“You won’t just shoot me like—”
Her words are cut off as Michail fires the gun. She crumples, her thin frame folding in on itself until she hits the floor. I guess he had nothing else to say to her.
I don’t give a shit about her. All I care about is him. But he looks calm, collected, his usual mask.
Adrian rounds on all of us. “Anyone have a problem with this?”
Of course, no one utters a word. I rush to Michail’s side and wrap myself around his middle. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did she do anything to you?”
His arms close around me just as hard, and I squeeze him back.
Kai shouts from across the room where there is a line of computers. “I’ve got this. You guys get out of here. It won’t take me very long.”
I stare around at these people. Michail’s family. They saved him; they saved us. Emmanuelle and his guys have already disappeared, and I didn’t even get to thank him.
I shift my focus to Adrian. “Thank you.”
He tilts his head, regarding me, and under the heavy weight of his gaze, I get the feeling he finds me lacking. “We saved you because you’re Kai’s sister and he asked me to. End of story. Also, Andrea will join your council.”
It’s not a question, but a command. Since I owe him my life, and Michail’s, I don’t argue…this time. “How did you guys get in here?”
A man I assume is Andrea’s brother, Alexei, sits in one of the council seats in the center of the floor, wiggling to test it out. “This is really uncomfortable. To answer your question, Emmanuelle set it up easily enough. He has connections everywhere, apparently.”
I guess I owe him more than I thought I did. But why the ruse of the engagement? My mind circles back to Andrea. Maybe he wanted to make her jealous and do whatever he had planned at the same time. Not that he and I ever did anything that would make someone jealous.
Adrian heads toward the door. “Let’s go.” He takes a step, stops, and turns back. “Grab that bitch on the floor. I want to send her back to her fucking friends.”
We follow Adrian out. The entire place is deserted and some part of me wants to burn the building to the ground to scrub out the taint Margery brought to it.
Adrian and his team climb into a black SUV, leaving Kai, me, and Michail with the other.
We sit in the car, all silently taking things in.
Michail breaks it, his voice pitched low. “I guess you got your council back.”
I stare at him, trying to figure out what he’s not saying. It hits me. No. Fucking no. I refuse to let him do this. I close the distance between us, grab his face, and tug him down to meet me. “Don’t you fucking dare pull that you’re better off without me crap right now, because I will knee you in the balls.”
Kai shifts nearby, and I throw him a look, still holding onto Michail’s face. “Can I help you?”
He narrows his eyes right back. “Oh, we are fucking talking about this at a later date. For now, I’ll give you two some privacy, so I don’t have to witness something that might scar me for life.”
I keep Michail’s face in my hands and press my forehead to his the entire drive to my house. Kai leaves immediately with a warning he’ll be back, and I heft Michail up to help him inside. He seems fine physically, but the drugs she gave him makes him unsteady on his feet.
When the front door closes, I focus on Michail again. “I’m not joking right now.”
“They came for me,” he whispers. When his knees give out and he hits the hardwood, I go down with him.
I hug him closer and shake my head. “It doesn’t matter now. I just wish I’d known. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He meets my eyes head on, nothing but him in there. No masks. No acts. A pure and shining connection I can feel through every inch of my body. “My trauma isn’t something I talk about. And it’s not your job to heal me. I’ve done all the healing I can do up to this point. The rest takes time. And a lot of bullets in pedophiles’ brains.”
While I want to know all of him, the darkness, and the light, he’s absolutely right. His trauma isn’t something he has to share with anyone, and I can respect that. “I would have shot her in the head at lunch that day if I’d known. How could you just sit there and pretend it didn’t affect you? Today even, too?”
A corner of his lips tilts up. “I’m very good at what I do.”
It’s my turn to smile, and I climb over the dress to straddle him in nothing but my underwear and heels. “And what do you do?”