Page 15

Some time passed since the moment we finally gave in to each other, and while I assumed it would help put my head on straight again, that wasn’t exactly the case.

We had sex, and while that was a milestone in itself, I couldn’t stop thinking about it—and not just because it was even more fulfilling than I imagined.

It had been incredible, and finally getting to know the warmth of her skin against mine did help soothe some of the unrest within me. But beyond that, it made me realize how much I had truly been missing. How much I wanted more of her, and not just her body.

Tia had been a sort of anomaly to me since the moment I met her at that damn gala, but after vaguely sating that need for her, I was well aware that my interest went far deeper.

Despite sleeping with each other, there was still an unspoken tension between us. I could see it in her eyes whenever she looked at me.

While lust and attraction certainly existed there, hesitance did, too. Like she still wasn’t sure if I could be trusted.

I had seen that look before…like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

She still expected the worst of me, and regardless of my confidence in who I was, I wanted that cold front between us to leave once and for all.

Tia was still refusing to let me in, and I needed to break through that resistance. I needed to reach those parts of her that she was refusing to show me.

I wanted her trust, but at that point, I didn’t know what else I could do.

Sitting in the warehouse office surrounded by my brothers, my eyes weren’t trained on anything in particular. My mind certainly wasn’t in the room while Alex and Damien went over a few pressing topics with the group of us.

As much as I should’ve been paying attention, I was struggling to do that.

Undoubtedly, I was distracted, but at the very least, nobody commented on it.

Eventually, we decided to take a break and splintered off for the time being. Alex, Damien, and Daniil wandered off on their own while I stayed back and waited in my seat.

It didn’t take long for me to feel Yuri’s eyes on me.

“You alright in there?” he asked, lifting a brow at me while he stood by the window with his hands in his pockets.

As irritating and unserious as he could be most times, he had always been perceptive, for better or worse.

After a moment of consideration, I thumbed at my chin absently. “Yeah, I’m fine…just thinking.”

“You’re gonna bust a couple of cogs, thinking that hard.”

Despite the teasing in his voice, a touch of concern was still present.

I only sighed, not feeling up for his usual antics.

While I had reached a new place with Tia, I was still unnerved by it all…by the way she couldn’t see through to the real me even after being intimate.

How she was still being so stubbornly persistent when it came to resisting me.

Before, I assumed she would just give up eventually. That she would finally admit her attraction to both of us, and she wouldn’t be able to put up that front anymore.

But it seemed I had severely underestimated her determination.

It was maddening.

“This is about Tia, isn’t it?”

Blinking through the flicker of surprise at his ability to guess correctly right away, my shoulders dropped slightly. “Yes…it is.”

I wasn’t too keen on admitting it, but by then, I didn’t see much choice in the matter.

Normally, I could handle any situation I was thrown into. Feelings and emotions were things I could easily tuck away without many repercussions. But with Tia involved, that just didn’t seem like the case anymore.

She was my wife, and as much as I tried to convince myself before that the business aspect of the arrangement was the most important part, I knew that wasn’t true.

I had been completely enamored by her…enraptured. I needed her more than anything.

And I did have her, just not in all the ways I wanted.

With a sigh, I rubbed at the side of my neck. “I’m trying to build something good between us, but she’s not giving me much to work with, regardless of what I try. I don’t know what to do at this point.”

Yuri studied me for a moment while he digested my words, and he softened by a touch. It had been quite some time since I saw that kind of understanding in his eyes, and to my surprise, it was almost reassuring.

“I’m sure you already know this, but you have to give her time,” Yuri said with a voice of reason that seemed more out of the ordinary for him than anything else. “Given how everything went down, it’ll take a bit for her to feel that trust. You can’t force it.”

I knew he wasn’t wrong on that front.

In one swoop, she had been blindsided by her dad, who was still actively withholding the truth of his success from her, and she was forced into my life against her wishes. It wasn’t something I’d easily recover from, either.

“I want to be patient, I do…But I don’t know how long I can keep it up,” I admitted, feeling strange about being so vulnerable at the moment. “I know she feels at least something for me, but it’s like there’s a brick wall between us. She’s still fighting me.”

Yuri hummed thoughtfully at that. “I’m sure it’s not easy, but it’s necessary for now. She needs to learn that you’re on her side.”

With a soft breath, I nodded. “Sometimes that feels impossible…but it’s true. I’m not her enemy.”

“And I’m sure she’ll see that for herself soon enough. Just keep trying,” he suggested, almost surprising me with how reasonable he was being. “She’s a good choice, you know, even if things happened in a less-than-ideal way. She’ll come around eventually.”

Yuri wasn’t always one to give away advice or reassurance like that, but when he did, I knew not to take it for granted.

I met his gaze. “You think so?”

He grinned to himself and nodded while leaning against the windowsill. “Absolutely. She’s sharp in her own right. I only spent the afternoon with her, but I can tell there’s a lot of life in her—a spark, I guess. Just give her space and time…let her make the next move.”

Leaning back in my seat, I nodded to myself and scrubbed a hand down my face.

Even though I knew his advice was perfectly valid and likely what I needed to hear, I was still a bit surprised by it all. By the way he was handling it.

It was almost refreshing, in a way.

Before I could say anything else, Daniil was in the doorway wearing an irritated expression, even though he was normally stoic, heat burned in his eyes.

“You two—we’re heading out. There’s a situation we need to handle.”

Yuri and I exchanged a look, brows furrowing.

“What happened?”

“Someone’s harassing one of our suppliers. Shots have been fired…just get up. You’re coming with me.”

Even though it sounded like a headache I didn’t feel like dealing with on top of everything else, I got up and crossed the room with Yuri in tow.

With a greater sense of urgency, aware that anyone getting at our suppliers could mean immediate loss, the two of us followed Daniil and piled into one of the vehicles.

“Incompetent pricks,” Daniil muttered while he pulled out of the lot and onto the highway before heading towards one of our exchange points. “I swear if it's the usual group…”

“Is it the docks again?” I asked, feeling the usual thrum of adrenaline moving through me in preparation for whatever the scene might look like upon our arrival.

“Yes…obviously we need to strengthen that point again. Those are our biggest shipments,” he said, agitation clear in the way he gripped the wheel tightly. “I’m getting sick of bastards intercepting us.”

“Just another Friday,” Yuri sighed from the back seat while he inspected his pistol before loading it again.

“Unfortunately…”

With Daniil’s usual reckless driving, we arrived much faster than anticipated, finding the isolated area as quiet as usual.

But the tension was tangible the moment we stepped out, finding the ship with our goods docked—but nobody was unloading anything, of course. Not while a few more shots were being exchanged.

The three of us moved carefully, ducking down as we approached with our pistols raised.

Immediately, we found some of our men down, and even more of theirs with a similar fate.

“There—more runners,” Daniil muttered, standing up from our cover to aim at several men trying to break away from the dwindling skirmish.

At once, Yuri and I followed his lead, firing our rounds, nicking them one by one.

It was quick work with our backup, able to relieve the guys who had been blindsided and pinned by the assailants.

The moment everything went quiet, a small group broke off to secure the area while we drew closer in search of answers.

Looking down at one of the dead men at my feet, I looked him over for any kind of indication of who he might’ve worked for—a pin, a tattoo, a certain color on him—but I found nothing while Daniil questioned the others.

After doing some digging and calling in others to help with the cleanup and recovery of our supplies, Daniil regrouped with the two of us.

“Well? Anything?” Yuri questioned, glancing around the space before looking back at our older brother.

Daniil sighed, looking visibly agitated about it all. “Nobody knows who these men are or where they came from…as far as we can tell, they’re faceless scab workers. They could work for anyone.”

“And did they get away with anything?” I asked, well aware that part was the most crucial of all.

He shook his head and ran a hand over his stubble. “Fortunately, no. They were as competent as you’d expect scab workers to be…but still aggressive, apparently.”

“And because we don’t know who they work for, we have no idea if this was a random hit or not,” Yuri concluded while giving a disinterested look at the bodies.

“That’s right.”

As much as it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, the thought still irritated me.

We took pride in what we did, regardless of the legalities, and having anyone attempt to take what was ours was infuriating.

More than that, not knowing who they were just felt wrong. It was hard to believe anyone would be able to gain that kind of insight into our trades on a whim.

“I know that look on your face,” Daniil said to me directly. “You think this is more than a coincidence.”

“Of course I do.”

“Well, so do I,” he affirmed, crossing his arms. “But until something else happens, we can only assume it was random. And if that opportunity comes, hopefully, we’ll have at least one man alive to question.”

Letting out a vaguely annoyed breath, I nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’d just rather not go back to Alex empty-handed.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Daniil said, dismissing it. “We’ll get to the bottom of it eventually…for now, it’s getting late. We’re getting out of here.”

With everything said and done, neither Yuri nor I felt like arguing with that, and we both followed Daniil’s lead back to the SUV.

Once I was back in my car and heading home, I tried to force the frustration out of my head and focus on the fact that it was the weekend.

Regardless of the mystery surrounding the hit, I just wanted to blow off some steam.

More than that, I just wanted to spend time with Tia, despite all the ways she might pull back from me.

I could only hope she wanted the same thing.