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“Of course.” She stumbles away, her cheeks still mildly flushed.
“Listen, J—that man is a weasel.” I stroke his head the same way I used to when he woke up from a nightmare and had trouble going back to sleep. The eight or nine months after we buried Sienna held a lot of nights like that. “You have nothing to worry about.”
He swallows hard. “Why is he even here?”
Because of what I got myself involved in.
“Because he’s bored and jobless,” I assure him. “Now, you’re gonna stay here with your sisters and I’m gonna go down there and talk to him, okay?”
“But—”
“I won’t be more than five minutes. Hold down the fort, okay?”
I let go of Josh. But when I turn to the door, there’s a human-shaped boulder in my path. “Excuse me.”
Ruslan doesn’t move. His gaze skirts past me to Josh. I glance over my shoulder to see that Josh’s mouth is hanging open, his eyes wide and awed.
“Emma, you haven’t introduced us. This must be your nephew, Josh.” He offers his hand.
Josh snaps his mouth shut. He flushes, but his shoulders square and he straightens up as if he’s trying to make himself look as tall as possible. “I don’t know you.”
I raise my brows, taken aback by the stilted, angry way he’s talking. “Um, Josh—”
“It’s okay,” Ruslan says to me before turning back to Josh. “I’m Ruslan, your aunt’s boss.”
“Why are you here?”
“Josh!”But I can’t be too mad at him. He’s just trying to be the man of the house, the only way he knows how.
Ruslan just smiles.
Whoa, the famous Oryolov smile.It’s even more dazzling up close. But it doesn’t seem to have any effect on Josh, who most definitely does not return it.
“I’m here to help,” adds Ruslan.
The furrow in Josh’s brows eases, but only a little. “How?”
“I’m going to go out there and talk to that man. I’m going to make sure he never bothers you or your sisters ever again.”
“And Auntie Em?”
Ruslan nods. “And your Auntie Em, too.”
Josh gives him a tiny, begrudging nod. He watches Ruslan straighten up and head toward the door and he doesn’t so much as blink the entire time.
I get it—there’s just something about Ruslan. Quite apart from being an imposing man, his sheer presence takes up space the way no one else really can. He exudes that “take charge” aura that Josh has rarely seen in the men around him. Ben mostly just radiates “sad and lazy.”
“You’ll take care of everyone?” Ruslan is asking Josh, not me. He’s deadly serious, too. No trace of that smile.
Josh’s jaw tightens as he nods.
“Good.” Ruslan heads out the door as though everything is settled.
I follow him out into the dimly lit corridor and close the apartment door behind me. He’s already halfway down the stairs by the time I get it locked. “Wait!” I call ahead. “I—”
He stops on the landing and turns to look up at me. “You stay. I’ll handle this. I’m the one he wants.”
The tenderness of his voice throws me for a loop. I’m used to hearing him angry, annoyed, frustrated, or just completely impassive.
