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Her demanding tone makes me laugh and I dip my head to kiss her. “Because I love you, Seraphina Grishin.”
Those gorgeous eyes well with tears, happy ones now, and she kisses me back. “I love you, too, Alexei Grishin.” She slumps against me as if she’s exhausted, but looks up with a smile. “I’m really not in danger anymore?”
“As of this moment? No one wants to kill you, no,” I say, making her giggle. Only mafia kids could ever laugh at such things, and that’s what we’ll always be. Just in our own way now.
I stand up and pull her with me toward the kitchen. I haven’t eaten all day and I suspect she hasn’t either. I pull a frying pan from the cupboard and she takes eggs out of the fridge. We’re already working as a team.
“Now, about the future,” I say as I switch on the stove. “You’re free. Nothing’s hanging over your head. You can start nursing school, volunteer in a hospital, do whatever you want.”
She pauses as she’s cracking eggs and looks at me with wonder. “Is that okay with you?”
Scowling at her, I reach over and tap her on the nose. “Didn’t you just hear me say you’re free now? Why should my opinion about it matter?”
To my shock, she drops the eggshells on the counter and crosses her arms over her chest, staring up at me with a pout. “You’re my husband!” she says, actually stamping her bare foot. “Of course your opinion matters. Just like my opinion should matter if you want to make important life decisions. We’re a team.”
I can’t help it. I grab her and kiss away that angry pout. “You’re right. And we’re a great team. Of course I’m okay with you going to school, as long as you agree to keeping a security detail. At least until this merger is all worked out and everyone knows we’re all on the same side.”
She groans at that and I cut it off with a searing kiss that leaves her boneless against my chest. “You’re mine, Sera. Only mine, and while that means you get to do whatever the fuck you want, that also means I get to keep you safe.”
Looking up at me with a bright smile, she nods and reaches for my head to pull me down for another kiss. Never mind that the pan’s about to burn up on the stove, I’ve got my wife in my arms and she’s going to stay there. Right where she belongs.
Where we both belong.
Together.
Epilogue
Sera
Six years later …
“Hold still,” I say, easing the needle through my brother Dmitri’s skin.
“Are you making it hurt on purpose?” he whines.
He’s become much more responsible and likable since Leo and Alexei took over. Even Alexei likes him now and they play softball in a league together on weekends sometimes. He’s still Dmitri though, and he’s still always trying to get under my skin. But then again, I’m the one with the needle, so really, I’m the one getting under his skin, actually. And I’ll admit it—I might be making it hurt a little more than necessary as payback for all the times he made me miserable as a kid.
“Maybe don’t get in knife fights so much,” I say.
“Maybe tell your husband not to order raids on those upstarts,” he answers.
We share a chuckle at that as I tie off the last stitch in his arm. We both know the raid was necessary to keep our territory safe from a new organization that finally became too annoying to keep ignoring. Of course our side came out ahead, but there were still some injuries I needed to patch up for a few of our guys.
“Thanks for sewing me up on your day off, Sera,” I say in a sarcastic tone and Dmitri reaches over and messes up my hair.
Even though I work as an ER nurse at the best teaching hospital in the city, it wouldn’t be wise for a bunch of our men to show up there with stab wounds and bashed up faces. Alexei runs a tight ship and still tries to keep as much of our side of things as legitimate as possible, but we’re still the mob. A lot of our business isn’t exactly squeaky clean once you look closely. Since I’m as capable as anyone, it’s just safer to do it here in our house, where we have heavy security and a tall privacy wall to hide the men limping around as they recover.
We still keep the penthouse apartment for romantic weekends, but I like being closer to the old family compound where I can visit my sister and her kids. Plus, Alexei loves the backyard with the big, heated pool where we often skinny dip together after dark.
When Dmitri finally does thank me and leaves my kitchen in a mess of bloody bandages, I shake my head and turn to wash up at the sink. I can hear him joking around with Alexei as he and the other guys say goodbye.
It’s amazing what good management can do for a family business, as well as a family, because now all my siblings and I are close. I never thought we’d get to that, but I’m forever glad we did.
Closing my eyes, I let the hot water run over my hands, rolling my head to work the kinks out of my neck. Strong arms slide around my waist and my husband’s hard chest presses against my back.
“Thank you, gorgeous,” he murmurs against my hair.
I lean back against him, letting all the tension out of my body. He kisses the top of my head and hands me a towel as I turn in his arms. He knows how much I worry about our people, our family, and he scowls.
