Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Ryker
After we eat, I tuck Sasha into bed and return to my office.
Crafting an email to my lawyer, I start asking big questions. How can I transfer the casino that Katarina sold me to Sasha?
I’m not giving it back to Katarina. She entered into a knowing bargain, one that she agreed to at her sister’s expense.
But Sasha? She’s been a hapless victim in this entire affair, and I will not participate in victimizing her any longer.
I should never have done it in the first place. It fills me with… I push the feelings of shame away.
She was right. Love is a choice. I don’t know how I want to change my relationships with my brothers. But I’m clear on where Sasha fits into my life.
She is my future. My purpose.
And protecting her, not just now, not just from her father, but in life, that is my job. Which is why she’s about to own two casinos.
I’ll help her however she needs. Hell, I’ve been trained my entire life to be an instrumental support to a multimillion-dollar business.
But even if she were to cut me loose… My chest aches at the idea of it.
If she did, though, I’d still help her. Because, for the first time in my life, I have let someone all the way in and it’s going to change me forever.
I don’t know how or why it happened. But I know that Sasha, with her petite little frame, and her big eyes, and her giant heart, has turned me into hers.
I’m in love with her.
That is absolutely clear. In fact, I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.
But in loving her, I’ve realized something really important. My life is hers. My job is to circle around her with both protection and support. She is the center.
Finishing the email, I open the books that sit on my desk.
The books need to be balanced for the Palace. It’s a job that I usually leave to the accountants, but I’ve hired a new man, and I just like to double check his work. But an hour in, my eyes are crossing.
So leaving the book open on the desk, I get up and head out of the office, making my way into the bedroom.
It’s now filled with Sasha’s scent, and I relax as I breathe her in, tugging off my shirt, and sliding into the bed behind my wife.
She’s asleep, but she wakes just enough to snuggle deep into the curve of my body. “I missed you.”
I kiss her shoulder, holding her tight. “I missed you too, love.” Threading my fingers through hers, I lay my head down and bury my nose in her hair.
She’s so soft tucked against me that I relax too, my eyes closing, and I instantly drift off.
But I don’t think I’ve been asleep for five minutes when my phone sounds in the room.
As a general rule, it’s in sleep mode at night, but certain numbers are exempt.
I bolt up, snatching the phone off the nightstand. “Hello?”
“Code red,” a male voice barks into the phone. “We’ve had a break-in.”
“Where?” I snarl back. “How?”
“Back stairwell,” the guard answers, “and I don’t know how.”
“What’s wrong?” Sasha asks, her hand coming to my bare chest.
But I don’t have time to answer. Instead, I roll off the side of the bed. “In the closet, love.”
“What?” she asks, pushing up on her knees, my T-shirt skimming her thighs. I love that she’s sleeping in my clothes. Love how soft she looks with her tousled hair and sleepy eyes. But now is not the time for love.
“In the closet, Sasha. Now.” And then I grab her hand and pull.
She comes. The moment her feet hit the floor, I start pushing her toward the closet even as I open my nightstand drawer, pulling out the lockbox with my pistol.
I press my finger to the fingerprint ID pad, the box opening. “What’s wrong?” Sasha asks as she stops in the doorway of the closet.
“Nothing I can’t handle, baby. In the closet, but don’t close the door. Next to it is a bat. You know how to swing?”
“Yeah,” she answers, her frightened eyes still on me.
I can’t stay. But I want to hold her. Kiss her. Tell her that I’d lay my life down for hers. Instead, I turn off the safety on my pistol and make my way to the hall.
I’m in nothing but boxer briefs. My bare feet make it easier to creep across the floor, and the lack of clothing gives me freedom of movement as I hide against the wall, peeking into the kitchen.
I do as Killian taught me, choosing the darkest shadows and keeping my eyelids low as I peak around the corner and into the kitchen.
The stairwell is our weakest point.
The locks should hold, but then again, if that were true, someone would not have made it into the stairwell to begin with.
I don’t see anything or anyone, so I crouch down, making my way to the door. There is a plate glass door at the very top of the door, added recently because I wanted to be able to see into the stairway. Most of the time, it’s fogged. But when the building goes into lockdown, the glass goes clear.
But as I slowly stand to check the stairs, another face appears on the other side of the glass. Sver.
I’d recognize his piercing green eyes anywhere.
I snarl, locking eyes with the fucker. “You.”
He stares back, his eyes ice cold. “I want Sasha.”
“Over my dead body.” The glass is bulletproof, as is the door, but energy still runs down my arm to the pistol in my hand.
“That can be arranged,” he answers and then reaches for the lever.
The door starts to open, and I push it back closed, giving a snarling roar as I press my weight against it.
I don’t know how he bypassed the locks, but to get into this apartment, he’s got to outmuscle me and that isn’t happening.
The door slams shut again. I feel him push, but I don’t budge. “The guards are seconds from charging the stairwell,” I say as I hold firm. “You can’t shoot your way in, and like I said, I’ll die holding this door before I let you touch one hair on her head.”
Just like that, he stops pushing. “Not even one?”
What kind of fucked up shit is he talking about? I’m not being fooled into taking my weight off the door. “There isn’t anything I won’t do to keep her safe. You remember that, motherfucker.” I keep my eyes locked with his. I want him to hear me and know.
I’m not saying he can’t kill me. Maybe he can.
But I won’t go easily or quietly.
“Where is Katarina?” he spits the question.
That one catches me off guard. How does he know that I would know? Does he know?
But that’s when I hear another door open in the stairwell. “How the fuck—” I ask, my teeth baring as our gazes remained locked in battle.
“Liar,” Sver snarls, slamming the door with his fist. “I see it in your eyes. Tell me where you’ve hidden Katarina.”
That’s when I catch Killian out of the corner of my eyes. He’s moving with silent stealth up the stairs, gaining ground on Sver. I smile, knowing that Sver is about to meet his match.
But Sver sees him and, in a move I did not expect, jumps over the rail in a single swoop of fluid muscle.
He lands on the opposite side, a floor down, where he swings himself over the rail again and starts vaulting down the stairs.
Killian takes after him, breaking into a run. Slamming open the door, I follow.
I hear the guards flood the stairwell from the garage and I roar out a victory howl, knowing that we’ve trapped him.
“Fuck,” Killian yells, as the thumping of flesh hitting concrete echoes up the stairs. I round the next bend to see several guards splayed out on the floor, just as the door to the parking garage slams shut again.
Killian sprints after Sver, but when he gets to the door, it’s locked.
“Open it!” he roars, slamming his hand on the metal.
How Sver managed to lock them again, I have no fucking clue, and I don’t have a second to figure it out before the lock buzzes open.
We surge forward, Killian and I spilling out into the parking garage, but it’s empty.
The guards fan out, checking every nook and cranny, but I already know the truth. Sver is gone.
I cross my arms over my bare chest, my feet spread wide as I stand in front of the stairwell door.
No one is getting up these stairs without pushing through me. I ignore the coolness of the night air and the cold concrete beneath my feet.
And I don’t give a shit about being next to naked. I already know I won’t sleep tonight. Sasha is in danger. I’ll stand here for as long as it takes to make certain she’s safe.
Killian approaches, his face hidden in the shadows.
I’ve never seen a man who can mask his features whenever he chooses the way Killian can.
But he does so now, his long black jacket flapping behind him as he moves. “We need to talk.”
I grimace at my brother. Now is the time for vigilance, not information.
But he doesn’t stop, approaching until his face is only a few inches from mine. “What the fuck, Killian, I’m trying to keep watch.”
“He’s not coming back tonight. He knows we’ll be on high alert.”
Killian is right and my shoulders relax the slightest bit. “He got so close to Sasha. For the second time.” I run a frustrated hand through my hair.
Killian’s face remains expressionless. This used to be how Killian looked all the time. Distant. Cold.
Since Chloe, he’s warmed tremendously. I’d forgotten just how much until now. “You’re worried about her?”
“She’s my wife,” I growl back.
His face doesn’t change. “I remember what it feels like to be untethered.”
“Untethered?” the word pricks at the back of my brain. Something is wrong.
“To feel unconnected to everyone and everything.”
I do feel that way, or I did, until Sasha. But how does Killian know…
“But when I met Chloe, I knew she was different, she could make me different.”
“I’m happy for you—”
“We’re not talking about me.”
I stare at my brother, my gaze narrowing. “What the fuck are we talking about then?”
“You. And how you helped your own bride jilt you so that you could marry Sasha. The only thing I don’t understand is why.”
Well, fuck…