Nobody disagreed, because we did. Ruslan had a gun pointed at me. I had one pointed at him. Pip had Svetlana covered. Juvie had the two men at the side table. The café had a couple of innocent bystanders. Ruslan’s jaw tensed.
“You will not shoot me in a room with civilians.”
“You sure?”
His eyes narrowed.
I tilted my head. “Because I’m thinking I can hit you without hitting anybody else.”
Pip nodded. “She can.”
“Epiphany,” I snapped.
“What? You can.”
Ruslan’s gaze moved over my face, searching for nerves. But I’d be damned if he saw any. Not because I wasn’t scared. I was, a little. But I’d learned at least two lessons in life. My PawPaw had taught me one on a deer stand when I was twelve and shaking so bad I almost dropped the rifle. Being scared meant your body knew something mattered; it didn’t mean your hands had to forget what they knew how to do. The second was a much more bitter lesson—once you’d been through hell, things didn’t seem as scary anymore.
Ruslan must’ve seen it on my face because his fell. I smirked at him.
And then the café’s front window exploded inward. Glass shattered across tables and the floor as a couple of screams erupted. Svetlana cried out as Ruslan flinched.
But me?
I smiled knowingly, because there was only one person on this island dramatic enough to announce his arrival by destroying the window when a door had been right there.
The glass settled. I blinked and smiled wider as a wild-eyed, six-foot-seven giant scowled down at me.
“Hi, baby,” I sang.
I was back home, debriefed, and currently locked in the suite with my very big, very irate husband. Between looking at him and the adrenaline leftover from the coffee shop still flowing through me, I was noticing another “very” … I wasveryhorny. I knew better than to say that, though. Instead, I sat quietly on the foot of the bed and looked at my husband sitting across from me in a chair. I hoped I looked contrite. It was hard to look contrite when you had pulled off some bad ass shit, though.
“At what point, Theory Grace, did you lose your mothafuckin’ mind?” Targen asked softly.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say I lost my mind, exactly?—"
“Don’t fucking play with me, Theory. I extend you grace I haveneverextended another mothafuckaever! Yet, you seem to be under some misconception that that means you can do whatever the fuck you want, and I’ll be okay with it,” he continued.
“Targen, let me explain?—”
He jumped up and started pacing like a caged tiger, anger radiating from him. I knew I should be scared, but this wasactually a good look for him. I bit my lower lip and tried not to squirm, pussy wet as fuck.
“You have any idea how pissed off I am with you right now, shorty? For you to attempt to handle the issue on your own, put your life and your sister’s in danger? Do you know how devastated your parents would’ve been if—? Girl, I swear I could?—”
I jumped up, having heard enough. “You could what, Targen?! You think I didn’t feel the same worry? The same anxiety? You think I love you less than you love me?” I yelled back.
Coming to a halt, Targen slowly turned to face me. “You think all this shit takes is knowing how to use firearms?”
“You think all I know in a dangerous situation is how to use firearms? Fuck you, Targen.”
He started walking toward me. The look in his eyes told me to run, but I was immobile. As he stalked towards me, my brain suddenly caught up with my legs. I moved, attempted to turn and scramble across the bed. He caught me, dragged me against his chest, and I tensed ready to fight him back. How dare he dismiss?—
“I don’t think I could live if something happened to you, Theory. You think I protect you because I’m all brave and noble. Maybe I am. But I also protect you because it protects me. Keeping you happy, healthy, whole,alivekeeps me the same way. For a year, I lived without you. Even knowing you were alive, not being able to see you, touch you, hold you… that was more of a danger to me than any psycho ass mothafucka’ with a shank. You are my sun, Mrs. Sidorov. Everything in me revolves around you. I will not calmly accept anything trying to extinguish that sun. Not even you,milaya.”
I stopped struggling immediately.
“Targen.” I breathed, my eyes suddenly wet. “You know I knew if things got crazy you were coming, right? As soon as that signal was jammed, I knew.”
“Just promise me you won’t do shit like that again. Even Bratva bosses have backup. Bratva Brides should, too.”
