Page 71 of King of Malice
Ava takes Anna to put her to bed, and I meet with Jake Kincaid, head of their security, and now mine.
Jake leads me to a small room on the first floor of the building where three men sit with twenty screens in front of them. “I have workers who will watch the cameras twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I’ve added your number to the alert list. But in the case of most emergencies, you should just stay put. The Vendettis bombed this building and it didn’t move. In addition, I’ve turned the elevators into vaults. If we stop them, no one is getting in or out.”
I give a curt nod. “And the stairwells?”
He hands me a key card. “Reinforced steel, a bullet can’t puncture them, and a bomb won’t touch them. Locked tight.”
“Why don’t you and your family just live here?”
Jake gives a humorless chuckle, shaking his head. “We tried. Nearly killed each other. It turns out, we need a bit of space. Family that works together is hard enough. Living together too…” He leans closer. “Mason and Leo dented up one of the elevators so badly, I had to replace it. It’s when I came up with the idea to up the security in them.”
“I see. Thank you,” I respond with a nod.
“We keep the building for emergencies though, and you are welcome to stay for as long as you like.”
I’m not sure how I’m going to repay the Smiths and the Kincaids, but I know I’ll spend a lifetime trying.
By the time I make it back upstairs, Anna is sound asleep. I watch her for a moment, before I begin searching for Ava.
I find her curled under the covers of the king-sized bed, naked, her hair still damp from her shower.
I step into the bathroom, rinsing myself off too. Then, naked, I crawl into bed next to her.
She wakes as soon as my weight depresses the mattress and I’ve barely laid down, when she presses into my side. “You’re here.”
“I never left, milaya,” I murmur into her temple as I wrap my arms around her, pulling her on top of me.
“I know, but you weren’t in bed with me, and I just worried you’d decided this was all too much…” she tapers off, her lips finding mine.
The kiss is achingly sweet, and her mouth just makes me desperate for more. But I have this moment where I understand…this whole time, she’s been afraid I might reject her.
That I wouldn’t be willing to accept her fears, her limitations.
But it’s my past, my shit, that almost destroyed us both tonight.
“Ava,” I say against her mouth.
She picks up her head. Looking down at me. “What’s wrong?”
My jaw hardens as my hands splay out on her back. “You were nearly destroyed tonight and that was before you were nearly killed.”
She looks down at me in confusion. “But you saved me.”
“Maybe.” I look away then, pain pulling my mouth down into a frown.
“What do you mean, maybe….”
“Ava,” my throat fills with pain. “I’m the reason all that trouble happened. Without me?—”
“Without you, I’d still be locked inside a prison of my own making.”
I look back at her, knowing that I should argue. “Men tried to hunt you tonight.”
“That did suck,” she nods, her elbows coming to my chest as she props herself up. “But it was also a bit like facing my worst fear and living through it. I’m not seventeen anymore. I’m a grown woman who can rewire her neural pathways or whatever. And…”
She stops to draw in a deep breath, and I take that opportunity to shake my head. “Who told you about neural pathways?” I demand, my college studies feeling like some distant life. But before she can answer, I push the question aside. It doesn’t matter. “I’m at the beginning of a war, Ava. I hoped to end it tonight, but I should have known…it’s just beginning.”
“You’re going to need me, then,” she says simply.
