Free Bloodlines: A Bad Boy Secret Baby Romance (The Snake Eyes Series Book 4) by Tabatha Kiss Page B

dropping her eyes back down to her plate again. Occasionally, I’ll catch her sneaking a harsh peek over at me but I imagine if she were going to say something about what she saw earlier, she would have done so already.
    Sofia looks at me from her place across the table. Her spine straightens as she silently waits for Gio’s reaction.
    Finally, he leans back and waves his hand. “It’s just the light in here, I think,” he says, reaching over to poke Lucian’s chin.
    The boy twitches in his high chair between Gio and Sofia, obviously favoring the attention of his mother over his not-so father. He whines and Gio rolls his eyes before grabbing his drinking glass.
    “Besides,” he adds, pausing to take a long sip, “he takes everything from Sofia and there’s not a bright feature on her entire face.”
    Yuri frowns. “I don’t know…”
    I clear my throat. “Where did you say you got this vodka, Gio?” I ask. I don’t even pay attention to his answer. I just wanted to pull Yuri’s eyes off of my son’s and the best way to distract a Russian is to bring up decent booze.
    Sofia relaxes her shoulders and I can’t help but stare at her chest as it heaves softly with her breath.
    “Well, it’s great ,” Yuri slurs. “Excellent choice, Gio.”
    “I’m glad you like it,” Gio chuckles. “There’s plenty more in my study and I’ll be more than happy to break it out. The night is still young.”
    “Here! Here!” Yuri tips his glass down his throat and I take a sip to participate.
    Lucian. It’s definitely not the light in here and I wasn’t just seeing things earlier. His eyes are bright, enough to make anyone take notice. Sofia and Gio have brown eyes. I’m no geneticist but I can’t imagine the odds of brown plus brown equaling gray are that high.
    I try to keep my head down but I can’t stop staring at him across the table from me.
    He stares back at me, too.
    Gio claps his hands. “Let’s go break open that other bottle now, shall we? The ladies will clear the table.”
    As he stands up, his chair legs grind loudly across the floor and Lucian reacts to the harsh sound. His face squishes up and my gut aches as tears fill his little eyes.
    Sofia throws on a soft face — one far more convincing than mine would be — and quickly tries to comfort him enough before the waterworks start.
    Instead, he cries, letting out a piercing wail and Gio rolls his eyes.
    “And there he goes…” he slurs loudly. “Sofia, shut that damn kid up!”
    I dig my nails into my palms under the table.
    Sofia pulls Lucian out of his chair and holds him against her as she makes fast strides towards the hallway. I watch her leave, once again admiring the very essence of her as she carries him away.
    Mother and child. My child and his mother.
    I turn back to find Rosalie staring at me with a judgmental brow raised high.
    Yuri slaps my shoulder and slides out of his chair. “I have to take a piss.”
    I roll my eyes, though I can’t be surprised. I’ve never once described my big brother as classy.
    “Walk with me, Luka,” Gio says, making a grand gesture at me.
    I force myself out of my chair to follow him outside into the hall, wishing my brother had chosen a better time to go relieve himself.
    “Talk to me,” he says, downing the last of his glass down his throat. “Tell me about what’s going on with security over in Moscow. A lot of my work is moving papers and handholding. It’s not nearly as exciting as your job.”
    “There’s not much to tell,” I say, being vague.
    “But what do you do ? Luka Lutrova wakes up on Monday morning and what does he do? Where does he go?”
    I bite my inner cheek. “I accompany my family in public and investigate threats towards them.”
    Gio’s brow rises. “What kind of threats?”
    “All kinds.”
    He sighs as we round the corner. “Like…?”
    I look back to see if Yuri is on his way yet. Knowing my brother and his drinking habits, he’s probably not just pissing