28. Adrianos #2
I lower my gun by an inch. "You came for her alive. Killing her leaves you with nothing."
"Gun. Down."
Elena stops fighting him.
I know her well enough to understand that stillness is not surrender.
She drives her heel down on his instep and drops her full weight without warning. His injured arm fails to hold her. The gun jerks away from her body as his balance shifts.
She gives me one second.
I use it.
My bullet hits his shoulder and spins him away from her. Elena drops to the floor and scrambles toward the bed while he reaches for his weapon again.
I fire twice. He doesn't get another chance.
I cross the room, kick his gun away, and check him quickly.
Dead.
I don't care who he is yet. I turn toward Elena.
She's sitting against the bed, staring at her hands. Blood stains the front of my white shirt that she's wearing.
Every thought leaves my head.
"Where are you hit?"
"I'm not."
I drop in front of her and check anyway, running my hands over her arms, shoulders, and sides.
"Adrianos, I'm not hit. It's his blood."
I look at her face. She's pale. Her hands are trembling so badly she curls them into fists.
"What happened to your shot?"
"I missed."
Her voice breaks slightly.
"I aimed at him, but my hands wouldn't stop shaking. I hit his arm instead."
"You slowed him down."
"I nearly missed completely."
"But you didn't."
Her eyes meet mine.
I put both hands around her face. "You stayed alive."
Something in her expression breaks, and she comes into my arms. I hold her so tightly I should loosen my grip.
I don't.
Her heart is hammering against my chest. She’s alive. Still breathing. Still here.
Evander arrives with six men less than three minutes later. By then, I am calm.
I stand in the middle of the bedroom while my men examine the body and the compromised security system. Elena sits on the edge of the bed wrapped in a blanket, refusing medical attention beyond allowing one of my men to confirm that the blood isn't hers.
"The credentials are legitimate," Evander says. "Maintenance clearance, security authorization, and internal override access."
I look at the dead man. Someone didn't defeat my security. Someone used it.
"Find out who issued the credentials. Everyone who had access to tonight's security changes stays where they are until I speak to them."
Evander nods. "Already started."
"Nobody leaves Athens. I want every member of building security checked, including the men who've been here for years."
His expression darkens. "You think it's one of ours?"
"I think assuming otherwise nearly got Elena killed."
I look at her.
"Pack."
Her head snaps up. "What?"
"You're leaving tonight."
Evander suddenly becomes fascinated by the dead man's weapon.
Elena stands. "No."
"Yes."
"We've already had this argument."
"This isn't an argument."
"It became one when you said something ridiculous."
I step toward her. "Someone breached my penthouse using legitimate credentials."
"I noticed."
"They knew security protocols I changed tonight. They knew how to isolate you from me inside the most secure place I control."
"And your brilliant solution is to put me on a plane and hope OB6 doesn't understand airports?"
"Another city."
"No."
"Another country if necessary."
"Still no."
"You almost died."
The words tear out of me louder than I intend, and the room goes silent. Evander looks at the others and motions toward the door. Within seconds, we're alone.
Elena doesn't flinch. "But I didn't die."
"That isn't the point."
"It's exactly the point."
"I walked into that bedroom and saw you on the floor."
My voice drops because suddenly I'm not looking at Elena anymore. I'm seeing graves. Faces. People I loved reduced to names carved into stone.
"I buried my son."
Elena goes still.
I don't say Nikos's name. I don't have to.
"I buried him before he had the chance to become the man he was supposed to be. Then my parents. Then a woman I loved. Every time, I thought there couldn't possibly be enough left in me for another death to matter that much."
My throat tightens, but I force myself to continue.
"I was wrong."
"Adrianos..."
"No."
She starts toward me, but I step back.
"You don't understand what you're asking me to risk."
"I understand exactly what I'm risking."
"I cannot bury you."
There it is. The truth stripped of power, orders, and security protocols.
"I can survive you hating me. I can survive you leaving. I can survive knowing you're somewhere else, furious with me for the rest of your life. But I cannot stand beside another grave knowing the person inside it died because I couldn't keep them safe."
Elena stares at me, her eyes shining. Then she crosses the space I put between us.
"Sending me away won't stop you from loving me."
My jaw tightens.
She reaches for my hand. "And leaving you won't stop me from loving you."
Everything inside me goes silent.
"I love you, Adrianos. I am terrified enough by that without you deciding loving me gives you the right to remove me from my own life."
"You almost died tonight."
"So did you. A bullet missed your head by inches."
"That's different."
"No, it isn't. You just think your life is the acceptable one to risk."
I say nothing because she's right, and I hate that she's right.
Elena tightens her fingers around mine. "I know what choosing you means. I know what your world is. I know there could be another attack tomorrow, and I'm not pretending love makes any of this safe. But you don't get to decide I'm safer without you when I'm telling you I choose you."
Every argument I have disappears. She chooses me knowing exactly what I am. Not the man I might become. Not some cleaner version of me she can imagine into existence. Me.
I reach for her and pull her against my chest.
There is nothing gentle about the way I hold her. My arms close around her until no space remains between us, and Elena holds me just as tightly. I bury my face against her hair and breathe in slowly.
Then my body betrays the control I've spent a lifetime perfecting. My hands begin to shake against her back.
I tighten my grip, but the trembling spreads through my arms. Elena feels it immediately. She doesn't comment, doesn't tell me everything will be fine, and doesn't offer promises neither of us can make.
She simply holds me harder.
I close my eyes and stand with her in the wreckage of the safest place I own, surrounded by proof that someone can penetrate my security, my organization, and perhaps the Crown itself.
For years, I believed power meant eliminating anything capable of hurting me. Elena has made that impossible. Because the one thing that can destroy me is already in my arms.
And I love her too much to let her go.