Her reply is a photo of her and Chort. She’s smiling and laughing while Chort licks her face.

CYN:

We’re good. I’m spoiling him rotten while I watch a movie and rest my very sore body.

I grin, remembering exactly why her body is so sore today.

“Holy shit.”

I look up at the sound of my Uncle Vitaly’s voice. He’s looking right at me with a stunned look on his face.

“What?” my dad asks, trying to figure out what’s going on.

“Your son has met someone,” my uncle says, still looking shocked. He sighs and says, “Jesus Christ, Sasha, please tell me she’s not chained up somewhere. Is she still alive?”

I look over at my uncle. Keeping my face blank, I ask, “So you think I’d just chain some woman up at my place and keep her hanging from the rafters?” I clarify and add, “Possibly dead and hanging from the rafters?”

My uncle looks around the room and gives a soft laugh. “I mean, it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities, right?” Looking back at me, he adds, “You know I love the hell out of your fucked-up ass, nephew, but you have to admit you’re capable of it.”

“I am,” I admit, “but that’s not what’s happening. She’s alive and well, and right at this very moment she’s in my bed, watching a movie with Chort.”

Uncle Vitaly laughs and points a finger at me. “You almost had me until you mentioned your dog. No way in hell would he just lay around like that. He nearly killed me the last time I saw him.”

“He barely nipped at you,” I correct. “And here, see for yourself.”

I pull up the photo Cyn just sent me, double-checking that nothing is visible I don’t want everyone seeing before I slide it over to him.

“Holy shit,” he whispers while my dad grabs it and studies the photo.

Raising a pierced brow at me, he asks, “When did this happen?”

“It’s a long story,” I say, but when that doesn’t satisfy any of them, I tell them about meeting her, and then give a condensed version of the few weeks after that, leaving out the parts that are none of their goddamn business.

“Wow,” my Uncle Roman mutters, while my Uncle Danil scrubs a hand over his jaw, and my cousins look at me with a mixture of confusion and shock.

I’m not surprised it’s my Uncle Vitaly who breaks the silence. “You’re marrying her, right? Because it’s obvious you aren’t killing her. I’ll be honest and say I’m still stunned by that one.”

I grin at my nosy family. “Yeah, I’m marrying her.”

My dad’s smile is huge, and I hadn’t realized until this moment how worried he’s been about me. I can see the joy and relief on his face now, though, and I know he can’t wait to tell my mom.

He slides my phone back over to me and says, “We want to meet her.”

Uncle Vitaly chimes in with, “Usually I worry about introducing fiancées to the family, but, fuck, if she can tolerate your crazy ass then nothing else about this family will shock her.”

I take my phone and put it away before I meet his eyes and say, “She thinks I’m sweet, and she thinks Chort is a giant cuddly baby of a dog.”

Everyone laughs because they’ve never once used the wordsweetto describe me or my dog.