She moved back like I might lash out. She was right. I should.
I straightened, blood on my shirt, on my hands, on the floor. Outside.
“We could’ve turned ourselves in.” Her voice was smaller. Meeker. “Told them we didn’t know we were rogue agents. Blamed it on a bad order. Something.”
She peeled a blanket off the bed and tossed it to me. I breathed in the wrong scent. Her sugar-cheap scent, not Natasha’s shampoo. Rain reached for the linen and wrapped the second man. Too calm. In survival mode.
I snatched the blanket. “Plans have changed.”
“You think they won’t send more?” she asked, voice rising in the night. “The military doesn’t allow someone to kill two MPs and walk?—”
I bucked at her, hand in a fist. I pulled my punch after she flinched.
Rain glared at me, fire in her eyes.
I grinned.
“Strike one.” My knuckles tapped Rainita Howard’s cheek, mocking. Almost tender. “Flinch again, you’ll see how far my forgiveness goes.”
She didn’t answer. But her eyes said it all. That panicked calculation.Will he murder me?Do I run?Will he let me?
Didn’t matter. She was done the moment she stopped being useful.
I stared her down.
“She’s mine. Chase intel like you’ve been told. But realize I’ve claimed Natasha. Lachlan’s out of the way. She just keeps lying to herself about us.”
“You don’t love me even a little?”
Again, my knuckles tapped at her cheek. “No, squirt.”
“But you love her? You don’t know how! What is it you want from her?”
“For her not to leave my side and for her father to cry as he watches.”
She stiffened.
I pulled back, gaze hollow. Smile razor-thin.
“If you do right by me, you’ll breathe longer than Natasha. Then we’ll play this game you instigated, confirm if you can make me fall for you. That’s your aim, right, Corporal Rainita Howard?”
Her gaze dropped, but not before I saw pure hunger.
Yep. Foster care made Rain codependent, while I refused to let abandonment control me.
“Good.” This time, when my knuckles ran feather-soft over Rain’s cheek, I smiled forNatasha. A part of me was drawn to Natasha’s light even when I tried to drown it out because she chose Lach. I shook that thought from my head. “Until I’m done with Natasha, you breathe when I say so. Then we’ll have our time.”If I catch feelings, I suppose.
32
VASSILI
Early morning windfrom the San Andreas mountains slapped a sun umbrella across the stone pavers and into the infinity pool. It splashed like a body falling—too loud for morning peace. A maid rushed to fish it out as a text popped up on my phone.
BORYA: She slept over at Lachlan’s. Should I do something? You didn’t respond last night.
A dry, amused chuckle escaped me. As if Cutie Pie were still a girl in pigtails, her shadow dreaded the worst. Suppose that was my fault.
ME: She’s not a child. Tell me if they have an issue.
