“You know as much as you need to know about me. You know I’ll protect you.” His gaze never falters. “You either trust me, or you run.” He shrugs. “But they’ll find you if you run. The law, his friends… you won’t last the week.”
Silence sits between us. I count my breaths, trying to hold on to something steady. But the only solid thing right now is Danyl’s hands still holding my shoulders.
My throat is thick with fear, but a small flicker of hope ignites in my gut. “If I say yes… that's it?”
“That’s it. You get my name, you get my protection. No one touches a Kedrov wife.”
My entire life I’ve had no one but myself to rely on. As I scraped by, sometimes not knowing where my next meal would come from, I dreamt of a something like this.
A moment when someone would step in to share the load, even take care of me. But I know nothing about this man. How can I trust that what he’s offering isn’t the same, or worse than what the creep with the Mercedes wanted?
He protected you from the creep, a voice whispers in my mind.Before and now.
I’m brought back from my rambling thoughts by Danyl’s hand covering mine. His skin is rough, callused, and shockingly warm. “You’re going to be okay, Liza.” He puts an arm around my shoulder and guides me away from the blood and the dead body. “We marry tonight.”
It’s not a question anymore.
3
DANYL
In the passenger side of my SUV, Liza shakes from the aftermath of her first kill. I drive with one hand. The other is placed on her knee, feeling the tremors rattling through her bones. She seems to keep herself together by sheer will as her teeth chatters.
I wrapped her up in my wool coat before bundling her into the car. With her cheek pressed to the collar, I can only see part of her face and I don’t know if she’s hiding in the garment because she’s shielding herself from me or because she’s trying to stay warm. Maybe both.
I raise the temperature on the climate control system.
She’s so young, nearly half my age. She shouldn’t have had to experience the violence of taking a life. I should have been there earlier. Should have taken care of the creep before she stepped out the back door. But I got caught up in a meeting.
When I think about what I could have found if I’d been only a little bit later, I want to kill that fucker all over again. It’s my job to be her protector. I’m the monster who kills.
By the time I was Liza’s age, I’d run out of fingers to count the deaths I’d caused. Growing up on the streets of Moscow, that’s the marketable skill I learned.
I wish I could spare her this. But I don’t regret that she’s now mine.
“Just breathe,” I say quietly. My voice cutting through the sound of tires on wet pavement. “Look at me if you need to.”
She nods, her knuckles white as she stares at her lap. I gave her a wet wipe to clean the blood off her hands. Her hair falls in tangles and she sniffles into my coat, but no more tears fall from her eyes.
I want to smooth back her hair, but she’s still in shock. More touch than just my hand on her knee, could scare her even more.
Outside, the city streets are dark and slick with slush. I run the route in my mind as I drive down the roads I know lack traffic cameras. The cleanup I ordered through my text message should be in progress now, removing all traces of the asshole’s body and his car.
My regular crew knows where I’m heading and after another block, two black SUVs slip in behind us as protective escorts. I doubt news of the death has reached anyone yet, but with the precious cargo beside me, I’m not taking any chances.
Even if the asshole who attacked Liza lied through his teeth when he said he was connected, parts of law enforcement would love to stick a murder on someone connected to the Kedrovs. The lot behind the restaurant lacked cameras, but I bet the inside does not. Someone is on route to remove the footage, but right now the wedding and the cleanup are priorities. We don’t know what kind of alarm system the restaurant has andcan’t take the risk of setting them off until the car and body are removed, and Liza is my wife.
I watch my soon-to-be wife through sidelong glances and take in her jittery breaths, the way she bites her lip to keep from crying.
She probably thinks her actions with the knife rewrote her future, but that’s far from the truth. Working at Meridian on a night when I had business there sealed her faith.
As soon as I saw her, I knew I’d make her mine. I just didn’t know it would happen this quickly.
She’s mumbling apologies to the corpse, to me, to her father.
I let her ramble on as I drive. Her jumbled whispers a strange accompany to the wiper blades swooshing across my windshield to remove the falling sleet.
I wish I could give her more time to prepare for being married to me, but I want her safe. Need her safe.
