Chapter 15 OUTBURST

Chapter 15 OUTBURST
NIKOLAI

I pull her along as soon as we get back. Had I been a second later, she would have been dead, and I don’t want her dead – yet.

“Let go of me!” she struggles and tries to yank her arm away from my grip, but she obviously fails.

I haven’t said a word to her since the meeting. I couldn’t decide if I was annoyed or impressed. Finally getting to my office, I shove her inside and lock the door behind me.

“What now? Are you going to scold me?”

“I should, shouldn’t I?” I sigh and sit in my chair calmly.

She scoffs and crosses her hands. “I was at the bar, minding my business, when this guy comes up to me and starts acting crazy. He pulls a gun on me, and I fight back. Do you not see the blood on my fucking face?”

“You shouldn’t have touched that gun; that makes you a co-offender.”

“Well, I kinda needed the gun to get rid of the actual offender.” The sass in her tone is sharp, but sexy.

“Can I at least go to my room?”

I don’t say anything to her, still trying to pick between annoyance and attraction, which emotion wins over the other in this situation.

I say nothing to her request as Fin’s words keep repeating in my head. I keep remembering her standing there, with the gun pointed at me, and such determination in her eyes; it must be the sexiest thing I’ve seen all year.

She takes a few steps towards the door, and I snap out of my fantasy and pull my gun. “Touch that door, and you lose an arm,” I say and cock my gun.

She pauses instantly.

“Don’t think about testing me – I don’t bluff.”

She turns around and stares at me for a moment before folding her arms.

“Do you realize that man was going to kill me?” she asks.

“I don’t care,” I snap, sharper than I had intended. “You don’t touch a gun on those grounds; those were the rules.”

Silence stretches between us. I understand her reason, but I refuse to accept it for fear that my soft spot might show its head. She broke the rules and risked her life in the process, and I refuse to let it slide.

I can tell she wants to argue. I can see her calculating how much she can push before I push back harder. That calculation – gosh, is intoxicating.

“You could have died tonight – maybe not by that man, but by them,” I add, quieter now.

I can’t lose her before I even get to know her again.

“Well, I didn’t,” she says.

“Because of me!”

I get up and step closer to her before I can stop myself. One step too close. Close enough to feel her heat, to smell her. My jaw tightens. This is exactly why I shouldn’t let her anywhere near me.

And yet.

You don’t get to make decisions like that here,” I say. “Not without consequences.”

She doesn’t back away or try to challenge me either. She just stands there, breathing slow and steady – like she’s waiting to see what I do next.

I stare at her face for a really long time. I know what I want, and I know that it’s standing right in front of me. Her lips are so close – I could just lean down and take them in mine. I want to know how it’s going to feel. I want to have her and just get it out of my system. I think that’s what this is – sexual curiosity.

Discipline.

I straighten abruptly and take a step back, forcing space between us.

“I don’t know how you were trained, but I know that the person who trained you had little to no regard for rules. That is different here; some rules are laid down to govern everyone, and you have no choice but to follow those rules.”

“So, what – when someone tries to kill me, I should fight back with a smile and a cute punch?”

“You follow the goddamn rules, Mia! I don’t care if it gets you killed! Your life is no longer in your hands; it’s in mine, and you need to understand that before I choose to stop keeping you alive.”

“Ten, why don’t you just fucking kill me then!” she yells in frustration, and I hear a crack in her voice. I can see the utter annoyance and helplessness in her eyes for a moment before she masks it up immediately. “I don’t even know why you kept me alive in the first place.”

I pause for a bit before I speak again.

“Your room,” I say coldly. “Now. And you don’t get to see outside those walls until I say so.”

Her eyes search my face, as if looking for the crack beneath my steel expression. She doesn’t find it, so she turns and walks away.

I don’t move until the door closes; only then do I exhale and realize how hard I am. I close my eyes and groan.

I walk back to my table and grab my phone, calling James from the street district. He picks up almost immediately.

“Boss.”

“Were you waiting by the phone?” I ask with a scoff, referring to how fast he answered the phone.

“Probably.”

I smile at his ability to catch the flow before getting serious. “A man was shot at the hall today,” I start. “A woman pulled the trigger, and her face is probably all over the security cameras; word about what she looks like is probably already in the street. I want to know who comes looking, and who starts asking questions.”

“Yes, boss.”

I hang up. Word spreads fast, and if Danta gets news that Mia is still alive, he might try to reach her to finish the job he thought my men and I would do, or he might try to manipulate her again.

Either way, I can’t have him anywhere near her.