“You…what?”
Her mouth bobbed open and closed at my admission. I internally groaned. Alisa really needed to stop leaving her mouth gaping open, or I was going to shove something in it.
“I’m not sure why you’re so surprised, kotenok. You know what I’m capable of.”
“I can’t get over how nonchalant you are about this.”
I shrugged.
“It’s the least of my sins, and if you’re looking for an apology or repentance, you aren't going to get it. I kept you alive and safe. That’s all that matters to me.”
“You really are something else,” she said with a laugh.
“Are you mad?”
I supposed it’d be normal to be upset if you found out your man was stalking you. But the world we lived in was far from normal.
“No,” Alisa said with a wistful sigh. “Sometimes, when I was scared, I used to wish you’d show up. Even when I thought I hated you, I secretly wanted you there.”
I pressed her closer into my body, enjoying the rightness of the feeling. Alisa responded by nuzzling her head against my chest with a happy sound. We sat in companionable silence while I savored the feel of her against me.
She was warm, safe,mine.
“Alisa,” I said, breaking the silence. She turned her head away from the falling snow outside. “At the warehouse, what was your plan if I hadn’t arrived in time?”
Goosebumps raised on her skin at the reminder of Roman. My jaw tightened.
“Run. It’s not like I could’ve beat him in a fight,” she said. “I can jab someone in the eye or elbow them in the throat if I catch them off guard. But the upper hand only lasts a moment. I need to get out before they can recover.”
My mind flashed to Alisa and I’s duel in front of the Pakhan. At the time, I’d been amused by her attempts to hit me. I thought it was adorable how ineffective each of her punches were.
I ran a hand down her gently toned arms, noting how they were a third of the size of my own. When we were in bed together her smaller size turned me on, but now all I could visualize washer against another man who’d show her no mercy. I couldn’t keep relying on luck to save her.
If I lost her, I knew there would be no saving me.
Once she was feeling better, I’d start training her. And Alisa wasn’t going to like it, but she’d also need to cut back on her poison regiment.
There was no point in refining her punches if she was too weak to implement any of it.
She might be optimistic about a future where she wouldn’t be at the Pakhan’s whim, but all I could see was all the ways she could get killed before it came to that.
Alisa shifted her position on top of me and grabbed her ribs with a wince.
I carefully picked her up and led her to my bathroom. Once I set her on the edge of the bathtub, Alisa leaned back against the marble wall behind her. Her dress rode up, and my nails dug into the tub's hard stone when I spotted a nasty looking bruise blooming.
I wanted to wake Roman up from his coma just so I could hear his screams when I dug my knife into the exact same place he’d hurt her.
Alisa’s eyes followed my line of vision, but she didn’t pull her dress back down. Instead she reached for my hand, gently unclasping my death grip.
“Thank you for everything,” she said quietly while squeezing my hand.
I stared into those deep blue eyes I’d always known would swallow me whole.
The moment I’d found out she’d been taken, there hadn’t been a single question in my mind about what to do. The business meeting I’d been at had been the most important meeting I’d attended this year. The amount of money up for grabs was enough to pay for ten of these penthouses, and yet I hadn’teven thought about it a single time since I’d sprinted out of the meeting.
Nothing had mattered except for bringing her home safe.
I remained silent while I checked the water temperature. Warm enough to soothe her aches, but not scalding enough to hurt her.
