Ice stood up slowly. “Nothing is going to happen to her.” He put his hands on the table and leaned toward his president, ignoring the restraining hand of his twin. “I hope you understand me. All of you. Nothing is going to happen to my wife.”
Savage stood up as well, immediately drawing the attention of all of them. He rarely spoke. “Soleil is innocent in all this. She actually did very well. It all happened in the space of less than five minutes and she didn’t throw up. She didn’t run. She didn’t start screaming. She just needs a little time to adjust. I’m the one with the sword hanging over my head and I’m willing to risk it.”
“I am as well,” Absinthe agreed.
The knots in Ice’s stomach began to relax.
Czar put both hands on the table and shoved his chair backward until he could stand. “Well, I’m not. Clean this mess up with your wife, Ice. No one is going to take down three of my brothers because she was brought in before she knew what she was getting into.”
The knots were back in full force. Ice turned on his heel and left the meeting room.FOURTEENIce stood for a long time staring out the window of the pool room. He’d brought Soleil home and they’d had a quiet lunch together. She’d said she wanted to swim. He knew he was going to have to talk to her. Break the silence between them. He’d put it there, not her. This was one of those defining moments when he was going to make it work or everything was going to fall apart. He turned back to look at his woman.
Soleil cut through the water like she was born there. Whatever she chose to do, she did very well. She’d told him that she had lots of time to practice the things she was interested in. Swimming appealed to her, and every hotel she stayed or lived in had a pool. It was significant to him that she wore a bra and underwear instead of swimming naked. She didn’t have a suit because he hadn’t thought to buy her one. They still didn’t have her things because they hadn’t gone near her place in San Francisco.
“Come on out of there, princess, before you turn into a prune,” he called.
She glanced up at him, did another lap and then swam to the stairs. He handed her a towel and watched her dry off.
“I’m sorry about this morning, Soleil,” he said quietly, meaning it. “I’ve never told you about myself. I should have given you so much more. Something for you to hang on to so you’d trust me to do whatever was necessary to protect you at all times from anything, including being an accessory to any kind of violent or criminal act that takes place anywhere near you.”
She stopped in the act of drying her leg, looking up at him. “They were after me. They clearly said so, Ice. I put all of you in a terrible position. Savage could have been killed. All of you could have been killed. I’ve shot a gun. I’m very good at it, but after watching what unfolded so fast, I realized I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger. I was horrified when I saw all of you kill them. It was so terrible. And it happened so fast. So unbelievably fast.” She shook her head and her hands trembled again. “I need to get dressed.”
He knew she felt vulnerable without her clothes. He’d felt that way a long, long time ago, when he’d been vulnerable. Before Czar. Before they’d taken back control. He trailed after her as she took the stairs back up to their room. He liked being behind her when she walked, especially since her panties were see-through and showed her firm cheeks to perfection. It took restraint not to reach out to claim what was his. He wasn’t going to allow himself to get off track or diverted because he didn’t want to go where he knew he had to.
Ice waited until she had rinsed off in the shower and come out fully dressed. He gestured toward the comfortable chairs positioned in front of the fireplace. “It’s very understandable that you would be horrified by violence, Soleil. Especially that brutal, that fast.”
“None of you hesitated, not even for a second. I blinked and there were three dead men. Then you all were ready to leave, and I was still trying to breathe.”
“You grew up very sheltered. You didn’t think of it like that because you were alone so much, but no one would dare touch you. You didn’t have to worry about where your next meal was coming from, you just had everything there.”
Ice rubbed his thigh, back and forth, trying to stop the churning in his stomach. He rarely opened the door into his childhood. He felt it creaking open, his personal nightmare. Immediately, his temperature dropped, and his heart began to race. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead and trickled down his chest. He took a breath. He just had to get it done. Get it over.