Page 39 of Fractured Ties

She’d seen him be tender—with his pup, mostly.

Still, he could be.

She’d seen all of that in less than twenty-four hours. She had the distinct feeling other people didn’t get to see it at all. Maybe she had seen it because she actually looked for it.

That’s just who Maya was.

“Tell the fucking ranger to get the goddamn thing gone by tomorrow morning at the latest,” Kolya snarled from somewhere in the hallway upstairs, “or someone else will remove it.”

The silence only lasted long enough for Kolya to bark out, “That isn’t my problem!”

That was it.

Maya glanced up as she listened for more, but heard nothing. She even hesitated on continuing to make the food as she waited for footsteps or some kind of sign Kolya was coming closer to the kitchen. She heard nothing.

So, she went back to cooking.

What else could she do?

Maya was just beginning to pour batter onto a simmering griddle when she felt him behind her—close enough that goosebumps bloomed over the back of her neck. Still, when he spoke, it was enough to make her suck in a sharp breath in surprise.

“Why didn’t you run?” he asked quietly.

Maya closed her eyes and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She didn’t bother to give Kolya the satisfaction of seeing how much he unsettled her in a multitude of ways, so she continued facing the stove even as she replied with, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“This morning, no? You could have run, Maya. You had the chance. So, why not?”

She didn’t even have to think about it.

Not really.

“Wouldn’t you have just found me anyway? Looked for me until you did?”

Truthfully, she hadn’t once thought about running from the time she woke up. It had never even been a blip on her radar.

Kolya didn’t reply.

Maya did turn to glance at him, then, if only to see why he hadn’t responded. She found a happy looking Sumerki in his arms; the dog licked at his forearm and then nibbled on the same spot. Kolya didn’t look bothered by the teething pup in the slightest.

Still, she could tell by the look on his face—in the shadows as he frowned, and in the darkness of his eyes when they met hers—that yes, absolutely yes, he would have looked for her until he found her, had she run on him.

Maya forgot about the pancake cooking on the griddle as Kolya inched a little closer to her. Enough to take away any personal space she might have had, which only caused her mind to blank when all she could see was him looking at her.

She liked the way he looked at her.

Even impassive and cold.

Something still burned.

Something still warmed her.

He still wasn’t wearing a shirt, either. And she could finally see the tattooed phrase beneath his eight-pointed stars.

Momento mori.

“Is that Latin?” she asked.

Kolya seemed to know exactly what she was talking about without asking. “It is.”