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I’d been peaceful, dammit.

“What the fuck do you mean you and Zasha were attacked last night?”

Anyone would have answered like a normal human being.

Instead—because he was Yuriy—he blinked once, muttered, “Right, yeah, about that,” and then promptly dropped to his knees.

“Don’t—” My protests meant nothing to him because he took me in his mouth like that was the best way to deliver bad news.

“Yuriy,” I growled, grabbing his hair, “this isn’t—oh, for fuck’s sake. This isn’t the time⁠—”

It was absolutely the time for him, though. Because less than two minutes later, my knees locked, my pulse stuttered, and my brain short-circuited in the way only this bastard could manage. The orgasm ripped through me so hard my hand slapped the foggy glass for balance as I rode the waves of my release.

Heartbeat thunderous, chest rising and falling like I’d run a mile, I stared down at him when it was all over. He looked up at me with that smug, cum gloss-lipped expression that said he knew damn well he’d cheated and was proud of it.

“Now”—he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand—“before someone gets murdered in the shower⁠—”

“I’m still mad,” I snapped.

“I’m aware.”

“And you’re not forgiven for not telling me last night.”

“Something else came up.”

The worst part? He was smiling. The bastard was smiling like he hadn’t just distracted me with my own damn orgasm.

I braced both hands on the wet tiles, trying to hold on to the fury that had been burning in my chest before he put his mouth to use.

“Explain,” I said, voice flat. “And don’t leave anything out.”

He did, quickly. The walk. The ambush. The fight. The way it ended, and the more he talked, the colder I became.

We had nine days left in Kansas City. Nine days until Yuriy and I would get on a plane and leave my Yelena, Zasha, and that baby while trusting that the world would not destroy them the moment my back was turned. But the world was too deceptive. I had to do something.

The hot water beat against my neck, but I barely felt it.

“We leave Kansas City in nine days,” I said quietly.

Yuriy’s smile fell. “Yeah. You’re planning something, aren’t you?”

“Did you?”

“Finding out who they are and wiping them out seems like a good idea.”

“But it incites more violence, and then your brother and my daughter might be caught up in the middle of it.”

“What do you propose we do, then?”

It was weird making plans to fight against a common enemy with Yuriy by my side. He was always the enemy.

“First, we need to find out who those men work for and tackle the problem from the head.” I should have done that from the day we bought the Christmas tree then things wouldn’t have escalated this badly.

“Sounds like a good idea. I can call Dylan, who seems to know about their gang.”

I knocked Yuriy upside the head, hard enough to show my displeasure but not to actually hurt. “You’re still thinking about that fucker?”

He pouted. God, how was he a pakhan? He looked like a child who was told he couldn’t have his favorite toy.