I may not be a don, or a boss, or anything remotely impressive. I’m just a broken dancer. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have just as much pride as Kolya does.

“It’s raining,” he calls after me.

“Scared of a little water?”

I feel his hand around my arm before he spins me around. It’s coming down a lot harder now, out from under the cover of the tree. The drops are soaking through my clothes, cold and fresh, in a way that makes me feel strangely alive.

“We are not doing this here,” he says firmly.

“Doing what?” I ask. “I’m just walking away.”

“You know I can’t let you do that.”

“Why?”

He growls at me. “Because that baby is mine.”

I free my hand from his grip. “If we’re taking paternity, then I think your brother will disagree with you. But as far as I’m concerned, this baby belongs to no one but me. I will not be used anymore, Kolya. Least of all by you.”

He glares at me with those intense, dark eyes. I see shadows of his brother in him now. Little snippets that show me how blind I’ve been.

But Adrian’s anger is no holds barred. When it breaks, it’s like the storm enmeshing us right now, wild and uncontrollable.

With Kolya, though, it is perfectly manipulated. His anger is quiet and disciplined. So composed that it’s terrifying.

Rain crashes down on us from all sides. I’m drenched now, and feeling the cold. The moment I shiver, he leans in and grabs me. He pulls me to him and I trip right into his arms.

The most dangerous place to be.

“I get it,” he says, his voice barely audible over the downpour. “You’re pissed off and you have a right to be. But we’re not going to solve anything by standing out here in the rain.”

“I can look after myself.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” he says. “Not when I’m willing to do it for you.”

The way he says it makes it all sound so simple. It makes me sound so unreasonable. Especially considering everything inside me is screaming with relief to find myself in his arms again.

I never experienced anything remotely like this with Adrian.

And the man literally rose from the dead to find me again.

“Come with me, June.”

If I’m going to survive this, I know I can’t let him convince me. That’s what happened before, and it almost killed me.

And yet when he pulls me towards the car, I go with him.

We walk slowly despite the rain, or maybe because of it. He helps me back into the seat, and I say nothing. I watch his form part the rain as he strides around the front of the car, so strong and so assured and so utterly, completely wrong for me.

He settles behind the wheel and starts the engine.

And we drive.

13

JUNE

I don’t register the cacophony of red and blue lights surrounding the mansion until we’re almost on top of them.