Everything I’d been taught growing up told me that was a good thing, but I knew Maxim’s perspective was different. His only priority was towards his organisation. To the Bratva. And these people who’d betrayed their trust were going to have to pay. Or at the very least, be silenced, and removed from the equation.
I swallowed hard.
“What happens now?”
“Don’t ask me that, Elizabeth. You already know what my job is. Are you in?”
I stared at him, feeling the weight of his question. If I said no, I had to walk away and never see him again. If I said yes, my life was going to be violence and murder and never knowing that I was truly in the right ever again. Maxim had made his peace with that, knowing that his loyalty was to his homeland and his brethren. I didn’t have that connection, that justification.
I felt my jaw hinge open without any idea what words I wanted to shape my lips around and I swallowed again, buying time. “I don’t – I don’t know.”
Maxim nodded, short and tight, and he got abruptly to his feet.
“Where are you going?”
“Home. I have to debrief. Find out where this trail leads. Chances are tomorrow we get to the end of all the breadcrumbs.”
“Where do you think they lead?”
“I don’t know yet. Look, take your time. Think about it. Walk away if you have to. Just don’t come back, because if you leave me any hope, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth rather than letting you go.”
My heart clenched, and I reached out, my hand around his muscled forearm.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I don’t need to think about it, Maxim. I’m with you. I’ve always been with you. Nothing’s going to change that.”
He pulled me in against him, and his mouth closed over mine. I groaned as I felt him harden against me, and I kissed him back until my lips felt swollen and bruised.
There wasn’t anywhere I wanted to be that wasn’t by his side, and if that meant living the life he did, then so be it. I could do it. I’d already killed once, and Maxim could teach me how to kill again. I could learn all he had to teach me and I could be useful to him. Together, we could be a formidable pair. That was the life I wanted.
CHAPTER 27
Maxim
We fell into an easy enough rhythm. I was more comfortable away from Knightsbridge and in Greenwich I could better control the environment. I knew my neighbors here better than I knew the Russian elite and sheiks neighboring the Bratva’s flat.
I kept my old Kawasaki ZZR1100 out on the street, under a waterproof cover without any harm ever coming to it. Around here they knew better. They knew what would befall whoever messed with my bike and no one wanted to deal with the consequences.
While we waited for Valentin to send through information on the names Sutherland had kept locked away in his notebook, we had some down time. I knew well enough how rare that was and I was set on enjoying it.
Elizabeth watched me making potato salad with a slow smile on her face. “I never thought you’d be so domestic.”
I shrugged. “I like to eat. There’s no one else to make it for me.”
She leaned in and stole one of the baby new potatoes from the bowl where they were steaming. “Mm. That’s why I taught myself to cook too.”
We might have come from different worlds, but the pair of us had more in common than I could have ever realised. We might have both come from a tough start, but it didn’t have to be that way any longer. “And now we can cook for each other.”
I packed up the picnic into a rucksack, slipping a champagne bottle into the bag while Elizabeth was fetching her things. Wrapped in wet newspaper and put into the freezer for a few hours, it would hold its chill until we got to Greenwich park.
Down in the parking lot, I uncovered my bike and took the padlock off the chain. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and I knew she was impressed.
“I need to get my licence,” she said a little wistfully and I grinned.
“After the job’s over, I’ll teach you. And then maybe I’ll even let you have a go.”
“You better.”
I handed her the rucksack and she climbed on behind me. There was nothing better than feeling her shift forward and cling on tight. I’d never get tired of that.
I roared us along the main road, away from the river, further south. The park stretched from the Maritime Museum and Observatory with it’s long, collonaded facade, up the hill in a green swathe.
The grass was teaming with other couples and young family groups, all with the same idea, picnics set out on blankets enjoying the sunshine while it lasted.