32. Chapter 32
Addy
When I got back home from an impromptu shopping trip, Sasha was waiting for me — rather impatiently, I might add.
“Finally! What took you so long?”
“Had I known you were waiting for me, I might have hurried up. But since you didn’t bother to let me know…” I lifted a shoulder and shot him a pointed look.
Sasha snared my wrist, his rings feeling cold against my heated skin, and practically dragged me out onto the terrace.
“What are you doing?”
He peered at me over his shoulder. “Got a surprise for you.”
I just love it when he gives me all the information.
“You do? And where exactly are we going?”
He pulled me up one of the winding paths crossing through the compound. I was quite sure I’d never been down this particular path before.
“Wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” he deadpanned.
“I hate surprises.”
It was a straight-up, bold-faced lie.
Sasha scoffed. “You love surprises.”
Damn it! How did he know?
“How would you know?” I squinted at him.
He shot me an unimpressed look. “Because I know you.”
Well, fuck me sideways.
“You know I’m too nosy for this shit. Where are we going?” I huffed.
“To fix something.”
“Oh good,” I said, mockingly cheerful. “Love that. That’s not giving me anxiety at all. Big fan of all this vagueness we’ve got going on here.”
Sasha rolled his eyes, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitch.
We cut through a part of the property feeling a lot less curated and more like a tiny jungle. The air was still heavy from the day, but the sun had started to set, turning everything soft and golden.
“Sooo,” I drawled after a minute. “Are you going to tell me what we’re fixing, or is this one of those immersive learning experiences where I undergo a transformation and gain clarity in the end?”
Sasha didn’t answer right away.
Why did that make me nervous?
“I’ve been thinking,” he said eventually, his tone calm. “And I realized we’ve got a problem.”
I raised my brows. “Oh?”
“You’re part of my world now, but you have no idea how it works yet.”
Ah. That.
“I mean — yes,” I said slowly. “In a broad, philosophical sense, I’m aware you’re a very dangerous man with very dangerous hobbies.”
Sasha snorted. “That’s the understatement of the century. You’re surrounded by men who tend to shoot first and ask questions later.” He came to a stop and gestured around us. “You live in a place lots of people would consider a target. And you move through it like none of it applies to you.”
“Why would I? I’m just … here.”
“That’s not how this works, baby.” He pursed his lips.
“I feel like it should be.”
“Well, it isn’t,” he said dryly. “I can control most variables. I can anticipate threats. I can implement systems to minimize risk.”
I eyed him skeptically. “That sounds reassuring.”
“It should.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’.”
Sasha sighed. “There is.”
Of course there was.
“I’m not always going to be within reach,” he continued, his voice taking on a quieter, more deliberate tone. “And I don’t rely on luck.”
I sobered up and shifted my weight slightly, sensing how serious he was now.
“You’ve been within reach pretty consistently so far.”
“And I’d love for it to continue to be this way, but unfortunately, that’s not a guarantee.”
Okay, fair enough.
“I’m not delusional. I know I can’t restrict you to only the compound all the time,” he added, his gaze steady on mine. “It wouldn’t be fair. I’m not going to completely take your freedom away just to make myself more comfortable.”
“Good,” I said immediately, relief flooding my body.
He paused for a moment, seemingly gathering his thoughts.
When he spoke again, his voice was still quiet but charged with urgency “But I’m also not going to pretend being unprepared is acceptable or that this world is safe for you.”
I held his gaze, realizing he wasn’t trying to scare me. He was just … telling the truth.
“You’re planning for something before it’s happened.”
“I’m planning for something inevitable.”
What an ominous thing to say.
“I don’t need you to become someone else,” he continued. “But I do need you to be capable of handling yourself if something goes wrong.”
I opened my mouth to argue but snapped it shut again because, annoyingly, he was right.
I exhaled, tilting my head slightly. “You’re worried.”
“About your safety? Always. But mostly, I’m being realistic.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, and a tiny part of my heart softened.
“Okay.” I nodded.
He blinked once, like he hadn’t expected it to be so easy. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged lightly. “You’ve made a compelling case. Slightly intense delivery, but overall strong argument. So, what’s your plan?”
“We’re gonna teach you how to shoot.”
My mouth dropped open. “Like … a gun?”
“No, a fucking crossbow.” He shot me a flat look. “Of course a gun.”
I grimaced. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
His mouth twitched, barely but I saw it. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
“Okay.” I blew out a breath, trying to hype myself up. “Okay. Teach me.”
Relief flashed across his face, quickly replaced by something darker and more possessive.
“Good girl.” He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “Let’s go.”
Then he reached for my hand again, as if it were instinct, and pulled me with him as we continued walking.
“Where are we going?” I asked, eyeing the path as it curved away from anything looking remotely domestic.
“You’ll see.”
After a few more steps, the foliage began to thin and opened up into an area of the compound I hadn’t been shown during the grand tour. I was a little miffed about that. I liked to think I had earned full access privileges by now.
The space ahead of us had clearly been deliberately cleared.
The ground was flattened and covered in packed dirt and gravel, and it was bordered by high concrete and reinforced steel.
There were targets set up at varying distances — some paper and some metal — and the faint, unmistakable smell of gunpowder lingered in the air as if it had become part of the place.
A shooting range.
Of course there was a shooting range.
How had I not known there was a shooting range?
“You have a private weapons facility,” I said slowly, looking around, “and no one thought to mention this to me?”
“You never asked.”
“I didn’t think I had to ask!”
Sasha’s mouth twitched slightly; he seemed to be enjoying this more than he should have.
And then I spotted Kyrill.
A cigarette burned lazily between his fingers, its faint glow cutting through the dimming light as the sun set, painting everything in deep gold and shadow, and catching on his silver earrings.
He didn’t move when we approached; he just watched us with the same unreadable, slightly bored expression.
“This feels like a setup,” I muttered under my breath.
“It is,” Kyrill drawled.
“Great.”
The heat had eased just enough to be able to breathe without feeling as though you were under personal attack from humidity. The air buzzed faintly with insects — the kind of background noise making everything feel more isolated.
Sasha didn’t let go of my hand until we had stepped fully into the range.
“This is where you learn.”
I looked at the targets.
Wow. Okay. So we were definitely doing this.
The first thing I learned about guns was they were significantly louder than they looked in movies. The second thing I learned was how bad I was at using one — allegedly.
“Again,” Sasha said behind me as I missed the target by several yards.
I turned my head just enough to glare at him. “I just went again.”
“Yes,” Kyrill muttered from my left. “And somehow it got worse.”
Rude. Those two were totally ganging up on me.
“Okay, hold on.” I lowered the gun and turned toward them. “In my defense, I don’t think I should have been handed a weapon this powerful within the first week of trying.”
“This one is not powerful,” Kyrill said flatly.
I stared at him, blinking slowly. “It made my bones vibrate.”
“That is normal.”
“It should not be normal.”
He just looked at me, his icy blue eyes completely unimpressed.
Kyrill was — there was no delicate way to put it — massive.
Like, aggressively so. Everything about him looked like it had been built for intimidation.
He had broad shoulders and thick arms, and his solid muscle was layered in a way suggesting he was simply built this way, not because he went to the gym.
He looked like someone who had been carved out of violence and then been given a sense of humor as an afterthought.
And right now, said humor was being used against me.
“You’re flinching,” Sasha said behind me, his voice lower and closer.
“Of course I am! I’m literally holding a gun,” I cried.
“You’re anticipating the recoil.”
“Yes, because it feels fucking weird. I don’t like it.”
“It can be controlled,” he countered.
I shot him a gloomy look. “It doesn’t feel controlled.”
“That’s because you are not.”
I turned fully, glaring at him. “Oh, I’m sorry, should I be emotionally regulated while holding a fucking firearm for the first time?”
Kyrill snorted, so I turned on him and pointed a finger in his direction. “Not funny!”
He held his thumb and index finger close together, grinning. “A little funny.”
Sasha stepped behind me again, one hand on my waist and the other gently adjusting my grip on the gun.
“Focus,” he murmured near my ear.
How the hell was I supposed to focus when he was doing this thing where he existed too close and smelled like danger and expensive soap?
“You’re distracting me,” I informed him breathlessly.
“I’m correcting you.”
His muscular chest was plastered against my back and I could feel a blush creeping up my neck. “You’re hovering.”
“I’m preventing you from shooting Kyrill.”
“Statistically unlikely.” Kyrill didn’t even look concerned as he took another drag from his cigarette. “She couldn’t hit me if I stand still.”
Excuse me?
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are we running numbers now?”
He slowly exhaled, the smoke curling around his face. “Yes.”
“I could absolutely—”