Page 42 of Psychological War

WhenSalemwentintothe bathroom, I hadn’t expected her demeanor to change, but when the door opened her emotionless eyes were back. She refused to look weak even in front of me. It shouldn’t have bothered me as much, but it did. I thought I was finally breaking through the cement wall she held around herself. But it was like a step forward, three steps back, and she had another layer of cement around her. Before I could come up with anything to say to her, she stepped around me and raced downstairs.

Turning on my heel, I followed quickly. I didn’t want her to step into the dining room with everyone there staring at her. Knowing Dimitri, he would think about killing her if I wasn’t right there. Killian wouldn’t give a shit; Tobias would probably beg her to sit next to him. Then Mila, it would be a toss-up. She wouldn’t be jealous of her because Salem would most likely think of Dimitri as a bug she wanted to shoot. But she could also want to hide away. She often did that when someone new showed up.

As soon as my foot hit the bottom step, I could feel the tension before I saw Salem standing a few feet in front of me in the doorway.

Fuck.

“Sit next to me,” Tobias begged.

“Kitten,” I whispered into her ear when I stepped closer to her. She looked back at me as though she hadn’t realized I was following her or that I was there. I wanted to sit next to her, but I also couldn’t deny her sitting next to my favorite little person. Nodding my head towards Tobias, I let her know to sit by him.

“Uh, sure,” she muttered, completely unsure of what to do. She slowly made her way there and slid into the seat. Sitting across from her, I sat down next to Killian.

“What’s your favorite color?” Tobias asked. Salem brought her gaze from her empty plate to him, and Dimitri couldn’t have been glaring any harder.

“I don’t know if I have one, but if I did, I think it would be gray.” She shrugged, her voice small. Her accent was completely gone, as though she was trying to hide it. Now that I heard her real voice, and not just a few words, I could tell she was trying to hide it. She was working harder at speaking.

“Hmm…” Tobias cocked his head to the side.

While she was busy talking to Tobias, I grabbed her plate and filled it with chicken, salad, and a few pieces of broccoli. I didn’t know if she even ate this, but I knew she wasn’t a vegetarian from her choice of Chinese.

“Gray’s a great color. I think it’s my new favorite.” That boy always changed his mind about his favorite things. Just last week he asked me the same thing and when I said black, he laughed and said it was his new favorite. That Killian was red, and it was a weird color.

Salem turned back around and looked down at her plate. Something I couldn’t quite read came across, maybe she was surprised or happy.

“It’s Chicken Marsala, and the salad has vinaigrette, and yeah it just has broccoli, nothing special. But yeah, um, if you don’t like it, I can cook something else,” Mila stuttered looking between her own plate and Salem. “Or I can just order pizza, I’m sure that would be bett—”

“I’m sure it’s great, thank you,” Salem interrupted, giving her a smile. I watched as Salem grabbed her knife and fork and cut into the chicken. The moment she brought the piece of chicken to her mouth she let out a moan. My dick should not have gotten hard as fast as it did, yet now I was sitting here with my dick pressed against the zipper of my pants painfully. I felt like a fucking teenager with a hard-on ready to blow at any moment.

Salem must have realized she moaned out loud because her eyes snapped open and now, she was staring at me. I knew I looked like I was ready to attack her. She probably just didn’t know it was sexual and not like I wanted to murder her.

“What’s your name?” Tobias asked thankfully, breaking this tension. I was seconds away from throwing her over my shoulder and having my way with her again. I never wanted a woman more than her. Salem woke something inside me. She was able to have control over me in ways I didn’t understand.

“Salem.”

“That’s it?” He scratched his nose. “No middle or last name? My name is Tobias Theodore Anderson Volkov. I have my mama and dad's last name.” Tobias shrugged, grabbing his milk from the table. “I got Theodore from Uncle Zaney, that’s his middle name. He delivered me when I came out of Mom's tummy.” I couldn’t look at Salem the moment he said Zaney. I had no problem with him calling me that, but now that she knew that I had to prepare myself for it coming back to bite me in the ass.

“Theodore is a beautiful middle name.” That grin she gave him told me everything I needed to know. She was going to hold it against me.

“I think so too, do you have a middle name?” he asked again.

“I do. Hmm… tell me a good reason why I should tell you?” she whispered to him though she was loud enough everyone could hear.

“Dada doesn’t trust you, Uncle Kill couldn’t find anything about you on his ’puter, and Uncle Zaney is obsessed with you. I think he has a crush on you as well.” Were men allowed to blush? Did it happen? Because if it did, I was blushing like a little girl who just found out their crush liked them back. Yet I had no idea if Salem actually felt anything towards me. I could feel my face getting redder by the moment, but the moment Salem looked at me I couldn’t help but smirk at her.

“I think that’s a very good answer, Salem Wren Gray.” I hadn’t realized I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for her to answer. Since we couldn’t find anything about her, and she never carried around a fucking ID that I could find, I didn’t realize I had no idea what her name was besides Salem. And now that I had her whole name, I never thought I could find a fucking name attractive.

Salem Wren Gray. It fits.

“What’s your real name?” A low growl came from Dimitri. I had been so busy focusing on Salem and Tobias I forgot Dimitri. The guy looked like he was ready to murder her. He held a fucking butter knife, his knuckles turning white. I knew him better, that he wouldn’t actually do anything unless she posed a threat with Tobias sitting right next to her. But I had no idea if Salem would do anything to push him to that point.

“Salem Wren Gray,” she said not to break eye contact with him. Which no one besides the three of us sitting here had ever been able to do. It was a good thing in my book.

“Interesting because Killian can’t find a single fucking thing about you,Salem,” he spat her name.

“Haven’t you heard of a dead girl walking?” Salem shrugged. Fucking shrugged like it was no big deal she was sitting here with the most feared man in the Mafia. His jaw tightened, and if either Mila didn’t diffuse him or I didn’t stop Salem, they were bound to both attack each other.

“Why are you here?” He tried a different approach.

---