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ROMAN
He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be in the front seat of the Jag, Max navigating through city traffic while Ruby and Olivia sat in the back seat.
Hewantedto be here, but he shouldn’t be here.
He should be back at the loft, running the numbers on the gold they’d moved so far, the money that still had to come in. He should be finalizing his security protocols, because in less than a week he would need them when he confronted his father, when he took the bratva by force if necessary.
And yet he found he’d meant what he’d said at the hospital.
There was no place he’d rather be.
Some of it was his desire to protect her. To protect them. That was new for him. When he’d first met her, he hadn’t known how he’d felt about the fact that Ruby had a daughter.
But walking into the hospital room, seeing Olivia looking so small and vulnerable in the big bed, Ruby’s brow creased with worry, her skin pale, he’d felt the same directive he’d had in the alley when he’d caught Adam putting his hands on Ruby.
Protect. Not just Ruby, but Olivia too.
He’d felt the same wave of possession move through him that he’d felt when he’d seen the picture of Adam with his arms around Ruby and Olivia.
The same denial that they belonged to anyone but him.
It didn’t make sense.
It was after midnight, and Olivia was asleep when Max pulled up outside Ruby’s apartment. Ruby started to ease Olivia off her so she could get out of the car.
“May I?” Roman asked softly. “I can lift her so you can get out.”
Ruby hesitated.
“You’ve had a long night,” Roman said. “Let me help. Unless you think she’ll wake up and be scared to find me holding her.”
Roman knew nothing of children and their ways.
Ruby smiled. “She’ll sleep like the dead until morning now.”
Roman nodded and got out of the car. He walked around to the other side and opened the door, then reached for Olivia.
She was so small, so light in his arms. He didn’t know what he’d expected. She was a child after all, but her smallness, her fragility, still took him by surprise.
She wrapped her tiny legs around his torso and murmured in her sleep, laid her head on his shoulder. She smelled like graham crackers and clean sweat.
Like Ruby and her apartment.
Ruby got out of the car. “I can take her. She’s getting heavy.”
“I’ve got her,” Roman said quietly.
He thought she might protest, ether because she didn’t want Roman to carry her daughter when they’d only known each other a short time or because she thought she was imposing on him.
Instead relief flooded her eyes, and he saw that she was tired.
Not just tired from tonight’s crisis, but bone-tired. The way Roman sometimes felt fighting his father. Like she’d been fighting the same battle for too long without fresh supplies, without reinforcements.
She would never admit it — maybe she didn’t even realize it herself — but she needed a break.
She needed help.
“Thank you,” she said.
