“I’m gone. I won’t be seen in this shitty state again. Too close to the Feds for me.”
Juliana keeps eyeing Jane, then slowly gets off her. I can see the knife shaking behind her back, but her face doesn’t give anything away. “Disappear. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t exist. If that changes, I’ll have to be more thorough.”
“Understood,” Jane says, glancing between us. “But that means you better give Johnny boy the message. He seemed uniquely motivated.”
Before I can follow up on that, she’s gone. Juliana exhales, sets the knife on the table, then sits right where Jane/ Sharon was. Rubbing her fingers through her hair, I can see exactly how intensely she’s trembling.
“Since when is playing pretend hard?”
I immediately sit next to her and pull her into my arms. Juliana is a lot of things, but she’s not a killer. She’ll defend herself without problem, but there’s no way she’d actually kill a person.
“It’s over now. You did well,” I say.
“You were nicer than I would be,” Konstantin grumbles.
I shoot him a look. Juliana doesn’t need to know all the dirty details of mafia life or what Konstantin has been taught. I kiss her forehead and Konstantin holds up his hands in surrender.
“I would have been afraid of you,” Konstantin amends.
“I’m all talk. No follow through,” She murmurs.
“That’s not a bad thing, Juliana. It’s a good thing to have control like you did. You spared us a mess, got answers, and took care of one half of the problem. Now we just have to see what Max is capable of.”
She nods. “I need a bath.”
I release her and watch her walk away. Water runs in the distance and I slump into the couch. Nolan hops up next to me while panting. I glance at him. “What, do you need water? Didalmostbiting someone take it out of you?” I chuckle.
“Probably. Did you know that Juliana was pretending?” Konstantin asks.
“Just like she pretends that she doesn’t want us when her father is around. She has a tell.” I admit.
“What is it?”
“Her toes curl when she lies. When she was little, she would crunch grass or pull at the carpet. I was shocked other people never noticed.”
Konstantin nods and rubs the back of his neck. “You know how that could have gone.”
“I know,” I agree. “it could have gotten much worse. We’re lucky that Juliana knew how to play the situation.”
“When she answered me in Russian she knew she was caught. I expected her to show a gun.”
“She didn’t have one on her or I wouldn’t have let Juliana get that close,” I say.
He nods. I glance at him, eager to get off this topic. “Are you really okay with sharing her?”
Okay, maybe not a better topic.
“I thought I’d hate it. But ... she’s happier than I’ve ever seen her. A girl given everything she doesn’t want finally getting something she does.”
I nod in agreement. Honestly, seeing her with Konstantin eases me. Knowing that she has more than one person supporting her is a relief. She deserves it. She deserves more people who recognize how wonderful she is.
“What do we do until Max gets back?” Konstantin asks. His gaze flicks to Juliana’s room again.
“I’m getting a nap. Do whatever you want. But do it quietly,” I advise.
He nods. “I just want to make sure she’s really okay. She hides things well.”
And she needs time to process things. Otherwise, I’d have tried to get into the bath with her. Only half for sex. But I’ve been pushed away in the throws of her emotions too many times to chance it.