Chapter 31
By the time we pull into our building’s garage, my adrenaline is fading. It leaves behind an ugly throb in my temples and the burn of broken skin where blood is drying on my hands and the gash in my arm.
Ani hasn’t said a word since I insisted I was fine. She presses against the passenger seat, every muscle in her body tight, her wide eyes fixed beyond the windshield as if she doesn’t look at me, she won’t have to acknowledge what just happened.
I cut the engine, but I don’t move. I just sit behind the steering wheel with my hand on her thigh.
My shirt sleeve is sticky with blood—not all of it mine—and every muscle in my body aches to finish what we started, plowing through Brighton Beach until not a single traitorous Armenian bastard is left standing.
But that isn’t where my focus needs to be at this moment.
When I lift my gaze to Ani, I find her still trembling. I should reach for her and say something to comfort her, but I don’t trust myself to say the right thing. The thoughts of violence are still too close to the surface, and that’s not what I want her to hear right now. She’s already seen enough…
“Come on,” I softly insist, my voice rough. She startles like I barked an order before nodding. Unfolding her arms from her chest, she opens the door and slips out of the car. I follow behind, grimacing as I take my first look at the knife wound running along my arm.
After swiping my bloody thumb across the screen of my phone, I text Enzo and Cillian.
My apartment. Now.
Maybe bring the sutures.
Inside the apartment, Ani drops her bag on the counter.
She stands beside the island and stares at me like she doesn’t recognize the man who brought her home.
Maybe she doesn’t. She’s seen me lose my temper before, but in that parking garage, she saw my whole truth.
I’m not just violent. I’m fucking lethal.
I’ve always known the lengths that I would go to protect my family—Enzo, Cian, and now their wives.
But it wasn’t until that asshole threatened Ani that I discovered the true darkness of my soul.
I would burn this city to the ground to protect her, even if it meant I found myself among the ashes.
And if the flames came for her, too, I’d carry her through them—or let them take us both, so long as we burned together.
“I’ll get something to clean you up,” she whispers, her frail voice pulling me from my dark thoughts.
Before I can answer, there’s a sharp knock on the door.
“Open the fuck up, Nik,” Enzo barks, slamming his fist into it again.
Enzo and Cillian push inside without waiting when I yank the door open.
Their eyes flit between me and Ani, quickly taking in our appearances and assessing the damage.
Enzo’s gaze lingers on the blood soaking my shirt and trickling from my fingertips.
“Mother fucker, you look like fucking hell.”
Cillian strides past me to Ani, where she still stands at the island—her arms wrapped tightly around her body—trying to look composed but failing miserably. He tenderly rubs her arms and asks, “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Her answer is so quiet, I almost can’t hear it. “He… Nik… He didn’t let them…”
Knowing she heard them—that those men wanted to break her body after gutting mine—sends another surge of violence through me. My hands flex, aching to hit something again.
“Them?” Cillian glances over his shoulder toward me, without lifting his comforting hands from Ani.
“Three Armenians,” I bite out as Enzo pulls the fabric away from the wound on my arm. “They followed us from the jewelry store. Tried to corner us in the parking garage.”
“Retaliation from the club?”
“Sorry. I didn’t think to ask them why as they were trying to fucking kill me so they could take my wife.”
Ani gasps softly, and it isn’t until I look up that I realize it was a stifled giggle. She has a tiny grin pulling at the corners of her mouth.
“Do you take anything seriously?” Cillian huffs.
My gaze fixates on my wife, and I nod solemnly as I answer, “Yes. Very fucking serious.”
“Fucking Brighton Beach assholes,” Enzo grumbles, ready to start stitching up the gash in my arm. “We knew this was coming. They don’t respect Alek—no offense, Ani—and this isn’t going to stop until he shows them that he is in charge.”
“No. We need to lock this shit down. No more bullshit power plays,” I snarl. “I’m not playing stupid fucking retaliation games with them. They went after Ani. This shit is fucking personal.”
Alek shoved her into the line of fire when he married her off to me—an agreement I won’t ever be able to thank him for—but she didn’t ask for this. She needs to be protected. At all costs. I rake a hand through my hair, tugging hard enough at the roots to ground myself. “I’m calling Hawk.”
Everyone’s attention snaps toward me. Enzo’s brows shoot up, and he asks carefully, “You sure?”
“Damn right I’m fucking sure.” My tone leaves no room for argument, not that I expect any from Enzo or Cillian.
Hawk and his men are, after all, the reason we still have Eavan in our lives.
“I can’t be everywhere at once. And after this?
There is no way I’m leaving Ani unprotected.
Hawk and his crew are ghosts when they need to be and shadows when it counts.
I trust him… almost as much as I trust the two of you. ”
“I want her safe…” Cillian pauses to find his words.
“This is different from Eavan. We weren’t targets to all of the city then.
I will stand beside your decision as if it were my own, but if we bring Hawk and his men into this, we’re admitting our weakness to everyone.
If word gets out that we need outsiders to protect our women—”
“Fuck appearances,” I bark. “I don’t give a shit if the whole city thinks I’ve gone soft. Fucking let them. All I care about is my wife. No one can take her from me.”
The room falls silent at my admission, the first time I’ve vocally proclaimed exactly how much Ani means to me.
She shifts in her seat, the scrape of her barstool loud in the silence.
Her lips are pressed tight, and her eyes are locked on mine like she’s trying to figure out if she should cry, kiss me, or both.
“Cillian”—I drag my gaze away from Ani before I drown in her soft, golden pools—“Call Hawk. Tell him I want two men on her, around the clock, until further notice. If he has another job, I’ll pay him whatever he needs to cut it short.
” Already pulling out his phone—and holding true to his word—he merely nods.
“Voicemail,” he shares before leaving a message and pulling up the number for Aegis Tactical Solutions. “I’ll call his assistant, Abby.”
Ani clears her throat. “I don’t need protection.
” All three of us turn toward her, finding her staring at us confidently from her perch on the barstool.
But I can see the cracks in her armor—the slight quiver of her lower lip and the way her eyes keep darting toward the blood still staining my hands.
I cross the distance between us in three strides, bracing my bloody hands on either side of her, boxing her between me and the island.
“Yes, you fucking do,” I snarl softly, leaning down until my face is inches from hers.
“Because I’m not burying you. Not now. Not ever.
You want to fight me about everything else for the rest of our lives?
Fine. But this? This is not up for debate. ”
Her breath stutters, blowing over my lips as her chest rapidly rises and falls, but she doesn’t argue again.
Cillian mutters something into the phone as he returns from finishing his call. He tucks it into his pocket and gives a singular nod. “Jagger and Damon will be here in two days. Hawk and Gunnar will arrive a few days after.”
Relief unfurls in my chest, sharp and painful, like the wound Enzo begins to stitch up again. He finishes, and we make a few arrangements to tide us over until the team arrives tomorrow.
“You did good.” Enzo claps my shoulder as he stands.
“Get the fuck out.” I laugh, rolling my eyes as I wrap the bandage he provided over the fresh sutures.
The two of them leave, and the apartment is quiet again. Just me and Ani. I exhale slowly, the tension in my shoulders refusing to ease. Today could have turned out so differently. I look at Ani, and can tell that beneath her brave face, she’s still rattled.
I sink to my knees in front of her, ignoring how much it hurts.
My bloody hands rest gently on her thighs as I stare up at her.
“You don’t have to hide from me, little pet,” I rasp, my voice soft and warm.
“Daddy knows you’re scared. I will protect you.
Always. With my life if it comes to it. No one will ever hurt you. Not while I’m still breathing.”
Her lips part, and her eyes glimmer with unshed tears as she stares down at me. She lifts her hands and gently cups my face. “I know,” she whispers, her fingers lightly raking through my beard. “And that’s what scares me… Because I don’t want to bury you either.”
With my arms around her thighs, I pull her closer and hold her tightly as the world narrows to the simple truth burning between us, even if we don’t say it.
We love each other.