Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(72)
“It does when the name Koschei is tied to them.”
His eyes narrowed, a predator who’d just watched his prey take a full step into its trap. “That why you ducked out early and logged into our security apps remotely?”
Of course, he’d know. What Knox didn’t glean from physically watching through the cameras mounted in every nook and cranny of his office, he monitored electronically through logins and God only knew how many code traps. She swallowed hard, hating the sludge of betrayal tossing in her stomach. “I wanted to believe it was a coincidence. I left early to think about what I wanted to say. How to share my past. On the way home I remembered the recordings. I thought looking would help calm my nerves. Help me realize I was probably overthinking things.”
“And?”
“I wasn’t overthinking things.”
In a flash, his expression shifted. Raw fury eradicating any trace of fear or loss. “Show me.”
The force of his directive jolted her into action, sending her on unsteady feet to the company laptop still poised on her dresser. It took three tries to enter her password, his scalding presence licking fire against her back. The second her password took, the screen displayed the frame she’d left the footage on. She pointed to a parking lot across the street and a cable company worker walking toward his truck. His dark hair was short and a well-trimmed beard covered his jawline. His eyes were covered with mirrored sunglasses. “This is wrong.”
Knox leaned in closer. “You’re packing your shit and running because a cable guy was caught on tape across the street from where I work?” He straightened and looked her in the eye, an incredulous fire burning behind his gray gaze. “Are you out of your mind?”
“He’s not a cable worker, Knox. Look at him.” She tapped the screen again. “Have you ever seen a cable worker wear coveralls? In August? And where are his tools? He has none. Never took any out of the van with him. In fact, all he ever did was disappear out of the camera’s range for a short time.”
A trace of comprehension seemed to register and she’d swear he stopped breathing.
Darya zoomed in the image. “I almost missed it, but once I looked closer, this made it certain.” She pointed to the man’s hand. A half monster, half man was tattooed on the back of it. “This is Koschei and the men who serve him all wear it.”
“You said it was a folklore.”
“It is, but the man who is after me took the moniker for his own. He believes he cannot die. Believes he’s invincible. And he wants me.”
“Like a hit? Retribution? What?”
She met his stare and tried to swallow, the harshness of her reality stealing any moisture from her tongue. Never in a million years would she forget the way Ruslan had looked at her. She couldn’t let him get her, but more than that, she couldn’t let him hurt Knox. “No, he wants me.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected. More arguments, maybe. Or an elevation of simmering rage he’d already displayed. Instead a fierce determination slipped into place. Indomitable, resolute conviction. “He can want all goddamn day, but he can’t have you.”
Ice-cold terror cracked and splintered through her veins. “Knox, you don’t know what this man is like. I promised you that first day my past would only come for me. Only I didn’t know how things would end up between us. If Ruslan has so much as an inkling you and I are together, he’ll kill you. Possibly hurt the other people you love just to make a point. I have to go and I need to do it quickly so I draw him away from you. From all of you.”
“You really fucking think I’m letting you walk out that door? You think I’d let you throw away what we’re building?” He inched closer, his voice deadly steady. “Sweetheart, I wouldn’t leave an employee hanging out in a situation like this, let alone the woman who’s sleeping full time in my bed.”
Every scrap of frustration, anger and fear she’d buried since the day she’d escaped Russia surged in one unforgiving burst. “He’ll kill you. Don’t you get it?”
He opened his mouth.
Before he could speak, she cut him off. “Three people have given for me. Sacrificed so I could have a life. They did that because they loved me and now it’s my turn. Do I want to leave? No. The last thing I want to do is be away from you, but I will not let Ruslan hurt the man I love or his family. Ever.”
One second.
That was all it took and the tension in Knox shifted. Where the air around him had practically sparked with aggression and untamed ferocity, now it hummed with a supercharged focus centered squarely on her. His voice was tightly leashed, a powder keg of emotion compacting his quiet words. “You love me?”
So vulnerable. A rawness she knew without a shadow of doubt he gave only to her. She cupped the side of his face and drew in his woodsmoke and black currant scent deep into her lungs, willing it to imprint deep for the lonely days and nights to come. “Another boundary I crossed, I know. But how could I not? You’re you.”
Faster than she’d ever seen him move, he jerked her against him. His arms banded around her, coiled unmovable steel pinning her flush against his chest. Fingers tangled in her hair, he held her cheek above his heart while his heart beat a frantic rhythm beneath her ear.
God, she’d miss him. Their physical connection for sure, but more than that, his mind and staggering capacity for goodness. No one within Knox’s sphere wanted for anything. Not if he could help it. Especially her. Because whether he realized it or not, he’d given her the world just by being him.