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“Especiallythe graphic sketches.”
When she beams, I smile so wide my teeth show and my face hurts. Like my muscles aren’t used to it. She covers her mouth while her face reddens, drawing my attention to the slight discoloration running from her cheekbone to her jaw. The bruise is fresh, a soft blue, and still partially swollen.
My smile slips while I reach for her face, carefully inspecting the bruise before trailing my fingertips over the tender flesh. Her wrecked car slams into the forefront of my mind.
“What happened today?”
She presses her hand over mine and lays my palm against her face, her eyes closing. “You’re going to be pissed.”
“At you? Or at someone else?”
She’s right. Already, I can feel my muscles tensing, adrenaline rushing into my veins. She isn’t dead. The Bratva couldn’t have found her. Then…
“Me…” She sighs and opens her eyes. “I went to town today because I can’t stand the idea of not being medicated. Whether the medication works or not, I realize is still fuzzy, but I just?—”
“What happened to your face?”
And your car. But mostly… Did someone fucking hurt you?
Because if they did, what are we doing here? What amIdoing here? My gun at my back comes into my consciousness, but I’d never use it on anyone who hurt Olive. No. Nikita is always pushing me to test my creativity. Tonight, if someone has hurt her, I will make him proud.
“I got rear-ended in the city… Friday Vegas traffic, you know? There was a group of guys in this big diesel truck who weren’t paying attention and rammed into me at a red light. My face slammed against the steering wheel.”
I stare at her face, trying to envision it hitting the steering wheel of her car to leave that bruise, but she cups my neck and leans until her lips meet mine. Slowly, gradually, my muscles unwind. My heart rate slows.
No one found her.
She’s okay.
She pulls away from my lips but keeps her forehead to mine, her eyes closed. “Please don’t be mad.”
I pause a moment, staring at her lips. “I’m not mad.”
“You’re not?”
“No. I just wish you would’ve waited until I could take you… But I understand.”
“You would’ve said no.”
I arch a brow at her when she pulls back a few inches so she can look at me.
“Wouldn’t you have?” she presses.
I shake my head. “As long as I feel I can keep you safe, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. Some parts of Vegas are off limits. But uh…”
I look past her while I think of a way to tell her everything that’s changed without telling her anything at all.
Lies. Lies and more lies.
How long am I going to keep doing this?
I swallow and meet her eyes. “Something’s happened to the person who wants you dead. They’ve been arrested.”
When she perks up, hope blossoming on her pretty face, I gently cup her shoulder to settle it. “He’ll be released, probably soon. But I’m trying to use the situation to our advantage. I think if I can find a way to get the charges against him dropped, I can leverage it to get the target off your back.”
“Hold on…” She gives her head a shake. “My father’s enemy who has been trying tokill meis now in jail… And your idea is to get him out? What?”
I open and close my mouth.
