“That actually sounds pretty damn good from where I’m sitting.”
A shiver runs through her body. Her lips are starting to look a little blue. I’ve had enough.
“Come on. It’s time to get back to the cabin.”
“No.”
I glare at her for a moment. Then, seeing she is set on not budging, I grab her arm, yank her up, and fling her over my shoulder. She gives a little cry of protest, but she goes limp against my body just a few steps into the return journey.
I’m guessing she’s more relieved than she’s willing to admit.
The walk back to the cabin feels twice as long, but I never slow or waver. The guards hold open the door as I approach and enter without breaking stride.
Willow doesn’t say a word as I carry her upstairs and into my room. I bypass the bed and head straight for the bathroom. There, I set her down on the edge of the tub and start running warm bathwater.
Steam rises from the tub. Willow watches it like it’s a smoke signal. Like she’s trying to decipher a message.
“Remove your clothes,” I tell her.
She raises her eyes. “I’m not removing anything for you.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You need to get warm.”
“Then leave so I can get warm without you.”
“You’re so stubborn you’d sit here and shiver to death before you’d get in a bath I ran for you.”
Her eyes narrow. “I should slap you.”
“That would be hard to do with no circulation in your fingers.”
She glances down at her hands. They’re white and stiff. “Still not stripping,” she says.
“Fine.”
I grab her sweater and pull it none too gently over her head. She struggles, but the effort is weak. She underestimated how much energy it takes to tromp through knee-high snow in Arctic temperatures.
I move to her jeans next.
“Leo… stop,” she says quietly.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Willow,” I warn her. “Which is it going to be?”
She tangles her fingers with mine, but they’re freezing cold and her attempts are half-hearted at best, so when she sees it’s an unwinnable fight, she sighs and lets her hands drop by her sides.
Satisfied, I stand her up and pull her pants and underwear down. She steps out of them without a fuss. Her eyes are swimming with unreadable emotion.
“Get in,” I instruct. “Or do you want me to do that for you, too?”
She shakes her head, leans over to check the temperature, and lets out a hiss that quickly cools into an audible sigh. She steps into it and sinks below the surface.
She steps in and slowly slips into the water up to her neck. A second later, a deep and content sigh rings from her body as her fingers thread the water.
“Better?” I ask, joining her at the edge of the tub.
“This doesn’t make you a hero.”
I laugh. “The ship sailed on that a long time ago.” I pause, then ask, “Why did you run out there tonight?”
She freezes and her fingers disappear beneath the water. “Because I needed space. Don’t flatter yourself: my reaction had nothing to do with you.”
“Then what did it have to do with?”
“Her,” she snaps. “She just knows how to push my buttons.”
“Apparently, I’m your button.”
Her eyes snap to my face. She opens her mouth, but then decides against whatever it is she was about to say. Instead, she takes a deep breath and submerges her entire body under the water.
She stays down for nearly twenty seconds. Long enough that I start to wonder if she intends on staying submerged forever.
But when she comes up again, she doesn’t look any more relaxed.
“She’s not who you think she is, Willow,” I say, once she’s wiped the water out of her eyes.
“What’s the story now?” Willow scoffs. “Is she some undercover superhero? She’s saved the world a million times, but she protects her real identity by being a first-class bitch?”
I almost smile. “I told you she was family.”
“Yeah, yeah… because the Bratva is a family. Spare me.”
“You’re not listening,” I say. “She’s family. She’s my sister-in-law.”
19
WILLOW
“Your brother’s wife?” I ask.
He nods. “Well, technically, they never made it down the aisle. Pavel was killed before that happened. But they were engaged.”
I stare at him, but all I can see is Brit.
Wait.
“Brit’s not her name, is it?”
Leo chuckles. “No.”
“You told me her name a while ago,” I say. It doesn’t take long to remember the moment. “The boat. You said it belonged to your brother and he named it for the love of his life.”
He nods.
“Ariel,” I whisper softly.
I think about Brit. I see her long supermodel legs, her blonde hair, her porcelain skin. She’s not Brit at all. Her name is Ariel and she loved Leo’s brother once upon a time.
I let that sink in. To Leo’s credit, he stays quiet. The silence gets heavier and heavier as I absorb the truth of what her identity truly means.
“Spartak Belov killed your brother,” I point out.
“Yes, he did.”
I shake my head, unable or unwilling to fully comprehend just yet. “She… she’s with him now. Stuck with Belov. Belov.”
“She’s with him because she has to be,” he tells me. “For now. It was a necessary part of our plan.”
I frown. “She’s had to fuck the man that murdered the love of her life for the last eight years?”
“Not quite eight years,” Leo tells me. “But yes, that is part of what she’s been doing.”
“That’s… that’s insane.”
“No. That’s Ariel. I told you, she’s one of the strongest women I’ve ever known in my life.”
The jealousy is still there, but it’s fading. Morphing to fit this new understanding.
“But… how? How could she be with a man who did that?”
“That’s a question you’ll have to ask her. But I think it has something to do with purpose.”
“Purpose?” I repeat dumbly.
“Losing Pavel nearly broke her,” he explains. “She became a shell of the person she was. There was a moment there when we thought we were going to lose her.”
He doesn’t elaborate on what he means, and I don’t ask. I still feel like I’m running to keep up with this insane revelation.
“I set up a plan to get back at Belov. I wanted to destroy the Mikhailovs and avenge Pavel’s death and the deaths of his Vors. Then Ariel made a suggestion. It took years of preparation and training,” Leo says. “It took strength beyond anything I’ve ever seen. But she was determined. Right from the start, her only goal was avenging Pavel’s death. She lived for nothing else. It’s what gave her the strength to keep going.”
I look down at the way the bathwater ripples with my every movement. “Well, fuck,” I breathe. “How am I supposed to hate her now?”
He smiles. “You’re stubborn. I’m sure you’ll find a way.”