She scoffs, turning her head back toward the ceiling.
"You know I'm turning twenty-five in three months."
"Oh God," I say in a playful, mocking voice. "Will you need a walker?"
She swats at me, and I catch her wrist, laughing as I pull her hand to my mouth and kiss her fingers.
"You're ridiculous," she says, but she's smiling.
I release her hand and glance at my watch.
"They'll be here in a few hours," I say.
Elena's smile fades, and she exhales slowly.
"I know."
I can hear the nerves in her voice, the uncertainty she's been carrying for days since I set this up.
"I still don't know what I'm going to say beyond what we talked about. It's not exactly easy to just walk into a room and say, Hey Mom, Dad, Sis, I never really died."
I push myself up, swinging my legs off the bed, and pull on my boxer briefs. I sit beside her on the edge of the mattress, leaning down to rub her cheek.
"It'll be weird at first, sure. But all of that will go out the window the second they see you. They have you back. That will be the only focus. Trust me. That's all I ever thought about."
She tilts her head, laying it against my hand.
"And you're sure it's really safe for them to be here?"
"Cornel Lupu went underground. No one has seen him in sixty days. And the Russians settled the twenty-five-million-dollar bounty with someone else. Maybe it was Lupu himself. Maybe it was a rival family. We don't know yet. But the immediate threat is gone. Plus, I have ten men escorting your family here. They'll stay inside the estate the entire time. It's safe."
Elena processes the information then nods and gets up.
I watch her stand.
"Hey," I say, my eyes tracking down her naked body. "If you stay like that, you're going to make me want you again.”
She stops, glancing over her shoulder.
"Something tells me you're not kidding."
I smile.
She shakes her head as she walks toward the bathroom.
"I'm sore. I need a break," she smirks and turns on the water. "Time to get ready anyhow."
"Let me know if you change your mind," I say.
"Okay, mister four or five kids," she says. "Crazy."
I laugh, and then my phone buzzes on the side table.
I grab it, glancing at the screen.
Victor.
I swipe to answer.