I pull my arm free, taking a step back. Part of me wants to laugh at the irony. Pavel, hiding from the Bratva in Witness Protection, is warning me about the very men I've been hiding from. The universe just keeps piling it on.
"I appreciate your concern," I say carefully. "But I know exactly who I'm dealing with."
His eyes widen. "You know? And you're still here?"
"It's complicated."
"Complicated?" His voice rises, and I see him catch himself, glancing back at the cabin. "Maya, there's no such thing as complicated with men like that. There's only alive or dead. And if you stay here, if you keep letting them into your life, you're choosing dead."
The words should terrify me. Maybe they would have, a few weeks ago. But now, knowing what I know, loving who I love, they just make me tired. I'm still scared, of course, but now I'm just too exhausted to put much care into it.
"Thank you for the warning," I say, my voice firm. "But I need you to mind your own business, Pavel. Whatever you think you know, whatever you think you remember, keep it to yourself."
"I'm trying to help you."
"Then help by staying out of it." I turn back toward the cabin, then pause. "And Pavel? If you value your life, you'll forget you ever saw them. Forget their faces. Forget this conversation. Just forget."
I don't wait for his response, just trudge back through the snow. My legs are shaking by the time I reach the porch, and not from the cold.
Sasha opens the door before I can reach for the handle. His eyes search my face, reading things I don't want him to see. "What did he want?"
"To warn me about you." The truth slips out before I can stop it. "About both of you."
Danil appears behind Sasha, his expression darkening. "What did he say?"
"That you're dangerous. That I should run." I peel off my coat, my fingers numb. "I told him to mind his own business."
Sasha's hand finds the small of my back, warm through my sweater.
"He recognized us," Danil says. It's not a question.
"He used to be an accountant. For a Bratva family in New York." I move toward the kitchen, needing something to do with my hands. "He's in Witness Protection."
The temperature in the cabin drops about twenty degrees. Sasha and Danil exchange a look, some silent communication passing between them that I can't read.
"An accountant," Danil repeats slowly. "Which family?"
"He didn't say." I pull out ingredients for dinner, anything to avoid looking at them. "But he testified. Put people in prison."
"Fuck." Sasha runs a hand through his hair. "That's why he's been watching you so closely. He's paranoid, sees threats everywhere."
"Can you blame him?" I start chopping vegetables with more force than necessary. "He betrayed the Bratva. That's not exactly something you recover from."
Another knock at the door makes us all freeze. Sasha's hand moves to his waistband again, that automatic reach for a weapon that isn't there. Danil pulls his gun, holding it low against his thigh.
I move to the window and peer out. "It's Pavel. Again."
"What the hell does he want now?" Sasha's voice is hard, dangerous.
I open the door, and Pavel stands there looking miserable and determined in equal measure. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. But I was hoping…" He trails off, his eyes moving past me to where Sasha and Danil stand like twin walls of muscle and menace. "I was hoping you'd invite me to dinner. To apologize properly."
The request is so unexpected that I almost laugh. "Dinner?"
"Please." His pale eyes are pleading behind his glasses. "I don't want things to be weird between us. You're my only friend out here, Maya. I don't want to lose that."
I should say no. I should send him away, lock the door, and pretend this conversation never happened. But something in his expression, the loneliness I recognize because I've felt it myself, makes me hesitate.
"Sure," I say before I can think better of it.