“You prefer obedience,” she accuses.
“I want you alive. And nowhere near him.”
Something flickers behind her intelligent green eyes—wary curiosity, not trust. It’s enough for me for now. I want to ask to see her again, after tomorrow, even if it’s a longshot. I want to ask her for a million things but can’t find the words.
So, I reach up and unhook the silver chain from my neck, the one that matches Gavriil’s. Every Bratva member receives a crest, but only two necklaces were ever made with rubies. Our father split his singlePakhanstone into two teardrops. Reminders for Gavriil to rule without hesitation, and me to obey without question. They’re two halves of his legacy our father wanted us to share.
Alina turns around when I approach her, her eyes lowering to my hand.“What’s that?”
“Insurance,” I say. The only word honest enough to use. I step close without touching her and hold it out. After tomorrow, when she walks out of this house, I want her to take a piece of me with her. “You can wear it when you’re here or after you leave the house. In case anyone needs to know who has offered you protection when I’m not beside you.”
Her gaze flicks from the stone to my face. “Another claim.”
“A little bit of armor,” I amend. “If you want it.”
She doesn’t take it. She doesn’t refuse it either.
“Think about it,” I say. I set the chain on the kitchen island instead of hanging it around her throat, because forcing a symbol just poisons it. “In the meantime, new precautions. If you need something, you ask Viktor, Petrov, or me. No one else. One of us will always be nearby. And if anyone tries to put his hand on you, or even looks at you wrong, you say my name.”
Her mouth parts. “Why would?—”
“Every man in this organization knows what happens when they hear my name said like a warning.” I step closer to her again, drawn to her. Close enough to count the gold flecks in her eyes. “Say it for me,dikaya koshka.”
Alina stares at me. The refusal builds, but then the practical woman eventually wins out. “Dominik.”
The sound of her saying my name is like lightning striking down my spine.
“Louder,” I demand because I’m a selfish bastard.
“Dominik.” She says it stronger this time. The shape of it on her lips is nearly obscene.
“Good girl,” I tell her, and step back because I should, not because I want to.
She swallows hard enough for me to see her throat move. “And if you’re not around after tomorrow?”
“I’ll give you my number. And if you call me, I’ll be there, anytime, anyplace.”
Alina lifts a single dubious eyebrow. “You can’t be everywhere.”
“Watch me.”
A near smile and something like exasperated relief passes over her face. She shakes her head and turns to the window again, because distance is the only thing in this room she can choose for herself.
The rest of the world goes quiet. It’s just us in my apartment. I should open my laptop, make calls, wring the next step out of men who owe me. Instead, I study the shape of the woman standing in my home and admit that tonight I liked sayingnoon her behalf more than is reasonable.
“You confuse me,” she says quietly. “I’m supposed to just be a hostage. Why act like someone worth protecting?”
I step up to her side, drawing her eyes to mine. I can’t help but touch the middle of her back, my fingertips slowly tracingher spine. “No one else is left to protect you,” I say. “Not your parents. Not your brother.”
“I don’t want your pity,” Alina warns me.
“I’m not giving any to you,” I reply, even if I do feel sympathy toward her. “I’m doing what feels right in a fucked-up situation. Protecting the innocent as much as I can.”
“That doesn’t make you the good guy,” she says.
“I didn’t say that.” Regrets eat away at my soul every single day. “Why are you so resistant to someone trying to help you out?”
Alina’s firm expression wavers. “Because Archer was the only one who ever tried.”
