Page 40 of The Payback

Dimitri stomps off, and I take the stairs two at a time to my room. I push through the door and don’t see Ellie. Cracking the door to the ensuite, I find her stripped down to her underwear, the tie’s tail gripped between her teeth as she tightens the material around her arm until I can stitch it.

My first instinct is to rush to her—to touch her and make sure she’s okay. But something about the anger in her eyes makes me pause.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” I demand, catching her by the shoulders to steady her when she lists to one side, clutching at the wound. Her arm is coated in red, and she’s got a slight glossy quality in her eyes.

Ellie grinds her teeth, her gaze flashing with anger. “I was thinking I didn’t want to watch anyone die today,” she mutters, wincing as she squeezes her arm tighter.

I can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for her as I gently pry her fingers away from the wound. As I wet a hand towel and start wiping away the sticky blood from the cut, I notice how close we are, how her body is pressed against mine.

“Thanks,” she mutters, pulling away from me. “I can take it from here.”

I don’t want to let her go, so I step closer. “Why did you put yourself in the way?” I ask, my eyes searching hers. She’s mad at me for snapping at her, but fuck, I need to know.

Ellie hesitates for a moment but then speaks. “You had Dimitri handled, but Oksana was alone and off to the side. She was unprotected, and I acted on instinct. Besides, what better way to ingratiate myself into the family than to save Sergei’s wife?”

With my fingers still on her skin, my mind races as I process her words. She put herself in harm’s way to gainapproval?! I’m about to press for more details when I hear a voice behind me.

“Nik, what the hell are you doing?” Dimitri seethes. It’s clear he’s been watching us from the shadows, and the jealousy in his eyes is unmistakable when our gazes collide.

I feel the tension in the air as Dimitri approaches us, his eyes locked on Ellie. “How bad is it?” he demands.

Ellie doesn’t flinch under his gaze. “I’m fine, honestly. Nik was just getting the antiseptic ready to flush the wound. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before,” she says, her eyes flickering back to me. “Life of an organised crime princess, you know.”

And an Interpol agent.Does Dimitri truly not know who he let into his home?

Dimitri’s eyes narrow as he looks between us, his hand twitching towards his gun. I have to defuse the situation before it gets out of hand.

“I don’t know if I have enough in here. D, check your bathroom kit for a bottle like this,” I say, pulling the antiseptic from under my sink.

Dimitri looks from Ellie to the bottle in my hand. He nods, and his concern for Ellie’s well-being wins out over his need to assert whatever caveman alpha bullshit he feels like he has to display. As he disappears into the shadow of my bedroom, I turn back to Ellie, my heart racing.

“You’re playing with fire,” I warn her.

Ellie just smiles, a dangerous glint in her eyes. “Isn’t that what we’re both good at?”

She hops onto the countertop and sits beside the sink. In a heartbeat, she holds her arm over the basin and steals the bottle of antiseptic from my grip, dumping it over the wound before I can react. Her face contorts in pain as she hisses, then curses colourfully in French.

She breathes through the sting, and I’m transported to that evening a week ago when she sucked Dimitri’s cock right in front of me, breathing in and out through her nose as he filled her mouth.

I have never been more turned on, more frustrated, or more wrathful than I was at that moment as she got herself and my boss off right in front of me. And only once did she slide her gaze to me as I sat in that club chair torturing myself while watching the woman, who I’m pretty sure is the love of my life, perform her wifely duties for my former best friend. What a clusterfuck.

“Got it,” Dimitri says, stepping back into the bathroom.

I take the bottle from him and hold Ellie’s arm in my grip so she can’t shy away from the second pouring. “What did the twins say?” I ask D, distracting him as much as myself from having to hurt Ellie.

“They’re on it. The plates were ditched, but they’re following the van out of the city and across the bridge. They’re making a break for the north, where the traffic cams will be less frequent.”

“Good. Check on Sergei, Oksana, and Ana,” I say. “I have to stitch this, and I don’t think you’ll want to hear what your wife will say about it.”

She grits her teeth as the burn takes root in her arm, and a sweat breaks out on her brow. “Go, Dimitri. I’ll be fine and will find you after.”

Dimitri leans in, takes Ellie’s lips in a fierce kiss like a man possessed, and whispers something in her ear. It’s too low to hear, but the words send a shiver through my patient. He leaves as quickly as he arrived, and I level Ellie with a glare.

“What are you doing here, Ellie?”

“Being stitched up so I can return to my husband, Nik.” She bats her eyelashes at me, and I grip her arm tighter. She runs her gaze over the open buttons of my shirt, lifting a finger to trace the ink hidden below. “When did you get all the tattoos, anyway?”

“They’re new.” I shrug, then unpack my stitch kit. I started getting them when I returned from Interpol, covering my body the way I wanted and couldn’t before—etching a lifetime of tattoo ideas in mere months. “This is going to hurt. You want anything for the pain?”

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