Page 29 of White Rabbit
“No! It’s Piter.” She nodded toward my brother.
“She kept him alive,” Kaz said as the lifted the gurney to rush the man to the clinic downstairs. “Good job, Brecklyn.”
Then he was gone, running with his team to the service elevator that only went down to the work spaces and storage in the basement and subbasement.
My full attention was on my wife. Blood didn’t bother me. Seeing blood on her had my stomach churning. She could have been killed!
Scooping her up into my arms, I started toward the stairs knowing my staff would clean up and myavtorityetwould ensure the safety of the compound and the delivery of my package downstairs.
My breathing hissed from me. My usual calm evaded me. Blood. Hurt. Killed. None of it should have been close to Brecklyn, even if they were facts of life.
“Why weren’t you in the safe room?” I demanded, regretting the tone when she flinched. Fuck. I couldn’t control it.
“I didn’t even know there was a safe room, let alone where it is. And Nikita ran away when Zlata told her to take me there.”She shoved at my chest with her bloody hands. “And if I’d been hiding, Piter would be dead in the foyer!”
“Better him than you!”
“Don’t say that! Saving lives is the most important thing to me.”
“Most important?” I challenged in a low tone.
She glared at me, refusing to say that I ranked as less than first with her. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Digging your hole deeper,Moya kokhána.”
“That’s rich, coming from you. How many graves did you dig tonight?”
“None,” I shot back. My men had done all the killing. “You know who I am. And you knowyouare most important to me, even if I don’t rank first for you.”
“Stop it,” she whispered.
I carried her into our bedroom, kicking shut the door, then stormed directly into the bathroom. I pressed her against the wall in the shower.
“Stop it?” I challenged against her lips.
“I was so scared,” she admitted. “I know it’s your life, but I hated that you might get hurt.”
“Me?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “Don’t you get it. You led me here. I’m all in this dark existence in the rabbit hole of your life. Our life. Whereeverything is different than I ever imagined. But if you’re not here, what’s the point.”
“If you’re not here, what’s the point?” I echoed. “You’re the air I breathe now,Moya kokhána.”
“What does that mean?Moya kokhána?” she asked her bloody hands running over me. I caught them and started stripping off our clothes.
“My love,” I answered, starting the water after I kicked our clothes into the corner of the large enclosure, to be discarded later. “It is my love in my home language.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re American.”
I tipped up her chin with two fingers and nipped at the bottom lip of her mouthy mouth. “My heritage isUkraini. My heart isUkraini. My primary language is—”
“Ukraini,” she finished.
“Still with the smart mouth. You know what I said we will do with it.”
“I’m a little covered with yuck right now, but if you insist.”
She started to kneel, but I dragged her back upright, muttering under my breath in Ukrainian.
