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Tsking him with a finger, Ivan said, “Accept the good in your life. Like me. I’m a fucking delight.”
Aiden watched the food going into the cart and frowned a little. “Ivan, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m adding up everything you’ve spent on me in the past twenty-four hours, and I have to ask…what do you make at your, ah, job?” “Mostly mistakes and inappropriate comments.”
Aiden stared at him, hard. There were words in the air. Several of them. They might mean something?
Aiden really didn’t know what to do with a little girl hacker. He really, truly, didn’t. It sort of made sense that she would learn the biz because of her fathers, but it still threw him for a few mental loops. He’d treated her like a pro because a) that seemed the right thing to do, and b) because if she could hack a bank? He so didn’t want to piss this kid off.
“Come on, K,” Ivan was wheedling as Aiden sat in the outside quad, eating his lunch. “You know you want to come join us.” “I performed a social activity yesterday. Please wait the requisite three days before submitting another request,” K deadpanned back, dry as a martini.
Residential houses were absolutely boring. There were no biometric locks. No motion-sensor cameras. No guard dogs to charm. Boring, boring, boring. Ivan more or less yawned his way through it, hoping all the while someone would pop up and shoot at him. Just to get the adrenaline going.
“Eidolon? What’s the hold-up?” Of course it was Carter who actually showed concern. “I find that birds no longer sing in the morning dew. I find that clouds have lost their shapes and forms, being nothing more than vapor and despair. I find the pep in my step is now just drag-marks on dusty road that no one wants to walk down. I am square being jammed into circle, and fondue is fountain of youth, which I shall never drink from.” A pregnant pause followed. “So, in other words,” Ari summed up dryly, “you’re bored.”
“Why do I get the impression that if Carter hadn’t been a nice guy, he’d have found himself in a shallow grave somewhere?” Ivan shot him a disapproving look. “You don’t bury people in shallow graves. Those get found. Bury him deep.”
She stopped at the entrance to the dining room, looking up at him seriously. “Don’t sneak up behind Daddy, okay? When he gets spooked, he punches things.” Sneaking up on an assassin did, in fact, sound like a terrible life decision.
“Ivan, are all of your friends good looking?” “Da. Sent ugly ones back.”
“Ivan’s a hot mess.” “Excuse you,” Ivan sniffed, for all the world put upon and wounded. “At least I’m a fun hot mess. Like a train wreck full of pizza, fireworks, and glitter.”
“First of all,” Carter argued in that mild manner of his, “you are now at the point that you view errands as ‘going out.’” “It is going out! I don’t understand you people. You do things all throughout the week, and then you hit the weekend and you want to do even more things. What’s wrong with you?”
Ivan tended to dive into relationships like a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide.
Tricksy. Yob tvou mat’. Stalking forward, Ivan kept a wary eye on the other thief. She caught his approach, stopped mid-word, and stared back at him in challenge. Ivan ignored her for a moment, catching Aiden by the nape of the neck and leaning in, swiping his tongue over Aiden’s soft lips. He squeaked in surprise, jumping, but didn’t pull free. Lifting his head, Ivan stared at Tricksy in challenge. “Mine,” he informed her flatly. From his earbud, he heard a chorus of hoots and outright howls of laughter as the three men watching enjoyed the show. Remi, somewhere in the background, demanded to
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“Ivan, I’m asking just because I’m getting that vibe. Did you sleep with her?” “In my defense, it was good vodka.”
“So, if you know this, does that mean you went outside today?” Ari asked hopefully. “It was chilly. There were people. I give it zero stars, do not recommend.”
A thump against the floor broke the moment as Remi whirled into the kitchen—fortunately on the other end of the island, away from knives and stove—wearing her pink tutu and combat boots. She punched and kicked at an imaginary opponent before flinging herself up into a lunge, landing again in a horse stance and round-house kicking dust motes.
“Remi,” Aiden asked in amusement, “what are you doing?” “Combat ballet,” she grunted, punching something again.
“What’s it taste like?” “Chicken,” Ivan deadpanned. “Spicy chicken.” Remi looked at him doubtfully. A hint of mischief dancing in his eyes, Aiden threw in casually, “You know why everything tastes like chicken, right? It’s because all animals have dinosaurs as ancestors. Technically, they all taste like dinosaur.”
“But does that mean I can meet her?” “No!” all four men burst out at once. Remi full out pouted and slumped dejectedly over the marble surface. “You’ve got enough questionable role models, Rems,”
If Grandmother had still been alive, Ivan would have had very strong words with her. She’d not done Aiden any favors by raising him as she had. Just look at what’d happened after she died. He’d immediately fallen into bad hands. Granted, they were Ivan’s hands, and he had only slightly nefarious intentions, but still. He was a criminal from a long line of criminals. Aiden deserved something…not. Better.
“I be back later.” Quick as a whip, Carter’s hand snapped out. “And where are you going?” Ivan twisted out of the hold with a wink. “Commit a felony. Or maybe get vodka. I decide in car.”
“As the normal one of the bunch, I need to tell you that Aiden will not appreciate having his family assassinated because they irritated you.”
Ivan, I’m proud of you. For once, you didn’t use a bedsheet.” “Even Ivan’s not crazy enough to bring a bedsheet to a knife fight,” Kyou said flippantly. There was a pregnant pause. “Oh god, now he’s thinking about it, isn’t he?”
Every man has a moral line, things they can’t agree with or go against. I walk that line like a drunken clown.
“No,” Aiden agreed calmly. “You’re not safe. You’re something else, something I’ve always needed. I feel like I’ve been in a stagnant pond for most of my life. I lived here, I was alright, but I wasn’t thriving. I wasn’t really living. I was waiting for something to come and change the world I was in. You swept in like a storm. Everything holding me back is gone—the stagnation, the decaying roots lassoing me down, all of it—and suddenly, I can breathe fully. I can live. You’re my wind, Ivan.”
A wild idea blossomed in the back of Ivan’s mind. Never one to let a bad idea stew, he slipped his earbud out and into his pocket to keep the others out of the loop. Then he immediately brought his idea out into the light. “Solnishko. You know how Aiden’s cousin is bad man?” She nodded, chocolate-brown eyes sharp on his face. “Yeah. Why?” “We think he’s hunting for Aiden.” Leaning in, he asked in a conspiratorial whisper, “Why don’t you take a walk with me and we go take care of him? I teach you how to use your new taser.” A wicked grin crossed her face. “Okay. Let me give Aiden his coffee
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“Alright.” Ivan cracked his neck to either side. “Let’s go find bad man.” “I love taking walks with you,” Remi said happily. “Can we get ice cream after?” “Absolutely, solnishko.
Sometimes, you met someone and knew from the first moment you wanted to spend your whole life without them.
In truth, he understood what Ivan was truly doing—he was teaching Remi confidence. By exposing her, as he did, to danger, teaching her how to deal with it, he was giving her the ability to handle such danger in the future. Ivan had had her back the entire time. There was no way in hell he’d have let the situation get out of hand or put Remi in true danger. Taking care of Robert was just a bonus.
“I have every reason to be smug,” Ivan returned. (Smugly.)
