“I have my ways,” he said, then mimed zipping his lips shut. “Your family’s been through enough shit. You don’t need that stress on top of everything else.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “Thanks, Dan.”
“Ah, uh, yeah.” He scuffed the ground with the toe of his shoe. “It’s for selfish reasons too, though. One goes down, we all go down. I’m not a saint or anything.”
“I know that. Still, thanks.”
“Yeah. I wonder if Bellingham will thank me when I’m through with him.” He gave me a wild grin, his teeth gleaming in the light spilling from the smoking room windows. “I guess I’m gonna find out. See ya later, Banks.”
“Bellingham? What the fuck? Dan!”
Of course, he’d already disappeared into the night. I groaned, tipping my head back. It was probably best that I didn’t know what he was planning.
“Dan?”
“You just missed him,” I told Ryker as he came to a stop in front of me. “He said he was going to make sure Operation Foxglove didn’t investigate the clinic. Then hementioned something about Lincoln Bellingham and disappeared before I could ask him about it.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Ryker muttered. “He needs to get over this fucked-up obsession he has with him.”
“I fucking wish.”
“Jay… While we’re here, I wanted to speak to you.”
I was instantly on alert at Ryker’s serious tone. “What’s up?”
“I want you to know that I don’t have a problem with you being with Nova. But do not fuck it up. Do not break her heart, okay? You’re my best friend, but she comes first. If you hurt her, I’ll have to make you pay.”
“Yeah.” I licked my lips. “You don’t have to worry about that. I know how special she is, and I’m going to do everything I can to ensure her happiness. If anything ever happens, and I’m going to do my level fucking best to make sure nothing does, you have my full permission to make me pay.”
He snorted. “Thanks for the permission.” Clapping me on the shoulder, he grinned. “Nova’s good with a knife. Just in case you needed a reminder.”
I returned his grin. “Yeah, she is.”
“I trust you, mate. I know you’ll treat her well. This is the best outcome I could’ve hoped for. No one else is good enough for my sister…except for Dan…nah, not Dan. He’s too obsessed with Bellingham to give her the love she deserves.”
“Do you think she would’ve been happy with Volkov if none of this had happened?” I wasn’t sure why I was torturing myself with the what-ifs, but I wanted to know.
Ryker’s brows pulled together as he thought about it. “Happy… If you weren’t in the picture, maybe she would’ve eventually become content with him. He would’ve treated her well. But happy? No. I don’t think either of them would’ve been happy. Not like she is with you.” Straightening up, he glanced at something over my shoulder, his expression shuttering again. “See you back inside.”
When I turned to see why he’d suddenly clammed up, I found Anton Volkov standing at the edge of the terrace with a glass of whisky in hand and his gaze laser-focused on me.
I studied him warily as Ryker disappeared inside the house, leaving the two of us alone. “Volkov. What can I do for you?”
“No.”
“No?” I stared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that we are going to refer to each other by our first names, unless we’re playing hockey.”
“Uh…what?”
He sighed. “I think we are on a first-name basis now, after you saved my life. I won’t forget it.”
“That was— You saved Nova’s. If it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t have even found her, and we wouldn’t have had backup, or?—”
He stalked across the terrace, shoving a finger into my chest. “No. If it hadn’t been for my family, there would have been no danger to Nova to begin with. There would have been no danger to your family’s business. My family has honour, and we take responsibility for our actions.”
“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”
