“Thank you,” I gasp against Iosif. I press my face into his chest, breathing in the smell of cedar and gunpowder. His arms ensnare me, pulling me in tighter, like he wants to absorb me into his skin.Please,I think. “I love you,” I say.
“I love you,” Iosif rasps into my hair, kissing any part of me he can reach. “I love you so fucking much, doll. When they took you, I—I thought I’d lost you. I can’t fucking lose you, Janella. You are my heart.”
I pull back despite my own heart’s protests.
I do it just to cup his face and lower his head to mine. I kiss his lips, letting his thumbs swipe the tears from my cheeks.
“Take me home, baby,” I plead with him. “Can we just go home, please?”
His gaze is fierce. “Yeah. And then we’re going to start over again. I’m going to marry you again, Janella Yuri. And I’m going to do it right this time.”
“I—”
A throat clears behind us, turning my body to stone.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Leonid drawls, and every muscle in my body unwinds.
All four brothers stand behind us: Trifon, Valentin, Leonid, and Miron. How had I not noticed them? I notice them now.
“How about we get out of here and get that head lac looked at?” Trifon suggests, pointing at my head.
“I’ll get all this—” Valentin gestures vaguely at the shattered glass and body on the ground. “—cleaned up.”
“You mean you’re going to make me clean it up,” Miron mutters, elbowing him in the side.
Leonid grins and throws an arm around Miron’s neck. “That’s what baby brothers are for.”
“The police?” Iosif interjects.
“Ten minutes out,” Trifon says grimly, checking his watch. “Self-defense appeal. Traffic cams caught him assaulting her, dragging his daughter into an alleyway. I’ll have Dmitri splice the rest together for a more cohesive picture.”
My head reels.
It’s Valentin who steps forward, planting a steadying hand on my shoulder. The gesture threatens to make my knees buckle. “Iosif told us what you did for us. We take care of our own,sestrenka.”
Iosif’s lips find my ear to translate, “Little sister.”
Tears fill my eyes all over again, a watery smile forcing its way to the surface. “Thank you.”
I can’t help but look back one last time, where the body of the man who was once my father lies, in a spreading pool of his blood.
“Come on,kukolka,” Iosif exhales beside me, steering me toward the line of waiting SUVs. I let him guide me, trusting his hands to lead me.
They are the hands of a killer; this is the truth. And they are the hands of the man who pulls me into his lap in the backseat, and lets me unravel like a child, loving me always.
He had been right all along. The world isn’t black and white.
Sometimes, two things can be true at once.
Chapter 25 - Iosif
“You know we can’t do that, Iosif.” Trifon’s voice sounds through the speakerphone. His face looks back at me from the phone stuck to the dash, his brow set in a severe frown.
“That’s fucked, Trif. It’s been months,” I bristle. “He came after my wife, and we’re just going to sit around with our dicks in our hands until we find some cold, hard proof?”
“Don’t play stupid,” Trifon fires back. “Driscoll could have given proof. But you killed him.”
He barrels right over me when I open my mouth to argue.
