I tilted my head up to look at him, and he kissed me slowly, as if there were no secrets between us. As if the world outside this room wasn’t closing in right this moment. I kissed him back and let myself sink into the moment. Right now, I wanted nothing but Avgust. As he pulled me closer and sleep finally claimed me in his arms, I held the secret tightly inside my chest.
For now. I would tell him, but only when the time was right.
Chapter 14 - Avgust
I hadn’t planned on taking her with me.
The morning was already mapped out in my head. I had a list of meetings, surveillances, and a few loose ends that needed to be tied up quietly and efficiently. I had been inside the house for too long now, and it was about time I stepped out again. These were the kind of errands that didn’t belong anywhere near someone like Ilana. I wanted to keep her as far away from the bratva world as I possibly could. Especially after what she had suffered.
“Where are you going?” she asked, standing barefoot inside my closet as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Dressed in a monochrome black suit, I looked every bit the Bratva enforcer I was. The Bratva enforcer I missed being. I was itching to get back to work.
“Work.”
“What do you mean work?” she asked, her tone slightly suspicious. I watched her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a pink, silk skirt that reached her knees and a blouse that fit her a little too perfectly for my liking. She was making it impossible for me to leave the house.
“I have to get a few things done,” I replied, turning around to look at her.
“I want to come with you.”
I looked at her squarely, her bare face looking as beautiful as ever in its soft pink glow.
“No,” I said immediately.
She didn’t flinch.
“Why?”
I wish I could tell her how this was not her world, and I had no desire for it to stain her. The Bratva world was the kind of world that was impossible to unsee once you had seen the ugly, gory details, which made it what it was. And Ilana did not deserve to go through that darkness. Not again.
“It’s not safe for you,” I replied instead, knowing she would only argue if I decided to explain my reasons to her.
Her mouth curved, not amused or offended, but simply thoughtful.
“You say that like I don’t already know who you are or what the Bratva means. I am certain I will be able to handle it.”
I studied her for a long moment. Most women who asked questions in our world did it out of curiosity or fear. Ilana asked questions because she truly wanted to understand. She always had. From the first night she had sat across me and listened, I had known. It had felt as if she was cataloguing pieces of me I hadn’t even offered her. She had already been through so much from the auction till the running away and then witnessing Timofey’s injuries, but she had held strong through it all. I already knew she would be able to handle it, but the thought of something happening to her scared me.
“Come on, say yes,” she croaked, looking at my expression with a pleading lip.
“I don’t know. You have a tendency to get in trouble.”
“If Zhenya had asked you, would you not have taken her?” The mention of my sister’s name from her mouth made me feel something I couldn’t name. She knew my family, even if they did not know her yet. An intimacy had been established between usthat neither of us could deny, and she was right. I would not have said no to Zhenya.
“Zhenya has grown up in this world and understands things. She knows how to fire a pistol and how not to run in the face of danger.”
“I want to learn too,” Ilana said, stepping closer to me. “After all, marrying you makes me a part of this world as well.”
“Fine.” I gave up. “But you’ll stay right beside me. At all times.”
“Done and done,” she clapped like a little girl, a huge smile tugging at her lips.
“And if I say we leave, we leave. No questions.”
She nodded once. “Deal.”
That should have reassured me, but instead something tightened in my chest.
***
