Let him go. He doesn’t want this.
But Vik didn’t move, and either my imagination was staging a riot or this fucker was staring at my mouth.
“Stop.”
I said it out loud this time.
Viktor blinked and moved back.
I missed him.
I fuckingmissedhim. “We need out of the open. Unless you need more proof someone out here wants to kill you.”
Viktor hesitated.
I pushed away from the kiosk, invading his space again. “Take me somewhere safe. Please?”
Safe forhim, not me. But if it got Vik off the street, the distinction wasn’t important.
“This way.” Vik twitched, like he wanted to grab my arm, but the giant messy monster that had sprung up between us had him spooked.
He kept his hands to himself and took off up the road.
I matched his pace, smoking like a beast, hyper-vigilance still throttling my lungs. But with the island streets growing busier by the second, keeping Vik safe turned into my worst fucking nightmare.
Fuck this.I grabbed him, pulling him close. He let me. Then he resisted, twisting out of my grasp. “You wouldmakeme use you as a human shield?”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“No.”
Viktor surged away from me, melting into the crowd and weaving through the packed bodies like a fucking dancer, forcing me into a jog to keep up. I’d forgotten how fast he was on his feet. Until this moment, everything here— everything about him—had seemed to move slower than where I’d come from.
He’d been holding out on me. Either that, or a few solid days of food and rest really had worked.
Whatever it was, Vik stayed three steps ahead of me until he deigned to slow the fuck down.
I reached his side, fuming. But he snatched both my wrists before I could take a breath and propelled me down a hidden alleyway.
My back hit warm brick. Viktor crowded me, reminding meagainthat beneath the scars and injuries, he was still a top-tier gangster.
His body was all deadly angles, his gaze brutal. And his sweet fucking mouth?
Inches from mine.
Inches.
Fuck me. Who needed bullets for a quick death when you had this shit to deal with?
I licked my lips, watching him track the movement, fighting with all I had to keep my brain and my dick in separate corners. “What are the rules on youmanhandlingme?”
Vik’s green gaze flickered. “I have not decided yet.”
“Who says you get to decide?”
“Me. Is the one choice I have left, no?”
“You have choices. Living or dying.”
