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“You don’t want me to stay with you. What we talked about…”
“Honey, I meant every word. But this is your choice. I think you know I’m not the kind of man to lie to you. Not when I put you under my protection. So when I told you I’d always be with you, I meant it. However you’ll have me.”
“Sit down, Atlas.” Alexi, the bastard, wasn’t ready to let me off the hook. “It’s been hard on her since she got home safely. You’re making it worse.” When I shot him a look, he shrugged before continuing. “If you were the right man for her, you’d have kept any unpleasant conversation to yourself until after dinner. Like a civilized person. You’d have no idea how to function in her world. She deserves better. Someone who won’t be an embarrassment to her.”
“Daddy, Atlas could never be an embarrassment to me.” She spoke softly. Almost as if she were afraid of Alexi when I knew she wasn’t.
“He’s a roughneck, Bella. Not even an officer in the armed forces. He’s one of the lowest ranks there is because he has no education.”
“That doesn’t make him stupid, Dad. He figured out how to keep me alive. He listened to me and respected my evaluation of the situation and used it to his advantage when he could.” Again, her voice was soft and subservient. This didn’t seem at all like my Rose. My Rose followed my orders, but she had fire. Strength. Fierceness. She was a warrior as strong as any I’d ever known. This woman seemed too afraid of disappointing her father to make a strong case.
“Of course not, dear. But it means he’ll never fit in with your social circle.”
That seemed to take Rose aback. “Social circle?” She shook her head. “What social circle? I don’t have a social circle! I’ve been in school and in training, trying to make you proud --” Her voice broke, and Alexi looked shocked, as if he had been expecting anything but the reaction he got.
“Alexi. Back off.” Merrily put a hand on her husband’s shoulder as she looked at me. “Bella feels a…” she glanced at her daughter briefly, “…certain connection with you, Atlas. She’s young and hasn’t been out in the world much. We’ve always been so protective of her, I guess we pushed her away. We don’t expect you to feel the same connection she does. I don’t think she expects it either. She just wants you to know she’s wanted to talk with you since it happened.”
“No one said I didn’t feel the same way, Mrs. Petrov. I talked to a friend. She asked me if I’d have pursued Rose if we’d met under different circumstances. The only answer I had for her was yes. Absolutely. Had I known she was your daughter, I’d have gone about it a different way. Getting an audience with you through Sting or El Diablo. But I’d still have wanted to see her again.”
“Why didn’t you call in your team the second you realized who she was? Hell!” Alexi scrubbed a hand over his face. “You should have called a halt when you realized you had an innocent player in the crossfire. No matter who she fuckin’ was!”
“He tried, Daddy.” Rose looked up at her father, a small flash of something of the woman I’d grown to know over a few short days. “I insisted I’d do whatever he told me to. Follow his rules if he didn’t call off his mission. I didn’t want my life to be more important than the lives of so many others. Especially when there was a good possibility we could pull it off without putting me in unacceptable danger.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make, Bella. He knew that.”
Rose opened her mouth like she might argue, then glanced at me, and her shoulders slumped. Whatever she’d been going to say died on her lips.
“Alexi,” I stood, glaring at the other man. “I’d like a moment alone with your daughter. Please.” Adding on the please made me want to puke, but I did it willingly. I needed to talk to Rose. To figure out what was going on inside her pretty head.
“Like hell,” Alexi snapped.
“Alexi, stop.” Merrily’s voice rang out clear but sounded more chastising than angry. “They went through a lot together. If Bella is willing to be alone with him, it’s up to her.”
Alexi looked at his wife like she’d grown two heads. “You can’t possibly be serious.”
“I am. Now, Bella? Do you want us to give you some privacy for a bit while you sort things out? If you don’t, we won’t abandon you.”
“I know, Mom. Yes. I’d like to be alone with Atlas for a bit.” She looked up at her dad. “And I mean alone, Dad. You make Giovanni put his bugs away. This is private.”
