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"I don't know. I think I do, but I think I'm jealous," she admitted on a rush. Then, her hand clapped to her face. "I'm so sorry to be whining about this after everything you’ve been through."
"Hey, you're not whining! It’s good that you have someone to share this with.
"I can't say that I know how you feel entirely, Inessa, because I can't. I wasn't the initial bridge between two enemies becoming allies," I said dryly. "But my dad was rich, and we had enemies of our own, and college wasn't freedom for me either. I had guards and they cramped my style, let me tell you."
"I'm used to the guards. I can deal with them. I just... Every time I go out, I know Eoghan is going crazy with fear. And now this place isn’t even a haven for him. He has no peace, whatsoever."
"That's no reason for you to become a prisoner in your home, Inessa. You can't stay inside 24/7 to make him feel better.
"His PTSD is his problem, and it's yours too, as his wife, but it isn't a burden that you need to shoulder entirely. If Eoghan makes you feel that way, then he's a jackass."
"No, you don't understand. He wants me to live, Savannah." She rubbed her brow. "He wants me to learn things and meet people and... Just, maybe now isn't the right time."
She wasn't stubborn like my sisters, but that didn't mean she couldn't dig her heels in and do whatever she wanted.
And, to be frank, like it was with Aspen, I could advise but I couldn't force.
"You need to live your life, Inessa," I told her kindly. "No one else will do it for you. There will always be constraints, there will always be a war that's brewing, and there will always be people out there who want to hurt us. Don't let your decision to pull out be about them. Hmm?"
Her nod was jerky, but she said, "I know where you're coming from. Sorry, Savvie. You didn't come here for this."
"Maybe I did." I winked at her. "Maybe I knew you needed to talk."
She stuck her tongue in her cheek. "Are you a psychic now?"
"That would be cool, wouldn't it? I always wished I was special like that. Too many paranormal romances when I was a kid. Plus, my sisters have this weird twin thing going on and I was always jealous."
She laughed. "I thought you'd be all about the romantic suspense, not the PNR romance."
"Nothing like a vampire who’s three thousand years old to get the juices flowing," I teased. "But, you're right in a sense. I did come here for a particular reason."
"What is it?"
"Aidan would never ask you. Maybe Eoghan would, but I don't know if he'd want to draw you into these politics."
At my words, she straightened against the counter. "Now I'm the one who's intrigued. What are you talking about, Savannah?"
Where to start?
"I saw Aidan meeting with Maxim Lyanov at Aoife's bakery today." I peered down into the golden-hued liquid in my glass. "There was a man there with him."
Never let it be said she wasn’t quick off the mark...
Tilting her head to the side, she asked, "Blond hair? Tattoos all over his hands?"
"No. Brown. Tattoos up his throat."
"Not uncommon descriptors for the Bratva," she teased but her eyes narrowed contemplatively. "Compass here or here?" she asked, motioning to separate parts of her neck.
I thought back to the man I'd seen in the coffee shop and pointed to the center of my throat. "But it was, I don’t know, it had some kind of leaf detail around it. Oh, and I think he had ink above his eyebrow."
When I gestured at its location on my forehead, she swallowed. "Misha."
"My sister called him that but I wasn't sure if she was lying. Or," I admitted with a grimace, "if it was a pet name."
"Why would she lie?"
"To get under my skin."
