Page 22 of Vendetta Crown

It's like she said. That will come later.

"You're safe," I tell her, my voice rough with emotion. "You're safe now."

I stroke her hair as she cries, feeling something break open inside my own chest. My vision blurs as tears fill my eyes. How close I came to losing her. How close both of us came to death.

This is what safety looks like. Not the mansion with its armed guards, not the bratva name, not the guns or the money or the power. Safety is this moment and this woman in my arms finally letting herself feel the full weight of what she's been through.

Because she still believes that I'll be here to catch her if she falls.

I press my lips to the crown of her head and let my own tears fall silently.

Her body shakes with sobs, her tears soaking through my shirt. The pain in my shoulder fades to a dull throb compared to the ache in my chest. She cries until her voice grows hoarse, until her tears run dry, until her breathing steadies against my chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, her voice raspy.

"Never apologize for this," I tell her, stroking her hair. "Never. You did nothing wrong,zarechka."

She shifts in my arms, careful of my wounded shoulder, and settles beside me on the bed. Her head rests in the crook of my arm, her hand splayed across my chest as if to reassure herself that my heart is still beating.

"I keep thinking about what would have happened if Potyomkin hadn't come," she whispers.

"Don't," I say, my voice harder than I intend. "Don't torture yourself with what-ifs."

"I can still feel his hands on me." Her voice is so small I have to strain to hear it. "His breath. His teeth."

"He will never touch you again." My arm tightens around her instinctively. "You're safe now."

"Because of you."

"Because of yourself,zarechka." I correct her. "Because you remembered Potyomkin's name and title. Because you found a way to contact him even when that monster held you prisoner. Because you refused to be a damsel in distress."

She falls silent, her fingers tracing idle patterns on my chest. I can feel the slight tremor in her touch, the aftershocks of terror still rippling through her.

"I've never been so afraid," she finally says. "Not even when my family died."

"And I've never been as afraid as when I thought I'd never see you again," I confess.

I press my lips to her forehead, breathing in the scent of her hair and detect just a tiny hint of her coconut scent behind the hotel shampoo masking it all.

God, I missed that smell.

No, I correct myself.

I missedher.

The weight of her in my arms anchors me to reality. Every breath she takes convinces me that we've survived, that we're still here, and that we're still together.

We lie like that for hours, with nothing but the sound of each other's breaths and heartbeats in the darkness until the sky outside turns from black to indigo to the different hues of pink and gold.

6

AURORA

I stepout of the shower and secure the towel around my body, feeling cleaner but no less fragile. Steam billows around me as I push the bathroom door open. Ruslan is sitting on the edge of the bed, and his eyes immediately find mine.

For one perfect moment, everything feels normal.

Then his gaze drops to my shoulder, and reality crashes back.

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