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I frowned at her. Ever since the incident at the dress shop, Olga had been hovering. She’d tried to set Doctor Petrov on me for a check-up, and when I’d refused, she’d looked like she was about to march into Kirill’s room, full of Chernov men, and Ivan and Max, and tell on me.
“I’m fine,” I said to her in a low warning tone.
I was fine. I’d had no bleeding or pain at all, and everything felt normal. What I didn’t need was to be pushed around by Olga, even if I knew in my heart I had to come clean and go for all the normal check-ups sooner rather than later. Doing that meant it was all real, and I still wasn’t there yet.
“You let me make you something to eat then,” Olga huffed before hurrying off to the kitchen. I dawdled, looking around my old house. Ivan was right; Kirill had changed it. The bones remained the same, but the style had changed. It wasn’t stark or cold like The Tower, but it wasn’t the busy, messy, and cluttered style that I’d grown up in either.
Polished wooden floors and antique furniture filled the inviting space. The corniced ceilings had remained, but now the walls were dressed in modern colors and wallpapers, and none of the faded 1970s flowers I’d grown up with. While Henry had owned the house, he’d never spent money on it. Kirill had. It glowed luxuriously in the afternoon light.
As I wandered around, the medical team brought Kirill in on a rolling bed, and I drifted to his side. Doctor Petrov was speaking to Max in Russian, and the two followed the bed upstairs, with me trailing after them.
They had set up my mother’s old room, which made sense. It had been a room stuffed with medical equipment for so long, there was barely anything different for a moment. I walked in, and I was sixteen years old. Then I blinked, and it all changed.
The medical equipment for Kirill was on another level. Beeping heart monitors and oxygen tanks were set up. Row upon row of fresh dressings and bandages were set out, and his huge, top of the line hospital bed sat in the middle of the space. I lingered at the door and watched him. He was so pale against the white sheets that his dark hair was a shock where it rested on the pillow. His eyebrows were long, elegant lines of soot against that pale skin. He looked peaceful. His handsome face, usually so alive with anger, goading, and dry amusement, now seemed otherworldly in its peacefulness. I hoped that whatever dreams he was having in the long, chemically induced sleep he was in were happy ones.
“Mallory,” Max called to me from his bedside. “The master bedroom is ready for you, and Olga brought your things from the city already.”
“Okay. But can I stay in here with him whenever I want?” I directed the last toward Doctor Petrov, who merely nodded.
“Of course. Stay beside him. He will awake soon and be in pain, but that is expected. My team and I will manage his recovery. It was only a gunshot wound, Miss. Try not to fret.”
“Right, just a gunshot wound. It’s basically a scratch in the bratva world, right? I would hate to know what constitutes something serious for you guys,” I muttered, sitting down on an overstuffed bench seat and leaning against the wooden paneling surrounding the bay window.
I watched the medical team moving around, arranging the room, checking his vitals, all while Kirill lay there, defenseless and peaceful. I eyed the team, thinking how easy it would be for one of them to end him right now. A paid assassin. I shivered and resolved to stay by his side as much as possible. I leaned my head against the wall and let my eyes rest on him.
I’d stayed with him, and the decision I’d taken was a huge weight off my heart. I’d made my peace with him and all his controlling, manipulating ways. Of course, that didn’t mean I’d stand for that kind of thing again, but it was different now.
I knew the worst, and I was here.
From now on, we’d be equals in his world. Instead of fighting the dark inside him and all around him, I’d decided to walk right into it.
There was, however, one last secret between us, and that one was mine.
* * *
I ate dinner with Olga,Max, and Ivan. Pyotr, the other member of Kirill’s inner circle, was busy testing the new security system he’d put in place and making sure there were no blind spots in the surveillance. I’d seen the battle-hardened team of men who were manning the video feeds. They looked like recent escapees from Ryker’s, and I couldn’t imagine anyone thinking it was a good idea to cross them.
We were starting Olga’s delicious salmon when a voice interrupted us. Ivan was on his feet before I could blink. One of the new security team lingered in the doorway.
“Forgive the interruption. There’s a man at the east gate. It’s Nikolai Viktorovich, and he’s alone.”
Ivan let out a long sigh and looked at Max. I could feel them deliberating silently whether they should let him in.
“Let him in, but take any weapons from him,” Max said finally. The security guard disappeared as the news of Nikolai’s impending arrival settled over the dinner table.
“It’s not so strange for him to visit. Viktor will expect it, at the very least.”
“And how are we to know whether he was involved in what happened? I’ll never trust him,” Ivan said heatedly.
“Because de Sanctis clearly sent the men who attacked us. Antonio would never make an agreement with Nikolai. He hates the Chernov name since Kirill embarrassed him.”
“Who’s De Sanctis?” I piped up. Silence fell so soundly that it sent suspicion rippling along my nerves. “It’s about the engagement, isn’t it?” There was no other reason everyone around the table would look so awkward.
“Yes, Sofia De Sanctis was Kirill’s proposed fiancée. She didn’t want the marriage either, but her father was insistent. To smooth over the broken engagement, Kirill let information slip that Antonio, the De Sanctis capo, had undercut us in a joint venture. His name was dragged through the mud, and he wants payback.”
“Why did Kirill embarrass him so much?” I asked weakly, but deep down, I knew.
“Why else?” Olga snapped, clearly losing patience with the conversation. “To appease you and make sure the five families understood the marriage wasn’t taking place.”
