Page 69 of Love, Always and Forever
Then she bolted toward her motorcycle. Mikhail held back her brothers while she yanked on her helmet, started the bike, and tore off down the street. Actually, he didn’t have to work too hard to keep them from trying to stop her. Both of them stared after her as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
After a few seconds, Chad blinked and looked around the yard as if he thought Amy was hiding someplace, or maybe hoping it had been some other woman who had just driven off.
“What the hell?”
His brother looked just as bewildered. “She rides your motorcycle?”
Petty or not, Mikhail was enjoying their confusion. “No, she rides her own. Mine’s bigger.”
Panda growled when Will started toward the house. Mikhail understood just how the dog felt. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going inside to wait for her to calm down and come back.”
Mikhail shook his head. “You don’t know her very well if you think that’s going to happen anytime soon. That woman’s got a temper.”
Although he’d never really seen it in action until today. The only time he’d seen her emotions running that hot was when they were making love, not exactly something he wanted to share with her brothers. “And if you set one foot in her house without her express permission, I’ll call the cops and let them sort it out.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“The hell I wouldn’t. I’m sure I’m not the only neighbor who heard you threatening her. And I bet your dad would love driving a hundred miles just to bail your pathetic asses out of jail.”
Chad blocked his brother’s path toward the house. “She won’t forgive us for invading her space, Will. We’ve mishandled this whole situation, and you know it.”
He shot a look in Mikhail’s direction. “Except for the part about this being none of your business. You have no idea what’s really going on here. If you did, you would be siding with us.”
It would’ve been easy to tell the guy to fuck off, that there was no way he’d ever stand with them against Amy. But there was something in the other man’s expression that struck a familiar chord with him. They thought they were protecting Amy, not from Mikhail, but from herself. Like maybe they thought she was doing harm to herself somehow.
“Are you telling me this is more than just you two being overprotective of your very attractive younger sister?”
Will nodded. “She’ll probably kick my ass for telling you this, but what the hell. She’s already pissed at me. Our Amy was born with a screwed-up heart valve. They tried to fix it surgically years ago, but all that did was buy her some more time. A couple of years ago, they came up with a new procedure that made all the difference for her.”
His expression grew grim. “You can’t imagine what it’s like living with someone you love, always knowing that on any given day you could come home to find out she’d died. Waiting for that phone call every minute of every day.”
His words sucker punched Mikhail. Only sheer stubbornness kept him upright. They had no way of knowing that he knew exactly what they were talking about. He’d experienced it firsthand. Unlike theirs, his worst nightmare had come true. He had come home from school to find the one person in the world he cared about dead with a fucking needle shoved in her arm. It took every bit of control he had to force the memories back down to the dark corner of his soul where they’d lived since that day.
Images of Amy’s body flowed through his mind. “So that’s what the scars are from. She mentioned something about surgeries, but she let me think the procedures had been no big deal.”
Damn her, anyway.
“So you’re telling me she shouldn’t be riding a motorcycle.” He stared down at the holes she’d been digging. No doubt she’d also dragged that forty-pound bag of compost across the yard by herself. Well, shit.
Will looked more resigned than angry now. “Hell, I don’t know what she should or shouldn’t do. That’s the problem. The doctors tell us that the surgery fixed the problem. God knows she looks better and has a helluva lot more energy these days than she used to. I even get why she’s determined to live a normal life.” The man closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. “It remains to be seen if she can. It’s like we’re all too scared to believe that a miracle really happened.”
Then his eyes, so like his sister’s, popped back open. “Wait a minute. When did you see her scars?”
Mikhail met his gaze head-on. “Do you really want me to spell it out for you?”
Not that he would. What happened between him and Amy was personal. Special, not to mention the best thing that had ever happened to him. A small voice in the back of his mind started yammering at him. Were those good times worth what it would cost him if Amy’s efforts to make up for lost time proved to be too much for her heart?
Chad and Will exchanged glances, clearly not happy to learn that their sister’s walk on the wild side had included more than a Harley and some do-it-herself landscaping.
“You hurt her, and you’ll answer to us.” Will’s smile looked a bit wolfish. “And there are four of us.”
Mikhail’s own expression turned predatory in return. “I only have two brothers, but one served in the Special Forces and the other was with the military police, while I spent ten years in the Marine Corps.”
Chad didn’t look all that impressed. “So?”
“So we all learned how to fight from the best.” Mikhail brushed an imaginary piece of lint off Chad’s shoulder. “I just thought you might want to bring a few friends to even up the odds.”
