“I was wrong about you.”
My eyebrows rose. “Wow. That must have been difficult to admit.”
Behind us Kyrill choked on a laugh but Sasha ignored him.
“I thought I could shield you,” he said slowly, eyes on mine. “But I should have realized I can’t always do that. And…”
I raised my eyebrows. “And?”
“And I’m so proud of you,” he said slowly, “for putting the pieces together like only you can. I wouldn’t have believed this could have been solved without more violence.”
A shiver raced down my spine, not from the cold, but from the shock of being truly seen despite all the craziness around us.
My chest constricted, my stomach fluttered and, for a moment, my hands clenched into fists. Not out of anger, but because something inside me was trying to comprehend the sense of pride, validation and awe washing over me.
The air between us felt heavier, charged as if it had finally been acknowledged I had actually accomplished something and survived. My lips twitched into a half-smile I couldn’t quite hold back, and I swallowed against the lump stubbornly lodged in my throat.
“I mean … I did shoot someone in the balls earlier,” I said, letting humor ground me even as my pulse still screamed from the adrenaline.
Kyrill lost the fight and burst out laughing, while Rafael muttered something about crazy women under his breath.
Sasha only had eyes for me, though. “You really are something else.”
I smiled. “I know.”
He stepped closer, moving with certainty and deliberation as he effortlessly drew me into his embrace, causing my knees to buckle. Lifting his hand, he brushed a stray strand of hair behind my ear, and his touch hit deeper than any words ever could.
I felt the world narrow as the chaos of the warehouse and my fear faded away.
Surrendering to the moment, I leaned against his chest and felt something violently alive inside me stir. A reminder that yes, I had survived; yes, I had done it my way — and yes, he saw it.
Behind us Kyrill muttered to Rafael, “He’s never going to recover from this.”
“Probably not,” Rafael agreed, shaking his head.
Chapter 39
Sasha
Bythetimewereached the SUV, the sky was painted in faint tones of orange and pink of the sunset, the metallic scent of blood and gunpowder still clung faintly to everything.
I didn’t let go of her.
Not once.
Not when we stepped over cracked asphalt, not when one of my men opened the rear door without being asked, and not when I pushed her against the side of the car, caging her in.
“Fuck, baby. I thought I might lose you,” I murmured, the words lower now, roughened by everything I hadn’t said inside.
Addy’s expression softened immediately, her fingers idly playing with my necklace.
“I’m sorry.”
“This will never fucking happen again,” I said, sliding my hand from the back of her neck to her jaw and brushing my thumb lightly along her skin. Not just to reassure myself she was real, but to express everything I didn’t have the words for. “I can’t make this world safe for you, Addy. I can’t protect you from everything, but I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re never put in that kind of situation again.”
Logic screamed that none of this was her fault. But the moments she’d been at someone else’s mercy had shredded my composure into jagged fragments I barely managed to keep together.
Addy opened her mouth but then seemed to think better of it. “Okay. I kind of really hope so too, because I really don’t want to shoot anyone else in the balls.”