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I nod and cry against his chest. Relieved and horrified and more than ready to be done with this place. Finn nudges his head against my leg, leaning his weight against me to offer his comfort.
“I can’t do any more,” I whisper.
“You don’t have to. I’ll take care of Osip.”
He holds me while I cry, both of us ignoring Osip’s sniffling sobs, and when I feel well enough, I give him one more hug and then take a step back.
“Please hurry,” I tell him.
Matvey waits just long enough to make sure I’m okay, and when he’s satisfied that I am, he picks the bloody knife up and goes to Osip. Wanting to get me out of here but also wanting to give Osip a painful death, he compromises and grabs the man’s dick, cutting it off in one quick motion that pulls a guttural scream from Osip’s lungs before slamming the knife into his chest. He hits him just perfectly so thedeath will last a few minutes. Before he steps back, he shoves the cut-off dick in Osip’s mouth, letting the man choke while he bleeds out.
Stepping back, Matvey wraps an arm around me while we watch the last Lebedev brother slowly die. When it’s finished, I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I take one last look at the two men who made my life a living hell, and then I turn away from my past and look instead to my future.
I meet Matvey’s dark eyes while petting Finn’s head. “Let’s go home.”
He smiles and leans down to kiss my forehead. Grabbing my hand, he threads his fingers through mine and leads me from the garage.
“Get rid of the bodies,” he yells to the men who are waiting outside.
They rush inside, but I don’t look back, not even when I hear one of them whisper, “Goddamn,” when he sees the mess we’ve made. I’m ready to leave it all behind. Therapy with Dr. Taylor has been nice, but I’m not sure anything could’ve helped me as much as this. I wanted to see him pay, I wanted to see him feel a tiny bit of the pain that I’d felt, and I did.
Before Matvey leads me to the car, he takes me through another door that leads straight into a large kitchen. Turning on the faucet, he gently grabs my hands, pulling them under the water before lathering them with soap. He takes his time, making sure to get every drop of Konstantin’s blood from my skin before he washes his own hands and then the knife we’d used. Closing it, he puts it back in his pocket and then cups my face with both his hands.
“Are you okay?” Dark eyes search mine, and when I nod, he lets out a relieved breath. “Let’s go home,malishka. You’ve spent enough time around vile things. Our family’s waiting for us, and Luka will get to come home soon.”
At the mention of my nephew, I can’t help but smile. I can still feel him in my arms, the slight weight of him and the sweet scent of his silky hair.
“If he wasn’t a newborn baby, I’d be jealous of that look,” Matvey teases, kissing my forehead and wrapping an arm around my waist,pulling me back out the door and to his waiting car. Finn runs off to use the bathroom before trotting back over to us. Matvey reaches into the pocket of his hoodie and pulls out a dog bone. Finn gobbles it up before jumping in the backseat, ready to go on another adventure.
“You carry around dog bones now?” I ask, raising a brow at him.
“I do. I like to be prepared for all sorts of things. I also have some fruit snacks in the glove box if you want some.” When I laugh, he says, “I put them in there for Vitaly, but I’m sure he won’t mind sharing.”
I take him up on it and eat some on the drive back, sharing them when he holds his hand out to me.
“Should I feel guilty?” I ask when we’re only a few miles from the penthouse. “I’ve killed several men. Is it wrong that I don’t feel bad about it?”
“No, it’s not, and you shouldn’t feel guilty. You did the world a favor when you ended those men’s lives,malishka. They would’ve kept hurting women. Nothing was going to stop them or change them. We’ll never know how many women you just saved, but even if it was only one, even if you only spared one woman from having to go through what you went through, it was worth it. Don’t you think?”
“Yes.” I know he’s right, and I start to feel better about my lack of a conscience. They were bad men and now they can’t hurt anyone else. I’m more than ready to scrub it from my mind and move on. Stabbing that bastard had felt good, I’ll never deny that, but I don’t want it to taint my future. I don’t want to hold Luka’s small body and see blood on my hands. I want to protect him and love him, and one day I want to do the same for our own kids. My dick-stabbing days are over. I’m more than happy to hand the violence over to Matvey. I’m ready for some peace and quiet.
Suddenly the exhaustion hits me hard. My lack of sleep combined with all the excitement of Luka’s birth and then killing Konstantin, it’s starting to really take its toll. I’m covering a huge yawn when Matvey pulls into his parking spot.
“Just a little bit longer,malishka,” Matvey promises. He practically carries me to the elevator, and once we’re at the penthouse, heleads me back to our room and straight into the bathroom where he starts filling the large tub. Just the sight of all that hot water has my muscles starting to relax. He notices and smiles. “I’ll be right back, baby.”
He gives me a quick kiss and then pets Finn’s head on his way back out the door. Finn’s already sprawled on his bed, watching me through droopy eyes.
“It’s okay, boy. Take a nap.”
I swear he understands every word I say because he lets out a heavy sigh and closes his eyes. Turning back to the tub, I add in some bubbles and start to strip. I let out a sigh of my own as soon as I step into the hot water. Sinking beneath the surface, I lean my head back and close my eyes.
Pure heaven.
The sound of the water being cut off has me jerking my eyes open. Matvey’s smiling face is the first thing I see.
“Decided to start without me?”
Turning to the side, I rest my arms along the rim and smile up at him. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.” Noticing the plate he’s brought, my smile grows. “You brought me food?”
