The SUV rolled to a stop. Katya opened the back windows and the children behind her called to Viktor in Russian or Spanish. Did not have a clue which.
He replied without turning around.
An orange launched through the open window, and I caught that fucker before it went anywhere near him.
The kids booed. Katya sent me the smallest of smiles, murmuring something that finally made Viktor acknowledge the car and its occupants.
He noticed the orange in my hand and his face did something too complex for little old me to figure out. Then he spoke and the squidshits in the back of the car laughed loud enough to piss me off.
How very dare they.
The exchange ended. Viktor walked around the SUV, checking it from every angle, before he waved his family on their way.
“Do you worry about them when they leave the property?”
Viktor came to me and plucked the orange from my hand, examining its skin as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “I do, but they are reasonably safe. The people out there who would see me dead... it is business. They want Jake and I gone. If they harmed our family and left us alive, they know we would burn them slowly, limb by limb.”
I was no mobster, but it made more sense than I wanted it to. “Respectful murder. Got it.”
“You have murdered, Ranger. I have seen you.”
“I know. That’s why I flicked the sarcasm switch tooff.”
Viktor narrowed his eyes, dissecting me. A year ago, huddled in the rain, he might’ve laughed. Under the heat of the Mediterranean sun, his attention fizzled out to nothing, his gazeblanking before he started walking again, back up the mountain towards the house.
I followed, giving him space this time as Lida was occupied with the bushes, enjoying the view of him. Vik had good forearms. And his longer hair called to me like his lips had inside. But I fought those thoughts, focusing on the practicalities of being here. Or tried to. Cos,man, it was hard, and I didn’t mean my dick. I meant all of it. Seeing him. Hearing his voice. Getting lost in those fucking eyes, cos I’d always been fixated with that.
Alexei didn’t smile much.
Jakov either.
But Viktor... he’d grin all day long if you knew where to poke him.
That was before.
I knew that.
Iknewit. But I was having a tough time accepting this broken version of my friend was permanent.
So you’re friends now?
Course we were.
We reached the house again. Vik sat on the patio steps, catching his breath in a way that I was grateful pissed him off. That he gave a fuck that his head spun and his legs hurt.
I fetched him a water and sat beside him.
He drank half and passed it back. “For you.”
I drained the bottle and crushed it.
He stared at my hands. Then at my face, before a heavy sigh escaped him. “I never wanted you to see me like this.”
“Look all right to me.” Beat up and tired, but that didn’t stop me obsessing over kissing him. Or over the fact that Jakey had yet to deliver my Monster Munch. “Are those your horses?”
I pointed at the smudges I’d noticed a few days ago. We’d walked close to them on Vik’s morning stroll, but I’d been too preoccupied with him to notice.
“Horses?” Viktor sat up, bumping into me, his balance way off in a way that ground my teeth together. But it was worth it for the faint grin as he looked beyond me down the mountain.
