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“Do you really want to talk about that now?” Daniel asks softly. I can see the reluctance in his eyes.
“No,” I counter, ”But I think we have to… if you’re planning on keeping me.”
A mischievous glint overtakes the reluctance, and he sighs. His fingers push into my hair and ball into a fist behind my head, tilting it backward as he leans forward just enough to brush his lips against mine. “Nobody is going to take you from me, I promise you that.”
His words against my lips send a special sort of thrill all of the way down to my toes. It’s exactly what I wanted to hear, but it’s not enough to avoid the conversation entirely.
“I know… and as much as I love your fire, if keeping me gets you killed then it does neither of us any good,” I say as I watch Daniel’s eyes drag down my face to my exposed neck. I can’t allow myself to get distracted. Since the nurse cleared me for physical activity yesterday, Daniel has been trying his best to go slow with me, but I think his patience with himself is wearing rather thin.
“That’s for me to worry about,” Daniel says soothingly. At least, it’s supposed to be.
I frown. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” Daniel insists.
I’m not convinced. “If you don’t, I do… there are a fair few people who would care a hell of a lot if something happened to you, you know.”
“Aw, careful now. I think that you’re bordering on pouting there, darling.”
“I just want to make sure that you’re going to live… and that keeping me here isn’t going to put an execution order out on your head,” I say with a hint of bitterness. If he’s not going to take this seriously, then I’m not sure that I want to be around him right now. I start to pull away from him, and Daniel’s hand falls from my hair. I push angrily off of his chest and get halfway up before he grabs my arms and pulls me back down again.
I collided against his chest roughly. I narrow my eyes up at him and set my lips into a firm line. It would probably be a hell of a lot more convincing if I was wearing more than his button-down right now.
“You’re not supposed to be taking on any added stress right now,” Daniel says seriously.
“To hell with that! Clearly, I’m tougher than I look. Tell me that you didn’t just try to trade your life for mine! We’ve been dancing around this fordaysnow!”
Daniel deliberates for a moment and then sighs. “You’re a determined little thing, aren’t you?”
“I’m not going to dignify that with a response,” I bite back.
“I didn’t trade your life for mine, so put that worry to rest,” he says without letting go of my wrists, keeping them trapped between our two chests. “I’ve been hunting down some other leads, looking for leverage.”
Honestly, I didn’t think that he was even going to give me that much. I know how secretive this sort of thing can be with these mafia types that I’m so irresistibly drawn to.
“I have some very intelligent people working for me,” Daniel continues. “Now that we know a little bit more about what Lilian might have been doing in the time leading up to her death, as well as the ties that she met you through we’ve been able to piece together some additional information here and there.”
I bite down on my tongue and keep silent.
“Whoever it was that my sister was having an affair with had something to do with her death. The twins that work for me think that we might have had our information backward this entire time. They believe that she never wished to leave Alek, not really. I don’t know yet if the affair was voluntary or involuntary,” he trails off for a moment after that. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that sort of implication must be for him.
Though the fact that there’s a possibility that my brother, however estranged, might not be a murderer is a relief. So much of one that I don’t know why he would have kept that from me.
“They are still working on figuring out if there was any footage or records that we can find to prove that she was unwilling to leave Alek, as well as who the man who actually killed her was,” Daniel finishes.
“I would like you to tell me… when you find out. I mean, I haven’t spoken with my brother in years, but if it’s not a murderer… then I want to know that,” I say softly. I don’t know why I’m so intimidated to ask questions or favors like this. I hope it’s something I can get over in time.
“What about…” I trail off. I don’t know if I will ever be able to say his name again out loud. I don’t think I want to. Speaking his name out of my lips feels like it would be a curse or a jinx that I would place on myself.
“Ah, yes, I wasn’t sure if that would be something you were ready to discuss yet,” Daniel amends, and he lets go of my wrists now that he’s certain I’m not going to try to go running off the bed again. “I guess the softest way to put it… is that he isn’t very happy at all with me right now.” Daniel chuckles softly and wraps his arms around me. His hands slide up underneath the white fabric of the shirt I’m wearing. He starts to trail up the small of my back with one hand as the other cups my ass firmly in his grip. “The New York Mafia is in a vulnerable spot right now. Even as I ready myself to officially take over… without the Volkovich alliance and the inevitable attack that he’s going to launch against me for slighting him… things are going to get interesting.”
I take a deep breath and nod. I know better than anyone that Nikolai isn't capable of letting anything go, no matter how insignificant it may be. He'll fight until he wins... or until he burns everything down trying.
“So, what does that mean then?” I ask, almost dreading the answer.
“You know as well as I do that there’s no point trying to hide from him. There’s a chance we could attempt to align ourselves with another Russian family in the attempt to liberate Alek from Nikolai, but that would be an outright attack. But it might be worth it for the power and ground that it will give us.”
I blink at him. “Wait… what?”
