43. Laila
43
LAILA
“You alright?” Gedeon asks.
We’re heading across town for my second physical therapy appointment with a new therapist—a woman, as Arsen requested—and Gedeon hasn’t said a word since he picked me up. Usually, Dominik drives me, chatting endlessly about Kira and hounding me for bringing tea into his car without a travel lid— like an animal , he says—but he’s busy on another assignment today.
I don’t mind so much. The quiet has been nice.
“Fine. Just tired.” I try to leave it at that, but the truth has been festering in my chest all morning, and it rushes out of me. “My mom wasn’t doing great when I left her today. More and more, she doesn’t seem all there. She says stuff that doesn’t make sense.”
“That must be tough.”
I sigh. “Every time I think she’s doing a little better, something happens to remind me that she’s still deteriorating fast.”
“Miracles can happen.” He shrugs, and I sense a question mark at the end of that statement. He must be able to see the confusion on my face, because he glances over at me and cringes. “Sorry. I’m not good at the whole comfort thing.”
I can’t help but smile. “It’s okay. I just needed to get that off my chest. Feel free to change the subject.”
“Bless you,” he says gratefully. “How’s the new physical therapist?”
“She’s actually pretty amazing. Better than Tyler, for sure.” I snap my attention to him. “But don’t tell Arsen that. I’m still pissed at him for making me switch.”
“But you just admitted that she’s?—”
“Not the point, Gedeon. Arsen can’t make decisions about my life and then expect me to love all of them.”
“But so far, you do love all of them.”
I slap his arm. “Oh, shut up.”
He chuckles as he pulls to a stop in front of the building. “Is there a bathroom in there?”
“I’d never make it through an appointment if there wasn’t. This baby loves to kick my bladder.”
Gedeon follows me inside and slips into the bathroom while I wait for my appointment. When he’s done, he cuts through the lobby, waving to me before he dips out to wait in the car, but the studio door opens and Brynn walks out with a client.
“Make sure you do your homework this week, Mrs. Cabrera,” she warns the older woman, her huge, brown eyes narrowed in playful warning. “I’ll be able to tell if you don’t.”
Gedeon is frozen with the door open, his eyes trained on my physical therapist as she helps Mrs. Cabrera through the door and into the parking lot.
He’s still standing there as she comes back inside and greets me. She doesn’t so much as glance at Gedeon, even though he’s almost drooling. “Hey, Laila.”
I bite back my grin as I tip my head towards my bodyguard. “Brynn, this is Gedeon.”
Her return smile is aimed more at me than him. “What happened to Dominik?”
“He’s busy.”
“He’ll probably be busy for the next few months,” Gedeon interrupts, dropping the door so he can reach for Brynn’s hand. “You’ll be seeing more of me. Since I’ll be bringing Laila for her appointments and all. Nice to meet you.”
Well, this is the first I’m hearing of this plan. I wonder if Dominik knows he’s going to be so busy. I wonder also if Gedeon knows that he’s breathing like a warthog as Brynn takes his hand.
“Yeah… you, too,” she says absent-mindedly. “So, Laila?—”
“Nice tattoo,” he interrupts, gesturing to the mockingbird just above her collarbone.
She cringes. “That’s the result of a bad break-up and a drunken night out. I’m not really a tattoo gal.”
“Right, of course not.” Gedeon tucks his right hand behind his back to cover his full-length tattoo sleeve. “It suits you, though.”
“I hope so. I’m stuck with it now. Anyway?—”
“When did you get it?”
“What?” Brynn’s eyes dart to me like I might be able to muzzle my bodyguard.
“The tattoo. When did you get it?”
“Oh. Uh, a long time ago. I was nineteen and stupid.”
“So it wasn’t a recent bad break-up?”
Understanding dawns all at once, and she shutters her expression. “I’m sorry—I have a client to get to. I don’t have time for?—”
“I don’t mind,” I blurt quickly. “By all means, take your time.”
Brynn throws me a glare. “But I mind. I’m here to work.”
“When do you get off work?” Gedeon asks boldly. “Because I know a great place not far from here. Maybe we could?—”
Brynn holds up a hand. “Let me stop you right there. It’s not gonna happen.”
Gedeon looks sheepish for the first time in his life. “What won’t happen?”
“This,” she says, gesturing between the two of them. “You and me. I’m not interested.”
“How will you know until you go out on a date with me?”
Brynn rolls her eyes. “I know everything I need to know about fuckboy bodyguards and their accompanying egos.” She looks him up and down with a bored expression on her face. “I’ve dated men like you before—been there, done that, got both the t- shirt and the tattoo, as we’ve discussed—but I’m older and wiser now.”
He arches a brow. “Fuckboys get older and wiser, too. Give me a chance.”
I swear I see a glimmer of a laugh before she irons out her scowl. “Get out of my studio and let me do my job, please and thank you.”
Gedeon opens his mouth to say something else, but I jump between them, literally pushing him out of the door.
“Laila—”
“Zip it,” I hiss, lowering my voice. “Go now and play it cool. I’ll talk you up.”
He beams. “Promise?”
“Pinky swear.”
“Tell her I have three sisters. And I’m great with kids. I babysit my nephews and nieces all the time,” he yammers as I continue to shove him to the door of the building. “Oh, and tell her I can cook. And I’m handy around the house. Talk up tattoos, too, while you’re at it because I’ve got a few too many to cover up. And?—”
“Go, Ged. I’ll handle this.”
With one last roguish smile tossed over his shoulder towards Brynn, he leaves and I can finally shut the door on his face.
When I walk back into the studio, Brynn is tying up her curly auburn hair. “Some guys don’t know when to take a hint, huh?”
“Yeah. Gedeon can come on a little strong, but he didn’t really have a choice. I mean, growing up the only boy with three sisters meant he had to fight for what he wanted.” She narrows her eyes at me, but I plow on. “But don’t get me wrong, he’s gentle. His nieces and nephews love him.”
She sighs. “Does he also rescue kittens from trees and teach illiterate orphans how to read?”
“If I said ‘yes,’ would you agree to go out with him? He’ll never stop annoying me if you don’t.”
Laughing, she heads into the studio. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
“My session or the date?”
“So when she said, ‘See you next time, Laila,’ was there a glint in her eye? Like, did she really mean, ‘I can’t wait to date your bodyguard?’”
I sigh as we come to a stop at the fifth red light in a row. Gedeon has been so busy peppering me for info about Brynn that he’s forgotten where the gas pedal is.
“No glint in her eye, but she did use Morse code to send me a message with her lashes.”
Somehow, the car slows even more as he turns to me. “What did the message say?”
“It said, ‘You are pathetic. Drive the car, please.’”
He turns back to the road, puttering to a stop at another red light. “You’re not funny, you know that? I’m a man in turmoil here. I need your help.”
I sigh. “I talked you up, and she didn’t refuse a date, so I think you’re moving in the right direction. Not literally, of course. Literally speaking, we’re crawling down the road, and we might never get home.”
“Did you tell her about my tattoos?”
“I decided to save objectifying you for next week. Today, I focused in on how you only kill people for work and not for sport. I think she approved.”
“I know you’re making fun of me, but you want this to happen as much as Brynn does. I’m just the only one who’s man enough to be honest about it.”
“The confidence of you Bratva boys is unmatched.” I shake my head. “Do any of you ever take no for an answer?”
“Of course not. How else do you think we get everything we want?” He winks at me.
God help Brynn. This bulldog has her scent and he ain’t lettin’ go.
“Brynn is really cool,” I warn. “Super confident and independent. You need to lay some groundwork with her. If you gun it too hard, you’ll push her away.”
“Alright, sensei, guide me.”
I laugh despite myself. “Do you really have three sisters?”
“Yup. Galina, Galya, and Galochka. I’m the youngest. The three of them like to remind me that I was an afterthought.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
He snorts. “There’s a ten-year difference between me and Galina. I was definitely an accident.” Judging from the smile on his face, though, he doesn’t take it personally.
“And you have nephews and nieces?”
“Four and two, respectively. The girls are my favorites, and—before you start lecturing me—if you met my nephews, you’d know why. Those four are Tasmanian devils. But Svetlana and Oksana are angels.” Gedeon is staring dreamily out the windshield. “Maybe I should bring flowers to your next appointment.”
The light turns green. Gedeon does not go.
“Ahem. Ahem. ” Finally, I whack him in the shoulder. “Gedeon, for the love of God, step on it.”
“Shit,” he curses as he floors the accelerator and checks the clock. “You’re right. I was supposed to have you home ages ago.”
“‘Supposed to’? Says who? And why?”
“Arsen’s taking you out.” I open my mouth to ask a series of follow-up questions, but he cuts me off. “I don’t know where he’s taking you and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell. I just know you’re supposed to dress up, and you need to leave in, like, twenty minutes.”
My hair is plastered to the back of my neck with sweat and I’m in maternity leggings. “Gedeon! How the hell am I supposed to be ready for a fancy night out in twenty minutes?”
“Miracles can happen?”
“That line didn’t work the first time. It’s even worse now.” He speeds right through a red light and I roll my eyes, muttering under my breath. “Ugh. Men.”