He closes his eyes tight as if the light hurts them. “You’ll never forgive me.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I say, honest and mean and kind in the same breath. “But that was always true. This just made it real.”
Archer looks at me, and for a second, he’s my brother again, pearly scar on his nose from when a bike handle caught him, the dimple that appears only when he says something terrible and thinks it’s funny.
“I didn’t just choose Dom. I chose you too.”
He studies me closer with a frown before understanding dawns on him, and he almost smiles. “You…you were always braver than me,” he whispers. “I just didn’t want you to know it.”
“You made me that way,” I say.
He huffs something that wants to be a laugh and isn’t. I squeeze his shoulders once, a benediction or a warning, I don’t know which, and then I step back because two minutes is a short time, and I’ve already spent most of my life giving my time to him. I want the rest of my time to be my own.
I tear my eyes away from him, knowing that things will never be the same between us now. That’s for the best, though. My fate no longer rests in his hands.
“Tell your boss…I accept his offer,” I say to Petrov. His eyes widen in surprise, and his mouth opens as if to argue, but I slap my palm over it. “For Dom and for Archer,” I add in a whisper. “No one else hears it from you. Understood?”
A long moment passes before he finally gives me a small, respectful nod.
I find Dominik in the living room. He looks at me like he’s inventorying a war vault before walking into battle. “Ready?” he asks.
“No,” I say, and his mouth curves the smallest amount because he appreciates a good honest answer. “But yes.”
He nods. “We move in fifteen,” he tells Petrov. “Get whatever POS is sitting around ready for him. Three cars, middle for us.”
For us.I feel like I’m going to be sick.
“For us,” I agree, and I take Dominik’s hand because my body already decided for me when my mind was still collecting arguments. His strong fingers curl around mine, and the relief that surges through me is so intense I want to be embarrassed by it. I’m not. My palm fits his like it remembers a shape it wasn’t ever taught.
Dominik squeezes once, then lets go because he has things to order and men to sharpen and a brother to defy. He turns to go and stops, glancing back at me with that small tilt of his head that has already become a private question.Are you all right?
“Yes,” I say honestly. Because I am. Or I will be, once this is all over.
“Then that’s all that matters,” he says, and for another small, dangerous second the cage doesn’t look like bars. It looks like a ring you draw around what you claim.
He steps into the hallway and barks orders mostly in Russian, but I get the gist of them. From the other room, Archer mutters curses that sound like prayers if you strain your ears. I stand between them and feel the strange, terrifying relief of owning the ground underneath my feet.
When the guards eventually bring in Archer, uncuffed, I look at my brother one last time. His eyes cut to mine and away, then back again like he can’t help it. “I’ll hate you for this,” he says with a grin.
“I’ve hated you for less,” I answer. And the sad thing is he knows it’s true.
“Thank you,” he adds after a moment, and his gratitude is so small and human it cracks me open.
“Don’t make me regret it.”
He nods his agreement. I hope it’s not a lie.
I walk away before Archer can say anything that will undo me. In the foyer, the guards part without looking like they’re moving. Dominik is at the end of the corridor, phone to his ear, voice a quiet knife in Russian I can’t follow and don’t need to. He ends the call and pockets the device.
“You handled that remarkably well,” he says to me.
“No, I didn’t,” I say. “But I did it the only way I could.”
“Get ready. When we leave, we sit in the middle seat, middle car. Petrov will ride behind us. Renat will ride ahead. Viktor will be our navigator. If you need anything, tell me.”
“And you’ll make it appear,” I say, because he’s taught me how this works. “Like magic.”
“If it’s possible, I will,” he says, and something wicked and warm walks across his mouth. “I do love the way you look at me like I could move mountains for you if I tried.”
