“My place.”
Her brows furrow again, and that stubborn look takes over. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s secure, and you’re getting cold.”
Elena glances down at her arms crossed over her chest, still bearing the chill in that dress, then her eyes return to mine. “I don’t care.”
Feeling just how precarious my patience has become, I breathe in, slow and deep, before I open the passenger door and step out of the way. My tone comes out just hard enough to let her know how serious I am.
“We were just ambushed by the Grimaldis not that long ago. You’re a Lukov asset with a target on her back, and now, you’re legally tied to me. Arguing about where you sleep tonight shouldn’t be the priority,” I explain, eyes set firmly on her. “Not while your life is on the line and I’m trying to protect it.”
Her jaw tightens, and for a long moment, she looks prepared to argue. Instead, a flicker of resignation moves through her face, and she gets in.
Relief settles into my skin as I get in from the other side, pulling out of the parking garage and heading to my place. Thedrive is quiet and not quite as raw or panicked from her end of things, but the tension is certainly still there.
I take a deliberately convoluted route just to be sure, always scanning my mirrors and watching for anything questionable. All the while, I feel her eyes on me. Studying me.
“You live like this all the time?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds exhausting,” she mumbles, tone betraying just how tired she really is.
“It is.”
“Lucky me…”
Even if she sits there obediently, I can still sense the dormant urge in her that wants to flee. To throw all caution to the wind and try to get as far away from me as possible. That energy simmers beneath the surface without her even needing to say it.
But with the doors locked and the car moving, I allow myself to relax my shoulders enough not to lose my mind.
I didn’t plan for this. Didn’t plan to bring a Lukov into my life, or to share my name with, regardless of it being false.
Still, as screwed as I am, and as volatile as this situation has become, there’s one truth I won’t try to wrestle with.
I won’t let them take her. Not the Grimaldis, and not the Balakins. Not anyone.
Even if protecting her costs me everything I’ve built, and even if it makes me a complete idiot.
There’s something about her that I can’t name, and something I’m not willing to unpack yet.
Chapter 6 - Elena
Despite being quiet on the way to his place, that spell ends the moment we get out of the car.
In my family, I’ve always been the calm one and the mediator. I always try to smooth things over before anyone raises their voice or, on the rare occasion, my brothers get physical. They like to joke that I was born gentle and that I have a way of softening the sharp aspects of their lives. It’s one of the reasons Roman is always doting on me, making sure that nothing changes that part of me.
But tonight, while Wyatt leads me through another parking garage—the one beneath his condo tower—hand firmly on my elbow while he makes sure I keep moving forward, that softness I harbor feels farther away than usual.
The adrenaline and panic that were hiding beneath my vague curiosity about him have reached the surface again, and a very Lukov-based refusal to be controlled follows right after.
As much as I’ve gone along with his impromptu rescue mission, it hits me all at once.
I don’t know him. Regardless of his claims, I don’t know what he wants with me, or what he’ll be willing to do when he gets me alone again, trapped in his home and out of the public eye. After the way he handled those men on the road, and how he forced me into something I never asked for, I can’t risk doubting his intentions.
Digging my heels into the pavement, Wyatt grunts as my resistance throws off his stride. He grips me tighter automatically, fingers biting into my arm.
“What are you doing?”
