I reach for his hand and squeeze it once. “I’m okay.”
His eyes stay on mine. “Are you?”
No. Not even close. But I nod anyway. “Give us a minute.”
Jules inhales through his nose, then looks back at Alexei with an expression so serious it steals every trace of humor from his face. “If she walks out of this office cryin’, I don’t care how scary you are. I will make your life deeply inconvenient.”
Luka glances up from his tablet, and for the first time since I met him, he might be hiding a smile.
Alexei inclines his head once. “Understood.”
Jules points two fingers at him, then at his own eyes, then back at Alexei before stepping out. “I’m watching you, Russian Bruce Wayne.”
Viktor follows him into the hallway immediately afterward, while Luka closes his tablet and moves silently toward the door as well. Before stepping out, Luka pauses briefly beside Alexeilike he’s waiting for additional instructions, but Alexei gives the slightest nod of his head. Then the door closes behind all of them.
I stare at the desk because looking at Alexei feels too hard.
He steps closer, but not close enough to touch me. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
His shoulders lower a fraction, but the rest of him remains locked down so tightly it makes my own anger rise again.
I turn toward him with my hands on my hips. “It’s now or never.”
His eyes stay on mine.
“I mean it,” I continue, though my voice trembles despite every effort to keep it calm. “I can handle a lot, Alexei. I handle scared dogs, broken doors, donors who promise checks and never send them, volunteers who mean well but forget to latch kennels, and cats who act like tiny criminals. I can handle hard things.” My throat tightens, and I hate that it does. “But I can’t handle bein’ kept in the dark while men follow me through Savannah and leave warnings in my mailbox.”
His mouth presses into a hard line.
“I love Ivy,” I say, and the words come out before I can take them back. “I love that little girl already, which is probably foolish and too fast and not at all convenient, but it’s true. And that is exactlywhy you have to tell me what I’m walkin’ into. Because if you won’t, then I need to walk out of your life before this gets worse.”
Alexei remains completely still across from me as he absorbs every word. He doesn’t argue or interrupt. He doesn’t reach for me either and that restraint rattles me more than if he had. But I see the absolute resolve in his eyes, and a shaky little breath leaves me because I understand it before he says a word.
He’s not letting me go anywhere.
“No,” he says.
My pulse stumbles. “No?”
“No,” he repeats, his voice low. “You will not walk out of our lives because someone wants you frightened enough to run.”
“That’s not your decision.”
“It became my decision when they put your name in their mouths.”
Anger burns through me again. “You don’t own me,” I hiss, crossing my arms over my chest.
“No.” He steps closer now, and the air between thickens. “But I will protect you.”
I laugh once, breathless and frustrated. “That sounds real pretty until you remember protection without honesty is just control gussied up.”
That finally reaches him. I see it in the slight change across his face, and in the way his eyes move over mine like he’s deciding which truth costs less damage.
