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“It was a mistake not to come here in person sooner. Now that I’ve seen you… I intend to be here much more often.”
“Is that how you say hello to me?” he asks lightly. “With a question about another man?”
I’ve known it since the first second I laid eyes on her: she’s mine. And if she doesn’t accept it yet—well, then… she will. In time.
“Not a believer in fairy-tale endings?” She smiles sadly. “You don’t strike me as the happily-ever-after type.” I laugh. “No. That, I’m not.”
“Don’t,” I whisper to him. “Please.” “I thought I told you to stay downstairs,” he growls.
“I’m letting you live for one reason and one reason only: so that you can run back and tell your boss that he needs to send better men on his missions unless he wants to get them back in body bags. But if I ever hear you call her a bitch again, I’ll cut your fucking nuts off and shove them in your mouth.”
“None of that should’ve happened. Those motherfuckers…” He shakes his head, then pauses as if noticing me for the first time. “You’re trembling.” I turn away. Maybe if I just feign understanding, like this is no big deal, he’ll leave me alone. Nope. His arm goes around me, and the shaking worsens. “Listen to me. Whatever you thought you saw, whatever happened tonight, you have to know that I’d never hurt you. Never.”
“I am Gavriil Nikolaev, don of the Nikolaev Bratva in Boston, and I do not accept your resignation.”
“If you think I’m going to let you go, you’re out of your fucking mind, Hannah.”
“You have my baby in your womb, Hannah Hall,” he whispers. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Regret is for the weak,” he whispers. “And you, Hannah Hall, mother of my child… you are not weak.”
But what it comes down to is this: I have two choices right now. Leave, or be with her. In the end, it’s no choice at all.
There is so much violence in this world and she is just one woman—how is she meant to take it? That’s the thing: she isn’t. Because I am here to take it for her.
“You were never meant to happen to me,” I whisper. “It was an accident. A mistake. But you did happen. And now, there isn’t a single goddamn force in the whole fucking universe that can tear you away from me. Not the Mexicans, not the Irish, not death itself. Not even you. You’re mine, Hannah Hall. And I will wade through hell, if that’s what it takes, to keep you from ever shedding another tear.”
“You are the center of my universe. I don’t know if you’ll ever fully understand what that means to me, but I’ll be damned if I don’t spend the rest of my days trying to tell you. Trying to show you. Your breath is my breath. What you see is what I see. Where you go is where I go and where you rest your head, that’s my home. I’ll go to any lengths it takes to bring you the world on a silver platter. I’ll fight off every last man who’s ever lived if they even dare to dream of laying a finger on your head. You are mine. Never, ever forget that.”
