Page 43 of Unrequited

Did anyone see what you did?

I look at her.

She looks back. Doesn’t blink. Doesn’t beg.

I crouch in front of her, thumb brushing a streak of blood from her cheek. Soft. Reverent.

I lift the phone to my mouth.

“No,” I say, my voice broken. “None.”

Then I hang up.

Every man who came to take down the Kopolovs died by my hand.

No, this was about loyalty. About betrayal. Those men crossed me. They tried to usurp me, to take what was mine. And the McCarthy clan,my clan, belongs tome. I made sure they would never forget that, even if they had to die to learn it.

I turn back to look at Zoya.

The fury I feel—nothing compared to the times I wanted to scold her for putting herself in danger. This is deeper.

She dared to come back here when I told her to stay away. She defied me.

But here she is. Wide blue eyes. Heart-shaped lips.

I’m shaking with the effort of holding myself back.

I don’t trust myself not to hurt her this time.

“Go home, Zoya.”

Thursday night.I made it.

By the skin of my fucking teeth.

And here she is. Walking in like she owns the place, like she’s got every right to.

She slides into the seat across from me and says, “I want you to tell me everything.”

“Excuse me?” I say, my voice like ice. She’s trying to be all tough, but she has no fucking idea who she’s talking to.

“I want to know why you were here that night. Why you told me to stay away and then sent me home.”

She won’t look at me, though, but looks away.

“I saw the message on your phone,” she whispers. “I’m not saying anything else here. Not in public. I want to go to your place. I want to talk there.”

She breaks a little. Cracks open. “Please,” she says.

I’m already on fire. But that does it. That fuckingdoes it.

I want her back at my apartment too—flat, bed, table, I don’t care. I want her over my knee because I’m going to punish her. She doesn’t get to risk herself like that and think there are no consequences.

“You don’t disobey me when it’s for your own goddamn safety. Do you understand me?” I growl, low and furious.

I want to grab her by those narrow shoulders and shake her until the truth rattles out of her mouth.

She just nods. Sniffs. Then nods again.