Page 38 of The Enemy's Defector
“When I was captive, I could listen in and wait for intel. That’s why I didn’t call my brothers to get me out.”
She smirked. “Wait. Are youmadthat I broke in to free you, then?”
“Not mad, exactly.” But it did prevent me from being in an ideal place to pick up information, among the enemy.
“Because it was my only chance to do it. After Anton came home and learned that I’d refused to marry and also killed Dmitri, I couldn’t have stuck around to find you later.”
I nodded, understanding that and hating that she was a wanted woman. I could keep her safe with me. I would die protecting her, but she hadn’t commented on anything past the present.
“Where did you plan to go?” I asked, needing to have her input about this. She was a wild card at the moment, but that wouldn’t be a permanent status. Not after she’d surrendered to me and matched my passion so perfectly.
“I’m… I don’t know. I wanted to hide for a while and have more time to think about my next steps. I have to get a hold of Joann and make sure she and Malcolm are safe too. I setthem up at safehouses with loose agreements to get a hold of them later. And I do need to find out what happened to Lucy. I feel terrible about it. I mean, I don’t. If I went there, I never could’ve had”—she gestured between us—“this, with you.” She swallowed hard and broke eye contact again. Seeing this woman nervous wasn’t right. Katerina was a badass and bold, if quiet and observant first. With me, though, she’d never hesitated to be assertive and look at me head-on.
What I noticed was her lack of suggesting that we stay together. I had been the one to initiate it all. I was the one who vowed over and over again how badly I wanted her and needed her. I showed her too. Sure, she replied in kind, an eager and insatiable lover, but I worried that she still planned to part from me.
She’d mentioned it. She had suggested that she part ways with me for the sake of safety.
“I need more time to think about my future,” she said softly. “But don’t let that hold you back.”
I scowled. “What? What the hell does that mean?”
“I mean that you have a family to lean on. You have a home to go to. And you have your mission to handle, this investigation into who ordered your capture.” She glanced at me. “So lean on them and have the support you need to accomplish your mission.”
“And what?” I scoffed. “Let you just leave and run off?”
Her only reaction was to press her lips tightly together and stare at her screen.
It hadn’t escaped my notice how she didn’t assume that she’d be included in my mission or my plans. Obviously, we faced many challenges in these circumstances. We were supposed to be untouchable to each other, yet we disregarded that by coming together every time I slid into her and she embraced me as wefucked. Each time we kissed and touched, we defied the order that should’ve made us never consider companionship.
But it was far too late for that.
Is it enough, though?
Our friendship stayed strong all these years. No matter how awful Anton was, she never obeyed him and turned against my family.
Now that we had added intimacy into the mix, now that we had addressed and bowed to the desire that linked us together, would that be enough to keep us together?
After a lifetime of distance and lines staked between us, could we ever really convince the rest of the world that we belonged together?
Fuck the world.I had to focus on convincing my family that Katerina belonged with me.
It seemed like such a tall order when I needed to be focused on finding the responsible party for ordering those contractors to take me. For locating the culprit who’d hired them to poison my father.
This wasn’t the time to worry about keeping this strong, smart woman with me. To make her mine. Romance had to wait.
Still, as she continued to snoop and check on surveillance feeds at both my family’s building and the Kozlov mansion, I had to wonder if there was any chance of our surviving this storm together. When betrayals and death followed us at every turn, it seemed foolhardy to assume we could overcome it all on our own.
17
KATERINA
Nik didn’t seem to like it when I suggested thathehad a family but I didn’t.
Technically, that wasn’t true. I did have a family, or I was well along in the process of starting one. If Nik didn’t want to invite me into his life and offer to have me be a part of his family and the Ivanov Syndicate, then I would be a single mother to this wonderful baby boy or girl.
Because of my uncle, it had always seemed impossible to think that Nik and I could be together. But I had distanced myself from Anton. I cut ties with my father’s killer. I would no longer identify myself as a Kozlov.
I was justme.
