I push off the wall, heading for the door.
I need to see Katerina, need to look at her face while I figure out what the hell I'm going to do.
The choice ahead feels impossible.
As I reach the door, Katerina steps into the library. “You were on the phone.” There’s tension in her voice. Why wouldn’t there be? She knows the predicament we’re in.
“Just some business in Chicago.”
Her eyes narrow slightly. "And?"
I shift, feeling like I’m in the hot seat though I don’t know why. “There was an attack on my business. Someone thinks that because I’m not there, my business is vulnerable.”
“And is it?”
Fucking hell, I wish I could read her now. I get the sense that if I say the wrong thing, I’ll lose her.
“Maybe a little.”
She sighs in what seems to be resignation. "You're leaving."
It's not a question.
She's already bracing herself, already building those walls back up.
I can see it happening in real time. Her shoulders straighten. She takes a subtle step back.
She’s telling me what I’ve been afraid to ask. She needs to stay.
“I’m here for now.” I hope that’s good enough and that in forty-eight hours, I can convince her and Alessandro to let her come with me.
Unable to help myself, I pull her close as if by osmosis, I’ll convince her to love me.
But love might not be enough. Not when for us to be together means I’ll have to kill the Bratva… and perhaps members of my own family.
24
KATERINA
My breath catches as Luca pulls me against his chest.
His arms, strong enough to kill, wrap around me with gentleness.
I hate how my body responds to him, how quickly my pulse races, how easily I melt into his touch even as my mind screams warnings.
"What's wrong?" he murmurs against my hair.
“What’s the point of this?” I hate the vulnerability in my voice, the desperate need for reassurance from the man who left me broken.
His fingers trace my jawline, tilting my face up to his. "I'm not leaving yet."
Forty-eight hours.
That’s what he told the person on the other end of the phone.
Two days to figure out what this thing between us means.
He acts like he wants to stay together, but he hasn’t said anything about me and Enzo going with him to Chicago.
