He couldn’t think of an argument for that because even he thought he’d been wrong. Even if he had his reasons. “Sorry.”
She shrugged. “There’s no need to apologize. I just hope that next time you’ll say something before you disappear off the face of the earth. How long are you back for?”
Any other time during the last few years if anyone had asked him how long he planned on staying, he would have said he would be out of the city as soon as the job was done and not a second later, but now…
“I’m thinking about staying.”
Lauren looked surprised, dropping the pen she was holding into her textbook as a marker and closed it shut. “Like permanently?”
Niklaus looked away from her, down to where Sacha was pushing the car up his thigh and back down. “Hopefully.”
As his answer hung between them, he heard Lauren’s light laughter as she got to her feet, disappearing into the kitchen before she reappeared with a bottle of wine, glasses, and a corkscrew.
“You must be serious about her then,” she said as she fitted the corkscrew to the bottle and twisted.
“Oh? Why do you say that?”
“You wouldn’t have come back if you didn’t.” Pouring a glass, she offered it to him first, but when he declined, she took a tip. “If there’s one thing I know about you, Klaus, it’s how much you hate being here. You made that pretty clear.”
Niklaus shook his head. “I never said that.”
“It was in everything you did. Arguing with Mish every chance you got, or threatening to kill someone. Literally,” she said, giving him the side eye. “There wasn’t a day that went by when you didn’t threaten bodily harm to either Mish or Luka. But you’ve been here for what—twenty minutes already?—and you haven’t even mentioned, ‘the Russian,’ once.”
“That’s because he isn’t agitating me with his bullshit. Believe it or not, your husband acts like an entitled dick.”
“Really? Because the only thing I’ve seen is him trying to make amends for what happened to you. I don’t know what happened to make you hate him so much, Niklaus. I won’t even pretend like I do, but I see what he’s been trying to do ever since you popped back up. Mish loves you. And I know you care about him too, even if you won’t admit it.
“And before you say something smart, don’t bother. How many times have you risked your life to save me? Sure, you wanted to keep me safe, but you did it because you didn’t want your brother to lose someone the way you did.”
Niklaus frowned, not liking how her words made him feel, and the fact that she was right. “Mishca isn’t innocent in all of this.”
He could see the smile that was forming on her lips before she quelled it— he didn’t realize he’d said the Russian’s name.
“Of course not. And Mish, while I love him to death, he can be mean, cruel even, but if he cares about you, he’ll want to fix it. You just have to let him.”
She was right about that. Mishca had been trying to repay him in many regards for what went down. For a spell, Niklaus wondered whether he was apologizing for Niklaus getting kidnapped in his place, or for what he said in that apartment.
Or maybe he blamed himself for it all…
“Where is he anyway? I thought he’d be here.”
“Soon as Iosef told us you were coming up, he took off.”
“Why?”
Lauren leaned forward to place her glass on the table, holding her arms out for Sacha who was already walking towards her and climbed up into her lap—he was definitely a mother’s boy. “Believe it or not, Mish hates fighting with you. He figured you weren’t here for him anyway.”
Shit.
For once, Niklaus felt like an asshole, and for good reason. As he thought back over the last two years since he had walked into their lives, he had made it a point to make Mishca’s life a living hell.
Maybe now it was his turn to make amends.
“I’ll reach out.”
Glancing down at his watch, Niklaus realized he only had thirty minutes to get across town for more surveillance on the warehouse. It was time to go.
Climbing to his feet, Niklaus crossed the room, placing a kiss on the top of Lauren’s head, then grabbed Sacha up into a bear hug that made him squeal with laughter.
“I’ll catch you later. Shit to do and all that.”
“Be careful, whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Duly noted.”
His back was to her as he walked away, but she called out, “So when do we get to meet her?”
Niklaus paused, thinking over his answer before responding. “I’m not even sure if she’ll have me.”
Lauren laughed at that. “If there’s one thing I know, you two Volkov boys won’t take no for an answer. Just let me know when and I’ll cook dinner.”
Smiling as he boarded the elevator, Niklaus called out, “I’m not trying to kill her.”
Chapter Twenty-Three