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“The plan is that you drink this,” he shifts, bringing his body impossibly closer to mine. I’m fearful that he can see in my eyes the bare, instinctive, animal want that is waking between my thighs, that is drumming inside of my heart. My mind has a grip. My body is another story entirely, remembering his. “Then you go upstairs, shower, get in your most comfortable clothing, get into bed, and sleep. Long and hard. So that tomorrow, I can prepare you for the next few days or weeks.”
“Days,” I repeat tremulously. “Weeks? My son needs me, he needs to come home, and what about work, Aleks? My job, I need—”
“We’ll figure everything out in the morning, Kat.”
“Wait, but I—”
He presses the whiskey into my hand and guides it to my lips, his brown eyes cool and liquid and on me as I drink, and drink, and finally feel some of the tension in my shoulders begin to melt off. Heat spreads in my ribs, a satisfying low flame that makes all of this seem less crazy, more manageable. It makes this, too, him—feel…possible again.
Which I know in my heart, in my damn bones, is a recipe for absolute chaos.
“In the morning,” says Aleks softly. He’s watching me still, in that way that makes me want to beg him not to stop. Is this how he got me into bed that night? I’ve spent so many years trying to forget that now I’m not sure I can remember. “Do you trust me enough, tonight, to wait until morning?”
“No,” I say. His expression doesn’t change. “You brought this man into my town. Into my world, and my life. You brought danger to my doorstep. To my son.” The words rise unerringly to my lips, and I speak them with the kind of wisdom and confidence only alcohol could lend me in this moment, with him. “Until all of this is over, and everyone that I love is safe, and I’m seeing the back of you—no. I can’t let myself trust you.”
His hand slides to my glass. Slides over my hand, his palm rough and warm and more secure, more comforting and sweeter than I can even bear. All the while, his eyes don’t leave mine. “I forgot that about you,” he says softly. “Though I don’t know how. James always did say you have a heart for justice.”
The way he says it—it’s almost admiring. And his dark eyes remain on mine…until they slip away, his mask falling right back into place. He pulls the whiskey glass from my hand and turns back to the kitchen.
“Go up to bed now, Kat,” he says with his back to me. “You’re going to need your rest.” ?
The petulant part of me wants to fight him, or at the very least, not do exactly what he says to do, when he says to do it. But the rest of me knows that he’s right, and the sooner I go to bed, the sooner I wake up. The sooner I figure out what to do next. The sooner I get to hold Adam in my arms. And anyway…with the heat of alcohol brushing through my veins, and the halo of light clinging to him the way it is—I don’t trust myself to be near him for another moment.
What I thought was dead in me, killed that night, is clearly very much alive. And if I’m not careful, it’ll take over just the way it did then. I can’t do that. I can’t be that woman.
I can’t behiswoman.
“Go, Kat,” he says, his voice very soft. He turns, just slightly, his gaze finding me. “And have sweet dreams.”
God, the way he looks at me. The way he talks to me.I should hate him. Ihavehated him. I just have to remember how. I turn and rush away, not even pausing to breathe until I’m up the stairs and in my room, closing the door and falling against it. My heart is going wild. I press my palm to it, realizing I’m still in his jacket; it smells like him. My heart hammers. Sparks blooming inside of it.
I didn’t know it could do that anymore,I think, horrified.I didn’t know I could feel that.
Chapter Four
Aleks
Yuri leans back against the Escalade and lights a cigarette, looking out at the dark forest that envelopes Kat’s little slice of backwoods paradise. “The town is crawling with his men,” he tells me, shooting me a sideways glance. “As many as we’ve got, at least. You want this girl safe, you should get her the hell out of here until we’ve taken care of Konstantin.”
“UntilI’vetaken care of Konstantin,” I say, glancing back up at the house. The window to her room is dark. Is she sleeping? I waited until I heard the shower turn off to step outside, and I have more than enough men posted. No one is getting into that house tonight. Still, I itch to be back in there. To be near her. To have her in my sights, where I know she’s safe. “It’s her family I’m concerned about.”
“The kid?”
“Her brother and mother, too, and she has a good friend. I wouldn’t put it past Konstantin to get after one of them if he gets impatient.” He’s always been a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of man. I realize as I think of it…Kat said something about a stranger following her—one of my men. But it must have been one of Konstantin’s.Or the man himself…I remind myself to ask her in the morning. “There’s the safehouse by the border. Maybe I can convince her to get herself and her family up there.”
“They’re not going to be safe anywhere.” Yuri blows smoke, and it dances off in a ghostly spiral, dissipating into the rain. “I don’t know, Aleks. All of this stinks of a trap. You killed his brother. For retribution, he’s going to off some girl you used to date?”
“We didn’t date.”
“Even less likely, then. I don’t buy it. It wouldn’t hurt you enough. More importantly, it won’t hurt the business. Not one bit.”
I shift, sliding my hands into my pockets. Yuri is one of my oldest friends and best men; I like to keep him close, especially because he’s one of few who isn’t afraid to tell me how it is. I like honest people. They’re useful. And if I’m honest with myself, at least some part of me thinks he’s right.
“This isn’t about business,” I say, thinking of Konstantin’s brother, who I killed in a shootout. It was business-related enough, and the loss will certainly affect Konstantin’s bottom line. But this… “This is personal. And he wants it to be.”
“So? What are you going to do?”
“He’s after her,” I say. “I’ll take her away. Leave all of you to look after the family.”
