No one came looking for her as the night grew late and the sounds around the house went quiet. Both her parents were night owls, but even they had limits. When she slipped from her room and padded down the hallway to the stairs, everything was dark and silent.
At least until she made it to the main floor and caught sight of a large form standing against the door the garage. Rose jumped and barely managed to keep a sound of surprise internal. “What are you doing here?”
Vasily raised their eyebrows. “I heard what happened when you went out to drinks.”
Of course they had. Even though Anya had driven, she would have passed on the info to Vasily since they were Rose’s security detail. Damn her sister. Rose straightened and lifted her chin. “It’s none of your business.”
“It is if you’re leaving the house.” They didn’t move. Rose might be more than capable of moving them if push came to shove, but that meant potentially hurting them, and she’d never do that. Vasily crossed their arms over their chest. “I’m not your keeper, Rose. I’m no Romanov.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Vasily might be on the payroll, but they were her friend. She’d just never had to pull rank before…or had them do it for her.
“I’m not going to tell you what to do.” They stared down at her. “But if you’re leaving this house, you’re not doing it alone.”
Something went tight and thick in her chest. “You can’t report this to my parents, Vasily. If you can’t promise me to keep silent until I come clean, then you’re staying behind.”
They shook their head. “The only reason they found out before you did about Dante Verducci was because Alexei saw the file and reported it. I would have come to you first and you know it. We’ve already talked about this.”
It was the truth. She couldn’t hold a grudge. Vasily was hers but most of the muscle answered to her parents first and her second. She couldn’t be angry about that fact because it was fact. When she took over this branch of the Romanov family, she’d need that unquestioning loyalty, not to have her people allying themselves with her sisters or something.
Rose rubbed her temples. “Let’s go.”
Vasily turned and opened the door, holding it open for her. They took the same SUV Anya had driven earlier, and she climbed up into the passenger seat instead of taking the back. Rose rattled off the address for the hotel where Dante was staying, and Vasily didn’t so much as raise their eyebrows as they headed in that direction. Good. Because if they questioned her at this point, she might lose it.
At this point, she was hanging on to reason by her fingernails. It didn’t make sense to do this. She was likely walking right into a trap and being kidnapped a second time. But every time reason and logic tried to take hold, she thought about the look in Dante’s eyes as he’d said, We’ll get through it. There will be peace. It hadn’t been soft—she wasn’t sure if that man was capable of being soft—but it truly had felt like he meant it, like he was comforting her in his own way.
Maybe she was a fool to crave comfort from this man. Anyone else in her life would call her such, and she couldn’t really argue with them. Nothing about this was logical.
She wasn’t familiar with the hotel Vasily parked near, but that didn’t mean anything. There were thousands of hotels in the city, and usually when they had visitors they didn’t want in the house, they picked between two nearby.
Vasily turned to look at her. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell them to stay here, but that was too reckless even for her. “Let’s go.”
The pair crossed the street and walked into the hotel lobby. It was luxurious in that generic way so many hotels had. She watched Vasily clock the area and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could tell her where all the emergency exits were off that single sweep.
Nerves kicked in as she and Vasily stepped into the elevator and took it up. Was she really doing this? Really considering risking it all for this man? Tonight would be the turning point, one way or another. The only way to find out where she landed was to talk to Dante. Really talk to him.
Rose took a deep breath and opened the door to his room.
Chapter 21
For all his confidence in the moment, Dante honestly hadn’t been 100 percent sure Rose would show up. Nothing about that woman was a sure thing, and if he could appreciate that fact, it still made for a frustrating back-and-forth at times. He was in the middle of pacing the living room of the suite for the twentieth time when the door opened, and Rose walked in.
She’d changed out of the gold dress and now wore a pair of jeans and a sweater. It was the way she used to dress when they were pretending to be other people. Even knowing how he felt about her, he wasn’t prepared for the sheer longing that went through him. He wanted that casual intimacy with her again, the soft times to go with the hard edges he craved. He had appreciated that about his time with her as Jackson Smith. He wanted it again.
His gaze landed on the faded bruises around her throat. “I’ll kill the Mad Wolf for touching you.”
Rose closed the door and leaned against it. “You’re going to have to get in line, because the next time I see him, I’m shooting him.”
“Amata, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re not nearly as good a shot as you like to think.”
She smiled slightly. “Haven’t you figured it out, d’yavol? I pulled my shot.”
He’d wondered, but there were too many factors in place to determine shit. He grinned. “Lucky me. Less lucky Casimir Romanov.”
“Da.” She pushed off the door. “Vasily is in the hallway. If something happens to them because of you, I’ll skin you alive.”
Jealousy flared, even as he relished her threat. It likely said something fucked up about him that he liked it when violent words came out of that pretty mouth, but it was also the least fucked up thing about Dante. When one had as much blood on their hands as he did, violence stopped being something to flinch away from. It simply was. “Have you ever done it, amata?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Done what?”
“Any of the things you threaten me with. The more creative killings.”
Rose held his gaze for a moment and then looked away. “There’s a price for power. You know that, even if you’re not the heir to the Verducci family.” She pushed off the door and started for him. “I’ve never actually skinned someone, though.”
“I’ll be your first. I truly am a lucky man.”
Her lips pulled up but fell before he could fully appreciate her smile. “This will never work.”
He expected this. He’d even prepared for it. “And yet here you are. You came even with all the reasonable shit in your head telling you it’s a bad idea. Why?”
“You know why.”
He hoped. Fuck, Dante wasn’t one for hope, but he hoped when it came to Rose. He didn’t move other than to rotate slowly as she meandered around the room, nerves in every line of her body. “Tell me anyway.”
Rose stopped with her back to him. A fine tremor worked through her shoulders, and it took everything Dante had not to go to her there and now. He couldn’t. They needed to have a fucking conversation and the only way that would happen was if they stayed on the other side of the room from each other. If he touched her, they’d be ripping each other’s clothes off in short order. It didn’t sound so bad from where he stood, but Dante had the long game in mind. The more time passed before they settled into something official, the harder it would be to convince her he wanted more than her body.