DAMIEN
There wereabout a million things that I needed to do.
Business to run and money to make.
I didn’t have time for this.
Yet I knew I wouldn’t be doing anything but this, especially when I learned a half hour ago that Catalina wanted to go shopping.
Admittedly, my mind went to her trying to run away, and I would be there to catch her should that be the case, but she really just went shopping.
It didn’t look like she’d bought much.
And now she was just sitting on the bench, watching other people, a sort of desolated look about her.
She did that a lot.
Watched people around her, as if she was trying to figure them out.
I wondered what she found so fascinating about them.
I couldn’t give two shits about anyone who wasn’t her, my brothers, or my men.
But Catalina was an enigma to me. Someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life figuring out. That said something.
And I wasn’t the only one who’d followed her here and kept watch at a distance.
I caught sight of his shadow twenty minutes ago, when I first arrived.
Leo was instructed to tell Nikolay, Mikhail, and me anything that went on with Catalina.
I wondered when Mikhail was going to stop hiding from her.
He was in front of me, watching her intently. I was sure he was aware I was around, but Mikhail was good at ignoring everyone and everything that went on, especially when she was near. I let out a sigh and walked over to him, placing my hand on his shoulder.
He didn’t even react.
“Aren’t you going to talk to her?”
“No.”
“Mikki—”
“Let it go, Damien.”
“You’re hurting her.” I could feel his muscles tensing beneath my touch. “You’re hurting her, and you’re hurting yourself. You really think this will work? You think ignoring her during the day will make this obsession with her go away? Hate to break it to you, but you fucking fail every night when you sneak into her room.”
He shook off my touch. “Don’t you find that fucking pathetic?”
I shrugged. “I told her the other day she won’t ever be free from us, and I meant every fucking word. You really care what I think about you sneaking into her room at night to watch her sleep?”
He made a small noncommittal noise at the back of his throat that could really mean anything.
“What are you scared of?” I asked.
He let out a bitter laugh. “I’m not fucking scared of anything.”
That wasn’t true, and we both knew it. Out of the three of us, it was Mikhail who was the most restless. Nikolay still wanted to live for no other reason than to find his kids. And I needed to live for no other reason than for my brothers, and now for her. But Mikhail …