Page 115 of A Violet Obsession

“Okay,” she says.

“I mean it, Lily.”

“I know you do.”

“What is happening here?” Sera asks. “Is Finn emoting?” She presses a hand to her chest in mock horror.

I give her the finger.

She gives it right back, cackling, until Liev reaches over and folds her hand down into her lap.

“It’s cheating to do that with another man, Malyshka,” he says.

Then he gives me a look. His wife might be laughing, but I’m fairly sure the Russian means every word of it.

And because it’s been too long since I last did it, and because I can, I cup the back of Lily’s neck and kiss her.

I forget where we are for a second. That’s a thing that happens to me now, apparently. It’s only when somebody clears their throat loudly, and Lily flattens a hand against my chest and pushes that I come back to the room and the table and the seven people sitting at it.

“Nothing for you to worry about, Gangster,” I tell Liev, gruffly.

Liev laughs. But now it’s Sera’s turn to scowl.

“No. Gangster is mine.” She waves a finger in the space between Liev and me. “And the two of you are not happening. I can handle exactly one emotional shock per day, and Finn being normal was today’s.”

“I’m not sure normal is the word,” Rhodes says.

“Normal for us,” Sera clarifies.

For a second the table actually quiets. Lily settles into my side, the fight going out of her shoulders, and I feel the exact moment she lets herself believe that the worst of this might actually be behind her.

The door bangs open.

Hands move toward weapons all around the table, then stop, when we all recognize the furious mountain filling the doorway.

“I can’t do it anymore.” Callum’s bloodshot, green eyes find Vincent, then Brady. “I’m dead serious. I am going to kill the little bastard if I have to spend one more second in his orbit.”

I smirk. Only Callum would call an international soccer star little.

Brady winces. “Okay, okay. I’ll figure something out.”

“Julian won’t accept anyone else,” Vincent says, naming the professional soccer player Callum’s been babysitting for over a year.

“He’s got exhibition games and appearances scheduled all over Asia and Europe starting in a few days. Not to mention the tour kicks off in Singapore in a few months. You’re the only one cleared to travel with him.”

“Then he can find a new company. I’ll quit before I get on a sixteen-hour flight with that litt⁠—”

Callum stops mid-word, and the color drains out of his face all at once, every freckle standing out stark across his forehead. He’s looking down at me like he’s seen a ghost.

No, not me. At Lily.

“Callum?” Vincent questions.

He doesn’t hear it. I’ve fought beside this man for years. We have pulled each other out of things that should have killed us both, and I’ve never seen him look as shellshocked as this. His mouth has gone slack. He takes a step toward her, then another, lumbering, almost as if the floor is shifting under him.

Lily’s staring back, wide-eyed, half-risen from her chair.

I’m on my feet and between them before I’ve decided to move.