Chapter 110: Chapter Fifty-Five

Alice

I stayed up all night.

Nikolai had put him under once he was back in the apartment; the bullet in his shoulder had lodged itself really close to the bone, but Nik was able to pull it out.

The knife wounds were all stitched up by both Nikolai and Sergio, who informed me that he had studied to become a doctor but never finished school.

And one by one, the guys visited.

With their wives.

It was a strange thing, seeing all of them pull together after everything that had transpired in the last twenty-four hours.

The girls brought food and hung out in the living room like we hadn’t just been involved in a bloodbath, and the men stayed to make sure Andrei was alive.

Even Louis Sinacore, who I learned early in the night loved to play checkers, stayed to check up on his grandson.

Their new boss.

It was a lot to take in.

More than a lot.

My mind was reeling by breakfast.

A beautiful girl with cropped brown hair and pretty eyes showed up right when everyone was starting to eat. One of the guys I recognized from Nixon’s house was with her.

He was massive.

And looked like he was going to eat humans for breakfast instead of bacon.

She clung to his hand and then burst into tears when she saw Louis. He pulled her in for a hug and whispered something in Italian against her hair.

“He’s apologizing.” Chase took a bite of bacon and then another while Luc, his wife, came around him and laid her head on his shoulder.

Odd to imagine that twenty-four hours ago he’d punched me in the jaw.

“What’s he apologizing for?”

“I’ll introduce you,” Luc said with a wide smile. “Long story short, she’s a Sinacore as well.

“Vic.” I tried the name on my tongue. “Is Vic the scary one?”

She let out a snort. “Imagine him guarding Chase.”

“Guarding,” I repeated. “You?” I had a hard time believing that. “How does that work?”

Chase smirked. “Not well.”

“I imagine not.”

“So, one big happy family,” Chase muttered. “At least now the Sinacores can’t be pissed at Andrei. Wonder if Phoenix knew that all along?”

“Heard that,” Phoenix said from behind us. “And I only tell you what you need to know, so what do you think?”

“I think you’re Satan in sheep’s clothing,” Chase said cheerfully.

“It’s sheep, or a sheep,” I corrected.

Luciana burst out laughing. “She’s not scared of you; this is my favorite day.”

Chase glared daggers at his wife, then pulled her across his chest and pressed a kiss to her mouth. “Don’t make me punish you later.”

“I’d welcome it.”

“And that’s our exit…” Phoenix grabbed my arm and led me away from them. “Andrei’s awake.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Can I see him?”

Phoenix’s blue eyes narrowed briefly before he nodded. “He was asking for you, said he had to apologize.”

“For what?”

“He threw something at me after that, so I didn’t get the last part.” He grinned. He was less menacing when he smiled. “But he’s very… raw.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” I wondered out loud.

“He has to ask.”

“Ask?”

“You,” Phoenix said, not at all clarifying things. “Marriage means your blood becomes his, and vice versa, he needs to ask you.

“If he doesn’t ask you, if you guys don’t get married, then I’m going to have to send you away. At least then you won’t be looking over your shoulder waiting for someone to get you.

“You’ll have the seal of the families protecting you. You can do whatever you want, be whatever you want, we will obviously make sure you have money and—”

I gawked. He wasn’t serious… couldn’t be. But his expression said he was.

“No,” I whispered. “I won’t, I can’t… I’m not leaving him.”

Phoenix bit out a curse and leaned in. “Then make sure he asks.”

“You can’t make him?”

Phoenix burst out laughing. “Yeah, you’ll need a sense of humor if you stick around. That’s funny, forcing Andrei, both Petrov and Sinacore to do anything right…”

I swallowed the lump of misery in my throat.

Misery that he would send me away to protect me.

Only this time his conscience would be clean because he’d saved the day.

Because sometimes, the monster won.

I knocked on his bedroom door and then quietly pushed it open, clicking it shut behind me.

He was sitting up in bed. Gauze was wrapped around his right shoulder, his skin was tight across his abs, muscle after muscle peeked through.

It kind of left a person in awe.

His beauty was so distracting that I couldn’t seem to take him in all at once, like the way his messy hair looked like he’d been tugging it, or the nose ring that oozed sexiness.

His full mouth pulled back into a small smile.

I barely kept myself from running toward him, my own body was sore from getting whipped. Was I insane for not being angry that he was the one that dealt those blows to my skin?

“Are you just going to stare at me or are you going to come over here and kiss me?” His voice was hoarse like he’d been screaming all night.

I wondered if anyone told him that he did.

That he screamed over and over again until I finally covered my ears and rocked in the corner of the viewing room, weeping on his behalf, wishing I could take his pain.

“I’m going to kiss you, just tell me if I hurt you.” I crawled up on the bed and rested my head against his chest first. I needed to hear it, needed to make sure.

“What are you doing, dorogaya?”

“Listening.” My voice cracked.

His fingertips dug into my hair. “For what?”

“Your heartbeat.” Hot tears stung my eyes. “I just wanted to make sure this was real and you’re alive.”

He tilted my chin up toward him. “What did I tell you about wasting tears?”

They slid down my cheeks.

He rubbed them away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry.”

“I’ll cry if I want to cry.” I grit my teeth at his amused smile. “You could have died; you pointed a gun at your own head in order to save me. I have a lot to cry about.

“And I’ve been hydrating.” I don’t know why I was upset. Maybe because I knew what was coming and I was so tired of fighting him, so tired of him telling me what was best for me.

When what was best would snap my heart in half like a pretzel.

He swallowed, his own eyes getting glassy as he cupped my face with his hands. “It was the only way.”

“I would have never forgiven you.”

“And I would have never forgiven myself, for taking your life. I think it would have killed me.”

I pressed my cheek into his left hand. “You’re stronger than that.”

“No.” His eyes darted to my mouth. “I think I’m lacking all strength and self-control when it comes to you, because all I want to do is get you out of this club and send you to a nunnery.”

I gaped. “You wouldn’t.”

His lips curled into an amused grin. “You clearly don’t realize how fucking selfish I am.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“It means you don’t need to go grab your rosary.”

“Because I have one of those… in my go bag.” I leveled him with a glare.

His chuckle was low, sexy.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and lay against him. “Am I hurting you?”

“Immensely.”

I jerked away, but he held me against him so tight I could barely move. “I don’t want to lay here and let my stitches heal, I don’t want to touch you and not taste you, so yes this is hurting me.

“Close, real close, more like your own torturing.” I shuddered. “Phoenix said something…”

He stilled. “What did Phoenix say?”

I was almost embarrassed. “That depends.”

“Don’t lose your nerve now, dorogaya.”

I smiled at his name for me, pulled away enough to look up into his crystal blue eyes. “I’m going to need you to keep me.”

He pressed his lips together and then our foreheads touched as he drew a finger down my jaw. “Is that what this is about?

“Yes.” My voice broke.

“You’re right. I don’t have to.” He was breaking my heart as he kissed my mouth softly. “I fucking want to.”

His mouth was hot.

He kissed me harder, his tongue struck slow and precise as his mouth molded against mine so effortlessly, I melted against him.

And then he said something in Russian. It sounded like he was speaking in tongues, it was the same thing he’d said to me our night together.

Only this time, when he was done, he held up something between us.

It was a ring with three bands interconnected and wrapped together like ivy, on each band was a small diamond. It looked like rose gold. I was too stunned to say anything.

“In Russia, the tradition…” He grabbed my right hand. “…is to put it on this hand.

“I would buy you something bigger, something that would scar Chase’s face if you decided to punch him, but it wasn’t you.

“It wasn’t us.” He slid the ring onto my right third finger as tears splashed from my face onto our joined hands. “I’m keeping you, dorogaya, and I am never letting you go.

“That’s the thing, Andrei. You deserve everything. You just feel too guilty to take it.

“I came in here willing to seduce you to the best of my ability and use everything in my arsenal so you wouldn’t send me away.” I wiped my tears. “Because the thing is, I want to keep you too.

“Even though you called me a number, even though I think we may fight as much as we make love. I want to keep you because your darkness is what makes your light so incredible.

“I just want this.” I touched his chest. “So bad.”

“And I…” He pressed a kiss to my mouth again. “Want this.” His hands grazed the front of my shirt.

And then suddenly the shirt was off my body and his left hand was roaming across my skin.

I laughed. “You’re injured.”

“I’m Russian, I’ll be fine.”

“Italian too,” I pointed out.

He stiffened, and then we both looked down at his hand, where the tattoo was cut, where his past connected to his future. “I didn’t even want to be boss to one family.”

“And now you have two,” I pointed out. “It’s like having twins.”

His head jerked up, his eyes wide. “Twins.”

“Andrei?”

“Twins,” he repeated again as if I’d just announced I was pregnant.

And then he crushed his mouth against mine like the word twin was his new code word for get naked.

“Andrei.”

He kissed me harder so I couldn’t talk, had to breathe his air as one-handed he tugged my jeans open and slid his fingertips inside.

“Okay… as impressive, mmph…” He deepened the kiss. “That is…” Damn the man knew how to work his fingers. “Maybe just a few more… seconds…”

“Open for me.” He licked my lower lip, and then I was straddling his hurt body like the most selfish person on the planet as he teased me. “This is mine, all of this.”

I bucked against his hand. “Y-yes.”

“All of you.” He spoke in Russian again. I whimpered my release as my mouth crashed against his in a kiss that felt just as good as what he’d just done.

“Marry me, dorogaya… marry me tomorrow.”

“I’ll marry you right now.” I moaned, digging my hands into his hair, careful not to hit any bandaged or stitched part of him.

“Yes.” He moaned my name. “Yes.”

A knock sounded on the door.

We both froze.

Andrei’s eyes narrowed as the doorknob turned. “I’m killing whoever’s on the other side of that door.”

Naturally, it was Phoenix.

“Typically you wait for the person to respond after you knock.” Andrei bit back a curse and kept me close to him. “What do you need?”

“You’re injured, take it easy.” Phoenix sighed. “And I thought I’d give you an early wedding present.”

He dropped two black folders down on the mattress.

“Wait? I glared at Phoenix. “You said—”

Phoenix burst out laughing. “I was the one who brought the ring to him. I just thought he deserved to be seduced a bit after last night.”

Andrei started to shake.

“What? I was ready to check every bandage. What’s wrong?”

“You found them,” he whispered. “They’re alive?”

“Who? I looked between them.

“The twins. My brother and sister. They’re… alive.”