Page 13 of White Rabbit
Pulling back, I swallowed hard.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Anything, my Brecklyn.”
My breath caught at the sound of my name on his lips. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it, still this time hit my in the chest then arrowed right into parts of me that shouldn’t be noticing him yet.
“What’s…” My voice cracked like crispy cellophane wrap, and he brought the straw back to my lips. I took another sip then tried to speak again. “What’s your…name?”
A look of wonder brightened his eyes, and I wondered if that was an uncommon question. Was he famous? Should I know him?
“Valariy,” he said. “Valariy Kloboucnik.”
“Valariy,” I repeated, trying it out on my lips and watching the way his eyes grew feral and his nostrils flared when I spoke. It should have frightened me, but it didn’t.
“Yes,” he rasped.
“I… Who are you?”
“I am yours. And you are mine. That is all that is important now.”
My brow furrowed at his frustrating answer. Butwho wasValariy Kloboucnik? His reply told me nothing.
“You’re mine?”
“Yes.”
“And I’m yours?”
“Yes.” This second affirmative held a note of challenge, but now wasn’t the time I wanted to challenge him. I had other worries in mind. One particular problem.
“How? I was with—”
“He’s nothing,” Valariy bit out, interrupting me. “And he willnevertouch you again.”
“Oh…” I breathed. I pressed my lips together. I hadn’t meant to say that. “How?”
Valariy smiled grimly, this curl of lips more easy for him. Gently, he brushed the hair back from my forehead. “How does not matter right now. It is a story for another day. Perhaps when you have not had such a trying day. You should rest.”
“I just woke—” Betraying me, a wide yawn interrupted.
“You should rest,Moya kokhána,” he repeated. “It’s late. Tomorrow, we will talk.”
“Don’t leave me,” I gasped out. I grabbed for his hand that was thankfully only inches from mine.
“Shh,” he soothed, brushing back my hair again. “You are safe. I am not leaving, but even if I were not here, you have guards. Your safety is my priority.”
My tongue damped my lips and I took a calming breath while I strengthened myself to ask for what I really wanted. “Take me from here,” I begged. “Hide me away where he can never find me. Don’t let him hurt me again.”
Valariy seemed to turn to stone, murder in his eyes. “You are safe. And he is dead.”
Chapter 10
Brecklyn
You are safe. And he is dead.
I was afraid to ask what that meant. But fifteen minutes after my request, I was in a black SUV with dark tinted windows, wrapped in a warm blanket and held tight in Valariy’s arms. One of his men drove and the other took shotgun—though I wondered if shotgun was literal in this case as he continually scanned the area.
