They don’t so much as crack a smile.
“Okay, yeah, no.” I rise from the table, napkin hitting the plate with a soft slap. “Absolutely not.”
They continue to silently stand there like my words mean nothing. We’ll see about that.
“Give me a second.” I leave my plate behind, grab my cell, and step into the adjacent dining room to call Aleksei immediately.
He answers on the second ring. “Hello, wife. How may I help you?”
His low rumble curls through me in a way I hate. “I need you to call off your watchdogs.”
A dark chuckle greets me. “No.”
“They can’t follow me to work. People will see. I’ll lose my job.”
“You are my wife now. My danger is your danger,” he throws in causally. “Unless you would like to end up face-down in a ditch somewhere, you will do exactly what I say. Or so help me…” His tone sharpens.
The fury builds so fast I swear I can feel it in my teeth. “You’re such a bastard.”
“Every time, moya ptichka,” he replies smoothly. “Now, unless you need me to pick out your outfit too, I have things to do.”
“Fine,” I grit out. “But they better stay back, far enough that no one notices. No one at work can know about this. Do you hear me?”
He pauses, just long enough to let me feel the silence.
“Losing your job wouldn’t be the worst thing,” he finally says.
“It would be for me. You have no idea what I sacrificed to earn my place. You won’t take that from me too.”
Another pause before he adds, “Horosho. I’ll tell them to keep their distance. But that’s all you get. Goodbye.”
The line cuts off before I can say another word. When I return to the kitchen, Leonid is glancing down at his phone.
“Did he call you?” I ask him.
He lifts his chin. “Texted.”
“Good. Let’s go before I’m late.”
“You don’t want to eat some more?” Galya’s words are gentle, but the disappointment in her expression hits harder than I expect.
“I’m sorry,” I say softly. “I just lost my appetite.”
Grabbing my bag, I adjust my blouse and walk out the front door with both men shadowing me.
I don’t know if I’ll survive this new world I’m in.
The office is quiet, save for the hum of the overhead lights and the occasional clack of someone’s keyboard down the hall.
My screen glares back at me, a wall of text I’ve already read five times without absorbing a single word. I swear I’ve typed the same paragraph twice, maybe three times, and none of it is sticking or sounding right.
With a groan, I delete the entire passage and start again, but all the while, I can’t stop thinking about Aleksei.
His mouth. The way he looked at me. Not in that arrogant way he usually does. It was different this time, almost tender. Like he was searching for something in me he didn’t want to admit he needed.
God. No. Stop.
I drag my hands down my face.
