Page 30 of The Enemy's Defector

She flinched at my question, and I regretted being so blunt.

“No. I’m fine.”

“The hell you are.” I urged her to sit. Fuck this distance and wariness. She was clueless how to act around me, and I was equally confused and bewildered. We had to talk and get over whatever was causing us not to communicate well and know we could be something like a team together.

She scowled at me as she slumped onto the couch. Her furrowed brow almost made her look more alive, more with it and not as vacant or nervous. But just barely.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I mean…” She huffed and hung her head. “I’m just tired and trying to think about the future and… It’s nothing, Nik.”

I wouldn’t call her a liar with that response. I was tired too. And considering the next step was a headache-worthy effort.

“Don’t tell me that it’s nothing. It’s something,” I said, trying not to sound overly combative. “And we’ll figure it out.”

She raised her piercing blue gaze to me, studying me. “Wewill figure it out?”

I nodded. “Yes. You and me.”

Just like it should be, dammit.

“Together,” I vowed, unsure how we’d be able to stick together past this rough spell.

13

KATERINA

Icouldn’t do anything but stare at Nik. After he said we’d handle thingstogether, I struggled to understand what he meant.

He sat next to me on the couch that I’d been sleeping on because I was so unsure about whether he’d want me near him while he recovered. This closeness was different compared to the aloofness and anger he’d exhibited over the last few days.

But I wasn’t sure how to interpret what he said now.

“We will figure this out,” he repeated.

Again, I had no clue what he really meant with those words.

The hopeless romantic that I was deep down inside had me clinging to this blossoming joy that he was implying he saw us as a couple. A partnership that would stick together no matter how challenging this situation was. That we had anusto count on.

But the skepticism that ran deeper inside me warned me not to think that brightly.

“You can’t leave,” he explained bluntly.

Aha. There it is.

He wasn’t proposing we’d be a team for the sake of wanting my company and expecting us to lean on each other.

Nope.

He was stating it. He was mandating my presence. It was an order, not altogether different from any occasion when my uncle bossed me around or told me how things would be. Nik’s claim was exactly the same as any of the Kozlov guards instructing me to do as they wished. Like Dmitri had.

Women had no power in our world. Among all the organized crime families, women were second. To be used and traded, arranged in marriage and bartered. In my uncle’s case, they were also supposed to be employed as spies.

Nik wasn’t offering me a chance to leave. He was commanding me to stay put with him.

“You and me,” I confirmed slowly, nodding and looking down at the tan carpet. “Because you can’t trust me to run off now, right? Because I’m the enemy and will tell someone where you are.”

“No. You?—”