As Mikhail’s lover. As a stand-in motherly role model for Anya. And as the resident doctor on hand. Not helping the Orlov men would’ve felt like a crime.
“I think my uncle will be waiting to see if you’d like to speak to him,” Sergei said as I tried my hardest not to relive the last time I’d seen Jack, when he’d taken me off the street and happily handed me over to those men who tied me up and left me in that wretched room of isolation.
“He thinks I’d want to speak to Jack?” I asked. Shaking my head but not taking my focus off Sergei’s arm, I sighed. “I have no interest in speaking to anyone down on that level.”
“Not even for closure?” Anya asked. She sat next to me, holding out a package of gauze for me to take when I was ready for it. Already, she was filling in the role of my assistant. She had helped me with enough of these impromptu emergencies because she was always tagging along with me during the day.
She had been informed about how Jack worked with me at the hospital and how he’d helped me be captured. Withholding information from her felt cruel, and since she wasn’t a child but almost an adult, I wasn’t too worried about her being too delicate or immature to hear some watered-down facts.
“Closure?” I asked, surprised by her choice of words. “No. I don’t need closure.” If anything had been closed up, it was all I’d experienced before I told Mikhail that I loved him. I ended the chapter of my work here when I resigned. I closed up the matter of Jack threatening me when I was saved from that dark room.
“But it might help,” Mikhail said, coming up behind us on the couch. He strolled in, looking casual with his hands shoved in his pockets and his face mostly blank. But as he neared me, I saw the tension in his jaw, the latent anger in his eyes that sparked and burned with impatience, too.
“I don’t need closure,” I told him as I kept my gaze on Sergei’s arm. Nearly done with stitching the gash, I shook my head once more. “I don’t need to even know he’s here.”
“Humor me,” Mikhail suggested. “He was someone involved with the threats on your life and it might help to see that he will never be a threat again.”
I winced, knotting the thread and glancing up at him. “I’m doing my best, but, um… I don’t need to witness any ‘closure’ firsthand.”
“Walk with me,” he said, tilting his head to the side.
It wasn’t an order, but it wasn’t a request either. I sighed, wondering if he had a point. If I’d feel better knowing that Jack was captured and soon meeting his fate at the hands of my man.
“Can you apply some ointment and then wrap this up loosely?” I asked Anya.
She nodded, hurrying to take my place as if she was thrilled to be asked to do something. I had to find more ways to make her feel included.
I got up and went to Mikhail. Before he led me away, he framed my face and kissed me sweetly. “I love you.”
“That’s kind of a weird sentiment to share before taking me down to the torture dungeons, isn’t it?’ I asked, scrunching my nose.
“No. It will never be weird to tell you that I love you,” he replied, taking my hand and walking with me.
I didn’t say anything else as we headed toward the elevator. Once we were in the car and descending, he sighed and watched me closely.
“I admire how well you are adapting.”
I nodded. “I can learn and change and grow.”
“I know. And that’s why I think it might help for you to see, to witness without a doubt that I willalwayskeep my word to you and make sure you are safe.”
I smiled, hugging him. “I already know that.” As the elevator car stopped and we bounced a little, I exhaled and looked up at him. “But maybe you’ve got a point.”
“Hmm.”
“Or maybe Anya has a point,” I said as he led me out into a hallway. It looked like a utility corridor, made of cinderblock and with simple, bland lighting marking the route.
“I won’t have to wonder if he’s still out there.”
“Mmm-hmm,” he agreed.
“And I won’t worry about if he’ll ever come back.”
He nodded at me as we reached a windowless door.
I tugged on his hand before he opened it, stopping him. “But maybe you could let me leave the room before you actually, you know. Do it.”
He kissed my forehead and nodded.
