I’m not mistaking the heat that flashes in his eyes when he looks at my bare thighs, but it’s over in a second and he’s on to helping me step into sweat pants. It only sort of makes me feel like a small child.
He stands, my eyes following his up until he’s his usual head above me.
“Nate already yelled at me for being reckless.”
“He cares about you.” Maxim picks up the gold pendant from where it rests on my chest. I take it off to shower and exercise, but otherwise I’ve grown quite attached to it. It’s shiny, and pretty, and reminds me of my sisters. I don’t have anything else as delicate as this. He wears the watch I gave him just as often.
“Rest,” he says while setting the pendant down softly.
He pulls back the comforter and sheets for me and I crawl into the bed. It smells like him.
Maxim rests the ice pack on my face and I roll over so it’s wedged between me and the pillow.
“I’ll come back in twenty minutes to take the ice off.”
“Maxim,” I mutter before he can retreat from the room.
He doesn’t respond, but I feel the bed dip behind me where he sits down on it. “I didn’t do it to embarrass you. It really was my mistake.”
He sighs and one of his hands makes soft circles on my hip.
“Go to sleep, Marianna,” he says, and I can’t help but listen.
24
MAXIM
I wantedto do this without making a mess, but my right knuckles bleed and will most certainly be bruised tomorrow.
It is what it is.
My fist slams again into the man’s face and his shoulders go slack.
“Please, man, what the fuck,” he whimpers and hiccups. He’s crying. Really.
“You’re fine,” I spit on the ground before throwing him onto the concrete.
“Doesn’t look that fine,” Sasha mutters behind me, and I breathe a heavy sigh through my nose. The man does look bad, but not all from me. Leo had already broken his nose, I just came to mess up the rest of his face.
I did also break his wrist, and many ribs.
He’ll live. Probably.
I crouch to bring my face closer to his line of vision. When he opens his eyes to see me there, he recoils.
“I’m not going to kill you,” I say. I do really want to, which is a feeling I hate to have. “You will never touch my wife again.”
“Okay, dude,” he moans.
“Say it.”
“I won’t touch her!” he yells and tries to scoot away from me until his back bumps against the concrete wall of the basement of the Brickyard. The club is closed by now, all the staff gone home as the sun is soon to rise. I haven’t slept. First I had to wait until Marianna fell asleep, had to call her cousin to learn who was responsible for this. Leo was tight lipped, said Mary told him she’d hurt him if he spilled, but Nate had no such compunctions.
“Don’t kill him,” Nate said before I could hang up. “Mary didn’t think he needed to die and we’ll be in hot water if he does. She’s right that it would cause more trouble than he’s worth.”
“Fine,” I bit out.
“Plus, you know, she’s tough but I think all the death wears on her. Just a hunch.”
