Page 75 of Lust and Honor

Through the blur of tears, I see him close the distance in two long strides, wrapping his arms around me.

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” I whisper as I clutch his shirt.

He squeezes me tighter, his voice a soft murmur. “It’s cold. Let’s go inside.”

He takes my hand and leads me back into the room.

“Was his death quick?” I ask.

He gives me a long, unreadable look and shuts the terrace door. “Let’s talk in the kitchen. Aurora might wake up.”

When he slips off his leather jacket and drapes it over my shoulders, I realize I’m shivering. I pull the jacket on, inhaling his cologne deep into my lungs.

He takes my hand again and guides me to the kitchen, then pulls out a chair for me to sit and heads to the coffee maker.

“Maxim…”

He cuts me off. “Let me make some coffee first, then we’ll talk.”

I sit in complete silence as he prepares coffee, placing a mug in front of me before taking a seat beside me.

“I want to see his body,” I say, wrapping my cold hands around the mug.

He reaches over and pulls his phone from the pocket of the leather jacket I’m wearing. He scrolls through it for a moment, then hands it to me. One glance is enough—the man who turned my life and my mother’s into a living hell is sprawled on the ground, his filthy eyes frozen open. A trail of blood from a bullet hole in his forehead streaks across his face.

That means a single bullet to the head.

That means he didn’t suffer.

Maxim promised me he would.

He reads my thoughts and reacts. “I didn’t kill him.”

I look at him. He continues, “Someone got to him before I did.”

“Who? Who took him out?”

He shrugs. “Don’t know. He had his own enemies, and one of them did the job. But I promise you, I’ll find out who.”

I turn off the phone and press my hands to the warm mug again. “I don’t care. All that matters is he’s dead.”

His hand covers mine. “Are you okay?”

I force a weak smile. “The man who spent his whole life trying to sell me into slavery is dead. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

I down the bitter coffee in one gulp and stand, then slip off his jacket and place it over the chair. As I move to pass him, he grabs my arm firmly.

I close my eyes, my voice soft and low. “I’m fine. I just need to sleep.”

***

The sky is gray and heavy. A storm is definitely coming.

Aurora’s scream snaps my attention away from the window, and I rush toward her. Before I reach her, Ines, the nanny, pries Aurora’s hair from Luca’s grip. Gabriel stands in the corner, watching the chaos with wide eyes. Ines scoops up Luca, carrying him away, and I pull Aurora into my arms.

From a distance, Luca yells and kicks, “That was my soldier!”

Aurora, as always, cries in that soft little voice that always breaks my heart. “Mama, Luca pulled my hair.”