Obsidian Mask

by Scarlett Dawn

  I shrugged as they glared. “Be fucking men about this. You two were gone. Life moves on after death. She did. He did. You can’t hurt him for that. For them making each other happy.”

  I sucked in a breath, noticing they were actually listening to me. “What happened when you were gone you can’t erase. Or blame them because they decided to live after tragedy. That would be selfish as hell, and the two of you are very far from that.” I believed that wholeheartedly. In the armed forces, which we all knew they had been a part of, most of the time you’re put in situations that require sacrifice. And they figuratively sacrificed their lives for their country. So, no, they weren’t selfish. They made the ultimate sacrifice. And they may have lost the most important part of their life because of their selflessness.

  Brent cleared his throat, and his fierce eyes moved over my shoulder where he stared at the wall. “We get that now. Last night, we were reacting off emotion. We’d only just realized…” He cleared his throat again. “We won’t harm him for what he did in the past.” If he does it again, though, it’s a different ballgame—I heard him even though he didn’t say it.

  Cole stared, his eyes ice as he hovered over me. “What are you going to do with the information you have?”

  In other words—are you going to write the article about us smooching?

  “Nothing. I wouldn’t ruin you two just to ruin you.” Not after my new—annoying conscience—kept bugging me. “For now, anyway.” Best to keep them on a leash if need be.

  Cole’s eyes flashed. “Blackmail?”

  I shook my head. “No. Just insurance.” In case they ever get stupid again. “Now, can we get the elevator going? And if you don’t want to be shot, I would stay back until I exit. Daniil didn’t sound very happy.” Those words really shouldn’t have rolled off my tongue as easily as they did, and my eyebrows snapped together. Daniil wasn’t going to be shooting anyone today.

  Brent grinned a crooked smile, and it was adorable with his blond curls falling around his face. “I think we’ll be fine.” He turned toward the panel of buttons, popped open the small door after he removed two quick screws with a small kit he pulled out of his pants pocket. Only fifteen seconds of messing with the wires, and the button for my floor went dark and the floor we had come from—theirs—lit. The elevator started moving again. Up this time, while Brent put the panel back on, just as the doors opened.

  Cole pushed my floor’s button again.

  They both exited into a quiet hallway.

  The doors closed.

  I blinked.

  It was good to know Brent knew a thing or two about wiring.

  When those doors opened to my floor, I gawked.

  At a mess full of bodyguards and Daniil and his children.

  They were all standing in front of the elevator door with their guns aimed into the elevator—which only held me. And it didn’t go over well.

  Predictably, I fainted.

  That had been the particularly low point of my past few days, even over awakening in Daniil’s arms and having to convince Daniil—and crew—that nothing had happened in the elevator other than a private convo, and then still having to practically plead for Brent and Cole’s lives.

  Yeah, that first morning after the Zoya dinner wasn’t fun. I’d been ready to split from Daniil…until I observed my family sitting next to him in the lobby of the resort, amazingly being charmed by the mafia king. That was been odd. And endearing since he knew I was ready to run.

  He didn’t want me to and had gone to the one place he knew was an enormous sore spot for us. And delighted the hell out of them. My dad talked about the possibility of having Daniil in church the following Sunday, and honestly, I think my mom had a little crush on him since he kept smiling at her when she would give him pamphlets on gun control. My aunt and cousin found it all very amusing.

  When they left for their own flight, I had decided to stay with Daniil.

  Though they didn’t know that. Hell no.

  Waiting on the Lion Security team for breakfast, I yawned and let my head fall on the table. I had seen my family off before going there—their flight was at the buttcrack of dawn, so I was early. Daniil and I hadn’t spent the night together because my mom dragged me out to dinner with them, and then I had to get up early to see them off. I hated getting up early, and I was a bit crabby. In fact, I was tempted to get back into bed. Our flight was scheduled for nine o’clock tonight.

  What seemed like only a few heartbeats later, I yawned and…toxic fumes hit me.

  I choked, hearing voices all around. Blinking and coughing hard, I stared at a…

  Christ, what was that?

  Some sort of swordfish? I shot up in my seat, gagging and scowling at the dead piece of sea-crap on Ember’s plate. The bitch had been sleeping in my bed every night—half the time with me in it—and she knew I hated that seafood shit, and yet she still brought it to the table. Belatedly, I realized the table was full. And I had slept right through it. I could sleep some more even.

  Still choking, I glared.

  She smirked, taking a hefty bite of her fish-stink-meat. She hummed in delight, and I felt the color drain from my face. That just wasn’t nice. Not at all.

  “Ember,” Grigori stated casually across the table. I scanned for Daniil but didn’t see him anywhere. “I don’t think that’s a great idea.”

  “Whatever do you mean?” she asked cheerfully, stabbing her fork into the flesh. I burped, placing a hand over my mouth as she lifted her fork with the meat dangling from it. “It was a great idea. I haven’t had a good piece of fish all week.” She turned her attention from Grigori to me. “Besides, Elizabeth here had her boating experience days ago. This shouldn’t faze her at all now. Right?” Her eyes were hooded as she smiled, placing the fork right under my nose. “Wanna bite, Elizabeth?”

  “Ember…” Grigori stated in warning.

  “Fuck off, Grigori,” Ember spewed, her expression hardening. “I’m just helping her find the truth. And she does love her truth, even if she’s getting a little soft.”

  I stared cross-eyed at the meat. I had no chance. I held my breath as long as I could, and even tried to swat her hand away, but she was stubborn. I had to breathe…and, well…I got a big whiff of the fishy ocean on a fork. And it just came.

  Out.

  All over Ember’s lap.

  Ember shrieked, her hands flying in the air and hovering over me as I heaved up my guts on her. I gripped the back of her chair and the table, my head beneath, so luckily only the people next to us saw me puking. But everyone most definitely heard me after the place went silent from Ember’s initial shout. The girl had a fucking pair of lungs on her.

  Ember was whining, no real words coming out of her mouth. Except this high-pitched, disgusted whimper as I sucked in air, everything emptied on her bare legs and shorts, and a little on her black shirt, too. I groaned, “You’re a fucking bitch.”

  Ember moaned again.

  Daniil’s voice came from somewhere to my right. “What the hell’s going on?”

  I froze but really wanted to pull my face away from the smelly puke. Ember made that funny noise again, starting to lightly swat at the back of my head.

  Stash spoke, sounding awed and fascinated, “Man, Daniil. I haven’t seen puking like that since Brent and Ember. But I’d have to say Elizabeth just beat them on that front. It was loud and long and full of body motion. A definite ten. Especially, with Ember’s freak out.” He paused. “Fuck, I wished I’d had a camera for that.”

  Staring at my puke while he spoke—something I never did—the ‘truth’ Ember so helpfully said she wanted me to find, dawned on me. I screamed, “Oh, Jesus Christ!” I jumped up, grabbing a napkin from the table, wiping my mouth as I backed away from a rapidly approaching worried Daniil, pointing a finger at him. “Don’t you come near me. Jesus…”

  I swore harshly, walking backward in circles around the table, Daniil following. I didn’t even have the common sense to t
ake the conversation elsewhere, pretty much forgetting anyone else was around but him. “You’ve already done enough. Stay back.”

  My period should have come…yesterday. “Oh. Oh. Oh. Fuck!” Puking, smells, the tender breasts, not to mention the unprotected sex. I pointed at him again, shouting, “You asshole!” I was pissed and scared, and Christ, he was the fucking head of the Russian Mafia. I would have a little mafia heir. “I think I’m gonna puke again.” I felt it rising. Especially, as I passed Ember where she sat, staring at her lap with her hands in the air.

  Grigori was spouting off harshly to the bodyguards in Russian.

  “Beth,” Daniil spoke softly, holding his hands up, trying to look innocent. Too bad it lifted his black shirt up to show his abs a little…and also showed the holster he wore under his shirt. I whimpered, turning the table, using Eva’s chair—God, she was going to have a new little brother or sister soon—to steady me. Daniil kept pace with me, moving slowly even as I moved fast, the bodyguards herding everyone out of the restaurant. “Calm down. Everything’s all right.”

  “Don’t give me that bullshit!” I shouted, stumbling. Grigori caught me somehow, and I pushed away from him quickly and started moving again. God, this was awful. My life was over as I knew it. My youth was gone in the blink of one drunken night. Not to mention my parents were going to disown me. No matter how much charming Daniil had done—it was nowhere near enough for me to have his baby.

  “Papa, what’s going on?” Eva asked quietly, startling me since the place had gone silent like a crypt. Like my life.

  I whimpered. One day my child was going to call a gun-wielding crazy Papa.

  “Not the time,” Zane grumbled quietly. But we all heard it.

  My attention snapped to him. “You fucking know? How the hell was that possible when I didn’t?”

  Zane’s mouth closed. He glanced off to the side, not wanting to enter this.

  My jaw clenched, and I looked back to Daniil…and shrieked. He was right in front of me. Moving so quickly, I didn’t even see him. He wrapped his arms around me, smashing me against his chest, saying quickly, “It’ll be all right. You just need to calm down. We can talk about this.”

  And…I started bawling.

  Ember stomped by, walking like her legs were made of solid wood. “Congratulations.” She banged through the bodyguards and out the restaurant’s door.

  I sobbed harder while Daniil held me in an unbreakable embrace.

  A half hour later, I was peeing on a white stick proffered by a bodyguard to the head of the Russian Mafia. While said head of the Russian Mafia and his heirs, plus a few stranglers of the United States best security company and New York’s favorite nightclubs, waited outside the bathroom door for the verdict.

  Not exactly how I had envisioned taking my first pregnancy test.

  These people did nothing privately.

  When Daniil and I had gone to my room, hoping for solitude, he explained that he already suspected I was. He had noticed—snooped—that there had been no feminine wrappers in the trash after I had said I was on my period. Then the whole damn gang just barged in through the door—via a magical keycard everyone seemed to have—or through the adjoining door I had locked to Ember’s room. I didn’t even try to get them out. I just kept hiccupping and staring out the window while Daniil consoled me, and ordering one of his guards to buy a test. To say this group didn’t know everything about the other and weren’t involved in everyone else’s business would be only a hopeful dream.

  I set the now yellowed stick on the edge of the bathroom sink, pulled my pants up, and flushed. I slammed the toilet lid down before thumping down on it and choked, “Start timing.”

  I heard Artur say, “Fuck. It won’t work.”

  “Give me the damn thing,” Chloe griped loudly.

  I let my head fall into my hands and started counting in my head as they all started arguing outside the door. I was on a minute-twenty when I felt a hand on the back of my head. It didn’t scare me. I knew it was him. The father of my possible child.

  Squatting in front of me, he lifted my chin and stared me in the eye. And I lost count. He stayed that way on his haunches, his hands going to my cheeks, wiping away the last few tears I had shed. And while that last minute-forty passed by, his eyes told me that he wasn’t going anywhere. If I were pregnant. Or even if I wasn’t. He wanted more than to be just lovers.

  That calmed me. Knowing he wanted me. Just me.

  Somehow, he had seriously come to have feelings for me.

  And…I liked that idea.

  My lips twitched as I took in my first deep breath since the restaurant. “You and I couldn’t be any more fucking different.”

  His lips curled. “And that’s the beautiful irony of it.”

  “You’re crazy, you know?”

  He grinned. “Yes.”

  “I think I find it a little attractive like all those other women you spoke of.”

  “That’s a good thing. There aren’t going to be any other women for me.”

  “You sound so sure. How do you know this will last?”

  “You already said why. Because you and I couldn’t be any more fucking different.” When I just stared, he explained, “We won’t get bored with one another.”

  My eyebrows came together. “Is that supposed to be flattering?”

  “Yes. It is. Because I find your differences oddly attractive, even if aggravating.”

  I thought about that. “I don’t find your violence attractive.”

  “I know,” he stated simply. Nothing more.

  “Think we can work on that?”

  “No.” He brushed my hair behind my ear. “It keeps everyone safe.”

  “We’re gonna talk about that.”

  He just smiled.

  Then…his watch started beeping loudly.

  I stilled. Everyone behind the closed door stopped arguing.

  Daniil turned off his watch’s alarm. Again, he brushed my curls behind my other ear. “Do you want to check? Or do you want me to?”

  I cleared my throat and shook my hands out beside my legs. “Me. I want to look first.”

  “All right.” He sat on the edge of the tub, his elbows on his knees, his hands loose.

  Simply watching me.

  I sucked in a big breath, mumbling, “Just stay cool. It’s helping me.”

  He nodded, his black hair moving with the motion, his eyes on mine.

  Silently, I stood and turned toward the mirror.

  In a gradual movement, I let my eyes fall toward the test.

  I blinked.

  Stared.

  Picked up the test, and slowly pivoted toward Daniil, handing it to him.

  He held the test, staring down at the clear plus sign.

  I barely manage to breathe. “You’re going to be a papa again.” I sucked in air. “And I’m going to be a mom.”

  Gently, Daniil placed the test on the edge of the tub, and then reached out, grabbing my hand. His gaze found mine as he slowly pulled me to him, tucking my legs between his. His brown eyes were open to me as he began to unbutton and unzip, opening them. He leaned forward and placed his lips above my panty line. And I almost started bawling again, seeing the tenderness in his gaze as he kissed where his child was growing.

  He smiled softly against my skin. “I bet it’s a boy.”

  I choked. God save us all from another one like his brood. “I bet it’s a pacifist.”

  Daniil chuckled, kissing my stomach again.

  Banging erupted against the door, interrupting our privacy.

  Artur hollered, “What’s the damn verdict?”

  “I already said she’s pregnant,” Ember stated loudly.

  Daniil sighed, zipping and buttoning my pants.

  Lev argued, “You can’t know that just because she puked.”

  “I’m not taking your word for this. I want to see the fucking test,” Eva griped loudly. “If I’m going to have to put up with another damn broth
er, I need to know so I can shoot myself now.”

  “Fuck you,” Artur griped. “We’re not that bad.”

  Daniil rested his head against my stomach, sighing again.

  Roman griped, “At least we don’t leave tampons and bras everywhere. We’re fucking men. We don’t want to see that shit from our sister.”

  “My point exactly,” Eva muttered dryly.

  Running my hands through his hair, I pulled his head back. “Let’s get this over with, so I can eat. I’m hungry.” Now that I knew the complete truth and was oddly calm, I was starving.

  Daniil grinned as he stood, his chest puffing up a bit. “Definitely a boy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Or I just puked my guts up and have nothing left in my stomach.”

  He smirked. Then he rolled his shoulders, almost moving in front of me protectively as he opened the door. Everyone backed up, stumbling over themselves, some even falling back on the bed or dresser or even plastering themselves against the windows as he walked into the room. He must have one hell of a look on his face for everyone to be reacting like that. Even the owners of Lion Security backed up.

  Daniil went immediately to Ember where she sat cross-legged on top the dresser as she played with her ponytail, apparently going for a bored look. I know he had seen what she ordered on our tours around the table earlier, but I had already puked on her in revenge. I mean, after all, I could have aimed it somewhere else. He didn’t need to yell at her for it.

  Even though Grigori and Ember weren’t getting along—at all—Grigori was suddenly in front of her, standing there with his hands in his back pockets, also with a calm look on his face. But still standing there protectively as Daniil stepped toe-to-toe with his son.

  Ember stood on the desk, her hands landing on Grigori’s shoulders as she leaned over him, staring down at Daniil. “I won’t do it again. But she needed to know.”