Page 25

YULIAN

Brad came to the school.

Five words on my screen, and I’m running.

“Boss!” Maksim calls as I dive for the elevator, but I can’t spare him the attention. All my thoughts are for Mia, for Eli.

And for the mudak who calls himself his father.

Rage explodes in my chest. If he so much as touched them, they’ll never find all of him. I’ll scatter him like a goddamn jigsaw puzzle all across New York City.

Sixty seconds after Mia’s text, I’m in my car. I drive recklessly, running every red light in my path. Mia needs me. My family needs me.

I call Mia from the car. She answers by the second ring. “Yulian?—”

“Tell me where you are.”

“I’m sorry,” she croaks. She sounds so broken—so fucking exhausted. “I shouldn’t have texted. You were dealing with stuff, too. I?—”

“Mia, tell me where you are. If you won’t, I’ll call Nikita and make her tell me.”

A brittle exhale. “We’re driving home. We’re near Central Park.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

“No, we’re almost there! Really. I-I’ll see you at home, okay? Just wait for us there.”

I grip the wheel with all my strength. Waiting—it goes against every single one of my instincts.

But Mia’s asking, so I do it.

“Okay.”

I make a U-turn and go back to StarTech.

I don’t stop by the office on my way up. I can hear the chaos from inside, but I know Maksim’s got it handled. He’ll hold down the fort until I’m done dealing with this.

When I get to the penthouse, Mia is already there.

I take in the sight of her: eyes red, makeup smudged, hands shaking. She’s doing her best to hold it together, but she isn’t fooling me.

That motherfucker hurt her. Whether he touched her or not, he hurt her.

And he will fucking pay.

I close the distance between us in one swift stride. “Are you hurt?”

Mia shakes her head. “I’m fine. He—he didn’t touch me.”

“But he tried.”

She doesn’t need to confirm it. The look in her eyes is proof enough. “Nikita was there. She, um… defused the situation.”

So she beat him up. Good. I hope she broke something.

I tilt Mia’s chin up, inspect her face. Then I pick up her hands, one by one, and look over her arms and wrists.

No fresh bruises.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. But Mia’s still shaking like a leaf—that means he did something. “Tell me what happened.”

“It was nothing, really?—”

“Mia.” I catch her gaze and hold it. “Don’t lie to me.”

She exhales a shaky breath. Suddenly, her eyes fill with tears. “He… he wanted Eli.”

As if on cue, Eli emerges from the hallway. “Yulian!” He throws himself at me and hugs my knees. “I was so scared.”

I put one hand on his head and another around Mia’s shoulders, tucking them both against me. “It’s okay,” I tell Eli. “I’m here now.”

“Please, don’t leave again.”

I’m not sure if he means for work or for good. When Mia and I broke up, he must have thought I’d abandoned him, too.

“I won’t,” I promise. “I’ll stay right here.”

I lean down to ruffle his hair. Eli’s eyes blink back tears. Then they settle on my chest. “What happened to your shirt?”

Shit. “It’s nothing,” I reassure him. “I just got dirty at work.” Not a lie—technically.

But Mia isn’t fooled. “Oh my God,” she blurts, pulling me up to see. “That’s—Yulian, you’re?—”

“In need of a change of clothes.” I send her a pointed look, which she understands. Let’s not worry Eli. “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll take this little man to get ice cream,” Nikita offers. “You up for it, E-dog?”

“Can’t Mommy and Yulian come, too?”

“They have to get clean first.” She makes a silly motion like we’re both stinky, and Eli giggles. “Whatcha say we grab some pizza for dinner, too? And popcorn, and a movie?”

Finally, the temptation is too strong to resist. “Can I pick the movie?”

“Yes, but it can’t be Skyfall. ”

He purses his lips. “ Casino Royale ?”

“The one with Mads Mikkelsen?” Nikita pretends to swoon. “How can I ever say no?”

For the first time, I realize just how good she is with Eli. Or maybe she’s like this with all kids, who knows. In our line of work, families are a utopia. An impossible dream neither of us managed to make come true.

Until now.

Mia smiles down at Eli, wraps him up in his jacket, and kisses the top of his head. “Be good with Nik,” she says.

“Yes, Mommy.”

They file out while chatting about Bond villains. I spy something around Nikita’s neck—a macaroni necklace? Then I realize Mia had one, too, tucked into her shirt. Did Eli make them?

And did she put it away when Brad came, for fear he’d break it?

Anger pools low in my gut. Twenty years I’ve chased revenge against my family’s killers, thinking I’d never feel that kind of rage towards anybody else, but Bradley Baldwin is challenging that assumption with every breath he takes.

“Yulian.” Mia’s worried voice breaks into my thoughts. “Let me see.”

“It’s nothing.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” She flashes me a weak smile. “I’m a nurse, remember?”

Slowly, she unbuttons my jacket and pushes it off. I let it fall to the floor. Her delicate fingers inspect the gashes in my shirt, red with blood. Concern fills her face. “What did this?”

“Glass.”

“How?”

I consider lying. Telling her a window broke, that I was just unlucky.

But then I remember what lies did to us. They almost tore us apart.

So I tell her. About the shooting, my stunt to save Kazimir, Rurik’s death—everything.

While I speak, she sits me down at the counter and cuts off my shirt with a pair of scissors, carefully peeling it off.

Then she plucks a pair of tweezers from the first-aid kit, sterilizes them with alcohol, and starts picking debris out of my wounds.

She listens intently as she works, not interrupting me once.

When I’m done, she lets out a single, shaky breath. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have texted you earlier.”

“No, you were right to.”

She shakes her head. “It was handled. I just—I was so scared, I acted without thinking. But you were dealing with something much worse.”

“ Kotyonok. ” I tip up her chin, force her gaze to meet mine. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ll always come when you call, no matter what.”

Her eyes grow wet. “But what if I call one time too many? What if, one day, you realize I’m just a burden?”

“You’re not.” I take her face with both hands, stroking the tears away from her cheekbones. “You’re everything. And I’d rather lose a thousand soldiers than one of you.”

I kiss her without thinking. Not because I want her, but because I want her to know I’m here. That I’m not going anywhere.

It’s the briefest kiss in the world, but she’s breathless when we part. “I’ll, um… I’ll draw you a bath. To wash out your cuts. Then we’ll disinfect everything and wrap you up with gauze.”

“No stitches?”

“Not this time.” She gives me a sad smile, like she knows it’ll happen eventually. That, one day, she’ll have to patch up much worse than shallow cuts. “Go rinse off first. It’s safer that way.”

I rinse off quickly under the spray. Once I’m done, the tub is already filled.

And Mia is inside.

Naked. Hidden under the water, but barely. There’s no foam, no fancy soaps—just plain water and the reflection of her.

“Sit with your back to me,” she instructs, nurse-like. “That way, I can check if I missed anything.”

I don’t object. Might be better if she doesn’t see the raging hard-on I’m about to get.

I settle into the tub. Soon, I can feel her hands on me, dragging a washcloth across the planes of my back.

Discomfort twists my stomach. I’m not used to being taken care of. Showing someone my back, letting them touch me where I can’t see. Trusting they’ll help instead of stabbing me.

But Mia works slowly, confidently. Soon, I feel my body relax under her touch.

“Were you two close?” she asks softly. “You and Rurik?”

“Fuck, no. He was a nightmare.”

She whacks me lightly with the sponge. “You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead.”

“Why not? He spoke plenty ill of me when he was alive. Actually, the last thing he did was try to get me to step down.”

“Why?”

He thought I was going to get them all killed. That I was no longer fit to lead them. “Desya’s got them scared,” I tell her, swallowing my doubts. “He thought a change in leadership might make him stop.”

“And would it?” She drops the sponge and starts massaging the knots out of my shoulders. “Make him stop?”

“Not when it comes to us.” I flex my fist. “He’ll never stop. Not until there’s only one of us left standing.”

“Then you make sure it’s you.” She appears in my field of vision. I tilt my head to catch her burning blue gaze. “He’s already taken enough. Promise me, when the time comes, you won’t let him win.” She puts my hand on her belly. “We need you here. All of us.”

I feel the firm swell there. It’s showing now, its shape round and clear. Impossible to ignore. “All of you?”

“Yes,” she whispers. “Our baby needs you. Eli needs you. And I… I need you, too.”

I drag her to me and kiss her senseless.

She gasps into my mouth, breathless, drowning. Then she climbs into my lap.

It happens fast after that. We’re heated, worked up, desire burning through every inch of us. I slide my fingers into her and find her slick, wanting, waiting. When she starts stroking my cock, I can feel how hungry she is for this.

I grab her hips, pull them flush on mine, and thrust up into her.

Mia’s head jerks back. A gasp flies from her lips, hot and needy. “ Yulian .”

Her hands twist into my hair. I fuck up into her, hard and fast, and she meets me halfway. Soon, her hips are rolling in sync with mine.

It’s primal. It’s animalistic. It’s our bodies doing the talking for us, making promises we can’t keep. Forever —such a ridiculous concept.

But for once, I want it, too.

She shakes apart around me, but I don’t stop. I drive my cock in deeper, harder, faster, until she’s begging for it all over again. Riding me to death.

If this is death, it’s a sweet place to go.