aria hadn't had a wink of sleep, her hand wouldn't stop shaking, she saw it as an

ars ea

ad moving through the compound on a routine clearance that had stopped being routine four minutes in, and she remembered the exact moment her heart did so

hed the clearance on instinct and muscle memory while her own heart tried to climb out of her ribs, and she hadn't said a word about it to anyone until she collapsed in the b

deployment. Not with the stress load, not with the physical dem

hey'd discharged her because the condition was a risk to her team as much as to her - because a soldi

et, and permanent, and she'd come home to a family that thought she'd simply finished her contract, because she'd made sure of it. Sealed reco

otecting. If he found out her own body had betrayed her once already, in the one place she'd gone specifically

s she trained less. And she kept four pills in a bottle in her jacket pocket, refilled quietly through a doctor two states away who

secret. She wa

-

es

ame at nine the next morning,

a residency clause. Both families agreed - you'll stay in Ivanov territory for the length of the enga

st lit. "You want me to live with him

ather's voice had none of its usual command in it - just tired h

by a man who'd already read her like an open file in four minutes flat. "Because from where I'm standing, you're asking me to spend the next month sleeping under the same roof as

sharpened slightly

she'd caught them, tired and off-guard in a way she never

I meant the situation.

rriage - the look of a man choosing not to open a door he suspected was locked for a reason. He

said instead. "Pack for a mon

f I sa

ght be someone in this family." He said it flatly, not as a threat, just as the tr

im. That was t

-

didn't need to. Maria sat in the back with a single suitcase, a fresh pack of cigarettes, and

m serious money paying for serious security rather than peace. Vladimir was waiting at the top of the front steps when the car pulled in, dr

ed out. "Welcome to the part of the ar

y sounding le

honesty serves us better than perfor

in his eyes up close - the particular exhaustion of someone who hadn't slept properly in longer than he wa

er in. "Away from mine, at your father's insistence,

rt m

she caught something almost like curiosity underneath it. "For what it's worth - I don't sleep well in this house. Never h

ttle in her pocket without meaning to, an old

s eyes before he looked away, too polite - or

lready turning down the hall toward his own wing. "