Page 39 of Bound in the Dark

“Diana, you can’t do things like you did tonight.”

Not the most eloquent of arguments, but it stated his point.

Diana opened the door and slid out of her seat before turning to face him. “I obviously can, because I did.”

Her eyes sparked with rage. He'd hoped to break through her calm, just not quite that way. Screw it. He’d take her anger if it meant she wasn’t ignoring him. She slammed the door shut before he could respond.

Highdive got out of the car and jogged to put himself in her path. There was no way he was going to let her run away until she understood she couldn’t take risks without considering the consequences. They were a couple and everything she did could affect the Club as a whole.

“That's not what I meant and you know it.” The fight he saw in her eyes probably didn’t bode well for him but he didn’t care.

She cocked her hip. “Okay. What exactly did you mean?”

Putting into words every fear and horrible scenario he had imagined once he realized she'd been up on that ridge was difficult. That none of them had happened didn’t matter. Just the possibility that she could have been hurt or worse tore him apart.

“You got lucky tonight, Diana. But if Petrov’s men had figured out where you were, or if they had more men in the woods, you'd have been stuck up there with only a teenage girl as backup.”

She lifted her hands up to her face like she was praying then dropped them with a huff.

“Luck? That’s what you think kept me alive tonight? Why? Because I’m a poor, defenseless woman who needs a big, strong man to keep me safe?”

He was making a mess of this. The last thing he wanted was to belittle her abilities, but being able to fight off a jumped-up Italian pretty boy or being a deadly shot with a sniper rifle didn’t make up for years of training in tactics. It didn’t give a person the skills necessary to survive a battle like tonight. That required a team and years of training.

Taking a deep breath he tried to backpedal a little. “I know you are very skilled with a sniper rifle. I saw that myself tonight. I also know it wasn’t the first time you have killed someone. But being an assassin is not the same thing as being in a battle. You aren’t trained for that kind of combat.”

She snorted. “Do you know how old I was the first time I killed someone?”

Highdive shook his head, sure the answer to that question was going to piss him off.

“I was ten years old. I strangled the son of one of my father's soldiers with a sheet when he tried to crawl into bed with me." Her eyes seemed to glitter in the dim light. "I stopped counting the number of lives I'd ended when I was eighteen because it no longer mattered. Highdive, I’m twenty-eight and have been known and hired as Tishina for over fifteen years. What did or did not happen tonight hadnothingto do with luck.”

She had started killing for hire at age thirteen? Horrifying as that was, she still wasn't understanding.

“This isn’t about your ability to kill. I'm saying you need to think before you act. Clear your plans with me ahead of time so you can have someone who has actual combat training as backup. Consider the consequences your actions might have on others." Highdive clenched his fists. "You threatened to start a gun battle in the middle of the Clubhouse because you wanted to meet some contact and wouldn’t even discuss other options. That is completely unacceptable.”

There was a chain of command in place for a reason. To ensure actions were thought out and coordinated. To keep people from recklessly putting their lives in danger.

“You know what's unacceptable?” Her voice practically hissed with emotion. “You thinking that you can keep me locked up in some sort of cage like a pretty bird. I'm not a pet!”

“I never said I thought you were a pet.” What would it take to get her to understand he just wanted what was best for her?

“No? You say I have to clear my actions with you, consider the consequences. But does that order work both ways?” She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think so, but you still think you can dictate my actions. How is that any different than a trained attack dog serving its master?”

Highdive shook his head. She was right to a point but... “You don't have the training that my Brothers and I have. You need to let me protect you, if you go tearing off when I can't back you up…” He threw his hands up into the air. “Do you realize it would kill me if something happened to you and I wasn't there to protect you?”

“Kretin!” Diana slipped around him so quickly he didn’t have a chance to stop her. She stormed off towards the Clubhouse.

He wasn’t sure what the Russian word she had shouted at him meant, but it probably wasn’t flattering.

“Diana!” Highdive shouted, but the aggravating woman didn’t even pause her stride.

The night air felt like ice against his skin. He tried taking a calming breath. Did his Brothers have these kinds of arguments with their women behind closed doors? He didn’t think so.

Okay, none of the other Old Ladies had the skills that his did. They might have had hard lives but they didn't know what it was like to be the sharp end of the stick.

Only Max’s woman, Cat ever showed even the slightest problem with the way things worked. She had been an undercover DEA agent before the Cartels ruined her career. She, too, had wanted to be kept fully in the loop.

Did he need to rethink how much he shared with Diana? This was what Hawk had been warning him about earlier. Could he treat her like he did his Brothers? Let her risk her life?

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