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“You are the wife of the boss, Eve. You need to be protected.” I reach for the cigarette, but she pulls it out of my reach. I frown. “Can I have it back, please?”
“Not until you listen to me.”
“I am listening.”
She shakes her head. “No, you aren’t. Because if you were, this would have been solved months ago.”
“It has only been eight months since Milaya was born.” I sigh and run a hand through my hair. It is longer than I usually let it get, but I’ve been too busy to stop and get a haircut. Eve says she likes it, though. Gives her more to grab onto. “Between being a new dad and taking over leadership of the Bratva, I’ve been distracted. I reached out for help.”
“You reached out for full-time security,” she argues. “And we don’t need it.”
“What do you mean we don’t need it? You remember what happened, don’t you?”
“Of course I do!” she shouts, taking another step towards me. Her lips are pressed into a thin line, and I wish she’d smile again. It seems she has been smiling less and less these days. “I was kidnapped. And I know it affected you just like it affected me.”
I haven’t told Eve, but I still have nightmares. Dreams where I come home to find our bed and Milaya’s crib empty. Where she has been taken, and I can’t find her. I can’t get anyone to help me. I’m alone, without her, and with no way to get her back.
“I want to make sure that never happens again.”
“I know.” She reaches up and strokes her finger down the side of my face. “But that is no reason to stop living our lives. I feel like I’m suffocating.”
I nod. “I can tell them to back off a little. Give you more space.”
“Luka.” She sighs. “My father is dead, and the Irish have disbanded. Our enemies are gone.”
“We don’t know that,” I argue. “Just because they are lying low doesn’t mean they are gone.”
“But they aren’t a threat right now, so I don’t see why I need someone from the Bratva watching over me while I go to my spin class.”
I grind my teeth together. “You saw him?”
“Yes, I saw him.” She almost smiles but manages to hold it back. “I always see them because as much as they try, they aren’t very stealthy.”
I reach out and drag my palm down her waist and around her back, pulling her warm body against me. “I love you.”
She looks up at me beneath her long lashes, her pink lips pursed together in a pout. “I know you do.”
I tip my head down and press a kiss to her forehead and the end of her nose. “Do you love me too?”
She laughs, the sound like a balm to my burning insides. “Yes, I love you, too.”
“Then can you understand why I would do anything to keep you safe?” I ask. “Can you understand that I can’t bear to have you taken from me again?”
Her smile slips away, and she stares at me for a long moment, studying my face. Then, finally, she nods her head. “I can understand.”
I kiss her temple and she hands me my cigarette. I shake it, watching as the ash that built up tumbles to the ground and scatters in the breeze moving through the alley.
* * *
Milaya is exhausted from being passed around and played with all night, so I only have to sing her one song before she is asleep on my shoulder. I transfer her carefully to her crib and then creep down the hallway to our room.
Eve is already in bed. The room is cool, but she is laying on top of the blankets in a shimmery shift nightgown that barely creeps past her hips. When I walk in and drink in the sight of her, she quirks one brow up and parts her thighs.
An invitation.
As I crawl across the bed towards her and drag my hands up her legs, I notice she isn’t wearing any panties, and I groan.
She giggles softly, pleased with herself. But I stop her giggling the second I blow cool air across her center. Her entire body clenches, and she draws in a soft breath.
