He cradled my face between his hands. “I’m not leaving you. Not for one second. I’ll do whatever
it takes so you are safe and we can be together, baby girl.”
“We won’t be together if you die. I need you alive. Even if we can’t be with each other all the
time, I’ll still know you’re safe. There’ll still be hope that one day we can. Please, Jesse. I beg you.”
“You can’t ask me this.”
“You can’t ask me to let you risk your life and the lives of your brothers for me either. This is the only way.”
Sixteen
Sia
“Only until it’s over, and I find whoever wants your head, sugar beau,” Jesse finally agreed. “I’ll bring youhishead, and you’ll be mine forever, all right? Forever, Sia. I won’t settle for less.”
Tears blurred my vision as I nodded. “Sounds good to me.” Crazy and almost impossible but so
freaking good. The best. “But you have to promise me you won’t get too crazy. You don’t have to be a
hero, not for me. It’s okay to run if it means you’ll survive.”
His answer was a passionate kiss. “Don’t worry about me, baby girl. Let’s getyouto safety.”
I rode on the back of Jesse’s bike all the way to Cincinnati. It was official I was his old lady. Even if it was going to be for a little while before we were separated for God knew how long—if we were
to reunite ever again.
He gave me a burner when we arrived, and I texted Bellomo. The answer didn’t take long. I
deciphered the code Tino had taught me easily. His man would be here in three hours, and he gave me
the cords where he was going to leave me the stuff.
Jesse and I, along with the Wicked Warriors stayed at a motel to rest a bit. We both had long rides
ahead of us. They were going to Chicago, and I…had a plane to catch to a destination yet to be
known.
After he made love to me for a whole hour, Jesse lit a cigarette, and we cuddled. “What do you
know about your uncle?”
“Not much. Uncle Rasputin barely visited. He and my father didn’t always see eye to eye. My
uncle ran the family business in Russia, but when he did visit, he was…nice, at least to my mother
and my sister. They loved him.”
“He wasn’t nice to you?”
“He was. He always got me and my sister toys and candy. But, I don’t know, it could be my
imagination, but there was something off about him, and I’ve always believed he didn’t love me as
much as he loved my sister. Anyway, my mother was always happy when she saw him. Unlike how it
