Until the End (Volkov Bratva #2)(25)

“What are you doing out here?”

He gave a half smile, jerking his thumb back at the door. “Amber thought it would be best I wait out here. She wasn’t sure whether or not you wanted me here.”

“How long have you been here?” She asked pulling her keys from her purse.

Glancing down at his watch, he shrugged as he said, “Couple hours.”

Lauren bit back a smile, realizing that Amber had never sent her a message letting her know he was here. Maybe this was her way of punishing him.

Shifting on her feet, she asked, “Would you like to come in, or are you here for something else?”

He climbed to his feet, moving out of the way to let her past. “I came to see you.”

Nodding, Lauren unlocked the door, letting him pass her before she closed and locked the door behind them. The apartment was quiet, the light beneath Amber’s door off. Not bothering to turn on a light, Lauren led the way to her bedroom.

“Let me just take a quick shower then we can...talk.”

When he nodded, she left him in her room, taking a change of clothes into the bathroom. In the fifteen minutes she spent in the shower, she thought of what she would say and what he would possibly bring up.

She couldn’t think of what else there was to talk about, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn him away, not when she had been yearning to see him since that day at his club. That explosive conversation hadn’t brought her any closure, merely made her want him more.

She stood in front of the mirror, brushing her wet hair, pulling it up into a bun as she stared at her reflection. It was time for her to make a decision once and for all or else she would never be able to move on with her life.

Turning off the light in the bathroom, Lauren stared at her bedroom door, fiddling with the hem of her old T-shirt. She thought of the last time he had been in her room, a night of remembrance. He had held her, allowing her to cry out her pain about her father, a man he had secretly known.

Deciding not to go back to that place, Lauren took a deep breath, pushing the door open, pressing her back against it, and feeling the cool wood through her clothes.

Mishca was sitting at the edge of her bed, his suit jacket thrown across the back of the chair at her desk. He was staring out the open window, seeming to watch the rain patter against the windowsill. When his eyes found her, they swept over her, lingering on her bare legs for a fraction longer than necessary before moving up to her face.

At least she wasn’t the only one affected.

Pushing away from the door, she crossed the room, sitting on his opposite side at the top the of the bed, crossing her legs.

Only the sound of the falling rain filled the room, the noise once peaceful, but now it just added to the tension in the room. It was difficult being in the same room as him, like his presence took her breath away.

“I thought it was over,” Mishca began looking down at his hands. “When you left that day, I thought I would forget you and move on like I’ve done in the past.”

That…hurt, but she couldn’t fault him for feeling that way. She had believed the same thing.

“But no matter how hard I tried, you were the only thing on my mind.” He turned to face her, his eyes soft and sincere. “Words cannot express how sorry I am for what I said to you that day. I don’t think, in all this time, that I ever truly apologized.”

She shrugged, not wanting him to know how much that meant to her. “I understand how you felt.”

“But that still didn’t give me the right to hurt you, especially not with everything that was done to you.”

“I never meant to hurt Alex in the process,” Lauren said quietly. “I wasn’t thinking about her.”

He nodded, but that seemed like it was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. “That still does not excuse my actions.”

“How did you know I was being brought in for questioning?” Lauren asked suddenly, remembering the expensive lawyer.

Mishca blinked at her.

Right, she forgot his family had connections in the NYPD.

“You didn’t have to do that though.”

“I did. With the…arrangement in place, I knew they would look at you as a suspect eventually. I needed to make sure you were protected.”

She didn’t know how to feel about that. Was she supposed to thank him? “Then it wasn’t a mugging,” she stated though it sounded more like a question.

“I can’t answer that, Lauren.”

That was all the answer she really needed. “I don’t understand. Why would he have…gotten mugged because of that?”

Mishca sighed, turning so he was facing her. “You have to understand, there are rules in my world. Rules in place to prevent the very thing that brought you to that room. For my father, it was a respect thing. They were brothers, not by blood, but by code. He broke that.”

“And for you?”

This time he met her gaze head on, refusing to look away. “Doc wasn’t just a physician to me. He was like the f—”

He cut off immediately, realizing too late what he’d been about to say. Lauren smiled, not entirely forced, nodding her head.

“You can say it.”

“He was like a father to me when my own was too busy in a world that I had no part in. He was honorable, more than any other man I have ever known.” Mishca shoved a hand through his hair, seeming anxious. “You have to understand, we are not all monsters. There are many, yes, but I like to believe I am not one of them. I would never condone taking a father from his family, especially not from you.”