AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have you heard how Andrei and Ivan are doing today?” I asked.
Viktor sighed. I felt a twinge of panic as I knew he wasn’t going to have good news. “Andrei is fine. He’s been off and on sleeping, like he usually does when he’s seriously hurt. Misha said they went for a walk this afternoon, once Andrei had gotten up. He said it was fine until they left the lake to go back to the house. Ivan was unsteady on his feet when he stood up, but managed to make it back to the house with Sephie’s help. She was going to force him to take a nap on the couch, so she could stay with him, when they got back. He went to his room to change, and Misha thinks he ended up breaking down. Sephie went to check on him when he didn’t come out, but then she didn’t come out, so Misha stuck his head in the door. Ivan was losing it. Sephie was trying to comfort him. Misha said they stayed in Ivan’s room for almost an hour, but when they finally came out, they both looked like they’d been crying the entire time. He knows Ivan won’t talk about anything in front of them, but he suspects he’s told Sephie everything. Sephie told me in the hospital that he had, so Misha’s right. Boss, she’s the only one that’s been able to pull him out when he’s haunted by his past because he has to go to the hospital. I saw her do it in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep. It was just like you did for her when we were on the plane. I’ve never seen anything like it with either of them. She told me in the hospital that their demons recognized each other,” he said, chuckling.
“I suspect their shared hatred of doctors has something to do with that. She broke down in the hospital after she talked to the doctor in the hall. She told me that Ivan sacrificed himself to keep her safe. She said when the truck hit them, she clearly remembers him turning toward her to use his body as a shield to protect her. She thinks it’s her fault that they got hurt.”
“How could any of that be her fault?” Stephen asked.
“I don’t know. She feels responsible because they’re trying to get to her. I told it wasn’t her fault, but I’m not sure she believes me yet. It makes me want to kill the other bosses and just be done with it. I’m done with her being put in danger.”
“We all are,” Viktor said as he pulled his phone out, typing a message, then putting his phone back in his pocket. “I ordered food. If she’s been looking after Ivan all afternoon, she likely hasn’t had time to do anything else. I know how he gets when he has to go to a hospital. It’s … a lot.”
“This is why you’re her favorite giant Russian security master,” Stephen said, smiling.
As we landed, I thought back to the first time I left in the morning without waking her. She was so excited to see me that night. I smiled to myself, thinking about that night. The first night she’d given herself entirely to me. I still couldn’t get enough of her. It might be worse now.
I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed when she wasn’t at the landing pad to greet me this time, but I knew she was busy looking after Ivan and Andrei. I wasn’t jealous when she spent the night next to Ivan in the hospital, but I desperately missed her. I knew she needed to be there for him. I didn’t realize how much she needed to be with him until Viktor told me what she was able to do for Ivan earlier. It made me happy that she could help him. But it didn’t make me miss her any less that night.
We walked into the house to the sound of laughter from the kitchen. This is a good sign. We stepped into the doorway and her eyes landed on mine. She gave me that smile that threatened to stop my heart every single time and immediately ran to me. She jumped into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist. Her lips found mine immediately, kissing me passionately. I love coming home to this woman. She broke the kiss, looking deeply into my eyes. “I missed you.” I reached up and pulled her back to me, kissing her even more passionately than she had kissed me. “I missed you more,” I said, smiling against her lips.
She giggled as she unwrapped herself from me. She turned around to walk back to the counter, but I caught her and pulled her back toward me. I needed a moment to calm down before she was allowed to move from in front of me. I pressed myself into her. She just grabbed my arms and wrapped them around her waist, with her arms over mine. I leaned down to her ear and whispered, “Thank you, solnishko.” She squeezed my hands, grinning at me.
Viktor looked at her, surprised. “You managed to cook dinner, sestrichka?”
“I had plenty of help from Misha and the two invalids. I would just like to calm everyone’s nerves though. No broccoli was murdered in the making of this meal.”
We all laughed. Viktor looked at her, “I owe you an apology then. I ordered food, thinking you wouldn’t have had time to make dinner.”
“No apology needed, my giant Russian bear. You haven’t tried it yet. It could suck. It’s good that you brought back-up,” she smiled at him, causing him to smile broadly back at her. “Also? Between all of us, food does not go to waste in this house. We can all have second dinner later. It’ll be fine.”
I turned her around to face me, brushing the curls back from her face. She put her hands on my chest, smiling warmly at me. I could see that her eyes were a little puffy, but otherwise there was no trace of her tumultuous afternoon. I pressed my lips to hers. “I’m so lucky,” I said quietly, kissing her forehead.
“How was work? Anything fun happen?” she asked as she went back to the counter to finish up what she had been working on when we got home.
“Actually yes,” I said, following her and posting up on the opposite counter, after stealing a bite of the bacon she was chopping up. She looked at me, with her eyebrow raised, but continued chopping. I crossed my arms across my chest, looking at all the guys. I couldn’t help the small smile that came across my face. I knew I was going to enjoy this conversation. “Did you know Ms. Jackson is a former spy, solnishko?”
She stopped chopping and looked to me. She knew. “Did she finally tell you?” she asked. The guys were all shocked to hear the news.
“No, she didn’t tell me. Giana told me,” I said. I scanned everyone’s faces, knowing they all knew how this was going to go.
“What? Giana told you? Really?” She continued to chop for a minute, then stopped. “Really? Does that girl not understand how being a spy works? She’s going to tell the Russians that she barely knows that Ms. Jackson used to spy on their country and expect it to go well?”
“Well, she didn’t go into detail, so technically you just told the Russians that Ms. Jackson used to spy on our country,” I said, laughing. I was prepared to run as fast as necessary to avoid flying knives.
She turned and looked at me, a serious look on her face. “Shit.”
We all laughed. Her cheeks turned almost as red as her hair. I walked to her, sliding one arm around her waist, the other slid the knife away from her toward Andrei. He passed it further down the counter. That was all it took for Sephie to finally laugh. “Goddammit I’m an idiot,” she said in between laughing.
I kissed her temple. “You have nothing to worry about, solnishko. There’s a reason we live here and not in Russia. Ms. Jackson’s secret is safe with us.”
She looked at me and I saw the flash of pain in her eyes before she quickly masked it, smiling to hide everything from me once more. She finished up what she was doing, making conversation with everyone, like everything was normal. She gave Misha instructions on how to finish, saying she needed to run to the restroom. She disappeared quickly.
As soon as she was out of the kitchen, Ivan looked at me. “You’re gonna want to go check on her. It’s been a rough day. She’s not as okay as she’d like us all to believe.”
I took the back stairs, expecting her to be in our bedroom, but it was completely dark. I noticed the bedroom across the hall was open. The balcony. I walked in, feeling the cool air coming in. When I stepped onto the balcony, I startled her. She was standing at the railing. She wiped her face, smiling. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I just needed a minute. I’m okay, I promise.”
“You’re not okay, Sephie, and you don’t need to pretend that you are for my benefit. What’s wrong?” I went to her, wiping the few tears that were still escaping down her cheeks.
“We don’t have that kind of time right now.” She sighed. “But I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut and I keep putting others in danger.” She bit her bottom lip, trying to hold back the tears I knew were threatening to fall.
