17. Lev
LEV
Ipulled up and parked a safe distance away from where the supposed rendezvous location was. Abandoned warehouses lined the streets in this part of the city. The scent of the ocean lingered in the breeze, proving we were near the coast and further from the desert we called home.
The setting was a change from what I called home, but with Mila next to me, it didn’t seem any different. On the long ride here to hopefully spy and have a proof of life that Gregori and Yusef were alive—not just theoretical targets—Mila was a constant variable that grounded me.
Her presence was a staple that I had come to look forward to and rely on as an anchor. She was someone new to look forward to the future with. She was not someone embroiled in my past or even aware of what it held.
Having her seated next to me grounded me somehow. She kept me more in control. Because while she refused to admit that she’d ever submit to me, she was already starting to. She already had by letting me fuck her. And she would continue to surrender to me the more that we were together.
I felt it in my bones.
I knew it in the back of my mind.
For that reason, she was a controllable comfort tonight.
A night when I needed one.
Preparing to potentially see the one man I hated more than anyone else in the world, I felt on edge and tense to get this over with.
Even if we stayed from a distance like a stakeout to spy on either of those men, I would be close to the man who had given me half of his DNA.
The “parent” I’d disowned the day that he bombed that meeting with so many leaders.
The “father” who had acted with such greed and evil to overthrow the throne so he could rule instead of Dmitri.
I had gone my whole life under the impression that he was dead.
It made it so much easier to not have to think about him, to erase him from my life, to banish him from ever having mattered.
With Uncle Dmitri acting like a real parent and guardian, I had never needed love or guidance from anyone else.
We’d all formed a cohesive unit, my brother and cousins and me.
Thinking about how strong and close we were as a group—on my birthday, no less—brought more of that sadness back to the surface.
Keeping the dread of Uncle Dmitri’s inevitable death at bay was a challenge, but now, with all these thoughts about seeing Gregori, I couldn’t shake off this pensive mood.
“Three o’clock.”
I blinked, brought back to the present as I watched out a window of a building. It was empty, save for me and Mila spying down at the alleyway through scopes.
She’d registered movement while I was stuck in my head.
Thank fuck you’re here.
I checked what she was looking at, but she seemed uneasy about lying still and spying out the window she was hiding at, too low on the floor to be spotted.
“Fuck.” She backed up, crawling and squirming away from the window.
I was still watching the small group of men gathering in the alley below. The lighting sucked. The rain blurred everything. I couldn’t be sure that Yusef or Gregori were down there, but I was recording it all with my body cam and scope angle.
“What?” I turned back, frowning at her.
“My nine. My nine o’clock. Someone else is watching.”
I turned to see what I’d missed before. Sure enough, the glint of another scope showed from a window at the top of the building across the street from us.
Fuck!
She was right. She’d picked up on them spying. We weren’t the only ones invested in seeing who was operating in this distribution channel. But Mila was quick enough to know we had to be closer to a means of escape.
I backed up, rushing to meet her near the door. She’d just reached it and we scurried out of there as bullets came flying.
I hunched over her, blocking her from the snipers across the street.
She tucked down, running low as she scrambled down the stairs.
My footsteps clattered and boomed after hers as she sprinted down.
Gun out, ready to protect her and myself, I held my breath and tensed when she doubled back and slid to the side, down a hallway.
I followed suit, firing at the thug who rushed in.
They’re not leaving anything to chance.
It’s got to be backup.
He knows he has a target on his back.
I ran with that conviction, that the snipers and extra layers of security were all part of Gregori’s attempt to stay alive and still take the throne.
Mila led the way, running and proving that physical skill and speed that she’d demonstrated at the training facility adjacent to my home. She ran, winding through the maze of hallways. Maneuvering through the building flawlessly, she confirmed that she was exactly what I envisioned she could be.
A badass who never flinched or choked.
A stealthy warrior who wouldn’t quit.
A fighter with stamina and grit and the intelligence to find her way out of a bad situation.
I ran after her, both watching her and looking out for a threat to ambush us before we could exit the building and leave.
Like this, she wasn’t a sidekick.
She wasn’t an assistant.
Determined to get out of here with me, she showed me how she was more like a partner—one I hadn’t ever considered needing.
We burst out of the rear door, and the race to safety didn’t stop there. Together, we sped toward where I’d parked. I covered for her, watching for anyone chasing us. She checked on me, glancing at me to make sure I was sticking with her.
When we reached my car, we both got in and locked the doors immediately.
In here, in the security of the car with the unbreakable tinted windows and bullet-proof panels on the doors, we caught our breath.
In and out, we breathed laboriously from the run.
But I didn’t wait long. I started the engine and backed up, just before the cops swarmed in.
“Fuck this,” I muttered, the tires pealing as I swerved us into a sharp one-eighty in the narrow space. I just barely missed smacking the fender on the brick wall of the nearest building, but miss it, I did.
Once I was facing away from the three cruisers that had shown up, probably tipped off to my car sitting here in this lawless and shitty part of town, I stepped on the gas and sped away.
She clutched the armrest, watching the mirrors and not panicking.
“On your left. Go.” She acted like a lookout while I focused on losing the cops. Once I got out of this clogged area near the warehouses that made up the dock’s portion of the oceanfront, it’d be easier to speed up and lose them for good.
It wouldn’t matter much to me if they pulled me over. No one in any local or state law enforcement would arrest me for something as simple as speeding or being caught near a crime-riddled area.
I didn’t want to mess with the chaos of what could happen if they saw Mila.
If they’d pounce on separating us because she could blurt that she had been sold as a child and was still not free. If they’d try to capture her so she wouldn’t be in the way of their getting me out of the way.
It wasn’t happening. I willed it. I swore on my life that she wouldn’t be taken from me due to some nosy-ass cops.
“Hard right. Up there… Now.”
She shouted the orders to me, her voice clear of the rev of the engine and the sirens of the cruisers. I took her word for it, counting on her to see something I had missed.
And it paid off. Turning sharply onto a narrow street with just enough time to drive out of their immediate sight, I got the advantage that I needed to lose them.
I didn’t slow, zipping further from the docks. She tapped in the highway on my navigation, and I had a clear cruise toward the bigger, busier highway.
Long miles of the desert terrain waited before us before we could get back to my house.
“I got footage of all who were there,” she said. “I don’t know who they are, but before I noticed that scope lens opposite our building, I captured all that I could.”
I nodded as I drove. It was a show of thanks. Of relief. An acknowledgement that she was so fucking good at thinking on her feet.
“You might have an image of them,” I told her.
“Maybe?” She shrugged, almost as though she was discounting her bravery and quick thinking.
“You didn’t panic.”
She shook her head. “No, of course not.”
“Of course not?”
She glanced at me. “Yes, because that was far from the most dangerous setups I’ve gotten into.”
I laughed once, wryly, and gave her a side eye.
As I drove us into the dark landscape of the desert, leaving the city behind, I couldn’t get over how well this had turned out with her. Because of her. We still might be empty-handed if her shots didn’t turn out. We were expected to report directly to Adrik about what we did and didn’t see.
But I couldn’t manage another minute like this. Full of appreciation and awe for this woman. Overwhelmed with this need to have her and remind her that she was mine.
I just had to have her.
Now.
If I didn’t act on this impulsive and persistent desire for her, I’d spend the rest of this long drive dwelling on what it could mean that I didn’t see Gregori tonight. That I didn’t have to face the one person from my past who could never be dead enough.
Focusing on Mila and her merit was far more appealing.
Thinking about how she excelled with me on this mission put too many stubborn fantasies in my mind. So many vivid ones that I couldn’t stop the train of thoughts that filled my mind’s eye.
I swerved suddenly, pulling over on the highway.
She sat up, glancing around with an instant look of alarm on her face. “What? What’s wrong?”
“I’ll show you what’s wrong.” I slammed the car into park and lunged for her, pulling her over the console and onto my lap.
“Lev? What—”
I kissed her. Fitting her on my lap, the steering wheel at her ass, I gripped the back of her head and slid my fingers through her hair to hold on tight.
She gasped, parting her lips against mine.
“What’s wrong is how fucking badly I need you.” I kissed her and savored the searing hit of her mouth parting for me. “That’s what is wrong. I need you, Mila. Right here. Right now.”
She gaped at me, shocked but not showing a hint of panic or fear at the growled statements I’d made.
You’re mine.
On the tails of the anxiety-laden roller coaster ride of bracing myself to see Gregori then narrowly escaping due to her sharp instincts, I had to have her, had to feel that perfection of her milking me dry.
Of her submitting to me and giving me a chance to reclaim some control in my life.
I pulled her head back down toward mine and crushed my mouth to hers.