Page 15 of All the Dangerous Things

“You don’t need to run away just because you’reafraid of how your brothers will react. They should probably learn what happened, no?”

His gaze went to my throat, and I lifted my hand to lightly touch what I assumed was horrendous bruising. It was so tender and felt so swollen. But I was shaking my head before he even finished speaking.

The last thing I wanted to do was admit to my brothers that I’d been foolish enough—and too fucking stupid for my own good—to go and put myself in a very dangerous situation.

I was actually surprised Gio was giving me this option to “run away,” as he put it, or to stay and face my brothers. Apparently, being related by marriage didn’t mean all of his loyalties belonged to our family.

“I think I’d rather face my brothers alone.” My voice was soft, almost tender.

Truth be told, itwouldprobably be smarter for me to confront Dmitry and Nikolai’s wrath with a third party there. Maybe they’d force themselves to stay calm.

I ground my back molars. I knew that was a lie right away.

Because my brothers didn’t give ashit who was watching when they went on a rampage. Hell, they killed men just for looking at them the wrong way.

When Gio said nothing, I took that as my cue to go.

“There’s a car waiting downstairs to take you home,” he told me. When I said nothing, he added low and deep, “It’s your life, but you know as well as I do that your brothers are going to find out what happened one way or another.”

I didn’t know why I felt sassy, but a sudden surge of defiance rose up in me.

This man saved my life. Being anything but kind and generous should have been the furthest thing from my mind.

“You’re not afraid of them, are you?” I wondered if my taunting question caught him off guard. Because, for a second, I thought his expression showed surprise.

And then he started laughing in this husky way that told me he didn’t think anything was humorous. He was just… shocked.

Gio ran a hand over his face. He had a day’s worth of stubble covering his jaw and cheeks, so when his palm skimmed over it, I could hear the light scraping sound from the motion.

“No,” he said and put that stoic expression of hisback in place. “I can promise you that the Petrov brothers are the least of my worries.”

He leaned in until his lips were close to my ear. I felt his warm breath tease the shell and forced myself to dig my nails into my palms so I wouldn’t shiver in response.

“My fear of your brothers is so low it’s rotting in hell, little Russian doll.” He gave a low growl, my shiver escaping my reins and slithering down my body.

He pulled back, and his expression turned dark before he said, “You know why that is?”

I licked my lips and shook my head, even though I knew Gio was just as dangerous as any monster I'd ever come in contact with.

“???????, ? ??????.”Little girl, I am death.

I didn’t know why hearing him call me that in my native tongue felt so illicit—salacious even. But my body immediately responded, heating all over again.

A second later, he took a step back, and I exhaled, not realizing I’d been holding my breath. I stared into his bright, crystalline-blue eyes and forced myself to open the door and leave.

I hauled ass toward the elevator at the end of the hall, and only once inside did I lean against the walland exhale a breath that was shaky as hell. I was gripping the silver bar behind me as if my life depended on it.

Once I was out of the building, I sucked in a lungful of polluted morning air. True to Gio’s word, there was a sleek, black car waiting for me right outside his building. I looked behind me and knitted my brows as I noticed what I had assumed was an apartment building was actually what looked like a warehouse or business building. Certainly not where someone would live.

But I didn't have time to givea shit about anything but my future and the ass-reaming my brothers were going to give me over this.

I didn’t have to guess if that car was for me, since the driver stood at the back passenger door, holding it open and smiling at me.

When I was close enough, he addressed me by name, and I found myself seamlessly slipping inside, not even questioning what was happening right now.

Once on the road, I gave the driver my address, but he told me he already knew where he was going. And so for the next couple of minutes, I just sat there, trying to formulate some kind of plan forwhen I got home and had to face the proverbial firing squad.

I had no idea how I looked. I could have checked in the front-facing camera of my phone for any evidence of how my night actually went. But I was a coward because I didn’t want to see any of that shit.

---