Her grin wasn’t happy in the least.“Or maybe I’m rubbing off on him.”
Keira lugged the suitcase over.“Stop threatening my husband, Charlie.It’ll make for awkward holiday meals.”
Charlie’s blue eyes went a little wide.“Holiday meals.”
“Yep.”Keira shoved the suitcase at him.“Thanksgiving here and Christmas in New York.It’ll be a real treat.Totally enjoyable for everyone.”
She shook her head.“Honey, you’re out of your damn mind.”
“It’s one of my many charms.”She pushed him toward the door, and he allowed himself to be herded down the hallway and stairs to the front door.Aiden was nowhere to be seen, which was just as well.Mark and Charlie were more than enough of a good-bye party.He stood back while Charlie hugged Keira tightly.
Dmitri waited for the blonde to release her and nodded at the door.“Let’s go.”
He scanned the street as he paused on the front step.Pavel leaned against the town car and nodded—nothingwas amiss.Knowing Mae’s fondness for drive-by shootings, that didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but at least no one had tampered with the car in the meantime.Dmitri handed over the suitcase to be stowed in the trunk and then held the door open for Keira.
She didn’t look back as she strode down the steps and climbed into the car, and he wasn’t fanciful enough to see it as a sign.Keira was his.She might not have made her peace with that—yet—but it was the truth.The sooner she accepted it, the better for both of them.
He joined her in the backseat and waited tensely for Pavel to drive them away from the town house.It wasn’t until they left the Boston city limits behind that he relaxed against the seat.
“You thought he’d do something.”
“No.”He hesitated and then relented.“Your brother has a long history of doing the logical thing as long as one remembers that he puts his family above all else.But there are never any guarantees.”
Keira watched him closely, her hazel eyes narrow.“You must have been desperately lonely as a kid, huh?”
He had to fight not to react.“What makes you say that?”
“No one becomes that good at observing other people unless they spent a whole hell of a lot of time shoved in a back corner by themselves.The other reason is if they’re victims of abuse—their life can depend on reading people right.”She didn’t move.“Andrei never laid a hand on Olivia.I’d bet good money on that, though he had other ways of terrorizing her—both of you did.Did he hit you?”
She’d been closer to the mark with the first assumption.“Nyet.My father wasn’t a good man, but he wasn’t abusive.”
“Lucky you.”
There it was again.There’d been a few times where he’d wondered at the extent of Seamus O’Malley’s crimes against his children.Andrei Romanov was hardly father of the year, but he never raised his hand to either of his children.“Did your father hurt you, Keira?”
She shut her eyes, closing him out.“It doesn’t really matter what my father did or didn’t do.I’m more out of his reach now than I’ve ever been.The past is the past.”
“The past shapes us.”A person was an accumulation of all that happened to them.Knowing the past meant Dmitri had a better than decent chance at predicting the future—or at least future actions.People could change, elements could change, but the core of a person remained the same.
“If you say so.”Keira didn’t look at him.
She looked younger than her twenty-one years with her face relaxed and the knowledge she kept in her hazel eyes hidden from view.Even knowing she was far from innocent, he found himself wanting to…What?Protect her?The very idea is laughable.
And yet it dug down deep and refused to budge.Dmitri slid closer to her and picked her up to tuck her into his lap.
Keira shot straight up, and it was only some creative maneuvering that kept her from slamming her head into the roof of the car.“What the hell are you doing, Russian?”
“Hush and let me hold you for a little while.”
She stared at him like he’d grown a second head.“Did my brother slip you some drugs while you were in his office?”
“Nyet.” It stung more than it should have that she thought he had to be drugged to want to hold her.Dmitri forced himself to relax his grip on her.“Let me hold you,moya koroleva.”
“Tell me what that means.”
He permitted himself a small smile.“Another time.”
She glared, but didn’t move away.“Why?”
