The phone buzzed beside me. I snatched it up and checked the message.

Alexei: Elena’s plane landed

Me: When will we get to see her?

Alexei: I don’t know. It’s the only message I’ve gotten from her so far.

I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. I’d been holding it for almost seven years. She was finally here. Now I just needed to make sure she was safe.

I clenched my fists. I couldn’t even keep Dahlia safe.

Alexei: How did Dahlia’s art thing go?

I raked my fingers through my hair, tugging at the roots. Something had taken me over at the gallery. After getting that report from Luca and seeing all those guys piled on top of her, I lost it. The compulsion to stop any and all threats that came anywhere near her had been so powerful, I lost all control.

Sergei’s guys weren’t stupid or sloppy enough to do something in public. I don’t know what I’d been thinking. No, I did. Ty, the one who worked in the shop. The one I’d seen with Sergei’s guys, right there in her face with his hands on her. I’d known in the back of my mind that she wasn’t in danger, but five guys crowded around her had me on edge. The way she’d looked into my eyes.… I had to close my eyes against the surging pain radiating inside me.

I’d been doing my best to show her the man I could be. That I wasn’t that stupid boy she’d met ten years ago or the man who’d earned his bratva tattoos one bloody encounter after another. I was trying to show her I could be the man she needed me to be. In one look she’d cracked apart the picture I’d been painting for her for weeks.

It was equal parts fear and anger. The anger wasn’t anything new. But the fear lanced straight through my heart, more painful than anything I’d experienced before. No bullet wound compared to seeing her in front of me, begging me to let her friend go. Everyone else saw the anger, but I saw what was beneath it. She thought I might end up killing her friend, and she’d been right. For a split second before I caught myself, I’d seen the flash in front of my eyes. Of what I was capable of doing. And I knew she saw it too.

I’d imploded her big night. Ruined it because I couldn’t tell her what was going on. That I was having her shop watched and I’d seen the pictures of those guys going inside. There was no danger at the gallery, but there sure as hell was just outside her doorstep.

After the report Luca gave me, I was on high alert. One wrong move and I was ready to burn everything down. Elena had safely landed. That had been the only thing holding me back. I’d do whatever it took to keep Dahlia safe.

The pounding on my door was a welcome distraction from the anger and sadness that coursed through me. Dahlia. No other visitors were allowed, except Alexei. I hadn’t expected her to show up, but I’d briefed security that she was to be let up if she ever came here. I barely cracked the door open before Dahlia shoved her way inside. Her fury rolled off her in waves.

“What the hell was that, Ivan? You could’ve killed Ty.” She rounded on me, flinging her bag on the ground like she was ready to lunge for me.

“I know. I’m sorry. I overreacted.”

My words didn’t have much of an effect. If anything, she looked even more pissed off. “Overreacted? That was more than a fucking overreaction, Ivan. That was insanity!” Her voice boomed off the walls.

“I don’t know what you want me to say. Nothing I can say will make it right.” This was who I was. The side of myself I had hoped to hide from her. I’d hoped she would never have to see it. And in a second, I snapped. I saw him in those pictures talking to Sergei’s guys, and I lost it.

The man she saw in the gallery was everything I’d been trying to hide from her. I’d been trying to get her to remember the eighteen-year-old me and how everything fit together perfectly back then, not the raw and jagged edges that made up who I was.

“Why? Tell me! What happened to no more secrets?”

“I had my reasons.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “Not good ones, but it was instinct and I overreacted.”

“Did your uncle find out about me? Has someone been near my shop?”

The way she switched gears caught me completely off guard. I said nothing as I stared at her and she stood in front of me with her fists balled, looking ready to pounce at any second. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t want to scare her either.

“You need to tell me the truth, Ivan. If there’s someone watching my shop or threatening it, I need to know. I have people who work there. Clients coming in and out. I need to know if any of us are in danger.” She stood toe to toe with me, not afraid. At least there was that. At least I hadn’t made her afraid of me in that moment. Just seriously fucking angry.

“I’m taking care of it.” I was. I’d make sure Luca had ten guys on that block if that’s what it took.

“Taking care of it?” Her body practically vibrated with anger, and she was glorious. I knew a smile from me would amp her up even more, but seeing her ready to take me on made me want to kiss her. Made me want to soak up that anger and turn the fiery passion into another kind. One that would let me show her how good we could be together all night long.

“I have a friend making sure everyone is safe.”

“Is this a friend who’s in the same line of work as your uncle?” She spat, her face twisted in disgust.

“Yes. When you live in my world, you have to play by my rules. This will be handled.”

She threw her hands up in frustration and tried to storm past me. I caught her elbow and spun her around. If looks could kill… She was ready to tear me a new one, and I was suddenly relieved that we had finished my tattoo already. There would have surely been an outline of a dick incorporated into the design if it hadn’t.

“I didn’t mean to ruin your show.” The sadness hung heavy in my heart. The show had been my gift to her. A chance for the world to see her artistry on display. To appreciate all she’d accomplished. I’d never want to ruin something so precious.

“You think this is about my show? You think this is just about what happened tonight?”

Suddenly I was lost. Isn’t that what this is about?

“This is about the fact that you’re never going to leave. You might try and get away from your family. You might try to start over. But this will always be a part of who you are. How do I ask you to change that? It’s ingrained.” She pressed her finger into my chest. Her touch burned with accusation and anger. “It’s in here. And I can’t be with you if I never know what might set you off. What might be too much. What might unleash the real Ivan the Terrible.”

A flare of hope shot off in my chest. She’d said she couldn’t be with me, which meant she’d entertained the idea. I’d take that opening.

“It’s not like that, Dahlia.” I dropped her arm and ran my hands over my face. She was so soft and smooth. So tough and strong all at the same time. There was so much she needed to know and so much I didn’t want to have to tell her. “The danger is real, Dahlia. There’s so much you don’t know.”

“Tell me everything.” The hard line to her face brokered no argument.

“That night when I came to the back door, when I had to leave out the back as well, there were two guys outside of your shop. I knew they were there watching you.”

“How long have you known?” she asked, looking stunned.

“Because of me. Because of other things going on with my uncle.” I hadn’t wanted to say those words, but there they were. “And I know that I can’t be with you every minute of every day.” I thought back to that long conversation I’d had with her dad the day she was sentenced to a year in juvenile detention for breaking and entering, even though she was eighteen. Her dad had managed to pull some strings for that. He knew back then what I’d only recently accepted.

“I thought I could protect you. Keep you safe. But now I know it’s not true. Your dad tried to warn me.”

Her eyes got wide, and she took a stunned step back.

“My dad?”

“Yes, your dad. The day you were sentenced, I tried to come to the courtroom. But your dad caught me on the steps outside. And he told me exactly what would happen to you if anyone found out that we were connected.”

“But he didn’t know about you.”

“He knew. Or he figured it out. Once he saw it was me coming to see you. He told me never to come near you again. But I was an idiot. A young idiot.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me? Why didn’t he ever tell me?”

“I can only imagine that he knew how much better it would be for you if you hated me. I hated myself for putting you in that situation in the first place. It never should have happened. You never should have been there, and I never should’ve left you. But once that was done, there wasn’t much else I could do.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?” The anguish in her voice made me want to rip the flesh from my own body.

“He knew how dangerous it would be. That the danger for you in there wasn’t as high as the danger outside. Danger your father knew all too well.” My heart pounded as the next words fell from my lips. I couldn’t keep this from her any longer.

Her throat worked a mile a minute, and she made a slight wheezing sound. Her eyes got wide, and the pieces finally clicked. The pieces I’d kept close to me all this time because I knew once she found out, it would never be the same again.

“He killed my father.” It came out barely a whisper. And she finally understood how dangerous being around me really was. The last bit of the puzzle I’d tried to spare her. To spare myself. Her father’s death had been because of me. Her dad being involved in Sergei’s son’s death had been his death warrant. Even if her dad hadn’t pulled the trigger, Sergei was never one to be precise when it came to repaying a family debt. My attempts at stopping it had only brought what happened between the two of us into the light of day and into my uncle’s sights.

Sitting in her booth when I knew I had no business going after her. Taking her dancing and knowing she’d ruined me for anyone else. Inking herself on my heart long before she did my skin.

“Your uncle killed my father.” Her angry tear-filled eyes shot to mine. She blinked quickly, trying to keep them at bay. A heaviness settled so hard on my chest it was hard to breathe. I wanted to wrap her up and wash the pain away, but there would never be any way to make this right. I was responsible for the last of her family being ripped away from her.