No, there’s no other option. She has to stay. I’m still keeping her forever.
The scale of my feelings has tipped, though. Before, I wanted to own her life and make her pay for her betrayal. Now, a calm acceptance invades my mind. The pressing need for vengeance has shifted to a pressing need to please. To make her happy. Which is why we’re on our way to see her grandmother a day before we carry out the hit on Dimitrov. I want to give her everything I can to make up for the love she offers despite the freedom she’ll never have.
She’s tense, my little soldier. Her body is rigid and her face paler than usual. Disregarding Anton’s weight-distribution-impact-on-aerodynamics theory that awarded me the seat facing her, I shift onto the one next to her. I take one of her hands that’s clamped between her knees and brush my lips over her knuckles before intertwining our fingers. I wish I could tell her I love her, but I don’t know what love means. The feeling I harbor for Ilya is an ingrained duty to protect and take care of him. It’s part of my programming. What I feel for Mina is new, hard to define. I only know I can’t bear the thought of being apart from her or, God forbid, any harm coming to her.
“Nervous?” I whisper against her ear, sneaking in a kiss. She smells like lemon and honeysuckle. Mouthwateringly delicious.
“What do you think?” she snaps.
“I thought you’d be happy to see your grandmother.”
“I’m not happy about you coming along.”
“Don’t fret, princess.” I smile. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
Snorting, she turns her face toward the window as if I’m not worthy of her sight, which I’m not.
“Not long now.” I put her hand on my thigh and massage the knots in her shoulder.
She relaxes marginally, leaning a little toward me. The submission is small, a tiny drop in a vast ocean, but my heart warms as if I’ve put a blowtorch to it.
A few minutes later, Anton announces our descent. We touch down at the private airport where the same driver from a few nights ago waits.
“Stay in the car,” I tell Mina, helping her into the back. And just in case, I nod at the driver, who locks the doors. Love or not, I’m not going to lay temptation at Mina’s feet.
With Mina safely locked in, I lead Anton a distance away. I do want Mina to see her grandmother, but I also have an ulterior motive for the trip. Taking out my phone, I pull up the information that arrived last night. Someone took out Mina’s assailants, the men my hired team beat and mutilated. I was going to kill them soon, but someone beat me to it. I can only assume it’s to make sure they didn’t talk.
Perhaps I don’t know everything. Perhaps there’s more to Mina’s attack than I thought.
“What’s up?” Anton asks when we’re out of earshot.
I show him the media article on my phone. Whoever popped those men has connections in government, high enough to stage the murders as a drug-related gang war.
Anton frowns as he reads. He gives me a speculative look when he’s done. “What’s this about?”
“Mina.”
“Fuck.” Lifting his face to the sky, he drags a hand over his beard. “I should’ve known. This is why we came to Budapest. This is what you’ve been up to these past weeks.”
“Hear me out.”
“Do I have a fucking choice?”
“No.”
My tone silences him. He sighs and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Spew your poison. I’m listening.”
I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but the situation has changed. I pull up the photo I haven’t been able to look at more than once—not that I need to, as it’s burned into my memory—and turn the screen for Anton to see.
“Christ.” He pales. “Is that… Mina?”
“This is what they did to her. Ten of them.”
“That’s why you offed them.”
“Not me. I was going to, after letting them live dickless for a couple of weeks while reflecting on their sins, but someone else did the job for me, someone powerful enough to make it look like a drug war.”
“Someone must’ve needed to silence them.”
“Exactly.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I’ve tracked them all down, save for one.”
“You want me to get information from him.”
“I’ll owe you.”
He grins. “I can live with you owing me. What info do you have?”
“His name is Laszlo Kiss. He went into hiding like the others, but his housekeeper sold the information to one of our informants.”
“Must’ve been an attractive bribe.”
“Enough to set her up for life.”
“You’re investing quite a bit in avenging Mina.”
Nothing will be too much. Not all the money in the world. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You feel for her.”
I frown. “Would I have done what I did otherwise?”
“You mean take her?”
I’m not going to answer that.
He watches me quietly. “Ilya is right, you know. You can’t keep her against her will. That’s as bad as what those guys did to her.”
My anger spikes. In a second, I’m in his face. “It’s nothing like that, do you hear me?”
“What is it then, Yan? Is it even about revenge? Fuck, was it ever about revenge? I get that you wanted to make her pay for framing us as terrorists, but look at that.” He motions at the phone in my hand. “Look at what they did to her. Don’t you think she’s been through enough?”
“This is the past,” I say harshly, shaking the phone at him. “What happened after has nothing to
