The only sign he gave of the nerves I knew he was feeling was when he rattled off facts about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and a couple other famous mafia feuds. He began to settle and his words died away as I slowly rubbed his back while we watched as the sun rose, painting the sky with a glorious display of colors.
Before the sun was fully up, I heard his breathing change and knew he’d fallen asleep. Stretching my arm out, I fumbled for the forgotten blanket and pulled it over us as I closed my own heavy eyelids and surrendered to sleep.
7
Tanner
I shivered awake in the chilly early morning air. I couldn’t have slept long. The sky still held a tinge of the last bit of pink from the sunrise.
Ivan tucked the blanket around us and held me close, warming my chilled body. “Can’t wait to see a thousand or two more of those with you,” he mumbled sleepily.
“Should be a good day,” I said, my brain churning facts as it warmed up. “No red sky. You know, the old saying? Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. It’s a pretty accurate saying. It’s because when the sky looks red, it means there are a lot of dust and moisture particles in the atmosphere, indicating high pressure. Because weather tends to move west to east in the northern hemisphere—” Ivan blinked sleepily at me. “I’m sorry, it’s too early for facts, isn’t it? Or too late. You didn’t sleep at all, did you?”
“It’s never too early for my Facts,” he said. “I like hearing your voice. So what does the high pressure mean?”
I snuggled in, feeling more safe than I’d ever felt in my life. Not just physically, though there was certainly that, but also emotionally. I kept waiting for Ivan to tell me to be quiet or that I was being too much, but deep down, I knew that would never happen. “High pressure means good weather, generally. If it’s in the west, that generally means it’s heading toward us. If it’s in the east, that means that we might have already had the good weather, and the low pressure is following after. Kind of like the dip after a wave in the ocean.”
“I’ll make sure to take an umbrella today.”
“Take it where?” I asked.
“Well, now that Pavlo’s safe, we’ve got to figure out who took him and shot at Dad. We can’t just let that kind of thing go. It makes us look weak. One, that someone dared to shoot at us and two, that they succeeded in hitting our family.”
“Is it going to be dangerous?” I hated that my voice quavered. Of course it was going to be dangerous. Someone had shot at Ivan’s dad. He was going to go looking for someone who had already fired a gun with intent to kill.
“Don’t worry about me, Facts. I’m too tough for anyone to kill, especially if I have my brothers by my side.”
“And what about me?”
“You’ll stay here where you’ll be safe,” he said. “Even if someone figured out you were connected to us finding Pavlo, we’d never let them near you. I’m going to keep you safe.”
I clenched my teeth to keep my response inside. If Ivan thought I was going to stay home without him, he didn’t know me yet. He’d told me I’d stay as if it was a forgone conclusion, as if it was a command.
Well. I wasn’t about to let my mate disappear on me. Everyone in my life had disappeared on me. I’d never know the story about my bio parents, but they were gone. My sister had disappeared into the woods of Canada to “find” herself, and my parents had left one day on an anniversary trip only to die in a car crash. If my mate was going to willingly throw himself into harm’s way, I was going to be at his side whether he liked it or not.
I didn’t care about being safe. Well… maybe a little. But I wasn’t going to let him walk into danger without me.
“Ugh, it’s getting too cold even with the blanket. You ready to go inside?”
I nodded, and we quickly scooped up all the clothing we could find. My stomach rumbled while I was getting dressed. Now that my need to complete the mating bond with Ivan had been satisfied, I was starving.
Ivan lifted the picnic basket ruefully. “I knew I should have made you eat first. But you distracted me.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and smiled up at him. “No, I think we did things in the right order. But I’m more than happy to eat now.”
“It’s not the warmest place for rooftop dining, but let’s eat now before we go back.” Ivan led me over to the cute iron dinette set and held out my chair. He scooted his around to sit next to me. It made me happy to sit like this where our feet could tangle rather than being separated by even something as small as a table. “I have a feeling my brothers are giving me a little leeway because of it being our first night, but as soon as they see me, it’s going to be all business.”
The wind wasn’t bad right now and the early morning air felt nice against my flushed skin. I scarfed down two of the giant sandwiches with a speed that left Ivan staring, open mouthed. Especially when I followed it by drinking half the cocoa from the thermos. It was a good thing it wasn’t super hot or I might’ve burned my mouth, I guzzled it so fast.
“Where do you put it all?” He poked at my stomach. “I don’t believe there’s enough room in there.”
“I’m used to fitting big things inside me,” I said with a meaningful glance at his hips.
He dragged me into his lap and tipped my head back for a kiss. “I hope that I’m the only big thing you intend to fit inside you from now on.”
“And sandwiches,” I said cheekily.
“That better be it,” he growled, but his eyes were sparkling with laughter.
He was right about it being all business once we showed our faces. As soon as his brothers caught sight of him as we emerged from the door to the cellar and the secret passage, they dragged us both into his dad’s office.
“Pavlo’s still sleeping, but other than the girl he’d been playing with—who was probably part of the kidnapping plan—he doesn’t remember anything. Ivan scented something sweet, but it wasn’t a shifter scent, right?”
Ivan nodded. “They were definitely shifters, but I don’t know what kind. And there was that other scent on top of it.”
“Still no idea what it could have been?”
“I wish I could remember. It was familiar, and I feel like the moment I do scent it again, I’ll be able to recognize it, but…”
Vasily grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t worry. A scent is more than anyone else got. Tanner, can you remember anything that might be helpful? Any tiny detail? A scent that might have been on Pavlo? A voice, a face?”
“The guy who threw Pavlo into the room had a gruff voice. Deeper than that guy you talked to at the bar—the one who took the money. And he was big. But all I saw was his shadow, so that might not be right.”
“Would you recognize his voice if you heard it again?” Vasily said. “Or did you possibly catch his scent?”
I shook my head slowly. “I don’t think so. All I could smell was fryer oil and stale beer. I’m sorry. I feel bad that I didn’t pick up on more.”