“What’s going on, Ed?” I demand in Russian. “Your girlfriend is here demanding answers.”
“I was just called in because the clean-up crew’s number doesn’t match ours. There’s one missing. One was alive,” Ed reports.
“And which one was that?” I growl.
“The one that you added to the damn list!” He hisses. “Julio, whatever. The one that you said was a problem because of Abby. Either you weren’t thorough, or he was revived.”
I close my eyes tightly and grit my teeth. “He got away?”
“Don’t use that tone with me. That was your solo job. You fucked it up, you can fix it,” he snarls. “We’re getting info. Keep Lilah there. She’s safe with you.”
“I’m the one who gets to take him out.”
“Sure, whatever. I just want this done.”
Ed hangs up on me and I return to the girls. I look between them as Lilah arches an eyebrow. Abby looks at me and offers me half her cupcake. I take an appreciative bite and sit down with them.
“He’s fine. The unfinished business concerns Abby and me. Right now, we just need to stay together,” I inform them.
Abby looks at me, licking the frosting from her top lip and I groan. I want her right now. It doesn’t matter that we just had sex, seeing her with frosting has my stomach tightening. She shoves me. “Don’t look at me like that. There are three of us, not two.”
Lilah bits her bottom lip. “Edmon’s not in danger, right?”
“No, he’s fine,” I assure her, reaching under the table to rub Abby’s thigh.
“I’m sure he’s in better shape than whoever’s in trouble,” Abby says. “And until you’re ready, you can eat as many cupcakes as you want. You can enjoy them all.”
“Well, your vanilla is really good,” Lilah mumbles. “Maybe I could have a small cake, more than a cupcake, and some coffee.”
“Coming right up,” Abby jumps up to take care of it.
Lilah arches her eyebrow at me. “Seems like you like her.”
“Don’t start, Lilah,” I warn her.
“It starts out small. You like kissing her. You like fucking her. Then you end up liking her and then you end up loving her.”
I don’t like that chain of events at all. That’s how Ed fell to Lilah. Lev fell even faster. I’m pretty sure he fell in love with Sienna when we were kids, before he ever kissed her, fucked her, did anything. And now ...
I look over at Abby as she hums and pulls out a cake for Lilah. I remember her sharpness and see that same look in her eyes when she looks at me. She knows exactly who’s in trouble and I can tell that if that man walks into her shop, she’ll make him pay for coming back from the dead.
“I do like her,” I admit. “A lot. I still have plenty to figure out, though, so don’t-”
“Oh, she already knows,” Lilah says confidently. “She wouldn’t put up with you if she didn’t like you.”
“Well, I am a pretty good ex-boyfriend repellent. I could make that a job and rent out my services,” I say, cocky and with an easy smile.
Lilah just shakes her head at me. “Oh stop. You wouldn’t rent out boyfriend duties when you want to be her boyfriend.”
I flip her off while scratching my face, and she leans across the table to swat at me. Abby sets the cake down and sits next to me, but I pull her onto my lap. She stares up at me. “Don’t you remember what I said about PDA?”
“Is this too much? After what we just did in-”
She puts her hand over my mouth, her face burning red. “You stop that.”
I kiss her palm and lean into her hand. Abby huffs. “I’m too heavy to be on top of you.”
“You’re not too heavy,” I insist, giving Lilah a look. She shakes her head at me. I look between them. “What? Trust me, Zhizn moya, I can take care of plenty if you let me.” I pull her hand off my face and press my lips to her ear. “I can put you in all kinds of positions, Cupcake.”
She blushes deeper and Lilah laughs softly. “Told you so, Danya.”
I roll my eyes at her. After an hour, Lilah is restless. She groans. “Can’t we just go to my place? There are two rooms, so you guys can capitalize on all this tension and I can be comfortable at home.”
Abby’s been working nonstop for the last forty-five minutes. I motion to her and Lilah groans. “I should be at work, but Ed left lunch so suddenly, I took the rest of the day. I don’t want my students in danger and I know that where I work is publicized, so ...”
“I get it. She’s a workaholic, though. And she looks so good working, doesn’t she?” I ask, shamelessly gushing over her. “She’s so determined and sweet.”
Lilah shakes her head. “You’ve got it bad.”
“If someone comes into the shop and she’s not here to defend it, I’ll be afraid of her,” I admit.
“Really? Her?”
Abby gives a smile even when a customer yells at her for putting peanuts in a peanut turtle cupcake. Abby handles it gently, sweetly, and I look back at Lilah. “Trust me, there’s plenty to be afraid of there.”
“I’m sure she could shame you with her endless patience and a pout,” Lilah teases.
Abby finishes up with the customer and returns to me. “I’m so over customers not reading. It literally says ‘peanuts’. Why couldn’t she avoid it if her son has an allergy?”
Lilah arches an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you tell her that?”
“My business is my baby. If I let every customer who upset me get their way or if I lost my temper with each customer, then I wouldn’t have as many customers that return. Plus, sometimes, if customers see one customer being rude, they buy more. But don’t tell anyone that. It’s a business secret.”
Lilah laughs at Abby and Abby looks at me sucking her bottom lip.
“Do we need more frosting?” I ask in a low voice.
She shoves me. “Stop it.”
“You know, Abby. Your shop is only open for another hour and there are plenty of sweets, so how about we get out of here?”
“Sure ... this is our slow time anyway,” she looks around, then Abby darts away. She grabs Mona and I follow with my gaze.
“Yeah, she had a good gut instinct,” Lilah says to me, even though she’s not looking at me.
I turn and see the man that was sitting with Abby. Julio. I narrow my eyes at him. He looks at me and pulls a gun.
“You try to kill me for what? Because I’m a better man for her?”
“Please. You wouldn’t know what to do with Abby. You’d fall all over yourself,” I snarl.
“You don’t get it. She’s a pawn,” he snorts. “I’m sure she is for you, too. She’s a way for you to stay busy and appear normal. She’s a way to keep you in a spot I can find you.”
He looks like shit. He’s bruised, kind of bloody, really messed up in general. I definitely did a number on him. I get up, but he cocks the gun. “Move. I’d love to take out one of your family.”
Lilah starts to move, but he turns the gun on her. I edge in front of her. My brother would never forgive me if I let something happen to her. I know if I reach for my own gun, I’ll lose some blood or my life and I won’t be able to help anyone.
Taking a breath, I stare at Julio. “What’s the vendetta?”
“What are you talking about?” he demands.
At the same time, Abby pops up from behind the counter, holding a cast iron skillet. I have no idea what she uses it for, but I’m glad she has it. She keeps creeping up behind him, so I focus on keeping his attention.
“There’s always a vendetta, isn’t there?” I ask. “Always someone thinking they’re noble and fighting the good fight again and again, always thinking that they’re doing the right thing or avenging people that are already dead.”
He scoffs. “You don’t know me.”
“I know everyone who comes up against my family. They’re either terrible or they just want to believe they’re doing the right thing a little too late. It’s alright. It might be noble, but is dying really worth it? You could have run off and lived a full life.” I shrug. “I guess you’d rather be dead.”
“The second you reach for that gun, it’s all over. You should know that. You can’t beat me, not like this,” he laughs.
Lilah gasps and grabs my shoulder. Just as Julio lifts his hand, gun pointed directly at me, Abby brings the cast iron down on his arm, then brings it back against his head. He drops to the ground, either dead or close to it.
Abby drops the skillet, then kicks him. I run to her and pull her back so she doesn’t keep fighting him.
“Lilah, call the police please,” I request.
“Done,” Lilah answers.
Abby keeps fighting. “No, he threatened my shop! He threatened Lilah, he threatened me, and he threatened you! I need to hit him again!”
“Easy, Zhizn moya. Let’s not have your first kill be so public,” I say in her ear.
“He deserves it! He tried to kill you! You!”
I hold her close to me and keep petting her hair, trying to calm her down as she continues telling me how much she needs to fight him, to make him pay, to do a lot worse than she’s already done. Her spiteful, vicious self has me so turned on, I don’t want to wait for the police.
Eventually they come and we talk it out, so we give statements and he’s taken first to the hospital, but with the promise of jail in the air. Lilah runs off right away and Mona sighs. “Guess the shop is going to be closed tomorrow?”
“No!” Abby groans. “No, I can’t let him win!”
“Hey,” I turn her chin to me. “You have a day off.”
“Yeah?”
“And that means I can make plans with you.”
She stares at me, lips parted. “But ... but work?”
“Teach me some recipes or we can come up with our own.” I pull her tighter against me. “Or I can teach you how to fight.”
“I’m pretty handy with a cast iron,” she mumbles. “I might need a new one after denting it on his face, though.”
“Shopping, baking, fighting ... it all sounds like foreplay to me,” I tease with a wink.
Abby gasps and shoves me. “Danya! You can’t say things like that in public.”
“Then you better take me out of public, Cupcake. I want to do a lot more than ‘say things’.”
She takes my hand and tries to drag me out back, but I turn and pull her to my car. “I’m not getting on your vespa.”
“It’s totally safe!”
“It won’t carry both of us, and I’m not about to waste time when I want you ... now,” I insist.
She moans and gets in the car just to start moaning again since I can’t keep my hands to myself. She complains about someone seeing, but doesn’t push me away, doesn’t tell me no, and when I stop before she can come, she gives me a vicious look, puts her fingers over mine and shows me exactly how she likes to be touched.
This is the side of Abby I just might love.