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Emerson made some good arguments for herself. Hell, Mila had some good points, too. There really was no evidence that Arkadi had anything to do with the first attempt on Emerson’s life, but I didn’t give a single shit if he did or not.

The man had been told to stay the fuck away from my wife, but he just had to try my patience one more time. My patience was at its end, about to snap and rain fury down on him. If only he wasn’t so slippery. He’d somehow lost my surveillance crew in Moscow and turned up back in the United States without anyone being the wiser. What was I paying all those people at border control for if the one person I needed information on could so easily waltz right past them?

I checked my phone again, but there were no updates. No good ones, anyway. Arkadi was still in the wind, despite having an entire search party out combing the area for him. He either truly was a ghost, or he was much smarter than I ever gave him credit for. Much more dangerous, too, even if I couldn’t make Emerson believe it. She was too innocent, too unaware of what people like Arkadi— people like me, for that matter— were capable of. And I meant to keep it that way at all costs.

It didn’t matter what Emerson believed, and right now, it didn’t matter if she hated me, as long as she was safe.

Except, I didn’t want her to hate me. I looked at the place where she’d stood in front of me only a few moments ago, the sound of the slamming door down the hall still reverberating in my ears. She didn’t want to talk to me or lay eyes on me, but I knew from experience that she didn’t usually eat anything until the end of the dinner shift, and right about now, she was probably ravenous.

Since none of us used the place much, I expected to have to place an order for delivery, but there were several frozen pizzas and various bags of chips in the kitchen. I’d seen her wolf down a pepperoni and mushroom during one of our movie nights, so I put one of those in and set the timer. Those movie nights seemed like they were months ago instead of just the other day.

Once the pizza was ready, I sliced it up and chose a couple different bags of chips, along with the one bottle of soda that was in the pantry. On the way to the room she shut herself up in, I threw caution to the wind and grabbed a bottle of wine from the bar. Hopefully, we could salvage the night and get back on good terms. At the very least, I hoped she wouldn’t starve herself to try to spite me.

The lengths I was going to for this woman should have been shocking, but it was second nature by now to want to take care of her. She was my woman, and I needed her to be happy. I wanted to feed her myself, if that’s what it took, then kiss away the crumbs from her lips.

God, I had the virus, didn’t I? I was well and truly down with it. And I didn’t even care.

Knocking on her door, I expected a stony silence, but she threw it open and gave me a death glare. Then her nose twitched, and she looked down at the pizza I held in one hand as effortlessly as our best server. The bags of chips were nestled under my other arm, the bottles held out in my free hand.

“Kitchen? Balcony? It’s a nice view at night. Or we could eat in here?”

She bristled, barring the door as if she’d bite my head off if I dared enter. She was stubborn, my gorgeous wife, but not stubborn enough to go hungry. Her stomach growled, and she smirked, following me out to the balcony. It really was a nice view, but nothing compared to Emerson tearing into that pizza.

I kept my distance, sitting across the round table from her and pouring myself a glass of soda before I offered to uncork the wine for her. She scowled at me and drank the soda.

“There’s no reason you shouldn’t relax and unwind,” I said. “I’m only abstaining in case I need to be on the move.”

She still refused, and we lapsed into a tense silence, the faint sounds of traffic far below wafting up to us now and then. The air was balmy and a bit humid despite there being no chance of rain. I pointed off into the distance to the dark expanse beyond all the lights of the city.

“Sometimes you can actually see the ocean when the smog isn't too thick,” I said.

She shrugged, and I didn’t blame her. Most days, the smog was almost always too thick to see half a mile away. It was better to let her be until she decided she was speaking to me. Until someone found Arkadi, I had all the time in the world.

Just then, my phone rang. Not a text, but an actual call, from Dima, who was heading up the search. I stood up to take it into the apartment, but Emerson gave me a withering look.

“Secrets, now?” she asked, putting her half-finished slice down.

Sitting back down, I picked up the slice and held it to her lips. “No secrets,” I told her. She took a bite and I answered the call, her eyes never leaving my face as Dima filled me in.

I nearly pumped my fist in the air, ending the call to tell her that Arkadi had been spotted on his way south and was being tailed right now. She seemed to relax, giving lie to her assertions that she wasn’t worried at all.

“I just want this to be over,” she said. It lay unspoken that she wanted the normalcy of her job, which seemed to be the most important thing to her. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be getting jealous of my own damn restaurant soon enough.

“I want it over, too,” I said, swearing under my breath.

I’d come here on a whim, feeling it was the safest place since so few people knew about it. I hadn’t alerted my security team and I didn’t even tell Dima where we were. I was coiled tight, ready to spring into action and itching to get my hands around Arkadi’s neck. It had to be me who taught him that the Fokins weren’t to be toyed with. Dima understood that, but accidents happened.

My own need for revenge wasn’t enough to get me to leave Emerson’s side, but while I trusted my brothers and my men, no one understood how important it was to get this asshole under control like I did.

“You’re clearly about to burst a blood vessel,” she said mildly, nodding down at my clenched hands. “Just go and beat the daylights out of him already so we can go home and get back to normal.”

I slowly uncurled my fists. “The apartment building has its own security, but it will take a little while to get some of my own guys over here.”

I sent messages to two guards who had been ordered to stay at the restaurant. The others had all been dispatched to help with the search, but now that Emerson and I were no longer at Khoroshiy, there was no reason to keep it so well fortified.

“Twenty minutes,” I told her. “You don’t need to be worried.”

“I’m not worried,” she replied in a feisty way that made me want to reach for her and drag her over the table and into my arms. “Hell, I kind of want to go with you and test out some of the punches you taught me. I’m so tired of this.”

I gave her a good, long look, noticing for the first time that she had deep, dark circles under her eyes. In fact, she looked utterly wrecked by all the stress that piece of shit was putting her through. Every second that passed, Arkadi was getting closer to being in the wind again.

“Go to bed,” I suggested. “There are cameras everywhere, and I’ll tell the building security to be on high alert. My guys will be here soon.”

I was surprised and pleased that she didn’t just take my suggestion; she gave me a hug before traipsing off to her chosen room. It would have been nice if she’d told me to be careful like my brothers’ wives always did before a mission, but she was exhausted and probably still slightly miffed at me and the whole situation.

Nothing was going to happen to me except maybe some scraped-up knuckles, but it was hard to walk out the door. I hung back, examining the state-of-the-art locks and even more high-tech camera systems. Something told me I should stay, but one of the guards who was en route messaged me, letting me know he was three minutes away.

Three minutes.

My wife wanted to go home. It was time to end things with Arkadi once and for all so I could make that happen.