I run my hand up his forearm to squeeze the swell of his bicep. “I know you can handle it. You’ve been carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders for most of your life. But I haven’t been doing all of this training for nothing. Let me carry some of it. I want to.”
His hand spreads across my ribs like he’s trying to shield me from whatever’s out there. “It was Konstantin.”
I know no one is standing behind me, but I still feel the urge to glance over my shoulder. “You were talking to him?”
He nods. “He wanted to have a conversation with me… about Katerina coming home.”
“Katerina,” I breathe, my mouth moving before my brain can catch up. “She is… She came back?”
No, she’s gone. Ivan sent her away. His ex-fiancée is half a world away.
“She didn’t come back; she was forced back.”
