Bone Deep(69)

“I said she suffered and for that she’s earned at least a stay. You will do what you will do. I am simply asking you to try not to harm her before we know the truth of it all,” Blade urged.

“I can make you no promises, sister. I am about to give up my chance at happiness because I helped another live all those years ago. My rage is greater than it has ever been—even the night I found out what Joseph did to you. I might understand her reasons but I will not allow her to hurt any of us. And the boy is ours—we kept him safe, protected him from a truth that would destroy him, gave him a chance at life.”

Blade sighed. “What is life if you must hide to live it?”

Bone’s chest hurt at the heartbreak in Blade’s voice. She was tired of feeling. Indeed she preferred the nothingness of her hate.

“You cannot return there,” Blade said, guessing Bone’s intent which reminded Bone they were all connected in a way not many others ever experienced.

The bonds forged in Hell…

“I must. If it’s retribution she wants, I will give her a chance at it,” Bone whispered.

“What of your Asinimov?” Blade asked.

“He will be angry. I know this and yet it will not sway me from my duty to the boy, to you and Arrow and Bullet. Find the child, Blade. Get him to safety so that you may begin the final play and we can all have our revenge.”

“For Ninka,” Blade said, once again directing her words to the sky.

Bone nodded. “For us all.”





Chapter Twenty-Five


“I did not think I could know love,” she murmured at Dmitry’s side.

Bone had left her sister among the towering eucalyptus trees and walked back to his side, crawling into bed with him and letting his warmth soothe the places made cold with talk of death.

She had never questioned her life, the whys and wherefores of it all, but now she did. When she’d found someone who made her want more than the death-dealing that came so easy to her, why was fate so intent on taking it from her?

Perhaps she was more like her father than she realized. Maybe the loyalty to his wife had made him go crazy. Maybe the love he had for her made him blind to the reality that he was never meant for anything more than killing.

She had never known the stirrings of love until she’d tasted Dmitry Asinimov. She was different now and the burden of the loyalty she had to her sisters, while absolute, had become another weight on her soul.

Though he’d vowed it wasn’t what he wanted, he had changed her.

She had more steps to take it seemed. More miles to travel and another reckoning to meet with. Nameless was probably out there right now, waiting for Bone to make a move.

It had taken Bone a long time to sleep but she’d finally given over, waking to find him on his stomach, face turned toward her, snoring softly. She’d played with his body, licking his skin and rubbing the firmness of his muscles, testing his reactions and knowing she had found something she did not deserve.

And he was awake because she’d played but she did not regret interrupting his rest. His beautiful gaze pierced her, splitting her open and demanding everything she was. “No one deserves it more. And if you keep rubbing my ass I am going to f*ck you.”

“That would not be a bad thing, would it?”

He laughed and turned over, his cock showing it her it most definitely would not be a bad thing.

“I don’t know how to love, Dmitry, but I want to learn because if anyone deserves to be loved, it is you.”

He pulled her closer to him, smoothing a kiss over her brow and pushing her hair from her face. “I think you are my savior, Bone. Before you, I was empty, searching for a past even as I ran from it.”

“I am not sorry I killed your father or your mother.”

He kissed her lips this time. “I am not either.”

“But I am sorry we could not save Ninka,” she whispered. The pain of that morning in Arequipa was fresh. She feared it always would be.

“My sister. If I could have found her in time enough to save her, perhaps I wouldn’t have you now. There are steps we take, Etzem, that lead us to our lives. My life is you so I will no longer regret the steps I’ve taken because of where I am now.”

“I do not know that I can be what you need,” she told him baldly. Better he know now than hope for something else.

“We have already discussed change. I cannot change you, Bone Breaker. To try would make you something different from the woman I’ve given myself to. That would destroy me as surely as it would destroy you.”

“You have changed me though,” she admitted. “I still have secrets, Dmitry. There are things I cannot tell you, not yet.”

He nodded, hands moving up and down her back, soothing. “I understand your loyalty and I would not change that either. But I will demand that you keep me in the loop. I would go crazy not knowing where you are. Do not ask that of me. I will not ask for specifics and I would be a complete f*cking dumbass to think you need me to protect you, but it will not stop me from trying. To me you are fragile glass and I would give my last breath to keep you safe whether you can do that on your own or not.”

“You ask for things that are foreign to me,” she whispered.

He glanced at her, worry lining his brow. “How about this,” he said, pressing his hips forward and groaning as her hand stroked his hard cock. “I ask you for nothing but this emotion between us that grows hot when I look at you and turns molten when I feel your hands on my body. How about I ask you for nothing but the pleasure that we create when our bodies touch?”