When those doors opened to my floor, I gawked.
At a mess full of bodyguards and Daniil and his children.
They were all standing in front of the elevator door with their guns aimed into the elevator—which only held me. And it didn’t go over well.
Predictably, I fainted.
That had been the particularly low point of my past few days, even over awakening in Daniil’s arms and having to convince Daniil—and crew—that nothing had happened in the elevator other than a private convo, and then still having to practically plead for Brent and Cole’s lives.
Yeah, that first morning after the Zoya dinner wasn’t fun. I’d been ready to split from Daniil…until I observed my family sitting next to him in the lobby of the resort, amazingly being charmed by the mafia king. That was been odd. And endearing since he knew I was ready to run.
He didn’t want me to and had gone to the one place he knew was an enormous sore spot for us. And delighted the hell out of them. My dad talked about the possibility of having Daniil in church the following Sunday, and honestly, I think my mom had a little crush on him since he kept smiling at her when she would give him pamphlets on gun control. My aunt and cousin found it all very amusing.
When they left for their own flight, I had decided to stay with Daniil.
Though they didn’t know that. Hell no.
Waiting on the Lion Security team for breakfast, I yawned and let my head fall on the table. I had seen my family off before going there—their flight was at the buttcrack of dawn, so I was early. Daniil and I hadn’t spent the night together because my mom dragged me out to dinner with them, and then I had to get up early to see them off. I hated getting up early, and I was a bit crabby. In fact, I was tempted to get back into bed. Our flight was scheduled for nine o’clock tonight.
What seemed like only a few heartbeats later, I yawned and…toxic fumes hit me.
I choked, hearing voices all around. Blinking and coughing hard, I stared at a…
Christ, what was that?
Some sort of swordfish? I shot up in my seat, gagging and scowling at the dead piece of sea-crap on Ember’s plate. The bitch had been sleeping in my bed every night—half the time with me in it—and she knew I hated that seafood shit, and yet she still brought it to the table. Belatedly, I realized the table was full. And I had slept right through it. I could sleep some more even.
Still choking, I glared.
She smirked, taking a hefty bite of her fish-stink-meat. She hummed in delight, and I felt the color drain from my face. That just wasn’t nice. Not at all.
“Ember,” Grigori stated casually across the table. I scanned for Daniil but didn’t see him anywhere. “I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
“Whatever do you mean?” she asked cheerfully, stabbing her fork into the flesh. I burped, placing a hand over my mouth as she lifted her fork with the meat dangling from it. “It was a great idea. I haven’t had a good piece of fish all week.” She turned her attention from Grigori to me. “Besides, Elizabeth here had her boating experience days ago. This shouldn’t faze her at all now. Right?” Her eyes were hooded as she smiled, placing the fork right under my nose. “Wanna bite, Elizabeth?”
“Ember…” Grigori stated in warning.
“Fuck off, Grigori,” Ember spewed, her expression hardening. “I’m just helping her find the truth. And she does love her truth, even if she’s getting a little soft.”
I stared cross-eyed at the meat. I had no chance. I held my breath as long as I could, and even tried to swat her hand away, but she was stubborn. I had to breathe…and, well…I got a big whiff of the fishy ocean on a fork. And it just came.
Out.
All over Ember’s lap.
Ember shrieked, her hands flying in the air and hovering over me as I heaved up my guts on her. I gripped the back of her chair and the table, my head beneath, so luckily only the people next to us saw me puking. But everyone most definitely heard me after the place went silent from Ember’s initial shout. The girl had a fucking pair of lungs on her.
Ember was whining, no real words coming out of her mouth. Except this high-pitched, disgusted whimper as I sucked in air, everything emptied on her bare legs and shorts, and a little on her black shirt, too. I groaned, “You’re a fucking bitch.”
Ember moaned again.
Daniil’s voice came from somewhere to my right. “What the hell’s going on?”
I froze but really wanted to pull my face away from the smelly puke. Ember made that funny noise again, starting to lightly swat at the back of my head.
Stash spoke, sounding awed and fascinated, “Man, Daniil. I haven’t seen puking like that since Brent and Ember. But I’d have to say Elizabeth just beat them on that front. It was loud and long and full of body motion. A definite ten. Especially, with Ember’s freak out.” He paused. “Fuck, I wished I’d had a camera for that.”
Staring at my puke while he spoke—something I never did—the ‘truth’ Ember so helpfully said she wanted me to find, dawned on me. I screamed, “Oh, Jesus Christ!” I jumped up, grabbing a napkin from the table, wiping my mouth as I backed away from a rapidly approaching worried Daniil, pointing a finger at him. “Don’t you come near me. Jesus…”
