No.
Absolutely not.
“You’re coming with me.”
She jerks upright so fast this time I miss my chance to stop her.
The mattress shifts. Cold air hits my chest where her body was.
Then the lamp clicks on.
Gold light floods the room, sudden and brutal. I squint against it, blinking her into focus.
She’s sitting there in my shirt, hair a mess, mouth parted, eyes wide with the exact kind of outrage I expected.
“No, Maksim,” she says. “I’m not going to Russia.”
“Yes, you are.”
She throws the blanket off her legs. “I don’t even have a passport.”
“That isn’t a problem for me.”
“You can’t just get a passport overnight.”
“You’d be surprised what I can get overnight.”
Her stare sharpens. “No. I’m not going.”
There it is again.
No.
The word I hate from her because she says it like she thinks there’s still space between us wide enough to make choices separately.
“Yes,” I say, sitting up now, facing her fully. “You are.”
Her jaw sets. “No.”
I lean closer.
“Yes. You. Are.”
Because I’m not leaving you here. I know what happens when I take my eyes off things that matter. Nikolai doesn’t get to step into my life and find something soft enough to use against me.
And if I come back and you’re gone, I will tear the world apart looking for you.
I don’t say any of it.
I just look at her until the room goes tight with it.
She blinks first. “When?”
“Tomorrow night.”
Chapter 34
Ayla
