Before Catalina came into our lives, and when she had been just a pawn, Mikhail didn’t care whether he lived or died. He was nothing more than a dead man walking. Nikolay might work as my enforcer, but it was Mikhail who took most of the risks.
He wasn’t scared of most things, but I knew he was scared of losing us. And now he was scared of losing her.
So he thought keeping his distance from her might make it easier for him to cope.
It was a fucking joke.
He could no more walk away from her than I could.
“I’m going back home,” he said, turning away from me. I didn’t stop him. I knew what going back home meant. He was going back to the basement under Gabriel’s house to see if he could work off some steam torturing any of the bastards we had locked up.
Henry Ramos had come forth with information about Mikhail’s past, but Mikhail hadn’t said what he wanted to do with that yet.
I was letting him take the lead on that.
I watched him as he walked back to his car without turning around before I brought my attention back to Catalina.
Leo caught my eye, and he nodded.
Leo had been with me for the past seven years and was one of my best men. That was why I had put him on Catalina. No one but the best to guard our greatest treasure.
And he probably knew we were here the moment we stepped foot in this strip mall.
I let my eyes linger over her small frame for a moment.
She looked infinitely fragile right now, and it took everything in me not to walk up to her and carry her back to the house, away from prying eyes.
Away from the world.
I turned away and walked to my car, and like Mikhail, I didn’t look back—perhaps to prove to myself that I could walk away from her.
Now, that sounded like a big fucking joke.
* * *
It waspast dinner by the time I got back.
Leo reported that Catalina had stayed in her room since she got back from her trip, taking her dinner there.
I headed straight for it, bypassing the door that led to the basement, ignoring the slightly muffled tortured screams I could hear down there.
I didn’t need to bring any of the darkness from my world to her.
Not if I could help it.
I opened the door, and Catalina was in bed, already in her standard PJs—one of our shirts and her panties. Her hair was wet from a recent shower, and the usual softness was in those big doe brown eyes of hers.
She smiled when she saw me, and I felt the tension I carried with me all day lift marginally at that.
We didn’t say anything as I slowly took off my suit.
I tugged off the black tie, threw it somewhere on the ground, and kicked off my shoes simultaneously. Every button I undid, her eyes lit up, even more, a hungry look overtaking her face, affecting me in the worst way possible.
I could feel my cock tightening.
I couldn’t fucking wait until she finally healed enough that I could bury myself inside her. I would shut the rest of the world out and worship her body the way she deserved.
I would be fucking greedy and selfish when it came to her.