AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He doesn’t respond, but I feel his breathing catch. His arms loop around my body, holding me tighter.
“When I chose you, I chose all of you, Arsen—the good and the bad. I knew there would be danger.”
“Laila—”
“But that means that, if you lock me up in this house, we aren’t a team. I don’t need to be out on the front lines, but you have to let me live my life.Thislife, with all the chaos and danger that comes with it. I chose it.” I pull back, looking into his eyes. “I chose you.”
His fingers find mine, and he twines our hands together. “I will not lose you.”
“Never. We’re going to get through this—and we’re going to do it together.”
He takes a step away from me, dropping my hand. For a split second, I’m worried he’s going to fall back on old habits and push me away.
Instead, he nods. “Well, then I guess you should be with me when Enzo arrives with his men.”
“Enzo’s coming here?”
“He needs to be informed of the situation. I have a feeling he’s going to be involved in this mess too before it’s all over.”
“And is it customary for the wives to be present?”
“Not at all.” He laughs quietly. “I guess we’re breaking new ground. Together.”
45
ARSEN
Two floppy heads of hair peek at me over the staircase railing. The moment they see me looking back, they duck behind the half-wall with little squeals.
“You two should be in bed,” their mother snaps. Lena is as disheveled as I’ve ever seen her, but that’s on being woken up in the middle of the night to a house fire.
She rolls her eyes and gives me a wan smile. “With only the one bedroom, the kids aren’t sleeping very well.”
“Lena,” Boris growls. He wraps an arm around his wife’s back, but I can see the warning in it. “Thepakhanhas been very generous in offering us this safehouse.”
“As he should.” Her thin veneer of politeness disintegrates instantly. “Our home was destroyed because of one of his men. Someone who was supposed to be your brother! The children could have been burned alive!”
As it does all too often these days, the image of Nina’s mangled car seat flashes in my mind.
“Lena—!”
“It’s okay, Boris.” I wave him off and turn to his stern-faced wife. “Lena, you have every right to be angry. I’m angry, too. Jasper will pay for what he put your family through.”
Her anger slips, and I can see the pain behind it. The fear. “What kind of Bratva man resorts to something as cowardly as killing a family in their beds?”
The kind who gets kicked out of the Bratva and has nowhere else to go.
I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible for the warpath Jasper has been on. The same night he set fire to Boris’s home, my first distillery was also trashed.
It seems like too much destruction for one man to carry out alone. Then again, I’ve seen Jasper when he’s on a bender. No sleep, endless energy…
“A man who will be dealt with,” I assure her. “He won’t get away with this.”
“But why us?” she cries. “Boris was always on good terms with Jasper. He came over for dinner. I made him spaghetti, for God’s sake!”
Boris hugs her to his side. “You should go upstairs, Lena. Put the children to bed.”
There’s another chorus of giggles from the stairwell as the children realize we haven’t forgotten about them.
