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“I’ll have to make sure you experience so many wonderful times that it’ll take away all the bad ones.”
My throat tightened with emotions I didn’t—shouldn't—think too hard on.
I didn’t know what to say, but even if I found words to convey how he made me feel, the sound of the front door opening and the gust of chilled air rushing into the restaurant that made its way to our table would’ve cut me off.
I lazily glanced toward it, wondering who was coming to eat so late. It had to be going on midnight by now. My heart lodged in my throat, and I straightened, sensing Arlo taking full attention of my sudden shift in demeanor.
I glanced over at him to see this hardness come into his eyes as he glanced at who’d just entered. Leonid.
He had two barely legal women on either side of him, and when he noticed us, my breathing became shallow. It was thefamiliar dread I felt when I knew I was in the company of someone truly evil. His cold, dead eyes slid over to me, and he grinned slowly. I’d barely had any interaction with this man, only the small “interview” we’d done before I waitressed at his bar. But as I looked into the visage of evil itself, I knew without a doubt Arlo had been right.
This man was bad and dark to his very soul, and he’d doanythingto get his way.
The next few minutes happened in slow motion. I could see the way Arlo’s entire body grew taut when Leonid walked past our table, but his expression was surprisingly stoic, as if he was masking his true feelings even if his body reacted on its own. Leonid only gave Arlo a moment's glance before his focus was right back on me. I didn’t miss how he curled his hands around the women's waists even harder, so hard I didn't miss the slight winces that covered their perfectly made-up faces.
The way he raked his gaze up and down my body made me feel dirty, like a barrel of oil had been spilled on me and I’d never get it off. My skin felt itchy, prickly, the urge to scratch, to tear it off almost too strong to ignore. And just before he walked out of our sight, he winked at me as if it was a promise of what was to come.
“I think I want to go now,” I said softly as soon as we were alone again.
Arlo said nothing as he paid our bill and helped me into my coat before leading me outside. His big palm was warm and steady against the small of my back. Once I was seated in the passenger seat, he crouched on his haunches, surprising me. His hand on my thigh was hot and heavy, and it gave me the sense of being safe. Because I knew these hands had killed so many.
“Do you kill people for a living?” I whispered the words, not sure why I was asking him that right here and now. But they spilled from me like a wound opening up and bleeding out.
Arlo didn’t speak for so long I was afraid I’d ruined the night, that he’d never answer. Things had been so off today after confiding in him; then they felt right again during dinner, as if whatever he’d been thinking had drifted away and he was able to relax.
“I think you already know the answer to that,” came his reply.
I nodded slowly. Yes, I did know the answer, and it didn’t send fear through me, didn’t have me looking at him in a different light. “And you’ll kill someone who means to hurt me.” I didn’t phrase it as a question because I knew he’d killed the drunk for me, to keep me safe, to make sure it never happened again. So I knew the answer already, yet I wanted him to verify, to tell me again… to show me I was as twisted as he was, because Iwantedthat confirmation.
He stroked my cheek so softly, so gently that it went against the very makeup of who he was, of who I saw him to be on the outside. A part of me knew this man was good—not inherently, not down to his soul, yet he was gentle to me, kind even. He treated me better than anyone else ever had.
“I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.” Back and forth, his thumb on my cheek was lulling.
Long moments we just stayed there, this strange, comfortable sensation filling me. It was as if this was where I had always been meant to be.
“I forgot something inside. I’ll be right back.” His voice sounded off, too low and calm… too restrained. He handed me the keys to the car. “Start it and stay warm. Keep the doors locked, although no one will bother you.” He said it with such certainty and conviction I couldn’t help but believe him.
He looked at me for a long second and then reached out to cup my face. I instinctively leaned into his touch and let my eyes close.
“Everything will be okay.” I opened my eyes, not sure what he was talking about, because so much wasnotokay. “I’ll make sure of it.” His stare was hard. “You believe me?”
I was nodding before I even realized I’d done the act. My body already knew without a doubt this man’s word was true. He leaned in and kissed me passionately, fully. He ruined me in the best of ways. And when he broke the kiss and stood, shutting the door and looking through the tinted glass as if he saw right into my soul, I knew it all so clearly my breath shuddered out of me.
I’d always be safe with him, and that should have terrified me, because it just meant Arlo was even more dangerous than the monsters that were after me.
20
Arlo
Not taking out Leonid just moments before, as he’d been far too close to Galina—as he’d looked at her as if he was undressing her with his eyes—had taken every single ounce of my fucking willpower.
I didn’t want to leave her in the car, even though I knew she was safe. No one would fuck with her in this part of town. No one would dare even look in her direction, knowing she was with me. This part of Desolation was heavy Bratva territory. Which meant crime that didn’t have to do with the Russians was damn near zero.
I stepped back into Vasyli’s, seeing Akim speaking in a low voice with the bartender.
Akim glanced over his shoulder to see who’d entered, and at the look on my face, the silent command I gave him, he nodded slowly and walked over to the front doors, sliding the lock in place and tipping his chin toward the back, indicating to the bartender it was time to leave. Although he didn’t knowwhyI was here, I made my expression pretty fucking clear.
Shit was going down, and if he didn’t want to be in the crosshairs, it was time to make himself scarce.
