"You really want me to bring this child here if she has no family?"
His silver eyes turned molten and she knew she was seeing the edge of his temper.
"She's not your daughter or anything?" she asked, suddenly suspicious. Why would he think after five years he could walk back into her life and demand she bring a child into her home? It didn't make sense. Her fingertip traced the name over and over.
There was silence. It stretched out so long she lifted her head and looked at him. Her breath caught in her lungs. His eyes were alive with temper.
"What. The. Fuck. Why would you ask me that?"
She opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell when his emotions registered. Yes, he was angry, but more, the pain of loss was there. It was so raw and new for him. Five years had helped fade the sorrow so she could breathe again, but for him, the loss of their daughter was that moment. That hour. That day. His grief was overwhelming.
"Don't say fuck, Viktor. It isn't necessary to swear at me. I'm just trying to figure things out. Of course I'll check into this child. It's not like I can just grab her if the state has her or if she's in foster care. I'm a single . . ." She trailed off when his eyes went molten again.
Viktor leaned toward her. "You're married. Married. To me. You're my wife. Legally and in every other way." He caught her hand and turned it over, palm up. The moment he pressed his thumb into the center, the two rings blazed to life, coming to the surface, looking like a tattoo. "You're mine. This says so." He held up his palm and did the same thing so the two interwoven circles gleamed gold. "I belong to you. That isn't going away. Not ever, Blythe, so we're going to work this out."
She didn't say anything. What could she say? She didn't think so, not after five years of complete silence. She knew there were unanswered questions and she wanted those answers, but she wasn't so certain she wanted to trust ever again. He'd ripped out her heart. Her soul. She'd been a walking shell until she met the five other women who had banded with her in order to try to live again.
She had built a life for herself here in Sea Haven, on the farm. She liked her life. Viktor was a demanding man, used to dictating, and clearly those around him jumped to do his bidding. Before, when she'd first married him, she'd liked that trait in him, the one that made her feel safe. She'd worked hard on her independence, and she didn't know if it was possible, even if she wanted, to live with a man so intense and such a dictator.
"Some things you can't get past, Viktor. You know that." She smoothed out the paper. "I'll look into this girl for you, and if she needs a place, I'll see if Lev or one of the others can produce some of their impeccable paperwork. Airiana is good with children. So is Lexi."
"You. It has to be you."
She moistened her lips. "I don't think--"
"You." He cut her off. "She needs you. The moment I saw her, I knew she was important and that she needed us."
"Us?" she echoed faintly. It was suddenly hot in the room and she could barely breathe. She was really afraid she might pass out. "For God's sake, Viktor, we aren't together. Not anymore." She held up her hand to stop the protest she could see forming. "Even if we did manage to work things out between us, it would take time and a lot of effort. We couldn't possibly foster a child while we were trying to do that."
"You've made up your mind that it isn't going to work before you've had a chance to even hear me out."
"You think?" She folded the paper carefully and slipped it into a pocket of her jeans. "I can hear everything you say and even understand why you did the things that you did, but I still went through an ugly tragedy alone. You can't take that back, and frankly, neither can I. Then there's the little matter of the woman on the back of your bike. You think I don't know what it means when a woman is riding on the back of a biker's motorcycle?"
"She's not my old lady. You are. She's my sister."
"You don't have any sisters."
"I have two of them, and Alena was helping me out, pretending to be my old lady. In the clubs, there are always women who hang around looking to hook up. The other members of the chapter would expect me to sleep with them. I took this assignment, joined the Swords and worked my way up to enforcer because I knew that sooner or later Evan would have to show himself. The one man he hates above all others on this earth is Jackson Deveau. After studying Evan, I knew he'd want to kill him himself."
Something inside Blythe went very still. "Evan Shackler is planning on killing Jackson?"
He nodded. "He sent me and the boys here in order to prepare for the Swords to come en masse in order to provide distractions so he can slip in and kill Deveau."
She took a breath, let it out, hearing a strange roaring in her head. "So you're actually here undercover."
"Exactly. I came ahead of the others, and my brothers are with me, so there's no danger at the moment. You'll have to be very careful to stay away from me as soon as some of the others begin to show up. I can't have them finding any trail that might lead to you. I wouldn't have let you see me, but the first damn sighting I had of you was that fucking lunkhead who was all over you."
Blythe opened and closed her mouth several times. "He wasn't all over me" was what she finally managed to get out when that wasn't at all what she wanted to say. She was still processing.
"He was all over you. The man would have kissed you in another minute."
"All that is beside the point." She struggled to wrap her head around what he was telling her. "So you're actually here in Sea Haven undercover, on this assignment. The same assignment that kept you away from me for five years."
He nodded. "It was coincidence that my target just happened to be coming to Sea Haven."
Her breath caught in her throat. The blow was hard, a wicked punch to her stomach when it all finally sank in. She'd been so close to believing every word out of his mouth. He was playing her. Again. Using her. Again.
"Wait a minute." Blythe stared up at him, a slow burning anger, a very unfamiliar anger, spreading through her, covering the hurt so she didn't have to feel it all over again. "Are you telling me you didn't come here for me? You're here because of a job? After all this time, you still didn't come for me?"
There was silence. He slowly sat up straight and blinked. That small movement told her everything she needed to know. She pointed to the stairs. "Get. Out."
"Blythe, be reasonable, baby. I wouldn't risk you like that. I planned to come to you after the job was done."
"Get. Out. I don't care if you need a cover, or a place to stay or just wanted a little change from your female companionship, but I can assure you, you're not getting any of that from me. Get out of my house this instant."
"I'm not going anywhere. We can't get past all of this if you won't even talk to me. I know it isn't easy for you. I have questions too. I'm trying to explain."
"Yes, explanations like the whole sister thing."
"It's true. As long as I had an old lady, no one questioned the fact that I wasn't sleeping with anyone else, and believe me, they would have noticed."
"So now I'm supposed to believe you haven't been with another woman for five years. Get. Out."
His eyes narrowed and the gray-blue went to a devastating silver that always took her breath away. "How many men have you been with in five years?"
"That is none of your business," she snapped. He didn't need to know that there was no other man. There never would be another man. She ran instead of having sex. Sometimes she ran half the night.
"I'm making it my business."
"Make it your business all you want, but do it getting out of my house." She hissed it at him, furious that he wouldn't listen. Like she was going to believe one single word he said. "And don't worry, I have no intentions whatsoever of acknowledging your existence while you're doing your job here in Sea Haven. Jackson and Jonas can serve you with the divorce papers, because we are getting a divorce."
"Over my dead body, and maybe theirs," he snapped, every bit as furious as she was. He stoo
d up. He was so tall, his shoulders so wide he took up a good deal of space, space she needed to breathe when once again her world was falling apart. Stupid. How had she dared to hope? What was wrong with her that after everything that happened, she was so willing to drop right into his lap? And she had been. She wasn't going to kid herself about that. She'd bought into everything he said and all she wanted to do was throw herself into his arms. What an idiot.
He started toward her, and she panicked completely. He couldn't touch her. She'd be lost if he touched her and she'd despise herself. She picked up the nearest object and flung it at him. "Get. Out."
He dodged and kept coming. Behind him, her music box smashed against the wall with a terrible crash. Blythe did the only possible thing she could for self-preservation. She ran to the wall beside her bed and hit the panic button. There would be questions she couldn't answer, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was keeping him away from her.
9
"WHAT the hell did you just do?" Viktor demanded.
Blythe kept her back to the wall, covering the panic button that looked like an ordinary light switch. Her heart thundered in her ears. What had she done? Viktor looked invincible. More, he was, by his birth brothers' own admission, extremely dangerous, more so even than all of them. He certainly had some dangerous-looking men he surrounded himself with. She was very thankful that they weren't present. If they were, she might have started World War III.
"You'd better leave now while you can, Viktor," she said, making every effort to sound reasonable. Just looking at him hurt.
"Tell me what you did, Blythe."
His tone was so scary she felt the color leech from her face. He stepped close and caught at her wrist, tugging until she was propelled forward and into him. One arm locked around her back while he examined the switch. He swore, really filthy words, she was certain, in his native language.
"Tell me now." His voice was low. "I'm not alone, Blythe. Reaper and Savage are out on the roof and the others are close. If my birth brothers are going to show up, someone's going to get hurt. I don't want anyone harmed, but the ones I brought with me play for keeps. They don't know any other way." He caught her upper arms and held her at arm's length from him. "I have to know now."
She knew immediately he was genuinely worried and that calmed her instantly. She had to protect her family, just as he did. She didn't doubt for one minute that there would be bloodshed if things weren't handled right.
"They'll come. All of them. Lissa probably as well, although she might go with the others to Airiana's to help protect the children there." She wasn't about to tell him how defensible Airiana's home was. She might need to retreat there.
He whistled, a low, one-two note that sounded more like a hunting bird than a man. Immediately a man stuck his head through her open window. She recognized him from the streets earlier.
"We're going to have company very soon, and they'll be out for blood. Stand down and let me handle it. Keep Savage under control. These are my brothers as well, and I don't want them hurt. The one to watch out for is Gavriil. He's a bit like Savage, so we don't want the two of them anywhere near each other."
"What the fuck?"
"Don't say fuck in front of my woman. Blythe panicked a little and called them in. She'll talk to them with me and we'll sort it out."
"Not going to stand for anyone trying to search me or remove weapons," Reaper warned. "And I'm calling in the others."
"You make it clear these men are family. No one touches them."
"As long as they don't put a hand on you, Czar, we'll get along."
Blythe closed her eyes tiredly. She really had panicked. What had possessed her to let things get so out of hand? She couldn't be around Viktor without feeling intense emotion. Already her anger was fading, replaced by more familiar hurt. "Can't you just leave? I'm exhausted, Viktor, and I want to go to bed. Alone." She had to make that very clear. "We've talked enough. You said what you had to say and I found out why you're really here, which has nothing at all to do with me. Please go back to your friends--brothers--and your woman and let's just leave it at that."
Reaper's eyebrow went up. He shook his head and ducked back outside.
"Let's get downstairs, babe. We've got to present a united front. They're going to try to get you off alone to make certain I haven't threatened you. Reaper, Savage and the others will stop at nothing to protect me."
"Then leave now."
"No, damn it. Why are you being so fucking unreasonable?"
She decided she must have gone past the point of tired into sheer exhaustion because that made her want to smile. He could use foul language in front of her but his friend couldn't. "Why do you persist in thinking I'm the unreasonable one? You left me for five years. That alone without all the things that happened . . ."
"Things outside my control, and I would have given anything to be with you. I would have come if I'd known."
He pulled her down the hallway, and she went with him because it was clear he wasn't leaving and she didn't want anyone hurt, especially the men she'd called to her aid. She'd come to regard them as family. "But you didn't know and they happened. Then there's the fact that you have another woman regardless of whether or not you want to give me a bullshit story about her protecting you from other women. Like you'd go five years without sex. I know you, you were insatiable. I think we had sex three times a day at least."
"Four, but who's counting," he said, snapping his teeth together as if he might take a bite out of her. "Four, and I wanted more. I remember every single minute of my time with you. At night, when I'm alone, I have my fist around my cock and think of you, the way you looked all sprawled out on the bed for me. In the shower. Your body over the back of the couch. Once on the lawn in the backyard because I couldn't wait one more minute. The night in the car when you . . ."
"Stop. Just stop it," she said desperately, locking her legs so he couldn't drag her.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her easily, taking her down the stairs fast. "I remember everything, Blythe. Do you think a man can't be faithful to his woman? Or is it only me you have such a low opinion of?"
She began to struggle, and at the end of the stairs he set her on her feet and caught her face between his hands, bending down to put his face inches from her. "Look at me, Blythe. Look at me."
At the urgency in his voice she stopped struggling and lifted her gaze to meet his.
"You think you've seen the worst by looking at my birth brothers, at Jackson and Jonas, especially Gavriil. You've seen the hell in their eyes, but, baby, they lived through a picnic in comparison to us. My brothers don't know any other way but to kill. I don't either. That's who we are. It's what we are. They can't be threatened, especially not by my birth brothers, who are all capable as well. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? You have to stand with me here. You have to make my birth brothers believe you're not afraid of me." He smoothed back the hair from her face. "I would never under any circumstances harm you. If you pulled out a gun right now and threatened to pull the trigger, I'd let you."
"And the others, your brothers, would come after me."
He fell silent, and she had her answer. The anxiety in him was plain and it was very real. Blythe took a deep breath and forced calm. There was no expression on his face, but there was no way for him to keep emotions from her. Feeling poured out of him, filling the room until she felt anxious as well.
All fight was gone and a calm resolve came over her. She knew, deep down, Viktor wouldn't hurt her; she was being ridiculous fighting him like a child. She also knew that every one of his birth brothers would protect her, and that would be a tragedy. Viktor knew it as well, and he feared for them. He had to know what they were capable of and yet he feared for them--what did that say about the men he traveled with? What did that say about him?
"Blythe? Are you with me?"
She nodded, because she knew the situation was dire and it could quickly get out of
hand. He felt so troubled. Hurting. The pain of loss beat at him. He was upset that he couldn't get her to understand. All that was right there in the room with them, yet he gave a sigh of relief and straightened.
"Thank you."
That shamed her a little. She had every right to be angry with him, but she knew better than to put others in jeopardy. There was no excuse for it all. "I'm sorry. I did panic, and I don't even know why."
"I scared you, Blythe," he stated. "You were with me every single day we were apart, so it didn't occur to me that you wouldn't be used to the way I move, or look."
That bothered her, because sincerity not only rang in his voice, but filled the room along with the other emotions battering at her. The front door opened without preamble, no knocking, just the door opening, and Gavriil walked in. He filled the doorframe, tall and broad-shouldered, wearing his long black coat that swirled around his ankles. She knew that coat had weapons concealed in it. His face was grim, his eyes cold, taking in both of them.
Again, there was no expression on either man's face, but she felt that sudden stillness as they looked at each other. Two brothers who had been ripped apart when they were children. Now at odds because of her. There was a slight hitch of breath, and such emotion quickly shut down, as if both men had to compartmentalize in order to survive.
"Blythe, come here." Gavriil beckoned her with his hand. He stayed across the room from them, but he'd taken one step to the left so that the open door was no longer at his back.
"Gavriil," Viktor greeted.
"Viktor." Gavriil kept his gaze on his older brother's face, but he beckoned to Blythe a second time.
She crossed the room to him. He took her wrist and very, very gently, guided her around him until she was behind him.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes," she said immediately. "I'm so sorry I hit that panic button. Viktor just surprised me. He's intimidating, and I wasn't expecting it. Him. I hit it before I thought."
"He didn't hurt you." It was a statement, but all of them knew it was a question.
"Of course not. He wouldn't. Not ever." She said that with conviction because they were talking about physical harm, and no way would Viktor ever put his hands on a woman in that way. Even this man she wasn't certain of, the side of him he was showing her now, she knew would never hurt a woman unless it was self-defense or she was responsible for hurting others.