She blinked.“What?”
“Food.”The word sounded almost foreign coming from him.
She stared at him as he moved into the kitchen.For a moment, she didn’t follow.Then warped, unwilling curiosity pulled her forward.
She leaned against the doorway, watching him.Lena was trying to understand how someone who had stood over a dead body without blinking could now move through a kitchen like this.It was just so weird, seeing him in a domestic setting.
“Why are you watching me so intently?”he asked without looking at her.
“In case you poison me,” she shot back.
A faint flicker of amusement crossed his face.It softened nothing, but it changed something.He turned on the stove, setting a pot of water to boil.
The movements were precise and economical, like everything else he did.He opened a cupboard, retrieving pasta, then another for a jar of sauce.
Lena watched the flex of muscle beneath his shirt as he moved, the ink at his wrist shifting with each motion.Dangerous, everything about Maksim was dangerous, and yet Lena still couldn’t get over the fact that he was cooking her dinner.
The contradiction made her uneasy.Was this some kind of twisted game for him then?Maybe he did this often, kidnapped women, played house with them, only to end up ...no.Lena’s thoughts were going haywire.
He plated the food once it was done, setting it down on the small table.Then, without a word, he picked up a fork and took a bite.Proof that the food wasn’t poisoned or tampered with.
Lena hesitated for only a second before hunger won.She sat down and ate.The first bite surprised her.It was good, not just edible, but actually delicious.
It was warm, rich, grounding in a way she hadn’t realized she needed.She swallowed, glancing up at him.Lena hated the grin on his face.
“Why did you kill him?”she asked, quickly changing the topic.
Maksim didn’t answer immediately.
“Your client betrayed the Bratva,” he said finally.“My brothers and I decided he had to be made an example to our enemies.”
Her grip on the fork tightened.“And you’re just ...telling me that?”
“Yes.”The simplicity of it unsettled her more than if he had lied.
“Why?”
He looked at her.“Because it does not matter.”
A chill ran down her spine.She hesitated, then pushed anyway.
“You mentioned brothers.”
His gaze sharpened slightly, but he answered.
“We are close.I would do anything for them,” Maksim said.He paused, then continued, “Our father died early.”
Something in his tone shifted, almost imperceptibly.It was like a door that had been shut long ago, was suddenly opened a fraction.Lena studied him, swallowing when he met her stare.
“And you?”Maksim asked.“You have family?”
Her stomach twisted.Suspicion flared immediately.He wanted something.Information, leverage to use against her probably.She might be part of his dangerous world now, but she wasn’t stupid.
“My dad,” she said.
“You and your father were close?”he asked, his gaze lingering on her a second longer than necessary.
Lena tightened her grip slightly around her fork.
