Page 30 of Twilight Tears
I suppose that’s because Akim is dead. The threat is gone. We’re all safe. So now, Yakov seems to have funneled all of that extra energy into never letting me out of his sight.
I can’t say I mind.
15
LUNA
Since we got back, we’ve eaten every meal together, he’s taken me on short walks through the garden, and he’s slept next to me every night.
“If you two don’t move, you’re going to fuse to that couch,” Mariya warns from the doorway.
“Where have you been?” Yakov asks.
“My room.” Mariya narrows her eyes. “Is that okay with you or did I need to ask for permission?”
“You always need to ask for permission.”
Mariya snorts. “I don’t see why. There are enough guards here that you probably know what I’m up to before I do.”
In addition to the extra guards placed at the entrances to the property, a few men take turns doing sweeps of the interior and exterior of the house once every few hours. I’d say it’s overkill, but it has actually been really comforting.
“That’s the idea,” Yakov drawls.
He’s watching the television, so he doesn’t see Mariya fuming in the hallway. I catch her eye and shake my head. They’ve both been through a lot. Now that things are calm, they should both be able to enjoy it.
Mariya, however, has other plans.
“I’m not going to live like this, Yakov,” she snaps. “We were never under surveillance like this before. This is too much. When Otets was alive?—”
“When Otets was alive, the Gustev Bratva was going after him. Not you.”
“No one was after me. They were after Luna.”
I sink down into the couch. If she isn’t going to take my advice, the least she could do is leave me out of it. The name of my recovery game the last couple days has been Distraction and Denial.
I figure that if I don’t think about the attack, the memories will eventually become hazy. And if I can ignore the fact that an entire criminal organization wanted to murder me just to emotionally torture Yakov, then I’ll feel a lot better about bringing a child into this world.
Yakov throws an arm over the back of the couch and turns to face her. “They fucking shot you, Mariya. What more proof do you need?”
“Only because I got between them and Luna. If I’d stayed inside, everything would have been fine.”
That’s definitely not true. Mariya put herself in the line of fire, but they were coming into the mansion one way or another. If Mariya hadn’t fought, she might have been in that cell with me.
“Good. We’re in agreement,” Yakov growls.
Mariya gives him a cautious look. “We’re in agreement about what?”
“That if you stay inside, everything will be fine,” he says.
Her eyes flare wide. “What? No! That is not what I was saying.”
“But it is what I’m saying. If you want to leave the property, I need to be with you. Or I need to assign a guard to go with you.”
“Fuck that! You saw the security tapes,” she argues. “I was fighting three of Akim’s men by myself before that coward pulled a gun. I can take care of myself. Especially now that Akim is dead.”
“Akim being dead isn’t some magic fix, Mariya. You’re in even more danger now.”
I turn to him. “What?”