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He chuckled, a little smile returning to his lips finally. Nothing ever seemed to unnerve him—not even an assassination attempt. “I’m a fan of high stopping power.”
You don’t say, I thought as I stared at him. “Where are we going?”
“I have a safehouse nine exits out. We’ll drop out of sight for a little bit, and then you’ll be able to go home.”
I caught my breath. I knew he had plans for those hours of hiding out.
My mind was whirling as I struggled to process the craziest fifteen minutes of my life. He’d killed people in front of me, ordered a kidnapping, and now I was letting him drive me off somewhere. My body was responding to the prospect like adrenaline was an aphrodisiac. But the rest of me wondered if he was taking me there to make love to me, or to make sure I could never tell the police about what I’d seen.
Chapter 17
Viktor
My sweet little Olivia had done quite well, all things considered. But she also seemed somewhat terrified and conflicted. I even caught her looking at me with worry, as if she half expected me to pull the trigger on her next.
I could understand it, but it was intolerable. I didn’t want my woman looking at me with fear. There were many, many brutes in this business who treated their women with possessive disdain and sometimes cruelty. They liked being feared by a woman. Small men, weak and frightened and craving that feeling of power that always eluded cowards.
When Olivia looked at me, I wanted to see her innocent blue eyes full of trust and desire. Perhaps even love. Not this.
I wanted to eradicate her fear of me just as I’d eradicated those men to protect, not just myself, but her as well. The desire to have her look at me as her safety, not her danger, overcame me in that moment so strongly I almost didn’t understand it.
“I’m sorry,” I said finally, as I warred to keep my tone even, despite the odd way my heart jumped. “I did not want to bring the darker aspects of my…business…into your life. But it seems that my enemies just would not let it lie.”
She was quiet for a long while. “I think this was why I ran away before. Not so much because I was worried you’d hurt me, but because I was worried you’d draw trouble. That I’d start drawing trouble too.”
I nodded slowly. “My enemies may connect us now. Though it is gratifying to hear that you don’t consider me a monster.”
Even as the words left my lips, I had to wonder at them. Since when did I care what anyone’s moral judgment of me was? Since when did my gut tighten with worry at the thought that a woman might choose to turn from me should she find out the true darkness of my world, my life?
“You’ve never seen anyone killed before, have you?” I asked her softly, when all she did was continue to stare at me, hesitation tightening her shoulders as her eyes jumped nervously over me.
“No,” she murmured, shaking her head. “I haven’t had anybody try to kill me before either.”
“Your world is so different from mine.” I stifled the urge to run my fingers through her soft red curls soothingly. “I was born in this one. I first ducked gunfire when I was ten. Now, sometimes…well.” I laughed a bit awkwardly. “It feels no more troubling than bad weather.
“But I don’t want you to look at what happened back there and think that I’m all right with it.” I shook my head as she continued her appraisal of me, an appraisal that I wished more than anything would come out favorably. “I didn’t want this, Olivia. Not this street fight, not those men dying, and not having your safety jeopardized like that, especially. I don’t want you evenneardanger.”
She hummed softly, considering my words. “I can’t be near danger. My son—our son…”
“Yes.” I kept my tone as gentle as I could, even as I wondered, half in distaste with myself, and half with shock, at when I had become so in need of the approval of a woman. Was this what weakness looked like? Could this be my downfall in the end? I couldn’t make myself care enough in that moment to stop. “He needs you safe and happy. I want you to be safe and happy. But I also want you.” The truth of those words hit my chest like a ton of bricks. “And my world is not always safe.”
“It was like being in the middle of a war,” she mumbled.
“It was a war. But instead of a war between nations, it is a war to control this city. The men who have done this thing, they don’t think about who gets hurt or who loses. They only care that they win. They killed one of my best friends. They have tried to kill me. They will go after Michael and you as well if they find out about him.” I went quiet, the words‘Let them try,’floating through my mind with such ferocity in that moment that I felt it as a physical force.
“What should we do?” her voice sounded ready to break, and I once more resisted the urge to touch her soothingly while I was trying to drive.
“You and I are going to lie low for a few hours, have something to eat and a stiff drink, and…” I smiled slowly as I turned to eye her, hoping to distract that worried look right out of her. “Find some way to occupy ourselves until you can safely return home.”
“I kind of mean everything else.”
I sighed gently, although my smile remained as I turned my eyes back to the road. “I suppose we’re just going to have to make all of the other auctions, invitation only.”
***
The safehouse was actually a small apartment complex built in a U-shape around a courtyard garden. Four of my men lived in the complex, with the top floors reserved for guests and those I wanted to protect. I had used the safehouse several times during the last local war, when Uncle Mischka would call and warn me that the main house was being watched again.
“I still can’t believe that the rest of my staff didn’t even realize there was anything going on. They even missed the gun shots.” Her eyes were wide with incredulity as she read the messages on her phone. She’d told her boss that she’d had to leave suddenly because Michael was sick, and they’d bought it without question.
