My stomach is in knots, adrenaline hot in my veins. This is going to explode if I don’t cut it off now, more than it already has. I force myself forward, stepping between them, feeling both of their gazes burning from opposite sides.
“Maksim.” My voice comes out tighter than I intend, but at least it doesn’t shake. “Come upstairs. Now.”
Lettie stiffens beside me, incredulous that I’m even letting him in, but Maksim’s eyes never leave mine. His lips twitch, the faintest acknowledgment, before he steps over the threshold like the house was already his.
“Ivy…” Lettie warns.
I reach out and grab her arm, squeezing it tight, reassuring her that I’m alright. There’s nothing Maksim would ever do to hurt me, that much I’m confident of. He has spent countless years trying to eradicate every threat that has whispered in my direction.
That kind of dedication couldn’t simply be erased overnight.
She sighs. “I have to go to work. But I’m warning you.” She jabs a finger into Maksim’s chest, hard enough that he actually grunts. “You do anything to her, and I will hunt you down and cut off your dick. Do you understand me?”
I can tell he’s fighting another smile when he says, “Crystal.”
Lettie throws me one last look before heading back into the kitchen.
I grab his arm and pull him up the stairs to the second floor before she can change her mind. The air shifts the second I shut my bedroom door behind us.
He doesn’t move far from the door.
His eyes drag over everything—the framed photos of Leo at different ages, the stack of books I’ve read to him until the spines wore soft, the folded laundry waiting for me on the chair in the corner. Every piece of proof that I built something without him. A life. A family. A world he wasn’t in.
“You shouldn’t be here, Maksim.” I let out a slow breath, bracing myself for the fight that’s coming.
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
I bristle instantly, heat crawling up my neck. “I mean it. You can’t keep showing up in places like this. My family all thinks you’re dead. How am I going to explain any of this to them?”
His eyes cut back to me, sharp as a blade. “Explain what? That the man you loved was not buried in the ground after all?”
Love.
That word rocks me.
He tilts his head, his mouth curving, but not in amusement. “That the father of your son destroyed every person who dared to place a target on your back?”
“Stop it.” My voice quavers, and I hate that he’s doing this. “They don’t know you’re aPakhan, Maksim. They don’t know the kind of life you live, or what that means for me and Leo if we were to go back to Russia with you.”
Well, aside from my sister, but he doesn’t need to know that.
His silence is heavy, assessing. Then his lips part, his accent rougher when he finally speaks. “You think lies protect them? You think ignorance keeps them safe? No,Milaya. What keeps them safe is me.”
I laugh bitterly. “Safe? You told me just yesterday there’s a new threat. What comes after you get rid of that one? It’s never ending, Maksim. In your world, there willalwaysbe another enemy.”
My back hits the edge of the bed before I even realize he’s crowded me over to it. My throat works as I swallow, forcing myself to meet that gray, unrelenting gaze. He’s breathing hard, sharp exhales dragging through his chest, each one like a warning that the fragile leash on his control is about to snap.
“You think I wouldeverlet those threats touch you? You believe I wouldn’t lay down my own life in order to save you and our son? Ivy Bennett, I will dowhateverit takes to never let my world touch you again.”
Something inside me gives, splintering under the weight of everything I’ve held back for far too long. Fury, grief, and the aching, treacherous longing I’ve buried for seven years all knot together until I can’t tell one from the other.
My hand fists in the front of his shirt, dragging him closer, needing to close the space I’ve sworn to keep between us.
“God, I hate you,” I whisper, though the words tremble, traitorous.
“You don’t.” His reply is absolute.
He catches my face in one broad hand, his grip firm enough that I can’t look away, can’t breathe without breathing him in. His thumb presses along the line of my jaw, anchoring me as if daring me to deny what he already knows.
