“I’m the man who loves you. The one who will keep you safe, even from yourself, even when you don’t want me to.”
Then I kissed her again; I couldn’t help myself. Her tears slid down her cheeks and between our lips. Salt and copper mixed as I slipped my tongue into her mouth, and she whimpered. When she swayed into me, her strength wasted, her fight out of juice, I moved back. She watched me carefully, her brilliant eyes ringed with wet, spiky lashes.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, little stray... I want to say I would do it differently, but honestly, I don’t think I would. I don’t think that there is anything I wouldn’t do to keep you.” I tucked her hair back behind her ears and cupped her face again. “I’d kill for you. I’d die for you. Everything else is just details.”
She let out a long sigh. “You’re an absolute maniac.”
“Oh, he knows,” Vittorio said, standing and watching us with a grin.
A small hand tugged at my pants, and I looked down. Tatiana smiled up at me.
“Knock, knock,” she said.
“Who’s there?”
“Carrie,” she murmured.
I crouched before her. “Carrie who?”
“Carrie me home, I’m scared.”
“Oh, sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. You’re safe now,” Vittorio said comfortingly.
He was a man suited to comfort. I wasn’t. I never had been, with my bloodstained hands and black soul. Yet, it was me who Tatiana pressed her little body against. I opened my arms, and she stepped into my embrace. Something fragile and too big to hold stirred in my chest. I caught Katarina’s eye. She watched me carefully, her thoughts hidden from me. Fuck, I’d missed her. I never wanted tobe apart from her again. I wanted a big house ringing with the sound of her laughter. I wanted to fill it with little baby girls who looked just like her to light up the world, and keep safe and cherish.
I straightened up slowly, and Tatiana went to Vittorio.
“Take them out to the townhouse. Wait for me and Elio there. We’ll wait for Sergei to get home.”
“No,” Katarina’s voice struck out.
“No?” I repeated, and turned to arch an eyebrow at her.
“I said no,” she stated, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Not happening.”
Before I could argue, she poked a finger into my chest. “If you’re about to come up with some bullshit about keeping me safe and in the dark—I told you no. Sergei is my father. This is my business. I’m staying. You won’t tell me what to do. You won’t control me or make my decisions for me.”
I stared at her, my need to keep her safe warring with my gut-deep knowledge that she needed this. She needed me to show her I could listen. I could understand her. Despite every tactical instinct I had in me screaming at me to refuse, I nodded.
“Very well. Vittorio, take Tatiana out of here. Elio, Katarina, and I will finish this.”
“Oh, you’ve got it bad,” Elio murmured in my ear with amusement. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
“Shut it,” I said to him, taking Katarina’s hand in mine.
“While I hate to interrupt you getting put in your place, Sergei is home.”
“Finally,” I said, anticipation roaring through my veins.
Katarina glanced around, clearly wondering whom I was speaking to.
I grinned at her. “Today, I’m the one with the voices in my head. Let’s go, little stray. Time to introduce me to Daddy Dearest.”
42
KATARINA
We went in through the back door.