She huffs, but her lips twitch like she’s trying not to smile. “You just have to be all sweet and protective, huh?”
“Of course.” He shrugs with a calm grin. “Why else would you keep me around?”
“For the orgasms. Obviously.” She says it so casually, I nearly snort tea through my nose.
“Well, I’m glad you don’t want to kill him anymore.”
“Give me an hour. I’m sure I’ll be pissed again.” Flashing him a deathly look, she turns back to me, her face softening. “As for you, are you okay? Who do I need to kill?”
“I think Aleksei has that part covered.” When I smile, there’s a heaviness I can’t seem to shake, no matter how hard I try. “But seriously, I wish I knew who’s doing this. And why.”
“We will take care of it,” Konstantin says, and the tone of his voice leaves no room for argument. “We will not rest until every last one of them is dealt with.”
“But who are they?” I ask, needing something, anything, that can help me piece together what’s going on.
A name. A reason. A connection.
He holds my gaze, his expression unreadable. “Enemies. That’s all you need to know.”
Not the answer I wanted.
Konstantin eventually leaves us, something about a meeting, but not before he kisses her again like the world is ending. And for them, it almost did once. I think that’s why they’re so fearless now. Because they’ve already walked through fire and survived.
Emilia and I move to the patio with fresh mugs of tea and settle into the cushioned chairs under their gazebo. The late afternoon sun is warm against my skin, the garden alive with the chirp of crickets and the rustle of distant trees.
It should feel peaceful, but it doesn’t.
She watches me in silence for a few moments, long enough that I finally look up and catch her expression filled with concern.
“You’re not okay,” she says. “You don’t have to pretend with me.”
My throat dries. “I’m trying. I really am. But I can’t stop seeing him. That man. The one I shot.”
Her expression doesn’t change. She just nods.
“Yeah. That doesn’t go away overnight.”
“I keep thinking about all the ways it could’ve gone wrong. What if I’d frozen? What if I hadn’t even been able to get the gun? We would’ve been…” I trail off, swallowing down the sudden burn behind my eyes.
“But you’re all fine. Because you did everything right.”
“I killed someone.”
“He was gonna kill you.Yousaved your family.”
Silence stretches again before I say, “I know I had to do it. I don’t regret it. But I just can’t believe I did that, you know?”
Emilia leans back in her chair and exhales. “I killed people when I was with the Bureau. A few, actually. And the first time…God. I threw up. I couldn’t sleep for days. I kept thinking, what if I could’ve found another way? What if I made the wrong call?”
“And now?”
“Now I know that sometimes the only way to survive is to end the threat. It doesn’t make you a monster. It makes you human.”
I nod slowly, letting her words sink in. “I guess I just wish I could go back to not knowing what it feels like. To just being a prosecutor who believed in justice and rules.”
“You still are.” She shrugs.
I exhale slowly and nod. “Thanks, Em.”
