“I know.”
She shakes her head. “No. I don’t think you do.” She turns toward me, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “You’re used to this. The violence, the danger, people trying to kill you. I’m not. I’m just a girl who cleaned hotel rooms and read books, and triedto stay invisible. But that didn’t matter because I have a past and there’s no running from it. Now I find out I’m Teodora Fetisov, and there’s a psychopath who wants me dead. How the hell am I supposed to live like this?”
I reach for her hand. She lets me take it.
“You’re not alone,” I tell her. “You have me. You have Oscar. You have this house. You have security and resources and?—”
“But what happens after the council?” she interrupts. “What happens if you can’t prove what Kolya did? Or you can and they still don’t care? What if he escapes? Or if someone else decides that I’m a threat? What then?”
“Then I protect you,” I say without missing a beat. “I protect you for however long you need protecting.”
She lets out a slow exhale. “You can’t protect me forever.”
“Watch me.”
She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “You’re so certain, so confident. But what if you’re wrong? What if something happens to you? What if?—”
I cup her face, forcing her to look at me.
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I say, my tone firm. “And nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t allow it.”
“You can’t control everything.”
“No, I can’t. But I can control this. I can keep you safe. I can honor the promise I made to your father. And I will. Do you understand me?”
She stares at me. I can sense she’s truly giving my words thought.
Then slowly, she nods.
“I’m trying to trust you,” she whispers. “I’m trying so hard. But it’s terrifying.”
“I know.”
“Sometimes I look at you and see a man who makes me feel safe, who looks at me like I matter. A man who wants to send me to college and show me the world. But other times, I see a man who killed two people without blinking. A man who’s probably killed a hell of a lot more than that. And a man who bought me like property.”
“I am both of those men,” I tell her. “I’m not going to try and tell you that I’m not. But Thea—the man I am with you? That’s real. It’s not a strategy or a manipulation. When I look at you, when I touch you, when I hold you… that’s the most honest I’ve been in my life.”
Her breath hitches.
“I don’t know what to do with that.”
“You don’t have to do anything. Just let me be here. Let me hold you. Let me prove to you that you’re safe.”
She’s quiet for a long moment, her eyes locked onto mine.
And then she kisses me.
It’s soft at first. But when I respond and pull her closer, she deepens it.
“Gabriel,” she murmurs against my mouth.
“Si?”
“Make me forget. Just for tonight. Make me feel something other than fear.”
I pull back just enough to look at her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
