Page 42 of Bride of Vengeance

"Dangerous habit."

"So I've been told." I move closer, noting the papers spread across the table. Financial records, surveillance photos, what looks like a detailed timeline. "Working?"

"Trying to understand Harrison's network. Map the connections, identify weak points." He leans back in his chair, studying my face. "You?"

"Trying to understand how my life went from normal to completely insane in the span of three days."

"And what conclusions have you reached?"

That I'm falling for the man I've been hunting. That kissing you felt like a confirmation that I chose well.

"That normal was overrated anyway."

The words slip out before I can stop them, and something shifts in his expression. Something that looks like relief, or maybe recognition.

"Was it?"

"Yeah." I settle into the chair across from him, suddenly aware that I'm wearing nothing but a tank top and sleep shorts. His gaze flickers down briefly before returning to my face, and the heat in his eyes makes my pulse skip. "Normal is boring. Safe. Predictable."

"And this isn't?"

"This is the opposite of predictable." I gesture at the space between us, at the evidence of federal corruption spread across his dining table, at the situation that's forced us together. "Three days ago, I was a federal agent with a boring apartment and a boring routine. Now I'm a fugitive hiding in a criminal's house, working with him to expose corruption in my own department."

"Do you regret it?"

The question hangs between us like a challenge. He's asking more than whether I regret the circumstances that brought me here.Whether I regret wanting him.

"No," I say quietly. "I don't regret it."

Something flashes in his eyes. Something that makes heat pool low in my belly.

"Even knowing what I am? What I've done?"

"Especially knowing what you are." The honesty surprises both of us. "You could have let me die in that warehouse. Could have let Harrison's people finish what they started. That wouldn't have changed anything for you. Instead, you risked everything to save someone who's spent two years trying to arrest you."

"You're not just someone."

The words are quiet, but they carry weight that makes my chest tight. "What am I, then?"

He's silent for a long moment, studying my face like he's memorizing it. When he speaks, his voice is rougher than before.

"You're the woman who's been haunting my thoughts for two years."

Haunting his thoughts.The phrase sends electricity through my nervous system.

"Since you were assigned to the Bratva cases," he clarifies, moving around the table to sit in the chair beside me instead of across from me. This close, I can smell his cologne, can see the gold flecks in his dark eyes. "Since your name first crossed my desk as someone who might be a threat to the families I protect. But watching you became... more personal over time. You turned out not to be a danger to them, but no less dangerous for that."

Dangerous.Coming from him, it sounds like a compliment.

"Because I might have arrested you?"

"Because you made me want to let my guard down to meet you."

"Mikhail---"

"Do you know how many times I watched you work at crime scenes? How many nights I spent studying surveillance footage of you questioning witnesses, building cases with nothing but determination and intuition?"

How many times.Like I was an obsession instead of just a professional interest.