Chapter 39 #2
Ruslan smiled. I smiled back. Pip just looked bored.
“Please, sit with us,” Svetlana invited.
He did. Juvie shifted in my peripheral vision. It was nothing too obvious, but his slim form looked like it had changed its mind about relaxing.
Ruslan sat and folded his hands on the table. “I apologize for interrupting.”
“No, you don’t,” Pip murmured.
His gaze moved to her.
Svetlana laughed softly, trying to smooth over the moment. “Epiphany has a wonderful sense of humor.”
“Does she?” Ruslan asked, giving her a look meant to shame her.
“When people are actually funny,” Pip said, unashamed.
I bit the inside of my cheek. Ruslan’s smile tightened.
For another few minutes, the conversation pretended to be polite.
Ruslan asked how we were enjoying the island.
I told him it was beautiful. He asked if we planned to stay long.
I told him my husband made those decisions, since he was the man.
He chuckled like he approved. I wanted to slap him.
Then he asked if I had enjoyed dancing at the reception.
Pip’s knee bumped mine beneath the table. I set my untouched latte down.
“The reception was lovely.”
“And Nikolai said you were a charming partner.”
I looked at him as I dug through my purse and extracted a lip balm before sliding it back under the table. I moisturized my lips. Ruslan didn’t blink. Svetlana’s fingers tightened around her teacup and she laughed nervously. My head tilted.
“Well, that’s nice. I would hate to think I danced with a man and left a bad impression,” I said finally.
“Some impressions are very difficult to forget,” he murmured.
“I’m sure.”
Ruslan sighed. Then, the pleasant little meeting died quietly.
“Well.”
Pip leaned back. “Here we go.”
His eyes cut to her, then back to me. “I had hoped this would be easier.”
“So did I,” I said.
His expression sharpened. “You are going to stand up.”
“No.” The answer left my mouth quickly.
His smile disappeared.
“Mrs. Sidorov—”
“That’s me. Got the ink to prove it,” I said cheerfully.
“Beneath this table, I have a pistol pointed directly at you.”
Pip rolled her eyes so hard I hoped she didn’t hurt herself.
Ruslan continued, apparently committed to his little speech. “The two men at the corner table are with me. If your guard moves, they kill him first. If your men outside interfere, innocent people die.”
Juvie was still, trying to hear. Ruslan’s voice lowered more. “You understand the situation.”
For the first time since he sat down, I smiled for real.
“No.”
His brow furrowed. “No?”
“I don’t think you understand the situation.”
Beside me, Pip shook her head. “Not even a little bit.”
Svetlana’s gaze moved between us, wondering what the hell was up. I lowered my voice, too.
“Because beneath this table, I have a gun pointed at your stomach.”
Ruslan’s eyes bucked. Pip smiled sweetly at Svetlana. “And I have one pointed at her.”
The color drained from Svetlana’s face. Ruslan clearly wanted to believe I was bluffing. I watched him decide whether to risk it. Then his gaze dipped just enough. The pistol resting comfortably in my lap was impossible to miss. I had my hand steady around it. Country girl.
He cursed in Russian. I smiled.
“Exactly.”
Pip leaned closer to Svetlana. “You probably should keep breathing regular. You faint, my hand might slip.”
Svetlana swallowed.
“Juvie,” I said.
His response came instantly. “Yeah?”
“Red cap and laptop. Now.”
There were no questions and no hesitation.
Juvie shifted like he had been waiting for permission.
Two guns pulled and aimed before the men at the side table—one in a red baseball cap and the other with an open laptop—could move.
They tried as the remaining couple of customers screamed and ducked for cover.
“Don’t,” Juvie warned.
Both men froze. One had his hand halfway inside his jacket. The other stared down the barrel of Juvie’s gun and seemed to reconsider his life chances.
Juvie’s face twisted with betrayal. “Goddamn it, Theory of Evolution! You knew about this and ain’t told me shit? I thought we was better than this! Wait til I tell Granny!”
I didn’t look away from Ruslan.
“Anybody ever tell you the big cousins don’t like the snitching little cousins?” I asked.
“Right, Sissy. You better tell him, they get their asses kicked in our family,” Pip added.
“Girl! I specifically told your husband I had this. You tryna get me killed?”
Pip laughed. I laughed. Ruslan didn’t laugh. He just looked furious.
“We seem to have a little dilemma,” I said.
Nobody disagreed, because we did. Ruslan had a gun pointed at me. I had one pointed at him. Pip had Svetlana covered. Juvie had the two men at the side table. The café had a couple of innocent bystanders. Ruslan’s jaw tensed.
“You will not shoot me in a room with civilians.”
“You sure?”
His eyes narrowed.
I tilted my head. “Because I’m thinking I can hit you without hitting anybody else.”
Pip nodded. “She can.”
“Epiphany,” I snapped.
“What? You can.”
Ruslan’s gaze moved over my face, searching for nerves.
But I’d be damned if he saw any. Not because I wasn’t scared.
I was, a little. But I’d learned at least two lessons in life.
My PawPaw had taught me one on a deer stand when I was twelve and shaking so bad I almost dropped the rifle.
Being scared meant your body knew something mattered; it didn’t mean your hands had to forget what they knew how to do.
The second was a much more bitter lesson—once you’d been through hell, things didn’t seem as scary anymore.
Ruslan must’ve seen it on my face because his fell. I smirked at him.
And then the café’s front window exploded inward. Glass shattered across tables and the floor as a couple of screams erupted. Svetlana cried out as Ruslan flinched.
But me?
I smiled knowingly, because there was only one person on this island dramatic enough to announce his arrival by destroying the window when a door had been right there.
The glass settled. I blinked and smiled wider as a wild-eyed, six-foot-seven giant scowled down at me.
“Hi, baby,” I sang.
I was back home, debriefed, and currently locked in the suite with my very big, very irate husband.
Between looking at him and the adrenaline leftover from the coffee shop still flowing through me, I was noticing another “very” …
I was very horny. I knew better than to say that, though.
Instead, I sat quietly on the foot of the bed and looked at my husband sitting across from me in a chair.
I hoped I looked contrite. It was hard to look contrite when you had pulled off some bad ass shit, though.
“At what point, Theory Grace, did you lose your mothafuckin’ mind?” Targen asked softly.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say I lost my mind, exactly—"
“Don’t fucking play with me, Theory. I extend you grace I have never extended another mothafucka ever! Yet, you seem to be under some misconception that that means you can do whatever the fuck you want, and I’ll be okay with it,” he continued.
“Targen, let me explain—”
He jumped up and started pacing like a caged tiger, anger radiating from him. I knew I should be scared, but this was actually a good look for him. I bit my lower lip and tried not to squirm, pussy wet as fuck.
“You have any idea how pissed off I am with you right now, shorty? For you to attempt to handle the issue on your own, put your life and your sister’s in danger? Do you know how devastated your parents would’ve been if—? Girl, I swear I could—”
I jumped up, having heard enough. “You could what, Targen?! You think I didn’t feel the same worry? The same anxiety? You think I love you less than you love me?” I yelled back.
Coming to a halt, Targen slowly turned to face me. “You think all this shit takes is knowing how to use firearms?”
“You think all I know in a dangerous situation is how to use firearms? Fuck you, Targen.”
He started walking toward me. The look in his eyes told me to run, but I was immobile.
As he stalked towards me, my brain suddenly caught up with my legs.
I moved, attempted to turn and scramble across the bed.
He caught me, dragged me against his chest, and I tensed ready to fight him back. How dare he dismiss—
“I don’t think I could live if something happened to you, Theory.
You think I protect you because I’m all brave and noble.
Maybe I am. But I also protect you because it protects me.
Keeping you happy, healthy, whole, alive keeps me the same way.
For a year, I lived without you. Even knowing you were alive, not being able to see you, touch you, hold you…
that was more of a danger to me than any psycho ass mothafucka’ with a shank.
You are my sun, Mrs. Sidorov. Everything in me revolves around you.
I will not calmly accept anything trying to extinguish that sun. Not even you, milaya.”
I stopped struggling immediately.
“Targen.” I breathed, my eyes suddenly wet. “You know I knew if things got crazy you were coming, right? As soon as that signal was jammed, I knew.”
“Just promise me you won’t do shit like that again. Even Bratva bosses have backup. Bratva Brides should, too.”
Laughing, I looped my arms around his waist. “I love you, Mr. Sidorov.”
“I love you more, Mrs. Sidorov.”
“I promise… tentatively… but you know what would really make this lesson stick?”
He stared at me suspiciously. “What, malyshka.”
“You should drill it into my head… while you drill me through this mattress.”
His eyes darkened as he lifted me. “Oh, yeah? Say less.”
I shrieked as he sent me sailing through the air.