“Do you want to send someone to keep an eye on her?” Eitan asks. I know who he’s talking about, of course, just like he knows what thoughts are running through my head. Neither of us has said Annie’s name out loud in three weeks. It’s like she’s cursed us.
Do I want her to be protected? Yes. Should I send guards to watch over her? Probably. But I’m hesitant. She already thinks of me as a monster. Sending someone to watch over her might make her think I’m trying to own her again. That I don’t care about her, when nothing could be farther from the truth. I don’t want to suck her back into this war, into this world. But my enemies are all around and it’s only a matter of time before they figure out where she is. What she means to me.
And if that happens, she will truly be in danger from which she can’t escape.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. “No,” I whisper. “No.”
Eitan eyes me kindly. “Nikita, I’ve been with the Lavrins since your father first took over. I’ve seen a lot, been through a lot myself.” He shakes his head. “I’ve had a good life, a wonderful wife, may she rest in peace, and children, all grown with lives and families of their own.”
“I’m not in a mood to be lectured, my friend.”
He leans forward onto his elbows. The bare bulb overhead flickers once. “But not all have benefited from this world. Would you bring children of your own into it? Knowing what you know? Knowing the risks you’ve taken?”
My own children? I’ve never thought about having a family. Never thought about bringing a life into this world. But if it happened, I’m also not sure if I’d want them to take over the family business or get as far away as possible. I sigh and my shoulders slump forward.
“Let me tell you a story.”
“I’ve heard all of your stories, Eitan.”
“Not this one,” he says. “Listen: a long time ago, when I first met your father, I was with a woman—my high school sweetheart. We were in love. Planned on getting married once she graduated college.” Eitan looks away, taking a deep breath in. “She meant the world to me. Made my heart beat faster the moment she walked into the room.”
My tension evaporates. I’ve never known Eitan to be with anyone outside of Maria. I lean back in my wooden chair and fold my arms across my chest.
“I remember her voice still. She was an amazing singer, unlike me. I can’t carry a tune if my life depended on it. Yet, she’d always want me to sing along with her. One day, she was on her way home from college. I had set up a grand romantic gesture where I’d ask her to marry me. I wanted to give her the world.”
Fuck. She left him. Cheated on him. Had to be. Why else wouldn’t he have married her?
“The bus never made it. Some freak accident, engine trouble. It exploded. Everyone on board died.”
Neither of us talks for a minute. I can see the pain etched in his face, like it happened yesterday. Maybe, in his mind’s eye, it’s always happening, again and again, like Chinese water torture. Drip. Drip. Drip.
“Nikita, I’ve seen the way you look at Annie. I see the torture in your face any time you think about her. It’s the same look I had with Emily. She was my world, the love of my life,” Eitan says.
I shake myself. “I don’t love her. She’s just an innocent person who got caught up.”
Eitan snorts. “No one is perfectly innocent, Nikita. Just as no one is perfectly guilty. We are, all of us, a mix of everything.”
Before I can respond, a soldier bursts into the room from down the hall. “Just got word that the guys in East Los Arcos got hit, hard. The rest of the stash, all the week’s take—gone.”
Gino.
I’m up on my feet immediately. My fingers clench and unclench as I spring toward the front closet to grab a jacket and my holster. I’ll kill whoever’s there. Once my jacket is on, I grab the keys from the hook in the foyer and head out the door, part of me relieved to leave Eitan and the whole conversation behind.
Soft rain paints the car windows as I drive onwards. Lavrin soldiers—what’s left of them—follow closely in two Jeeps. The skies are overhung with a blanket of gray, so much so that I can barely tell the difference between the sky and clouds. I watch raindrops race down to the windshield as I fly down the road, hoping for a distraction so I can get my mind straight.
But the drive to the office only brings thoughts of Annie to the forefront. I can’t deny how perfectly she fit into my arms. Or how many times I’ve jerked off to thinking of her. Multiple times throughout the night on some occasions, like my dick just couldn’t be satisfied.
I make a right turn and pull into the empty lot, my foot on the brake and my fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel as I scope out the scene. This could be a setup.
But there aren’t any other cars, no lingering shadows, no lights that are out. I kill the ignition and step out into the rain. Removing my gun from its holster, I walk the perimeter of the building, my eyes scanning every blind spot, every tree, and even the roof above until I get to the front door of the corner bodega where the crew sets up shop.
It’s wedged open.
I wait, peeking in through the crack. No sounds. No movements. The alarm is off and no one knows the keycode except my men. I snarl as I wonder
