Except, it wasn’t. Not yet. I pulled back, making Dima look at me. “We have to get out of here, and fast. He has a pilot on the way, and maybe others, too.”
He gave me a curt nod, his face still wracked with anguish and fury. Picking me up, he cradled me close to his hard chest and carried me out of the motel room.
“Take care of them,” he threw over his shoulder to Ivan.
Whoever Zoey really was, she made a small, fearful sound, and by the look on Ivan’s face, I would have felt sorry for both of them if I didn’t hate them both so much. Yes, even Zoey. Especially Zoey, for her betrayal. I was a little bit sorry not to be able to stay and watch what Ivan had in store for them.
I guess I was every bit as ruthless as my husband when I came right down to it.
Outside my dingy prison cell, the warm night air drenched my clammy skin, and I melted into Dima’s embrace, as satisfied as a house cat on a cushion in front of a fire. This was where I really wanted to be, and now that I had the chance again, I’d be damned if I let go anytime soon.
I was worn out, and every place I’d been hit began to throb, my sore throat absolute agony and making it hard to speak, even if I could find words to explain myself.
Dima remained silent as well on the long trip home, and every time I peeked at him, a muscle worked in his jaw as he kept his eyes firmly on the road. When we got there, he carried me into the house again, as tender as he ever was. But the look on his face was dark and cold, and had the chill of fear rising up my spine all over again.
He paused in the front hall, looking down at me and searching my face before he spoke.
“Did you go with Kuzmin’s sister on your own?” he asked, voice hollow. “Were you really trying to leave me?”
Oh God. How could I possibly explain?
Chapter 40 - Dimitry
I watched Olivia’s face carefully as I asked the question that had me tied up in knots. Was she tricked somehow, or had she gone willingly with Zoey?
Zoey, who was actually Daria Kuzmin, a girl I thought had died eight years ago in an explosion of my making. That was some long-buried baggage I hadn’t expected to get dug up and shoved in my face after trying all these years to make peace with the accident.
My brothers assured me that it wasn’t my fault; my intel that the building should have been empty was good. That collateral damage happened. But I thought I had been responsible for the deaths of two innocent kids, something that wasn’t normal even in my line of work. The fact that Daria was alive and Rurik had kept her hidden all this time didn’t make me feel any better. Her cousin had still been in that warehouse when it blew, and unlike Daria, he didn’t make it out.
Maybe Rurik did have every right to have beef with me, but not with Olivia. She had nothing to do with it and was off limits. I wasn’t going to go easy on him because of some leftover guilt. Even if I wanted to, Ivan was so pissed off at the betrayal that he wouldn’t have listened to me anyway. I had left their punishment up to him, so whatever he decided would be on him and not me.
Olivia was a different story. My feelings pinballed between anger and devastation. Part of me wanted to live in denial, but the questions just came out. She was still in my arms, holding onto me and resting her cheek against my shoulder, and it felt right even though her face was unreadable.
I kept her close, taking her to the living room where it would be more comfortable to have this conversation.
Would she lie to me? And would I even be able to recognize the truth from her at that point? Or how much of what she’d shared with me had been real. It had all been real for me since the moment I learned she was having trouble that I could help her out of. But she’d been fighting what we had ever since.
Some distant voice in my head was saying I should cut her loose, give her what she wanted, and ignore the pain that would inflict on me for the rest of my life. My heart railed against that, unsure if I’d ever get used to the fact I was going to die alone, because no woman would ever compare to Olivia. No one could ever replace her in my heart.
She was mine, but more importantly, I was hers. She just might not want me.
Maybe I really was the monster. Maybe I didn’t deserve her. But that didn’t mean I’d give her up.
Fuck. I had never had any problem like this before, and had never been faced with something that had me so divided. I just had to wait and hear something from her.
We crossed through the kitchen, and before I set her feet on the floor in the living area, I looked deep into her chocolate brown eyes, trying to see something there I could hold onto. I let go and turned her to face me, gripping her arms as she tipped up her chin to face me. All I wanted to do was kiss her and tell how damn brave she was, but not until I knew the truth.
And maybe after it would be too late.
“Tell me,” I said, sounding far gruffer than I meant to.
She sighed, and then took a deep breath to answer. Before any words came out, I heard a small click that set all my sensesinto high gear. I knew that sound like it was my own voice. There was a bomb in close proximity and we’d somehow just tripped it into activation.
I jerked my head left and right, scoping every inch of the room behind Olivia. Sure enough, the device was sitting right in plain sight on the coffee table five feet behind her. Forty-five seconds ticked down to forty-four, forty-three…
It was a big enough bomb to bring the roof down on us, but also childishly rudimentary. I could have the thing disarmed with time left on the counter, but first, I had to get Olivia to safety.
Noticing my intense concentration, she turned and saw it as I yanked her behind me and shoved her toward the door.