“It was nothing, really,” she assures me. “I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it.”
Anger toward my sister-in-law ignites inside me for raising Anika’s doubts when I’ve worked so damn hard to find a way past her defenses. “But it was serious enough that you don’t want to tell me about it,” I point out. “Bad enough that you think it might have triggered your flashback?”
“No, I—” Anika flushes furiously and closes her eyes as if to collect her thoughts. “She was only checking in to make sure I’m alright.”
“Because she thinks that, as my wife, you wouldn’t be,” I finish, reading between the lines. It’s a gut punch to realize how everyone must see me—even Leo’s wife, who I would think should know better than to judge someone by first impressions after she’s learned to love my brother.
“I’m sure she doesn’t think that,” Anika insists. “But she did mention that…”
“That what?” I demand when she hesitates. I immediately regret it when Anika flinches.
Behind her, Svetlana casts me a warning glance, and I quickly rein in my temper.
“Well, that you threw a knife at her once.”
Merda.
I completely forgot about that.
It was early on after she and Leo got married, and in truth, I’d been so distracted working on one of the cars, I don’t think I fully registered that shewasn’tSandro, like I thought.
He and I had an ongoing game for years that challenged us both to stay on our toes.
I’m not even sure if I thought to apologize before Sora disappeared.
“Yeah, alright,” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose as I try to find a way to explain thatwon’tmake me sound like a monster.
“So, youdidthrow a knife at her?” Anika asks, her voice taking on a gratifying note of surprise.
“Well, yes, but it was just a stupid game—one I wouldn’t even dream of playing with anyone but Sandro. But the masochist has this philosophy that you can’t learn to fight through simple drills alone. I was working with him on stealth and sneaking up on opponents… I wasn’t looking, and I thought she was him.”
To my astonishment, Anika actually giggles.
“That’s funny to you?” I ask, confused.
“You really will stop at nothing to help your brothers, won’t you?” she asks lightly.
I suppose I hadn’t really thought about it like that, and I shrug. “No, I guess not.”
With a smile, Anika leans up onto her tiptoes as she wraps her arms around the back of my neck.
My hands automatically move to pull her close, and electricity crackles across my lips when she graces me with a chaste kiss.
Then she slowly lowers herself back down.
“I trust you, Miko. You’ve been nothing but good to me, and if you’re willing to have me, then of course I want to give this another chance,” she says, her words making my heart soar. Then her expression turns anxious once more. “It’s just, I apparently still have some ghosts to exorcise. Are you sure I’m the kind of wife you want?”
Cradling Anika’s perfect face between my palms, I hold her gaze so she knows just how sincerely I mean it. “You’re the only wifeI’ll ever want,” I promise, then I lean in to seal her lips with a kiss.
28
ANIKA
“No really, you should have seen them,” Sandro insists as Gio and I burst into laughter at the dinner table. “I mean, it took the lightest push. All I said was that Viktor should be the nextPakhan, and Gleb lost his ever-loving mind. Their knives were out before I slipped back into the crowd.”
“And they had no idea it was you?” Gio asks through snorts of amusement.
“Gleb never was one of Pyotr’s brightest captains,” I confirm, covering my mouth with my fingers as I try not to spit out my dessert in my amusement.
