Maksim tightened his grip slightly on the steering wheel.This wasn’t like him.Dimitri had said it plainly, and he was right.Still, he couldn’t deny that something about her was different.Special.
He exhaled sharply, cutting the thought off before it could take shape.It didn’t matter.Hell, it shouldn’t matter, but it did, and that was the problem.
He pulled up to the safehouse, the engine cutting off with a quiet hum.For a moment, he stayed there, thinking of his next move.Nothing came to mind, no clean solution.Only the same truth circling back, over and over again.
Ending Lena was the easiest option.The correct one, and yet, it was the last thing on his mind.
Maksim stepped out of the car and headed inside, the weight of the decision following him in like a shadow he couldn’t shake.
Chapter Six
Lena noticed the subtlechange in Maksim the moment he returned from meeting his brothers.He wasn’t louder or crueler.If anything, he became quieter, more controlled, like something violent had been locked behind his ribs and chained there by force.
The apartment felt tighter and charged because of it.Maksim barely spoke as he entered the safehouse, shrugging off his coat and setting his gun on the kitchen counter with deliberate precision.His jaw was tense, shoulders rigid beneath the dark fabric of his shirt.
Lena watched from the couch carefully.
“What happened?”she asked.
“Nothing.”
The lie was obvious, and she almost laughed at how bad it was.
He poured himself vodka without another word.The liquid caught the dim kitchen light as he leaned against the counter, drinking in silence.There was also fresh blood on his knuckles.Did he fight his brothers?Beat up some poor bastard who got in his way?
With nothing to do, Lena started noticing everything about him lately, which felt dangerous in ways she didn’t want to examine too closely.
By now, she knew the sound of his footsteps, even the way his voice lowered when he was angry.Hell, the apartment somehow felt less suffocating when he was inside it.
That last realization disturbed her most of all, because this place should have felt like a prison no matter what.Instead, she was beginning to measure safety by whether Maksim was near.That was deeply wrong.
He disappeared into the bathroom briefly.When he returned, he had changed into a black t-shirt that stretched across his shoulders and arms.
Lena looked away too slowly.Maksim twitched his mouth faintly, like he noticed.Annoyingly, that made heat creep into her face.
“You keep staring at me,” he said.