Dmitri’s only been back at Evgeny’s side for the past month, after several on light duty per the doctor’s orders, and only after months of recovery.
I’m grateful life has finally settled into some semblance of normal, even if our day-to-day looks entirely different than we would have imagined a year and a half ago.
And here I am, with Evgeny’s arm curled possessively around my waist as he talks to Marco and Dmitri, while Katie flits back and forth through the crowd, giggling with friends, and even my father chats with several customers. My son and daughter sleep in their carriers behind me.
Some days, I can’t believe my life. I can’t believe the man I wake up with every morning is my mysterious white knight from the club, the beast who kept me locked up in his castle-like residence, who scared the hell out of me and heated my blood to a boil until I didn’t know whether to run from him or toward him.
Nothing in my life is what I thought it would be. Not Evgeny, not my kids, not my family, not the fact that I live in an incredible rental house on the beach in Malibu while our Palos Verdes estate is rebuilt.
As if he feels me looking at him, Evgeny cants his head in my direction. Just like that night in the club, the strong line of hisjaw, the dark, tousled hair, the glow of his green eyes steal my breath away, and the butterflies start dancing. His hand touches my cheek lightly, and he smiles before dipping his head, his lips brushing my ear to send a shiver through me.
“I love you,” he murmurs, a breath across my skin.
“Love you, too.” I grin up at him and am rewarded by a bright twinkle in his eye, pure happiness.
I’m happy, too. I’m so insanely happy where I am, with my hauntingly beautiful beast and the life we’re building together.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
EVGENY
“The cake is here, Eva.”
My wife is in the middle of a dizzying collection of what I can only call madness, one she orders with an alacrity fit for the wife of apakhan. The way she’s navigating the insanity might put even me to shame.
People swarm through our newly rebuilt residence, risen over the ashes of the old one like a phoenix. It is a home Eva and I planned together, with the library at its center. Except today, bright yellow has taken over what is usually decorated in soft grays and creams with dark wood accents.
Bright yellow streamers, cheery decorations, and balloon arches festoon the kitchen and terrace. Bright yellow ducks of different sizes bob up and down in the pool, and yellow balloons twist on the lawn in the breeze, the ocean shimmering beyond. A stack of multicolored presents towers beside one of the outdoor couches, and various children’s games litter the shaded spots.
The chaos is enough to send me fleeing to the shelter of my office as we wait for the party to begin. It’s nearly a copy of my old one,down to the color on the walls and dark wood. Except now my desk and my wall are covered in picture frames, containing all sorts of pictures of Eva, pictures of Eva and the twins, pictures of the twins by themselves, and pictures of Eva, the twins, Marco, and Katie.
My family.
The family I never once dreamed of, expected, or even thought I deserved. Even now, there are moments I half believe I’ve been living a dream, and I’m afraid I will wake and find it all gone. That is why I hung the pictures. They keep me grounded in reality.
Then there are moments when I am in such fear of losing the three most important people in my life that my chest is tight. In those moments, I find myself seeking refuge in the beast Eva first met, becoming obsessive about protecting them until Eva pulls me back to her light.
I would never admit it to anyone, but Vasya’s betrayal still haunts me after all this time. The man with whom I grew up, who had been my only friend for so long, had stood by my side while secretly despising me and then tried to destroy my life. He nearly took Eva from me in the process. The worst part was I never knew. All my well-honed instincts had failed me, and danger had come from right beside me.
And now he is dead and buried, and I will never get a chance to ask him why. I understand revenge for his family, of course I do. But I don’t know if I will ever understand brotherly affection becoming seething hatred. Hatred enough to kill.
A knock on the door pulls me back into reality. “Come in.”
Dmitri peeks around the corner, and a grin splits his face. “Is this where you’re hiding?”
I make a noncommittal noise in my throat, returning to the reports on my desk that have taken a back seat to the twins’ first birthday weekend.
My second-in-command closes the door behind him and drops into the chair opposite me at the desk with a sigh. “And I thought Bratva business was difficult to sift through. Mostvorycouldn’t handle a kids’ birthday party.”
Another noncommittal noise tells him I agree, just not how much. This is Eva’s turf, not mine.
Eva continues to amaze me every day with her brilliance, the way she loves the twins and me, the way she navigates the world around her and shapes it to her liking.
My wife has also settled admirably into her roles in my very different businesses. She shines when she is on my arm at some high-end function, the light to my dark, the one to whom everyone gravitates.
“Here. I brought you something.” Dmitri pushes an old, dented shoebox across my desk to me.
“The gifts are for Jordan and Eliana today, not me.”
