Page 73 of Possessive Mafia Bodyguard

“Forgive my confusion.” Aiden scratches his head theatrically, mussing up his hair. “But I thought we were all working towards the same goal. Unless you’ve changed your mind.”

“The agreement will only work on mutual trust.” Leonid keeps his voice ominously low. “You lied to me. I’ve killed people for less.”

Aiden fucking smiles at him, and my stomach clenches.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it, Pakhan. However, you might want to get your facts straight before you accuse me of being a liar. Because if there’s one thing I hate as much as fucking perverts who profit from women and children, it’s a man who wears integrity like a badge and doesn’t back it up with his actions.”

“You’ve been hiding my enforcer.” Leonid’s shoulders shift backwards and he relaxes his spine. It’s the action of a snake waiting to strike.

Aiden glances at me and Finn, realization passing behind his eyes.

“Wrong.” My voice rings out before Finn can confess. “They haven’t been hiding me, Leonid. But I’m not going with you.”

His brows furrow when he looks at me.

“I choose them.”

20

FINN

She walks away.

I watch her go for half a beat, then Leonid and Andrej turn around and walk in the opposite direction, giving my brain the kickstart it needs to follow her.

“That’s it?” I ask when I catch up with her.

She doesn’t look at me. “For now.”

Tamara looks unscathed. I saw the Russian with his arm around her neck, and I wanted to punch a hole straight through his chest and toss his stone of a fucking heart into the water, but I couldn’t get to her quickly enough. And here she is with her chin jutted towards the sky and her eyes fixed straight ahead, and that same sense of purpose that I love about her in her stride.

She stops when she reaches my bike on its side in front of a shipping container at the rear of the dock and glances back at the car rammed into the side of the truck. Someone has emptied the contents of a fire extinguisher into the engine and killed the smoke, but the hood is buckled like an empty soda can, and the truck will probably live to travel another road.

I follow the direction of her gaze. “Aye, sweetheart, you can thank Leonid for the distraction.”

“Leonid?” She narrows her eyes at me.

“News travels fast when a beautiful Russian enforcer goes all superhero and tries to take on the world.” I try to inject some lightness into my tone but quickly realize this isn’t the time or the place. “He beat me to it.”

She shakes her head briefly. “It wasn’t Ivana?”

The desperation in her eyes fades into disappointment, cracking my chest like an egg and spilling my love for her out onto the dock. I fold her into my arms and hold her trembling like a caged animal until her spine stiffens and she steps back.

“I thought she… I thought if she saw I needed help, she would come out of hiding.”

I don’t remind her that she almost got herself killed. A smart aleck is the last thing she needs in her life right now.

“If you want to change your mind…” I glance at the vehicle carrying the Ivanovs away from the carnage on the dock.

“I don’t.” She tilts her chin even higher. “I want to speak to Aiden.”

I smile. “I think we should talk first.”

It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done keeping my eyes from lowering to her belly, but I vowed this would be on her terms, and I’m not stumbling at the first hurdle.

“Later.” Perhaps I’m not as adept at hiding my disappointment as I think I am because she cups my face with her palm and plants a gentle kiss on my lips. “After I’ve spoken to Aiden.”

I focus on her body pressed up against mine as we head back into the city to Aiden’s office on my bike. Her arms around my waist. Her thighs squeezing mine. She didn’t want Aiden to know about us, so I respected her wishes, and I don’t regret it for a moment, but the sudden change of heart is confusing the shit out of me. I’m here for her whatever she wants to do, but jumping ship isn’t the answer she is looking for.