Page 83 of Lord of Passion

My wife doesn't need a secret security detail, but I know this is a big concession from Dmitri.

"Of course. I'm still working on the encrypted data from Johann's computer with Kolya," I say. "We have a meeting later this evening."

Dmitri nods, and some of the tension leaves his shoulders. "I look forward to a report," he says.

"I'll call you as soon as we're done with the meeting." I say. "And now, I'm going to take my wife home."

My hand grips the doorknob tightly. She hates me, I'm fairly certain. Everyone else left the room, which shows a strong survival instinct on their part.

Caroline's head shoots up when I open the door and she stares at me, eyes wide and disbelieving. I kneel next to her chair.

"I believe you. I should have known from the moment I saw you in Johann's murder palace that you were innocent." Her hands are closed into fists, but she's not punching me in the face so I take one in my hand, smoothing out her fingers and kissing each one.

"This must have been two horrible days for you. Yet, you held up under Andrey's questioning, which pretty much proves yourinnocence," I shake my head. "Grown men have wet themselves when he sits in that chair and stares at them." She doesn't say anything, searching my face, at least she lets me keep her hand in mine.“Can you forgive me for not believing you immediately? I have no real excuse aside from…” I’m searching for the right words, the ones that will take that pain away from her. “I’m not used to trusting… people. The thought that you went to him willingly almost killed me. But I should have known better. I know you. I trust you. Now, I will spend as many years as you like making it up to you.Plokhoy kot,I am so sorry.”

“I’m going to need a minute.” She looks down at her hand, still cuffed to the table. “Can you get me out of this?”

Uncuffing her hand, I help her up from the table. Her knees give out and I slip my arm quickly around her waist, steadying her for a minute. “Let’s go home.” She lets me lead her out of the room, the building, and into the parking garage where her Maybach SUV is waiting, Rafail and Isaak are standing by it.

"Hello, Mrs. Morozova," Rafail says with a guarded smile. He knows that if I'm bringing her out, I believe she didn't betray us.

"Hi guys," she says. "I'm so truly sorry for running out on you and putting you in a terrible position." Isaak smiles, showing his big, blocky teeth and opens the back door invitingly. The ride home is silent. Caroline is staring out the window. Once I take her up the elevator to our penthouse, I let Rafail and Isaak search it quickly and then send them back down.

"Are you sureSovietnik?"Rafail looks uncertain.

"Yes," I say firmly. "My wife and I will be fine." When it's just us, I cup her cheek, and she doesn't pull back. "I ordered dinner in for tonight."

Finally, she looks at me and clears her throat. "There's marzipan cake for dessert." I fight to push down the victorious grin that wants to spread across my face. She still loves me.

Caroline takes a very long, hot shower. So do I, in the guest bathroom. I pull on some sweats and reluctantly add a t-shirt. The sweatpants only move is probably not the right message to send for tonight. She's casually dressed too, in leggings and a loose pink sweater, her hair piled up on top of her head. She always looks so pretty with the curls tumbling down the side of her face.

"Stroganoff andpelmeni,"I say, bringing the bags to the table. She's already laid out the silverware and plates and she looks up with excitement.

"Oh god, pelmeni," she says happily. "I've missed those."

I'm no fool. The way to a woman's forgiveness is through her stomach. We eat silently for a while until she finally looks up, toying with her fork. "Why did you decide to believe me?"

Leaning back, I take a gulp of vodka as I consider my answer. "Because I knew you were telling the truth," I say. "I know your loyalty to Liria has passed over to the rest of us. I know you would never hurt this family. It's a gift I didn't appreciate until now. You must've been terrified, meeting up with that psychotic fuck. Then, our unwelcome reception –" she lets out a loud, unladylike snort. "That certainly didn't make you feel any safer."

Caroline shakes her head, looking out the window, New York spread out below us like a carpet of stars. "I've spent the last two days certain that one of you was going to come in at any moment to shoot me." She looks up at me. "I really hoped that it was not going to be you. I could take one of the other guys, Andrey, maybe because he's crazy but I was so scared it would be you."

"Never," I say, reaching over to take her hand. "You're never going to be afraid of your place in this family again. Never."

***

Caroline is asleep on the couch by the time I wrap up my meeting with Kolya. "That crazy fuck must be very confident," he says, power chugging a Celsius drink. "He didn't even try to erase the encrypted data. There is a shit ton of information here; trade routes, other families that he's spoken to and anextremely,disturbingly detailed journal of all of the Krasniqi techniques he's used on us and plenty more that he'd planned out. I don't think we can trust the Kuznetsov Bratva again. They've been working with him for the last nine months while still doing business with us. Two-faced pricks."

"You've done incredible work here," I say warmly. "When we are finished burying Johann Novikov, I'm buying you a beach house down to the Keys." His whole face brightens as he almost spills his Celsius on his keyboard.

“Shit, really?" He's almost swooning. He has pasty white skin and burns at the slightest hint of sun, but he has stubbornly maintained that a little place in Key West would change his luck for the better with the ladies. And his ability to tan. "Well," he grins, "back to work!"

Ending the call and strolling over to Caroline, I sit on the coffee table, watching her sleep. I know how terror and uncertainty can drain you faster than a 10K, and she's had one hell of a day. I felt like a fist punched me in the chest when she said she'd expected one of us to come in and shoot her. For forty-eight fucking hours, she waited for her death.

Carrying her into the master bedroom, I lay her down on our bed and pull up the covers. I stroke her cheek, loving the feel of hersmooth skin. I wish I could climb into bed with her. There's one more thing to do before I can wrap myself around her.

Opening in a box in my closet, I hold up one of her wind chimes. Liria pulled me aside the night of our impromptu dinner party and told me what happened with Caroline's belongings, how heartbroken she was about her windchimes. The silversmith I took the broken ones to did a beautiful job of restoring them. Now, it's time to hang them up.

It doesn't take long to screw in three hooks into the overhang of our terrace and I put them up. There's a steady breeze flowing past the penthouse tonight. When I hear the windchime's music, I tip my head back and smile, closing my eyes and listening to them sing.